May 29, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Find out what pleases the Lord. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.” (Ephesians 5.10; Ephesians 6.24)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Yesterday I focused on Paul’s benediction highlighting the elements of peace, love and grace. I mentioned the possibility of this letter to the Faith in Christ Community in Ephesus as being a “farewell” or “before I go” testament to those in whom he had invested much energy: Timothy, the Church in Ephesus and John the Beloved. Though he did not mention John by name nor allude to him in any specific manner, the very fact that John lived in Ephesus and would become the Presbyter of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor which included Ephesus would suggest that John would have received the letter. It also stands to reason that he would have known the deeper connections mentioned in it to Jesus the Christ whom he loved in the flesh and in the spirit. It is within the realm of possibility that the mantel of responsibility was being handed over in a natural transition. We do not know of the “church” politics which led to John being the Presbyter, the Elder of the Seven Churches. It is immaterial to the scope of these reflections. However, in the final verse which Paul penned to “them,” I cannot help but here an inclusion of John.

To help make this point, I refer back to the final appearance of Jesus to Peter and the disciples. It was at the Sea of Galilee when Peter and seven of the disciples went on a wilderness retreat. Okay, going to the lake is not necessarily a wilderness but it is most certainly a retreat to sort through the many thoughts which were on their hearts and mind concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus. Experiencing the death of a loved one, as many of us have, we know the necessity and the value of such a time. It was there that Jesus and Peter reconciled Peter’s grief due to his betrayal. Though Jesus doesn’t mention it during the forty days between the resurrection and the seaside breakfast and Peter gives the appearance of having dealt with it, we know it isn’t that easy to move forward. Peter was still weighted down by it. Thus, Jesus sets this time aside to reassure and restore Peter back to a confident faith. It is after this that Jesus alludes to the time when Peter would see the end of his ministry and his life. It would not be for another 35 years or so but when we think about death time becomes strangely intangible. In that discourse, Peter notices John the Beloved and asks Jesus about the end of his life. Jesus tells Peter that it isn’t any of his business. Rather, his greatest concern should be for himself and how he should live out the last days of his life. That discourse is the final one remembered in the John’s gospel. I can’t help but think that it was written in the final days of his own life. The affirmation was about “an undying love.”

The true mark of the nature and character of love born out of faith is an “undying love.” To the Corinthian faith fellowship, Paul speaks of a love that never ends, never ceases, never fails and thus becomes the greatest of all gifts. Grace, the grace of God, is the gift born out of “an undying love.” At the cross, Jesus connects John and Mary as spiritual “son and mother.” John is entrusted with Jesus’ mother’s care and welfare. Mary is entrusted with John’s well-being and strengthening. True love is the greatest legacy we can leave to our children and all succeeding generations. It signals a fervent commitment to live out the understanding of what it means to truly love as God loves. It is not about self-love or self-aggrandizement. It is not about entitlement or manipulation. It is about seeking the welfare of another with the very resources of our own lives and not seek anything more from that love than to “love one another.” It is, as Jesus taught, “the means by which the world shall know you are My disciples.” John would have heard the echo of Jesus’ words in Paul benediction. Paul, who spent three years in Ephesus, was not looking at the end of one race and the beginning of another for which he would truly receive a crown of glory. The end of one race was the marathon spent in spreading the gospel to further corners of the world. It was the race of the Great Commission. Peter faced it as well when he and his wife were martyred for their faithfulness to the call of Christ over their lives. In the writing of John’s gospel, we are brought to the close of an age which was preceded by a “Revelation” of things yet to come. Remember, it was the Church in Ephesus that was warned in that “Revelation” to not forsake their first love. The call to have an “undying love” still echoed at the close of the first century when John met his last breath on earth. That echo resounds even now and we must heed it as well. We must not only receive the gift of hope, faith and love but we must share that gift until the very end. Doing so is “what pleases God.“

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.