I've really been engaged by the message of 1 John. Scott has been doing a great job of leading discussions of the text on Sunday nights.
One idea has drawn my attention. This point is not the main point of 1 John, but I think it is a critical secondary point. It is the idea that evil has a mind. By "mind," I am getting at the idea of evil as an intelligent and organized force that is actively at work at all times and in nearly all things.
John makes a couple of references to the "evil one." He talks about love of the world as a seductive force that lures and entraps us. John is consistent with many other passages of Scripture in personifying evil.
I am not aware of many other religious systems that talk of evil as having a "mind."
An illustration:
It is one thing to being skiing down a slope with the knowledge that there are various dangers that need be avoided in order to finish the course unharmed. In this scenario, a reasonable amount of skill and caution should serve you well.
It is another thing to be skiing down a slope knowing that a predator is stalking with intent to severely harm you. In this scenario, a high degree of skill and caution may not be sufficient to keep you from serious harm. This is all the worse if it is determined that the predator is good at accomplishing its evil intent.
I think John and many other biblical writers are calling us to understand that life is more like the latter scenario than the former. This is not to make us parnoid and insecure, but rather to focus our attention on our need for a Christ.
A main point of 1 John is to give the readers a sense of assurance that they are indeed in a fellowship with Christ, and the goal and evidence of such fellowship is love. The secondary point might be to highlight that much is a stake for us all. It is imperative that we apply ourselves to understanding what this love is all about. With this, we must know that there is an opposing force that is tactically engaging us in order to prevent love and promote hate. If I am just cruising along in life with little effort being given to the pursuit of love, then quite probably I am slipping into danger.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Evil has a mind
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
Jason, I couldn't agree more with your allusion to a predatory force stalking us. I have found that there is no resting spot. To not be in active pursuit of God is actually to be falling. I remember reading a couple years ago that we are under assault from 3 sources: The devil, the world, and our flesh. The problem is that these 3 sources all work in tandem, so the natural inclination of man is broken and bent toward self, the world is running away from God at full speed, and the devil or predatory evil is strategically appealing to desires with fixes that are illegitimate. Love is the guage and he who loves is born of God. But once we come up from the baptistry, feelings and actions of love seemingly do not just drip in abundance from us. There is a process toward maturity we must take. Learning to love, becomes an exercise in knowing God. I believe that discipleship efforts should be more than personal. After reading the Dallas Willard book "Spirit of the Disciplines" and visiting other churches that pursue discipleship, I'm convinced of the value in pursuing some of the spiritual disciplines as a means of making my heart fertile and more receptive to God. Not that it convinces God to move, but that it prepares me to see Him move. In time past, we've talked about the Parable of the Sower, and how many of us are rocky soil, thorny, or hardened. What if pursuit of some of the spiritual disciplines actually cultivate the soil? Surely it would enable to break us off more from the world, surely it could remove some of the noise in our lives. What if a small group decided to practice fasting, solitude, or silence, and then come together to share what they've learned and to pray? What if we prayed for 4-5 rounds on Sundays? What if people actually confessed their faults to each other? What if an intimacy grew so tight between brothers and sisters that we really were family? What if we dropped our focus on form, and pursued substance until it grew and life really did flow out of us? Anyway my point is, to pursue God and Christ is to pursue love. Love is the defining by-product of discipleship. Not a class, but mentoring, trial and error, then trying again. Testing, stretching, learning, and being changed, coached, prodded, supported. To not grow up into Christ, is akin to not growing up into manhood. The process and end product cannot be reduced to a form. Although it can be mimicked, it cannot function properly unless it is real. In manhood, or adulthood, substance defines the form - and the same is true with the Church, no matter what name is above the door.
Post a Comment