Earlier this week I mentioned that I’m finishing up, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, by Peter Scazzero, as it’s a required book for one of my college courses. In Chapter 7, Grow into an Emotionally Mature Adult, Learning New Skills to Love Well, Scazzero reminds his readers that “Jesus refused to separate the practice of the presence of God from the practice of the presence of people.” Even when a Pharisee, who knew the Mosaic Law inside and out, tried to trap Jesus by asking Him to identify the greatest commandment, “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.’” (Matthew 22:37-40)
In today’s passage, John knows that our victory and true freedom come from our faith in Christ Jesus. He restates Jesus’s Greatest Commandment and John wants to make sure that we, as believers, remain rooted in Christ through our obedience that flows through our loving connection to Him and thus our loving connection with others. This place of love should not be a burden on us. Rather, as we grow in our connection to Jesus, we should be quick to respond to our neighbors from a place of love, and less to react from a place of fear, denial, selfishness, defensiveness, etc. If you need to reach out to lovingly apologize to someone for reacting from a place of fear, denial, selfishness, defensiveness, etc., do it today, because Jesus responds to us every single moment of every day from the greatest place of love, and all He asks us is to love others as He loves us.
As believers, we call on the Name of Jesus Christ, Who is the only Son of God, and that also means that we claim, own, and hold firmly to the freedom that we have in Jesus; so, we win the battle against this world. AMEN!
1 John 5:1-5 (NLT)
Faith in the Son of God
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. 2 We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. 3 Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. 5 And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for the victory and freedom that each one of us have through our faith in You. Holy Spirit, we ask that You continue to help guide us, by Your wisdom and Truth, so that our roots grow deeper into Your love. We want our obedience to overflow with Your joy, and not to be a burden on us. Please continue to grow us up in You, Jesus, we want to be emotionally and spiritually mature so that we can love You well and share Your love well with others. Strengthen us so that we can keep overcoming the evils of this world, as we are connected to You, Jesus, our Truth. We ask all of this in Your Holy Name, Jesus. Amen.