Each of the authors of the four Gospels presents the material needed to be covered in such delightfully different individualized ways. Here one of the original disciples John delivers the same story of John the Baptist in a way that will pierce the ear drums of a mostly Jewish first century audience. The notion that one God could be of three united wholes, that the one particular entity through and for whom all things were created would humble Himself to become flesh would be a radical departure from the interpretations that they had until now given the scriptures. John presents this in such a open and descriptive way.
In whom there was no guile (trickery/craft)? Could this character trait of our savior be observed in a brief initial glimpse? Had Nathaniel acquainted himself with Jesus from afar in a different way? Was this more like a polite greeting?
So much for the all paths lead to God argument. Intellectually "all paths" is sold as open minded as opposed to theologically narrow minded. This form of argument is held by the uncommitted. It strips the rights of ownership from the creator and exalts idolatry over monogamy. Jesus counters that it is thievery... and the thief comes to steal kill and destroy. Most open mindedness is closed mindedness to Jesus.
It is obvious that the Jews understood this passage as Jesus declaring Himself to be one and one God. Why modern critics think that Jesus was saying something other completely ignores the Jews immediate response. They knew what He was saying and so should we.
It is obvious that the Jews understood this passage as Jesus declaring Himself to be one and one God. Why modern critics think that Jesus was saying something other completely ignores the Jews immediate response. They knew what He was saying and so should we.
I am not sure that this could be read that we all sleep when we die just as not all sickness is for the glory of God. In this particular case it is certain. Sickness unto death is most often because it is appointed for all men to die the first death. Once dead it is most likely that that very day we see Him in His kingdom.
Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing, that was His light. Light is also described as knowledge in the glory of God, and the love for brethren. While the disciple's concern for their Lord's safety is sincere and honest, it is not of this light. We too must properly weigh this into our considerations as well, not allowing fear to swallow up light.
How often do we say something similar? Had He been here, had He done this, if only He had not delayed, had He made His will known sooner this would not have happened. All that we truly understand is our own pain and or predicament without giving consideration to His omnipresence and sovereignty and glory. Difficult but proper to consider.
Knowing cause and reason and outcome does not eliminate emotion. No doubt moved by His own personal love for this friend, moved by those weeping all around, touched by the sorrow of all mankind, even the universal ageless sense of human dimension, this the shortest verse in the Bible is soaked through with Divine love and devotion.
This seems to be the sense amongst the crowd that something could have been done. Some in a accusing sense, some in a disappointed sense. The focus is on what could have been done and not on what will be done. Imagine what the 12 must have been observing knowing what Jesus had days earlier predicted would happen next.
Jesus did not directly confront Judas here, but, kind of played along with him. Jesus could have just as easily said 'thieves like you will we always have' or 'if these friends here tonight only knew the heart from which you speak' or any other thing. Instead, Jesus focuses on the offering of the woman not allowing her moment to be spoiled by another's.
The teaching of the chapter is so profound that often we neglect it's obvious conclusion: doing. Knowing and doing go hand in hand. So why don't we always do this? What we are called to do is not just washing each others feet, that would almost be acceptable. What we are called to do goes way beyond that to the point of lowering ourselves beyond our respectability in the service of people we'd really rather not lower ourselves to. I think of all the stay at home Christians that have been hurt by other Christians. Whose feet are they washing there at home? Who are they lowering themselves for? How is our Lord's example being lived in their lives? Jesus said "each other's feet". Who are we to pick and choose whose other feet we'd be willing to clean?
It may be too easy to separate this commandment out from the context from which it was delivered. We might think of love as warm fuzzy "good Sunday morning" fellowship doing charitable things for our hard pressed. The context is the giving of one's life. Peter understood this in the verses to follow but was unsure of the immediate implementation in regards to what he should be giving toward Jesus in His sacrifice.
We return to the theme of being willing to do good, having good intents, but lacking the resolve and resource to sustain such. It is only by the empowering of the Holy Spirit that such sacrifice and goodness can be made.
An important aspect of faith is being taught here. It is one thing to believe "in" a Jesus that has your ticket to heaven. It is another to believe to the point of His Lordship in your daily life; to believe to the point of knowing and obedience. It is the test of true love.
This is a partial list of the Comforter's responsibilities. These abilities had until now only been shadowed in OT prophets. The HolyGhost is crucial to the believer in order to know and conduct daily relations, therefore obedience to our Lord.
Anything we ask? Or anything that will glorify the Father in the Son? Surely, if the Lord commanded that we did one thing and we lacked the resource He would honor our obedience, but, what about in our disobedience?
It is a deliberate attempt on the part of the critic to eliminate the presence and duties of the Holy Ghost. Arguments can be made and well supported that left to man's interpretation and translation and tendency to bend truth around one's own will, more persuasively by displacing the function of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, God did not merely leave it in our own incapable hands, God did not make it all dependent upon our powers of deduction, God did not leave it up to our own personal and corporate misunderstandings. Their argument ends at the ability of the Comforter sent in Jesus' name to teach and put us in remembrance of (amongst other things). Coincidentally, it is the blasphemy against this triune entity that is the "unpardonable sin".
The believer must know that the Christian walk is not a finalized product it is a developing process, it is a process of pruning and purging toward the goal of increasing the quantity and quality of spiritual fruit.
Jesus obeyed the Father's commandments and therefore abides in His love. Like wise, if we are to abide in His love we must obey His commandments. His command is that we love one another, not as the world would love one of it's own, but, as Jesus loved us even to the giving of His own life. How is it that we can give our lives to one another? Sacrificing, investing our time/energies/resources, surrendering our personal interest/advancement, etc...
The reality of our situation is this: We have been chosen, we have been ordained, we have been empowered, for the purpose of bearing fruit, if we continue to abide. Abiding has everything to do with obeying, obeying everything to do with giving ourselves in love to one another. How quickly this all can get mis-construed if we fail to keep these facts in focus. Christianity then is not a play along at home board game. It is not a play along with only those few other Christians that you personally like and get along with. It is a fruit producing "doing all things for the Lord as He loved us" obedience.
We have seen a flurry of descriptions now in these chapters regarding the Holy Spirit perhaps like in no other gospel. And yet for us the Spirit largely remains a mystery. Careful study of these verses should be done by each and everyone of us to reveal the importance of the Spirit's doings in our walks of faith.
Kept in context, this promise is given to those filled with the joy of the Son's triumphant return to the Father, who fully understand who the Son is, why He came and left, what it means that He is on the throne and will be seen by them again. It is not made for just anybody who wants to reserve their belief until something substantial is received from God as proof thus seeking be bribed into believing by riches and wealth.
A completely unconditional love is hard to expect when God has invested so much into the redemption of the souls that He seeks to restore into His love. To have that expense/investment disregarded and shunned is utter insult, utter sin.
It is often asked "why the Bible", "what good is it", "how is it relevant"? It should be clear here in Jesus' own words that the Bible is the means provided for sanctification. God has gone to great expense and effort up to Jesus to separate His word from all others. Now that Jesus is here and we see nearly every major and minor prophet's detail and every Old Testament law and shadow and type realized, it should become even clearer that this Bible is the process. Beyond that, to read the words of this prayer, seeing the plan and intentions of Father and Son without veil or hidden parable, it should be determined that the Bible is even more God's single method; more than capable of reaching through the many generations, the many cultures, the many attempts to squelch it. The process of sanctification is the process of setting apart, and that the Bible has miraculously done for all these many years.
The Apostles were not originally chosen based upon their intelligence or piety or political influence nor even stellar personal character, they were chosen on the bases of their ability to receive and retain (keep) the words and teachings delivered to them to the greater audience beyond in complete pure and accurate form. They learned first hand, not from books but from being there and experiencing the Master up close. They were chosen to be a time vessel, a container of testimony, receivers and transmitters across the spectrum of human time.
Mark this chapter down as 'the' chapter. Nothing hidden, Nothing remaining to be explained, nothing depending on further explanation. Jesus speaking to the Father as only the Father's Son could speak.
The Bible is the word of God because it testifies as to the "Word" of God, the physical embodiment of God's complete creative/redemptive/authoritative plan in the person of Jesus Christ. Unlike any other religion or science that stresses human method and means, the Bible stresses the person of Christ. It is the person the "Word" who effects us from the inside out, not our deeds that effect us from the outside in. It is not the ladder we climb up on His behalf, it is the ladder He descended on our's. It is not for our deceitful hearts to collect the data determining God's word, the data is already collected in one person. The word the scripture is to testify of whom this tremendous person the "Word" is. Reject the person and you've rejected the word. It is really all that pure and simple.
If you had lived in the time John had reported this, you could have asked Malchus or his decendents "did this happen?" and they would have told you. His name was given (as were many others) by John so that you could have checked. Chances are that Malchus could have been found in a local congregation for John speaks as if any one reading this would have known who Malchus was.
John has a literary habit of speaking of himself in the third person. For instance he calls himself "the one whom Jesus loved". "Another disciple" could be John, it could be James as well. John is no doubt calling attention to Peter purposely by this literary technique however.
Is the priest inquiring as to the names and whereabouts of these other perpetrators for further intent? Is this why Jesus is slapped by the guard for His vague and secretive answer?
Don't casually dismiss the extreme fear that Peter was under. We would like to put ourselves above Peter and say that we would never have done this, but, remember Peter had thought the same. Chances are that we wouldn't have even been brave enough nor in the position to have even left all behind to follow Jesus day one in the first place.
It is always amazing to me to see the mastery Jesus had in each and every situation that He was ever confronted with. In the midst of all of this going on all around Him, He still asks perhaps the most profound and penetrating question recorded in human literature. How do any of us reply to such a question? It is the very heart of all matters. Wow!
Is Pilate now inciting the crowd to riot to regain his advantage? Why would he say this? Is he preparing a cover for his own escape when he must account of this to his superiors?
John was the only gospel writer who actually witnessed Christ's passion first hand. Matthew Luke and Mark each wrote organized collections of other people's direct testimonies.
Mary had other sons and daughters that could have taken care of their mom. Jesus is saying that it would be better for her to be with John than with them. We do not know how much longer she lived nor for how long this arrangement lasted.
The core doctrines of the gospel are simply put to the reader by John in terms anyone even child can understand. From these core points we can expand the doctrine outward. The over arching truth is that any notion contrary to these points is either a lie by us or else a lie by Him; there is no middle ground. Light, fellowship with the Light, fellowship with each other, sin, confession of sin, forgiveness of sin and the cleansing of sin from unrighteousness are all a one way or no way proposition. Who shall be the liar here; man or Christ?
There is so much said here that entire books can be (and have been) written. For the moment it should be enough to consider that these things are all expansions of the core doctrine that John presented in kjv@1John:1 , namely that God is light and in Him is no darkness. If we are in God, so too there can be no darkness in us. Knowing the 'how' this is possible is knowing the 'what' Jesus accomplished in His death and resurrection and the 'who' He is. The working of this knowledge produces unfeigned love in us for the brethren, which is the proof positive of possessing this knowledge. It can be produced in no other way.
It really wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a great number of these letters written to various individuals by all of the Apostles. What is surprising is that this one was still able to be verified years later when the New Testament was canonized. This great lady must have been extremely well known, must have cherished this and taken such good care of it. She must have shown it to some influential people as well. I can see her eyes light up when she would begin to recount receiving it.
We should know that not everyone in the fold is for the fold. John may have written some of these smaller letters in part to gather intel and to make sure that the things/persons that he had sent were being received and used. He has taken the time to develop networks of 'wellbeloved' and so should we. We should be participants in this network that our true spiritual leaders are maintaining as well. Who knows, maybe one of these letters will be arriving at our desk one day.
It really wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a great number of these letters written to various individuals by all of the Apostles. What is surprising is that this one was still able to be verified years later when the New Testament was canonized. This great lady must have been extremely well known, must have cherished this and taken such good care of it. She must have shown it to some influential people as well. I can see her eyes light up when she would begin to recount receiving it.
It really wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a great number of these letters written to various individuals by all of the Apostles. What is surprising is that this one was still able to be verified years later when the New Testament was canonized. This great lady must have been extremely well known, must have cherished this and taken such good care of it. She must have shown it to some influential people as well. I can see her eyes light up when she would begin to recount receiving it.
