At church on Sunday night we discussed the topic of “Love” and whether we actually know what that looks like. The passage was I John 4:7-21 (I think… if not, that’s close).
It was pointed out that the author of this book, John, was called one of the “sons of Thunder”. That title makes me think of a biker gang. This was back in the day when the name was to describe the person. So, John had a dad who was known as “Thunder”. It doesn’t give me an image of a man who was probably on the ball with showing his family how much he cares.
It was also pointed out that John discusses love more than most anyone else in the New Testament. I wonder if that is because John (and his brother James) actually got it.
The picture I have of John is that he was the guy on the fringe of society. Not part of the “in” crowd. Always ready to retaliate against someone or using arrogance to try and shield himself from the hurt caused by not being accepted by the “important” people of the day.
Then Jesus comes along and says, “Hey, why don’t you hang out with me?” And proceeds to not only spend time with James and John but to teach them, to explain social things without belittling or making fun of them, and to really care. And maybe for John that was a new way of interacting with someone. Jesus took the time to love and have as one of his closest friends this guy who probably started out as “unlovable”. This made John a loyal friend. Someone who would do anything for Jesus… even take over the oldest son responsibilities and care for Jesus’ mom.
I wonder if the other disciples came from homes where love was more often demonstrated?
Obviously much of my image of John is conjecture based on the few things we know about his life but somehow, John really gets where love comes from and seems to have a solid understanding of what real love is like.
I pray that I can learn to love people in the manner John describes.
No comments:
Post a Comment