1 John

Jesus said: What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and forfeit their life?

That’s Mark chapter 8, verse 36.

It’s a good question. Our society is very good at helping us to add things to our life. Much less clear what life itself is all about.

Which makes Jesus’ question frighteningly relevant. What if someone did manage to gain everything there is to have? But what if they also missed out on life itself?

1 John chapter 5 is about how we can avoid making exactly that mistake.

1 John chapter 4 is one of the classic passages in the Bible on God’s love.

Verse 8: Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. Verse 16: So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

We all need reassuring that God loves us. Even the most confident person can start to wonder. Am I really in God’s family? What does God think of me?

Sometimes other people make these doubts bigger in our heads. If you meet Christians who are more mature than you. More knowledgeable than you. They don’t mean to make you doubt. But you somehow suspect they must be looking down their noses at you

Today we’re going to be thinking about how to avoid falling down a hole.

Here’s what I mean. One of the things that puts many people off Christianity are the tragic splits in the history of the church. The East split from the West in the 11^th Century. The Protestant reformation was in the 16^th, the Episcopal Presbyterian split in the 17^th century, and the Methodist-Anglican one in the 18^th century. And there have been many more besides.