In these difficult last days, when the moonscape of our present evil world abounds with so many deadly counterfeits, let’s listen hard to what the apostle had to say. Let’s not allow ourselves to think of our faith simply as a religion, a world-view, or a set of morals. Let’s remember the deep reason for which God sent his Son into the world: so that through him we might live.

In this the love of God was manifested toward us,
that He sent His uniquely-begotten Son into the world
so that we might live through Him.
1 John 4:9

It’s morning on the moon, and you’re liking it less and less.

When the crackling voice on the radio woke you up, you somehow expected to see a tide of golden sunlight pouring onto carpets of green grass. Instinctively, you listened for birds, water rushing over rocks, saws or cars or kids. Immersed in a childhood memory, you even thought you caught the scent of bacon, cold cantaloupe, pancakes, maple syrup, and hot coffee.

But now, as you look out the window of your module, you see no movement at all. As you listen for sounds and voices, you hear only silence. As your mind imagines colors, your eyes meet only black and white. A little flurry of panic hits you as you realize the stark truth: This place is dead.

Almost frantically, you search for mother Earth.

Ah yes, there she is: the blue seas, the great swirls of white clouds, the shapely continents of land. Family and friends. Hopes and dreams. Life.

It will be good be home.

The Fight of His Life

The plight of our imaginary astronaut reveals something intriguing about “life”: We are so completely immersed in it that we can barely see it! We live it, enjoy it, and daily seek more of it. Yet it’s not until we take a trip to Death Valley, or Antarctica, or maybe even the moon, that we really begin to think about life, and to realize how strange, amazing, and precious it is.

And as in the natural, so in the spiritual: It is usually a brush with death that makes believers in Christ appreciate the true riches of his gift of eternal life.

We see this clearly in John’s first epistle. Writing to the churches in Asia, the apostle was going toe to toe with a heresy called Gnosticism, a teaching that denied both the deity and the true humanity of Christ, licensed immorality, and encouraged a loveless pride based on mystical “revelations” from a vaguely defined world above.

Many of John’s dear friends had been taken in, or at least shaken. Error, fear, and temptations to sin had arisen in their midst. Death was stalking the camp of the saints. So he wrote—passionately—to confront the heretics and call the faithful back to the true gift of God: eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

But what exactly is this “life” that God is so eager to grant his people; this life that moved him to send us his uniquely begotten Son; this life that demons, heretics, and sinful flesh all hate and oppose; this life that the apostle rose boldly to protect and defend?

Read More