punishment day #1

today's brp reading: 2 John, 3 John (i did two days in a row because i missed a day a while back)

2 John 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

i think i downplay obedience a lot, and i downplay the implications of sin a lot as well. for instance, i'll tell my lcg, "yeah, this week i didn't really read my Bible or do my quiet time." and then i laugh, and move on with my life with barely more than a moment's feeling of guilt. and i don't do anything to change this. it's as though it's perfectly acceptable that i haven't done my quiet time. this verse really convicted me not to do that.

and walk in love - what does that look like? hahaha, it brings to my mind this image of someone walking down the street, giving food to the homeless, helping people, dispensing love.

the ESV version says : And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. (for those of you who don't know, the difference between ESV and NIV is that the ESV is a literal, word-for-word translation for the Bible, and a lot of people like to use it because it gives a very accurate, literal translation. the NIV translation is based on literal word-for-word translation as well as cultural meaning. a rather crude example of this would be, instead of translating "hello", NIV would translate it to "what's up?" or something like that).

and Jesus' command that i think this verse is referring to says: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (john 13:34-35)

i think the ESV version made more sense to me because it says "we walk according to his commandments". to me that is talking more about living according to his commandments - obedience, in short.

i noticed as i was going through 1, 2 and 3 John that John really likes to expound on two topics: love and discernment.

for instance, in the passage i blogged about yesterday, he talked a lot about how when we remain in God, God's love and his Holy Spirit will remain in us (1 John 4:13 - We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.), and how the world, who has not seen God, sees God through the way we love each other, through the way we abide in his love. and in our certainty of his love and the salvation he has given us, we need not fear punishment. he also says "No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him" and "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother" (both are from 1 John 3). i don't know about you, but i definitely am still sinning a sadly regular basis >< hahah. what do you think John means by this?

and he also keeps on talking about the different ways we need to discern whose teaching is from God, and whose is of the world. after flipping through and reading several of the sections, i think John basically says that whoever does not preach Jesus Christ as Lord is therefore not of God, and not someone we should listen to. he says pretty harsh things: "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work." (2 John 10-11)

my commitment this summer has been to rip apart God's word :) i think i usually tiptoe through my Bible reading; i'm too scared to dig deep and to ask hard questions because i personally often don't know the answer, and also because i think deep down i just don' really believe that God's word wouldn't shatter the moment i look more closely at it. but hey, if it's really the word of God, if i'm really going to bank my entire life on it, it'd better be able to hold up against scrutiny! so that's what i'm trying to do this summer, hahah :D

ok, until tomorrow!
love, erica