Compelling Love

The Gospel of John reveals Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the living Word of God, and “the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world”.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth”. (John 1:14).  As believers, we are called to abide in the light. 

John 1 (NKJV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  … ⁹ That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. … ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

The first man and woman were supernaturally created by God as described in Genesis 1 and 2.  Evolutionists consider the Creation account to be a myth or allegory, but the real myth is the theory of evolution, which posits that life arose spontaneously by natural causes, and that random changes with natural selection resulted in diverse and increasingly complex forms of life. A fatal flaw in this theory is that mutations are always destructive of genetic information, not creative; thus the whole “evolutionary tree” with all its supposed branches is shown to be a figment of men’s imaginations.
(Reference: “Evolution Impossible” by John Ashton, Master Books, 2012)

The conception of Jesus was another supernatural miracle.  The embryo God created in Mary’s womb did not require genetic material from Mary or Joseph.  Luke 1 describes the angel Gabriel’s announcement of this supernatural conception.

Luke 1 (NKJV)
²⁶ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

²⁹ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. ³⁰ Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. ³³ And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

³⁴ Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

³⁵ And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. ³⁷ For with God nothing will be impossible.”

At that time in Israel, following the birth of a son the mother had to wait 40 days before going to the temple to offer a sacrifice for her purification. (NKJV Study Bible, note on Luke 2:22).  When Mary and Joseph entered the temple for this presentation, they encountered a devout elderly man named Simeon, who recognized the child as the long awaited Savior, who would be “a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”

Luke 2
Simeon Sees God’s Salvation
²⁵ And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. ²⁶ And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. ²⁷ So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, ²⁸ he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:

²⁹ “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;
³⁰ For my eyes have seen Your salvation
³¹ Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
³² A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”

Jesus declares in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

Emphasizing the role of faith, He declares in John 12:46, “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.” 

Willfully sinning is walking in darkness.  God’s heart for us is that “we walk in the light as He is in the light”.

1 John 1 (NKJV)
⁵ This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Abiding in the light includes walking in love, with both God and others.

1 John 2 (NKJV)
¹⁰ He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. ¹¹ But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10, “ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  Let’s remember that each of us is a work in progress!

Abiding in the light, we will stumble no more.

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy,” (Jude 24)

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, 12/9/2018, https://compellinglove.net/ 

Photo credits:
(1) https://imgur.com/gallery/4EEeg
(2) https://slideplayer.com/slide/6810490/
(3) https://gspcsermons.blogspot.com/2015/11/i-have-hope-in-god-isaiah-9-john-1-luke.html
(4) http://www.pjnaijaexpress.com/2016/10/verse-for-today-1210-john-812.html
(5) https://www.flickr.com/photos/coloneljohnbritt/9387324055
(6) http://carolinasnalc.org/2014/05/04/may-4-2014/
(7) https://dailyverses.net/ephesians/2/10