Because the
word of God is “living and active,”[1]
and because it is taught to us by the personal presence of the Holy Spirit,[2] I
take it very seriously when anything stands out as I prayerfully meditate on
the Scriptures. I know that my Father has plans and purposes far beyond what I
can possibly understand, so it is always with great anticipation that I welcome
whatever it seems that he is doing.
Earlier this
week I was all set to consider the next “by
this” statement of I John, when an unexpected word took center stage. It
was the one word John used to address his readers. He called them, “Beloved.”[3]
“Beloved.” What a fascinating word. As
an adjective, it can describe what someone or something is like. However, as a
noun, it describes the very identity of the person or people who are the
subject of the conversation. In this case, John wants his readers to know that
they are the Beloved.
I am one of
his readers.
However, while
the word “beloved” stood out as a wonderful ministry to my soul, it was the
reaction of my soul that added a strong measure of significance to the work
that God was doing. My soul does not have an easy time thinking of myself as
beloved. It appeared that this was the very thing Father was addressing.
In one word, the
Holy Spirit (the real subject of my meditation, or so I thought[4]) taught
me, or reminded me, of who I am, and, at the same time, exposed how little I
know this. The two go together.
When God
speaks to us through his word, he is on a mission to fulfill all his purposes
regarding conforming us to the image of his Son.[5]
Guess what. His Son is the Beloved. When God wanted to make clear how securely
we were settled in his blessings, he wrote, “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the
purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”[6]
God the Father
has blessed us in his “Beloved.” He
settled our eternal adoption “in love”,
so that we could become his “beloved.”
Later he calls us to, “be imitators of
God, as beloved children,”[7]
to show that our adoption as his sons makes us beloved in the Beloved, so to
speak.
After
accepting that God was ministering this one word to my soul in order to meet my
need “to know the love of Christ that
surpasses knowledge,”[8]
the next morning drew my attention to the fact that it was John who was calling
his readers Beloved. This was beyond the love of God showing John that he was
the beloved disciple,[9]
but was now the expression of God’s love flowing through John so that people
were learning of their beloved identity to an older brother in the Lord.
What this
ministered to me was that, not only would God continually fill my need for his
love until I could truly know that I am beloved in the Beloved, but he would so
fill my heart with his love that I would see all the rest of God’s children as
beloved.
This reminded
me of one of John’s aims in writing his letter to the church. He said, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and
heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with
the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”[10]
It makes sense that, if there is fellowship between the apostles, the Triune,
and the church, that the love of God that makes us beloved to him would also
make us beloved to one another.
Which leads to
the thing that stood out to me this morning. As I was about to consider how God
was working to fill up my love cup, so to speak, so much so that his love would
flow through me to make others feel beloved, my attention was drawn to
something else that John had presented as his aim.
After telling
us that he wrote this letter to build up fellowship between the apostles, the
Triune, and the church, John added, “We
write this to make our joy complete.”[11]
The fellowship between God and his church, including leaders and followers all sharing
in the same beloved relationship, will do something to complete our joy.
Except that, I
had not noticed that John said “our joy.”
That is from his perspective, not mine. He did not say “your joy”, as though he
was writing something to complete the church’s joy. He said “our joy” to draw attention to the fact
that he was including himself in the picture.
In other
words, John wrote his letter to the beloved children of God so that the whole
church could experience completeness of joy together. He described it later
like this, “For I rejoiced greatly when
the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the
truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the
truth.”[12]
From John’s
viewpoint, the ultimate joy was to hear that “my children” are walking in the truth. His children were the
spiritual children of God, those he was over in the Lord as an apostle. He
could not know a greater joy than to know that the beloved were walking in the
truth.
As I now
consider how determined John was to convince the beloved that they were in the
truth, and that they were in Christ, and that God was in them, I realize that
everything was about completing “our joy”
by getting everyone “walking in the
truth.” He wrote his letter in order to show the church how to walk in the
truth in such a way that there was fellowship between God and his people, and
this kind of fellowship in the truth would complete the joy of all the people involved,
leaders and followers alike.
This explains
why some of us have so much difficulty accepting that we are beloved. The
experience of knowing we are beloved comes from walking together in the truth,
which means experiencing a corporate sense of fellowship with God and his
people at the same time.
Except that
getting close to people has turned out to be one of the most painful
experiences for many of us. Share a bit of your heart, and out come the
hob-nail boots to trample feelings into the dirt. If the majority vote counts
at all, too many people have declared that we are not beloved. People do not
feel beloved themselves, and do not know how to treat anyone else as beloved.
Hence John’s
purpose. He wrote a letter to get us all together with the apostles, and with
God, so that we could have the kind of fellowship that completes our joy. Which
means that we must have enough faith to tell God we will join with other
believers, looking to him as the primary source of our beloved-experience,
hoping that the tide of love will come in and lift up all our hearts at the
same time so that we all feel beloved together, and asking him to so glorify
himself in us that other people would feel beloved because of our fellowship
with them, and with God.
You know, this
kinda has that sounds-impossible feel to it that is a fairly good indicator
that it is the will of God. The will of man wants safe churches run by a core
group that is all comfortable with each other (yes, home churches are just as
susceptible to this danger). The will of God is to build a church that is
nothing like man, and everything like Jesus.
To make such a
church, Jesus has to build us up on the foundation of the apostles and prophets
(as represented here by John), with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone, [13]
and us the living stones[14]
who are being built together into the holy temple in which God can live by his
Holy Spirit.[15]
It is in such
a church as this, where we are the beloved children of God in the Beloved Son
of God,[16]
that we can then “be imitators of God, as
beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for
us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”[17]
By the time of
this writing, I had processed so many thoughts and feelings about myself, God,
and others, that I have the faith to ask God for this: that he would make the
adults in our churches so full of the experience of their beloved identity, and
so overflowing with love that they make each other feel beloved, that the
wonderful fellowship between God and his people would not only complete the joy
of all the adults involved, but would make the children feel that they are
surrounded with a love and joy that could only come from one place, from the all-encompassing
love and joy of God.
Oh yes, John
also wrote this for our encouragement, “And
this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything
according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever
we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”[18]
Makes my praying about such things feel rather hopeful.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Hebrews 4:12
[2]
John 14:26
[3]
I John 4:1
[4]
I had just finished the “by this”
statement of, “And by this we know that
he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us” (I John 3:24), and was
heading into the next “by this”
statement of, “By this you know the
Spirit of God” (I John 4:2), when the “beloved” that introduced the new
section became the focus.
[5]
Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 8:28-30
[6]
Ephesians 1:4-6
[7]
Ephesians 5:1
[8]
Ephesians 3:19
[9]
John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7; 21:20
[10]
I John 1:3
[11]
I John 1:4
[12]
3 John 1:3-4
[13]
Ephesians 2:20
[14]
I Peter 2:5
[15]
Ephesians 2:21-22
[16]
Ephesians 1:4-6
[17]
Ephesians 5:1-2
[18]
I John 5:14-15
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