Trying to understand exactly what some politicians mean to say can be a frustrating exercise. Their vocabulary, style and presentation are superb but one can walk away wondering, “What did he mean to say?”
Such was not the case with a man named John. Late in his life he wrote a letter to Christians scattered throughout modern day Turkey. Since John was the last of the original 12 apostles to remain alive, he wanted to make sure there was no doubt in anyone’s mind about who Jesus Christ is and what he did when he was on this earth.
The vocabulary and grammar of the letter have been called basic. The message, however, is at the same time, radically controversial and life changing. John spells it out for people. God has come to this earth in the person of Jesus Christ. People saw him. Talked with him. Ate with him. He was as real as real can get.
But there is more. John tells us Jesus didn’t come just to show us God is real – he came to rescue us. The problem we needed to be rescued from is what we commonly call evil or sin. John is to the point: God is holy, we’re not. Since God is not going to change, God came to change us and he offers just that when we receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord.
The change Jesus Christ brings to our lives not only affects our standing before God, it changes our behavior towards other people. We start to become more and more like Christ in the way we talk and act and think.
The controversy is in John’s conclusion. He said, if you want to know God, you have to know Jesus. If a person doesn’t want Jesus, he can’t get God. To our modern ears that proposition has the sound of intolerance and elitism. To John and the readers of his day it had the ring of truth. And it was truth that John was after because in the end, it is the truth about God that is all that matters.
Join us for one of our weekend services as we begin a six week study of 1 John – a short letter that has changed lives for thousands of years!
Saturday evening worship: 6:00 pm
Sunday morning worship: 10:00 am
Hawaii Lutheran Church (WELS)
- Community Lutheran Church
- Honolulu, HI
- Community Lutheran Church holds protestant chapel services in Honolulu, Hawaii near Pearl Harbor, HI. We are next to the USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hickam Air Force Base, and Fort Shafter Hawaii. Look for us directly behind the Salt Lake, Hawaii, Target.