John returns to the topic of brotherly love. From 4:7 through 5:12 John repeats themes he discussed earlier in the letter because he wants to make sure his readers fully grasp their importance. In these two verses John elaborates on what it means to love one another and helps us understand why it is so […]
John uses his discussion of assurance through the Holy Spirit in 3:24 as a launching point to instruct his readers about spiritual discernment. In an age where the New Testament does not yet exist and the church is dependent on oral communication, it is imperative that the church identify which teachers are truly Spirit-led and […]
The author begins this book with a fairly provocative statement: In the last few years I have given up on the many medical measures – cancer screenings, annual exams, Pap smears, for example – expected of a responsible person with health insurance. The reason she’s done this – she says later in the chapter – […]
Enormously comprehensive book about Al Capone and the effort to shut him down mounted by Eliot Ness and his ‘Untouchables.’ If you like gangsters and like Prohibition history, this is a really good read. It’s essentially a biography of both men and gives a great picture of what Chicago was like in the 1920s and […]
When I was in my early twenties, I remember hoping that I’d never lose my hair, but if I did, I hoped it would be after I turned 30 because then I wouldn’t care. When I was 26, I worked with a guy who was 12 years older than me. I remember talking to him […]
John moves from his discussion of loving in deed and truth in verse 18 to now explain how active love (and active obedience overall) leads to assurance of belief. Much like he has stated in other parts of the book, he makes the point here that actions are the proof of belief; without actions there […]
In verses 10-15, John set the contrast between the child of God who practices righteousness and loves his brother and the child of the devil who practices unrighteousness and does not love his brother. He held up Cain as an example of a child of the devil. Cain hated his brother and killed him because […]
This text picks up on the thought expressed at the end of verse 10 – anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. John in these verses amplifies what it means to love our brother and exposes the difference between those who love and […]
Three things I didn’t like about this book: Baier tells about an event that happened less than a year after the assassination attempt on Reagan when he threw out the first pitch on opening day of the 1982 MLB season at a Baltimore Orioles game. He says that Reagan showed how well he’d recovered from […]
John moves on from his celebration of our status as the children of God to discuss the ramifications of that status. This passage on first reading appears to set a standard of perfection for the believer that is hard to reconcile with John’s statements about sin at the end of Chapter 1. How can we […]
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