March 31, 2010

1 John 3

"The reason that the world does not know us is that it did not know him."

I think that's just what we forget when we go off and start politicizing or overlooking. We're not supposed to make sense. We're supposed to sound ridiculous if you're coming at it from a worldly angle (the reference I made yesterday was my favorite of that entire show - the most practical, down-to-earth character you can have on an epic fantasy television show hears a watered-down and mangled version of the Christ story and literally snorts -- we should always sound that ridiculous). Because we weren't equipped to understand divine logic. And the world certainly wasn't equipped to help us try.

"For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another."

There's a lot of language that indicates the community's split here, a lot of them and us that rather undermines the above statement (although not completely). That's how you tell the good man from the bad, the good Christian from the bad. They'll know we are Christians by our love.

And to the list of Bible verses that advocate the ability to find God through living a good life over any particular religious doctrine:
"And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us."

All love, all goodness, all charity comes from God. Who else could it come from? Who else could it draw into your heart? The world is full of terrible things, but it is full of people who bring light to the darkness, and all of those people are full, when they are shining, with God's pure and holy light. Because He is the Light of the World. The light. Everything good and beautiful and loving and wonderful comes from God.

Where do the rest of them get it if not for God? No, He finds them, His people, through whatever means He can. Do we imagine that the God of such infinite love that He came down and took human form did so in order to condemn all those who can't wrap their head around this thoroughly mind-boggling act? We should be trying to hold more of His love for His people in our hearts than that.

And, of course, His divine plan and will make no more sense to me than anyone else, but I try to love, and then I feel Him closer. Because He is. Because that is the only way to abide with Him. That is the only way to reach out - serve God, love all, and mend all the wounds that sin has stabbed in our souls.