February 11, 2016
Scripture Reading: 1 John 5:9-12
9We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Questions for Reflection:
John begins by comparing the testimony of humans with God? Why is God’s testimony greater? What do you know about your own character that would discredit human testimony? How does this contrast with the nature and character of God?
For John, it is not just that God testifies but what he testifies about that matters so much. What is the testimony God has given about his Son? Verses 11 & 12 contains one of the greatest promises in all of Scripture. Jesus Christ came to us, as sinners, so that we might have eternal life. One of the great scandals of Christianity is that God would grant grace to sinners. Mark Galli expressed it this way in an article he wrote: “part of the scandal of grace is that I am part and parcel of the company of the graced.” We know our sin, our failures, our mistakes. At times we believe that these errors should hold us back. Listen to the message of the gospel:
The picture John paints is beautiful. We don’t have to have our stuff together. We just have to believe in Jesus Christ and we’re given a tremendous gift. Brennan Manning in his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, writes:
For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. All that is good is ours not by right but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God. While there is much we may have earned–our degree and our salary, our home and garden, a Miller Lite and a good night’s sleep–all this is possible only because we have been given so much: life itself, eyes to see and hands to touch, a mind to shape ideas, and a heart to beat with love. We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt. This and so much more is sheer gift; it is not reward for our faithfulness, our generous disposition, or our heroic life of prayer. Even our fidelity is a gift, “If we but turn to God,” said St. Augustine, “that itself is a gift of God.”
How can you live in that grace today? How can you share that grace today? How can that grace enable you to love others better today?