After this morning, I went back to the lectionary. The remainder of the lectionary is about Christ, and how our faith flows from Christ.
So why double-post on the lectionary? Well, this is a contrast to the previous topic — if the Assyrians are an exemplar of what not to do, Christ is the exemplar of what to do. And his acts were about healing and bringing life.
1Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 4for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. 7There are three that testify: 8the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. 9If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. 10Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. 11And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
38After leaving the synagogue he entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. 39Then he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them.
40As the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various kinds of diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them. 41Demons also came out of many, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Messiah.
42At daybreak he departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowds were looking for him; and when they reached him, they wanted to prevent him from leaving them. 43But he said to them, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.” 44So he continued proclaiming the message in the synagogues of Judea.
Now, the commands of Christ are difficult for us to hear. This is because we live in a society that does not think biblically, and makes God out to be a liar. Dalrock commented trenchantly on this yesterday.
What nearly all modern Christians have done is place romantic love above marriage. Instead of seeing marriage as the moral context to pursue romantic love and sex, romantic love is now seen as the moral place to experience sex and marriage. This inversion is subtle enough that no one seems to have noticed, but if you look for it you will see it everywhere.
Lifetime marriage, with separate defined roles for husband and wife and true commitment is what makes sex and romantic love moral in the biblical view. In our new view, romantic love makes sex moral, and the purpose of marriage is to publicly declare that you are experiencing the highest form of romantic love. Thus people now commonly refer to a wedding as “making our love official”
If you reframe Marriage as around fidelity and keeping one’s word and a commitment, a frame that allows love to develop — which is what ancient societies did — then marriage becomes the place where romance can licitly occur. The literature of courtly love, as Lewis pointed out two generations ago, is the literature of adultery, and the ancient literature of romance is pederastic. The idea of marriage as a covenant and a sacred oath is more ancient, more sustainable and more enduring.
Moving from the illustration, the analogies that John uses worked for his readers, because two or three witnesses were needed to confirm truth. The three witnesses reflect redemption and repentance as preached by the prophets (the water) the saving work of Christ on the cross (blood) and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. These are greater than the world. But, to our shame, we have forgotten this.
