1 John 5

Thanks to Mr. MacFeeley for getting the last chapter. I have found blogging on Sundays to be rather difficult, since my head is often on many other scriptures that day. For the time being, I'm going to blog on Mondays instead.

This chapter really threw me for a loop - even more so than the rest of the book. I've never been overly enamoured with John's writing -- he seems more interested in poetic phrases than saying what he means. And this chapter is one of the worst - cyclical statements about Love and God and Spirit and water and blood. And the very strange reference in v. 16 about the "sin that does lead to death" that we are not told to pray about. Huh?

So I dug out my shortest commentary. Apparently, the chapter (and the book) was mostly likely written to refute those who were claiming that the Messiah and God were about Spirit -- that the messy, bloody, bodily Jesus could not be God. God is Love, God is Spirit (they claimed). John writes to say "No, God is flesh and blood."

This doesn't help me with v. 16 (I still have no satisfactory answer there, even after the reference books). BUT...I see how important the rest of the chapter is.

We still, over a thousand years later, fall into the trap of wanting a spiritual God. Our lives are messy. The lives of those around us are messy. God doesn't keep his hands clean and stay apart and "spiritual." God jumps into the carnality - literally. God is flesh.

In a society where we see so much more of other religions, it is important to remember that this belief is what makes us stand out. We know that Spirit is not enough to be the fullness of Truth. The Creator, the Source, the Power, the One....Must also be Flesh.