1 John 5:1-6 (NRSV)

5Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ^* has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. ²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. ³For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, ⁴for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. ⁵Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.

Brother,

You are not just a friend, although you are my very best friend, and this is evident because of the way we have greeted each other for over 30 years – you are my brother – because we are members of the same family, the family of God. We are bound together in love. John, in verse 1, harkens back to the Gospel and the words of our Lord, where Jesus speaks of being ‘born from above’ or ‘being born again’. We believe that Jesus is God’s Messiah, not just another religious leader, but the revelation of God to the world, a one-off event, and this reflects the fact that we have experienced a re-birth into a new family. We have been filled with the love of God in the power of the Spirit of God and as Barclay explains, “… the love of God and the love of man are inseparable parts of the same experience …” This is why Jesus said that the greatest command are “Love God … and love your neighbour …”

It becomes the natural thing for us, siblings of God through re-birth, like human siblings, we will naturally love those who are part of our new family with God as our Father. Jesus put it quite starkly (as recorded in Mark 3:35): “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” If we love God, then we ought to love all the other children whom God has begotten – it is all part of the same love.

C S Lewis suggested that the purpose of life is: “To love and be loved.” He was not alone. A E Brooke is more specific and wrote: “Everyone who has been born of God must love those who have been similarly ennobled.”

But to return to Desmond Tutu: He takes this radically forward. While acknowledging the singularity of Jesus as the Christ of God, Desmond claims that ‘all’ are God’s children, even those who do not accept Jesus as Lord in this life. Desmond’s views give a real dignity to all and inspired him to treat, even those who did repugnant things, with the same love. This seems to depart from what John is saying here – but could it mean that those who belong to the household of faith should display a special love for each other, but this does not preclude them from loving all – without exception? I think Desmond is on to something. Did not Jesus speak about his house as having many mansions? What about the ‘Good Samaritan’? What about Paul’s reference to those who obey the law ‘instinctively’ (Romans 2:14)? I include the passage below for your reflection:

“12 All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. ¹³For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. ¹⁴When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. ¹⁵They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them ¹⁶on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.”

In verses 3-4a. Here we are reminded that obedience is part of love; that being obedient to Christ and His command to love is central to our faith. As we both know, this is difficult to achieve, because Jesus commands us not only to love the lovely, but also those who persecute us and make our lives miserable, even our enemies. I have to confess I often struggle with this.

But verse 3 also reminds us that ‘… his commands are not burdensome …’ they are not like the laws of man – like those of the Scribes and the Pharisees of Jesus’ day which can be intolerable. John is probably remembering the words of Jesus when he said “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)

But we also know that Jesus never commands us to ever do anything without also equipping us with the ability and the strength to do it. We are reminded that a word used for the Holy Spirit is the ‘paraclete’ which literally means the friend (cleitos) that is along-side us (para – parallel). When we struggle it is because we are trying to achieve things in our own strength. Jesus probably reminded his disciples on countless occasions that “What is impossible for man, is possible with God.” Jesus lives deep within us in the power of his Holy Spirit.

Barclay also reminds us that our response to God must always be the response of love, ‘… and for love no duty is too hard and task too great …’ He illustrates this with a lovely example:

Someone once met a young boy going to school before the days of public transport. He was carrying on his back, a smaller boy who was crippled and unable to walk. The stranger said to the boy: “Do you carry him to school every day?” “Yes,” replied the boy. “That’s a heavy burden for you to carry,” said the stranger. “He’s no burden,” said the boy, “He’s my brother!”

Reminds one of the song that was popular when we were teenagers: “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother …”

Increasing I look for the ineffable in the ordinary – and thanks be to God, I find it more and more often. Patricia Long, in her book “Partners and Friends” writes:

“In a beautiful sermon entitled "The Power of Love," Paul Tillich, one of the great theological minds of the twentieth century, writes of a Swedish woman who aided prisoners and orphans during the first World War. She ended up in a concentration camp herself because she gave aid and comfort. Tillich writes, "It is a rare gift to meet a human being in whom love—this means God–is so overwhelmingly manifest. It undercuts theological arrogance as well as pious isolation. It is more than justice and greater than faith or hope. It is the very presence of God in the form of a human being. For God
is love. In every moment of genuine love we are dwelling in God and God in us.”

In  verses 4b-5a John explains that the faith that conquers the world is belief in the incarnation, the belief that God entered our world and became human like one of us. Barclay explains that, if God did indeed do this, it means that he ‘cared’ enough for humankind to take upon himself the limitations of human life and this is an act of love that passes all understanding. This also means that he ‘shared’ in our human experience and so knows, intimately, the varied trials and temptations as well as the sorrows of this world. This means that God understands everything that happens to us and Barclay concludes: “Faith in the incarnation is the conviction that God shares and God cares.” Once we share this faith, certain things follow:

1. We have a defence to resist the infections of the world. There are pressures to conform to worldly standards, there are fascinations that come with the wrong things and makes them seem so delightful. But when we are aware of the presence of Christ with us in the present (for his incarnation is real for us today as the Holy Spirit moves in our lives) then we have an inoculation against temptation. Barclay explains: “… goodness is easier in the company of good people; and if we believe in the incarnation, we have the continual presence of God in Jesus Christ …”

2. We are given the strength to endure the attacks and temptations of the world. Our experience is full of things that would dilute our faith or even take it away: sorrows, the perplexities of life, disappointments, frustrations, failures and discouragements, to mention but a few. But believing in the incarnation reminds us that God himself went through all this too even to the Cross and this same God can help us through all these things.

3. We also have the hope of a final victory. The world did its worst to Jesus – and it failed – because after the Cross came the resurrection. Barclay adds:

“This is the Jesus who is with us, the one who saw life at its grimmest, to whom life did its worst, who died, who conquered death, and who offers us a share in that victory which was his. If we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, we have with us always Christ the Victor to make us victorious.”

It is lovely to reflect on the fact that when we pray, we make contact with Almighty God, who is greater than anything our minds can comprehend, but who also knows and understands intimately and personally what our experience is like, because He took the trouble to find out first hand. I love Barclay’s phrase but I alter it a little to read:

God can care because he shared our human life in the incarnation; indeed God can care, because the incarnation is a present reality as well as a past fact. Jesus is with us in the power of his Spirit, he is with us as we gather together with the people of God in worship, study and fellowship, he is with us as we seek to be his presence to other people. Mother Teresa used to say that she contemplated Jesus in her prayers and then went out to seek him in the poor and destitute in Calcutta.

God cares because he shares …

Bless you Brother,

David