God Is Light, and We Love Each Other

The last of the post is one man’s. Three letters, all three his, and he does not put his name at the top of any of them. At the supper on the last night, one of them was lying next to Jesus, close enough to lean back against him and ask a question under his breath. That was John. He was young then. He is not young now. Everybody who was in that room with him is dead. He is writing to gatherings full of people who were not born when any of it happened, and he calls them, over and over, my little children.

He begins the long letter with his hands. “What was there from the beginning; what we have heard; what we have seen with our own eyes; what we looked at, and our hands touched — that is what we are telling you. The life was made known. We saw it. We are telling you so that you can share it with us, and what we share is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing it down so that our joy is full up.” He wants that settled before anything else. He heard it. He touched it.

“And this is the message we heard from him and are passing on to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. If we say we belong with him and go on walking about in the dark, we are lying and not doing the truth. But if we walk in the light, the way he is in the light, then we belong with one another.” “If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say out loud what we have done, he is faithful and he is fair: he forgives us and washes us clean.”

“My little children, I am writing this so that you will not sin. And if anybody does sin, we have a Helper with the Father: Jesus Christ, the one who is right. He himself is what puts our sins away — and not ours only, but the whole world’s.” “Here is how we know we have come to know him: if we keep what he told us to do. Anybody who says I know him and does not keep what he said is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. Whoever says he lives in him ought to walk the way that one walked.”

“Beloved, I am not writing a new command to you. It is the old one, the one you have had from the beginning — and it is a new one too, because the darkness is going and the true light is already shining. Anybody who says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in the dark. The one who loves his brother stays in the light, and there is nothing in him for anybody to trip over. The one who hates his brother is walking about in the dark and does not know where he is going, because the dark has blinded his eyes.”

Then he goes round the room the way an old man does, and speaks to each kind of person in it. “I write to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven for the sake of his name. I write to you, fathers, because you have come to know the one who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God stays in you, and you have beaten the evil one.”

“Do not love the world, or the things in the world. If anybody loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Everything in the world — wanting what your body wants, wanting whatever your eyes land on, and showing off what you have got — none of it comes from the Father. It comes from the world. And the world is going, and everything it wants is going with it. The one who does what God wants stays forever.”

There had been a split. People had walked out of the gatherings and were going round the towns saying that Jesus had never really come in a body at all. “Children, it is a last hour. You heard that an antichrist is coming; there are many of them already, and that is how we know what hour it is. They went out from us, but they were never of us — if they had been of us they would have stayed. What you heard from the beginning: let that stay in you.” “And the anointing you got from him stays in you, and you do not need anybody to teach you: his anointing teaches you about everything, and it is true, and it is not a lie. So, just as it taught you, remain in him.” “Remain in him, little children, so that when he is shown we can be bold, and not be shamed away from him when he comes.”

“Look what sort of love the Father has given us: that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. That is why the world does not know what to make of us — it never knew him either. Beloved, we are God’s children now. What we are going to be has not been shown yet. But we know that when he is shown we will be like him, because we will see him exactly as he is.” “And everybody who has this hope in him makes himself pure, the way that one is pure.”

“Little children, let nobody lead you astray. The one who does what is right is right, just as that one is right.” “This is the message you heard from the beginning: that we should love one another. Not the way Cain did — he belonged to the evil one, and he slaughtered his own brother. And why? Because his own works were bad and his brother’s were good. Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you. We know we have crossed over out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Anybody who does not love is still sitting in death, and everybody who hates his brother is a murderer.”

“This is how we have come to know what love is: that one laid his life down for us. And we ought to lay our lives down for the brothers. But if a man has enough to live on, and sees his brother going without, and shuts himself up against him — how is the love of God staying in him? Little children, let us not love with words and talk. Let us love with what we do, and with truth.” “That is how we quiet our own hearts in front of him. And if our heart says we are guilty, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” “And this is his command: that we trust the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and that we love one another, just as he commanded us.”

“Beloved, do not trust every spirit. Test them, and see whether they are from God, because a great many false prophets have gone out into the world. Here is how you can tell: every spirit that says out loud that Jesus Christ has come in a body is from God. You are from God, little children, and you have beaten them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God, and everybody who loves has been born of God and knows God. Anybody who does not love has never known God — because God is love.” “This is how the love of God was shown among us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we could live through him. Love is not that we loved God; it is that he loved us. Nobody has ever seen God. If we love one another, God stays in us, and his love has grown all the way up in us.”

“There is no fear in love. Love, when it is full grown, throws fear out of doors, because fear has punishment in it, and anybody who is afraid has not grown up in love yet. We love because he loved us first.” “If anybody says I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. If he does not love his brother, whom he has seen, he cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And this is what he told us: whoever loves God is to love his brother too.”

“Everybody who trusts that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. This is how we know we love the children of God: when we love God and do what he says. And what he says is not heavy to carry.” Three things give evidence, he says — the Spirit, and the water, and the blood — and the three of them agree. “And this is the evidence: God gave us everlasting life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has the life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have the life. I am writing so that you know you have it.”

“And we can be bold with him: if we ask for anything that fits what he wants, he hears us; and if we know he hears us, we know we have what we asked for.” He says there is a sin that goes toward death and one that does not, and that a man should pray for a brother caught in the second kind. “We know that the whole world is lying in the grip of the evil one, and that we are God’s. Little children, keep yourselves from the idols.”

After the long letter there are two short ones, each the length of a single sheet — which is exactly what they were. The first is to somebody he calls the chosen lady, and her children. “The elder, to a chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth — and not only I, but everybody who has come to know the truth. I was very glad to find some of your children walking in the truth. And now I am asking you, lady — it is not a new command, it is the one we have had from the beginning — that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk according to his commands.”

“A lot of deceivers have gone out into the world, the ones who will not say that Jesus Christ came in a body. Watch yourselves, so that you do not lose what we worked for. Anybody who runs ahead and will not stay in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever stays in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anybody comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house, and do not say hello to him.” “I have a great deal more to say, and I do not want to say it with papyrus and ink. I am hoping to come and talk mouth to mouth, so that your joy is full up. The children of your chosen sister send their greetings.”

The other short one is to a man called Gaius, and it is a friendly letter about looking after travelers — until it is not. “The elder, to Gaius the beloved, whom I love in truth. I pray that everything goes well with you and that you are in good health, the way your soul is doing well. It made me very glad when brothers came and told me the truth about you — that you are walking in the truth. There is no bigger joy I have than hearing that my children are walking in the truth.” “You are doing a faithful thing whenever you work for the brothers, and these were strangers. They told the whole gathering about your love. Send them on their way properly. They went out for the sake of the Name and would take nothing from the nations. We ought to look after people like that, and be fellow workers with the truth.”

And then a man appears. “I wrote something to the gathering, but Diotrephes, who loves being first among them, will not have us. So if I come, I am going to bring up the things he is doing — talking nonsense about us, with nasty words. And that is not enough for him: he will not welcome the brothers himself, and he stops the people who want to, and throws them out of the gathering.” He liked being first, and he shut the door on people, and a very old man three towns away noticed.

“Beloved, do not copy what is bad. Copy what is good. The one who does good is from God; the one who does bad has not seen God. Everybody speaks well of Demetrius, and so does the truth itself, and so do we.” “I had a lot to write to you, and I do not want to write it with ink and a reed. I am hoping to see you soon and talk mouth to mouth. Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name — each one.” That is the last of it. The old man who had leaned back against Jesus at a supper, writing to people he had never met, asking to be remembered to every one of them by name.