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Gems in the Letter of 1 John - Part 97

Gems in the Letter of 1  John

Part 97

1 John 1: 4 - The joy of the Gospel

‘We write this to make our joy complete’ says John. And even before we start into the epistle proper that simple statement raises a big question. Who are the ‘we’? (I am going to call it an epistle, even although that word really means ‘letter’. It is a slightly posh word, appropriate here because it has no statement about who wrote it, or who it was to, or any of the other things we expect to find in a true letter. It is more like an essay, a statement of intent, a document to be sent to many people.

 

So an epistle it is.) Because neither the Gospel of John nor this epistle ever says who wrote them we cannot be sure who they were. The writers of the very early church very soon decided that John, one of the sons of Boanerges, the apostle, the beloved disciple, was the author of both. The decision makes good sense so I am going to refer to the writer as John and assume it was the same person as the writer of the gospel. Both assumptions seem to be very likely right. The other assumption we must make is that this epistle was written after the gospel, although, as we saw in the last study of the gospel John was probably very old when he wrote the gospel and it may even have been put together by some close helper. That person, a close disciple of John, may also have had a hand in this letter, compiling it on the basis of things John had said and taught in his old age in the city of Ephesus. That is important to note because quite a lot of the things he says in this epistle seem to refer to a particular atmosphere and line of teaching which was building up in the fellowship of which John was, or had been, a part and probably the leader.

Another reason for assuming the direct authorship of John is the tone of these first few verses. They clearly refer back quite deliberately to the opening words of the Gospel, which in turn refer back to the opening words of the book of Genesis. ‘In the beginning’ figures large in all three places. But then John goes on here to express his joy at what he has been privileged to be a part of. Had he been a child he would quite clearly have been jumping up and down with exuberant joy at what had happened. We heard, we saw, we touched, he says - obviously meaning he heard and saw and touched Jesus. He wants to share the emotions those facts and the attitudes that they caused to erupt in him that he enjoys so much. That way he feels that he will be able to establish a joint shared delight with his readers in the words, the actions and the meaning of Jesus, his life, death and resurrection.

I started off accepting that verse 4 is about ‘our joy’ but you will note that the footnote in your Bible almost certainly suggests it might equally be ‘your joy’ and since we are the recipients of the epistle that is now ‘our joy’. Wow! . Let us try to believe and therefore to act in the sort of way that John does, even if our experience is necessarily not as exciting as his, for we do not hear, see and touch the real living Jesus, the Son of God, as he did.

Think back. Count up the top moments of your walk as a Christian follower of Jesus and rejoice. Perhaps, like me, you are too old to literally jump up and down with joy but do so in your heart, in your imagination. He is worthy. He is glorious. He is our promise of eternal life as John has just pointed out.

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 96

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 96 - John 21:24
Where next?

This great gospel has a curious ending. 21: 25 “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” is, on the face of it, an almost childish statement. What does it really mean and why is it there? The last two verses of the gospel contain references to 3 apparently different people: ‘the disciple who testifies to these things’, ‘we’ and ‘I’. Who are they all? ‘The disciple’ is in all probability a reference to the ‘disciple that Jesus loved’ who has appeared several times in the gospel and we assume, on the evidence of the very early church, was young John the apostle who eventually went to live in Ephesus, founded a church there, gathered a devoted group of disciples round him, live to a grand old age, and either wrote, dictated, or left the gospel to be constructed by someone else from his notes and teachings. The ‘we’ who ‘know that his testimony is true’ are probably members of that small circle of his disciples and the ‘I’ is one of them who did the actual writing down of the words on the first and original scroll - a quite highly skilled task not to be undertaken by an untrained scribe,

This all relates to the situation that Jesus mentioned in 5:31 and 8:14 when he said “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true (or valid)” and “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going.” In their culture it was absolutely necessary to have more than one witness to anything important. Deut 19: 15 “One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” laid down a very important and unbreakable requirement of Jewish practice. Jesus complied with it, so do the folk who put together the final version of this Gospel, one of the greatest writings mankind has ever produced, if not the very greatest.

It has been a truly wonderful experience to write all these little ‘gems’ as I have called them, working my way through from ‘In the beginning’ to this ‘testimony is true’. I suppose the very last verse which says “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” is no longer true if taken literally! We are no longer limited to papyrus or paper but have the enormous capacity of modern computer storage where everything could be written down in computer-talk, but there is not enough room in our hearts for all the wonder and the glory of what John wrote on a papyrus scroll nearly 2000 years ago. Oh, that we may all make the most of who we are: Peter-like active, talkative, quick to respond and to make mistakes, having an immediate impact on those we meet; or John-like cautious, not moving far from our home base, prone to thinking and writing for almost too long and leaving a long legacy. Or all the many of us somewhere in between those two extremes.

John almost certainly didn’t stop there. We cannot be 100 percent sure that he wrote the epistle we call 1 John but it seems very likely. There we shall see that he did not have an entirely easy time. His fellowship group had its rebels and dissidents just the same as we will all encounter. But he persevered through to old age. What about you? Can you gather a group of friends and challenge them to study this wonderful letter in detail? I have written notes for our group and would be happy to send you a copy. Contact me at rogmarg.kirby@gmail.com

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 95

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 95 - John 21:21
Challenges

“What about him?” asked Peter, referring to his close friend ‘the disciple that Jesus loved’, probably John, the writer of this gospel. His question will have been of but small interest when Peter asked it but had become of much greater significance over fifty years later when John had died or it became clear he could not live much longer. (That there was this interest behind the reported question suggests someone else was working with John on this chapter.) Several things Jesus had said had seemed to suggest that he would return before all the disciples had died. One of them is quoted here, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Earlier he had said in Mark 9: 1 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.” They had failed to realise that the Kingdom had come quietly when the King, Jesus, came and more openly at his death and resurrection. Unfortunately the idea is still around that we can work out when the kingdom will come in its full splendour even although Jesus warned that “about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Don’t be one of those misled by folk with more concern for their own apparent cleverness in working out the details of his return than their ability to hear what he actually said.

There is another important point to be learned from this passage. Jesus had just told Peter in verses 18, 19 “Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.” That is a strong hint that Peter would die by crucifixion as Jesus had done, and as he in fact did about 30 years later. Peter wanted to know whether John would suffer the same fate. Whether that was from concern for his much younger friend or from a sense of wanting to protect him or from a hope that he would not share such a singular privilege (as Peter saw it) is not clear.

This is significant for us, as is the reply of Jesus. In all probability some few of those who read or hear this will live in a country where you are in danger of martyrdom because you hold to a faith that the majority do not agree with. Most of you will not be in such a dangerous situation but can expect to die a natural death when your days are done. For us of the second sort the interesting question is: will we be in some sense second class citizens of the kingdom to come behind those who have been martyred? The clear implication of the reply of Jesus in verse 23 “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you,” is ‘no’ I simply have something different for you to do.

I always feel a bit uncomfortable singing hymns like the one that says ‘All to Jesus I surrender … ‘ when I know perfectly well that I am surrounded by folk who have no real intention of surrendering anything if they can possibly help it, and I am not at all sure about myself either! It seems to me that the really important thing is when I receive a direct challenge from the Lord to do something - how do I respond? I do not have to concentrate on the big things in life that may never come my way, but how do I respond to the small things: what will I not do; what work promotion will I not seek; where will I actually go in the here and now; rather than some grand gesture.

What about you? Do you agree with that attitude? Or how else will you confront the challenges of life for the sake of your Lord and Master?

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 94

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 94 - John 21:17b
Discipling

The second point worth a study in this verse is: what is the special work that the importance of love is for? Jesus spoke of taking care of, and feeding lambs and sheep. The shepherd’s work of looking after sheep has two main components: making sure they have enough to eat by taking them to fresh pasture when the present one is cropped too short for them to get much nourishment from it, and making sure they are not attacked by either things too small to see, or by lions or by any of all the other things in between that can harm an animal. You will have noticed that I didn’t use any of John’s words in the title of this study but the word ‘discipling’.

 

That is, of course, the one that Matthew used in his great Commission statement. Discipling is basically teaching, but a bit more than just teaching in a classroom. A disciple is taught both by classroom type instruction and by close observation of the behaviour and manner of the discipler. The process will continue even when the discipler is not physically present – from the Word of God. Even the straightforward teaching bit is not easy - as I know too well having spent nearly all my work life as a teacher of one sort or another. It always seems to me that in church we make it more difficult that it naturally is by our habit of putting everyone in rows to listen and then elevating someone to a higher position to do all the talking. That is lecturing, not teaching, and most professional teachers only do it that way at university where you can be sure that all your hearers are of above average intelligence. In the average congregation half the hearers are of above average intelligence and half are below - that is what average means! Good discipling involves much fewer people at a time, indeed probably just one at a time. And that is a far more difficult thing to set up and do, hence our love of preaching.

Why is that? I think the reason is buried deep in the culture of the Western world to which I, and probably many of you, belong. And even if you don’t the influence of our culture is now so worldwide that it may still be having an effect. Our culture says that we are all individuals and interprets that in a very isolationist way. We are not to tell anybody what they are to think or do. If we do we are trying to control them, manipulate them, and those are very naughty things to do. So we are even told that parents should not tell their children how to think and behave. That, apparently, is something they should be allowed to work out for themselves.

So although almost nobody will be aware of this and the reasons behind it many folk in our culture will be reluctant to open themselves to be discipled or to disciple.

“Feed my sheep” said Jesus to Peter and to all of us. We have to obey him and not the dictates of our local, temporary culture. We have to do all we can to increase the number of deep, properly discipled believers.

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 93

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 93 - John 21:17
Loving for discipling

John continues to instruct us by telling us about things that Jesus did and said in those brief few days between his resurrection and his return to his Father’s side. This next episode is what was said, or part of what was said, between Jesus and Peter. The last of the three challenges of Jesus to Peter is ‘The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” (21: 17) followed by, in the last phrase of that verse, by his charge to Peter, ‘Feed my sheep.”. (the variations in the wording in these verse between lambs and sheep and feeding and taking care of are of no great significance.) Peter must have been expecting a right telling off after his three denials, though it is possible he had already received that in Jerusalem. Again this comes with two main emphases: that what we do is always to be done in an atmosphere of love and that the main work to be done by his disciples is discipling - making more spiritually strong and devout Christian believers.

First then in this study (the discipling we will think about in the next one): our action in love. Love is a difficult word because it has so many meanings. I may properly say ‘I love my wife’ and ‘I love my iPad’ though those two statements don’t really have the same meaning. Love has two main components: an emotional attitudinal meaning and an active, practical part.

 

When I talk about loving my iPad there is no emotional part in that love; it is purely that I greatly like what I can do with it and what it enables me to do. When I talk about loving my wife there is a great deal of emotion and attitude in what I mean and I will also have to live with, work with her, and do many things with her: that is the practical part.

All that we do in Jesus, every contact we make with other people is to occur in an atmosphere of love; that is an atmosphere containing both a good emotional atmosphere and a willingness to do things for the other person: both the two main aspects of love. This is all made very clear to us in this first epistle John wrote. He says things like: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” in 4:7-12. And “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.” which is from 3:21,22.

 

And what were his commands? They were quite simple, ‘love your neighbour’! By simple I mean that they are very simple and easy to state but they are horrendously difficult to obey in practice! (Because of the particular circumstance to which he was writing John speaks almost exclusively here about our attitude to our fellow believers. Jesus cast his net wider - to all the world, following the example of his Father in the well known verse 3:16 “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

That is how we are to approach all that we endeavour to do in the work of the kingdom.

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 92

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 92 - John 21:13
Eating with Jesus

Was this the most exciting, glorious thrilling meal that humans have ever eaten? Here they were, seven men and Jesus sitting cross-legged on the shore of the little sea of Galilee, and, if we let our imaginations fly perhaps an outer ring of local men and women watching in awe and wonder what was happening. The Creator and Saviour of the world was here, alive and well, after his great sacrifice on the Cross. It must have been a beautiful morning when the heavens declared the glory of God more clearly than usual. All creation was rejoicing. The sky was a matchless blue; a gentle breeze just rippled the surface of the sea; all the birds were singing, singing, singing their joy. The little animals, usually asleep in their holes and burrows at this time of day, were poking their noses out whiskers all a quiver to see what was happening. Only the fish left in the sea were not rejoicing because they had lost so many of their mates!

In it all we need to take note that he had sat down to eat with his people, and even to be their cook, their food provider. This time it was fish and bread - and presumably something to wash it down, water or wine. This was just one of the three recorded meals Jesus ate with his disciple after he had risen from the dead. They were not special sacramental meals, but rather simple ones eating the food that was available.

The hint could not be clearer - we too, are to eat with Jesus very frequently in the meal we know as the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, the communion service etc. Those churches which restrict the communion service to once every 3, 6 or 12 months, from good motives to be sure, do their people a grave disservice - and do not follow the clear intent of scripture. So does any church that does not hold a service because there is no officially ordained person, usually male in many cases, to lead the service; or no proper building in which to observe it; or particular liquid to drink. No, by his example, we are to eat with him whenever we can without any particular need to be ‘posh’ in the way we do it. Meeting him is far more important than any detail of how or where.

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 91

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 91 - John 21:3
Working

 

It is not clear whether this last chapter is a deliberate last chapter or a late addition. No matter, either way its intention is clear: the emphasis moves from the life and death of Jesus to its effect in the life of the community of his followers, the church. First we have its effect in work, then in our relations with other people, our attitude to his expected return, and finally, and briefly, to the importance of testimony - of the right sort.

First then Jesus and work. We read that, “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat.” people argue about whether Peter was right to go out fishing so soon after all the exciting and very important events we have just been told about, or not. It seems to me that he was. The fishing community in Capernaum will have been hard hit financially by the call of Jesus to at least four of its strong young men three years earlier. How, I wonder, did they manage to survive the next years while they were away with Jesus? Peter will have understood their problem all too well and he rightly started to make what amends he could (it didn’t last. In no time at all he was away again, this time for the rest of his life.)

We all have to work. God told Adam in the garden of Eden, “by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food”. And there is no escape from that except for a very few unfortunate people who are born into such riches they can afford to do nothing of consequence all the days of their life - not a good thing. So Peter went back to work.

It did not upset Jesus who helped him by telling him to put the net down on the right side of the boat. Presumably they had had it on the other side so following the advice of an unrecognized stranger was a big thing to do even if he had seen some disturbance of the water suggesting there were fish there.

More than forty years ago I was sitting in our car very close to the sea in the island of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland. An obviously very heavy-laden small boat came into the shore and two men started unloading it. I was so curious I started counting. They took 126 magnificent large salmon from the boat to their trailer. The interesting thing is I can still remember the number when I could tell you nothing else at all about that particular holiday. So it was with the disciples. What happened was so memorable that they knew how many fish they caught, 153, more than 50 years later. Jesus does still look after his people. Not always so obviously or so generously - but he does look after us.

Jesus was happy to sit down on a lakeshore with seven scruffy, poorly clothed and rather wet disciples. Thank you Jesus for such a clear indication of how and where you will meet us.

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 90

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 93 - John 20:29
Encouragement

This is my favourite verse in all of scripture. 20: 29, “Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” I find that hugely encouraging. I hope you will too.
The beloved disciple believed when he saw the empty tomb and the folded grave clothes. Mary believed when she heard a familiar voice calling her name; the disciples did when they met the Lord behind closed and locked doors; Thomas was particularly blessed when he saw the scars close up. Many Christians since then have seen some remarkable event or had a striking dream.
But many, like me, have had no such experience, no excitement or enormously compelling event has ever come their way. Are we then second-class citizens of heaven, never quite sure of our standing before the Lord? No! With this one brief sentence he puts all our fears to rest. He makes sure that we know we are, in his eyes, as good as any saint who ever lived.
Perhaps you, like me, are a rather boring, quiet, ordinary believer, who can lay claim to no wonderful experience, no amazing healing, no great gift that clearly marks you out as one of the chosen ones, - just an ordinary plodding sort of believer. So what! Love this word, “Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” Be sure that your true basis in faith is in the written, unchanging, word of the Bible. That is a far better foundation than any experience, excitement or human based teaching.
John goes on in the last two verses of this chapter to say, “ Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” it is not clear whether this is referring to all the signs that Jesus performed throughout his ministry, the ones he has recorded, those the other Gospel-writers have recorded, and all the rest, or whether he is really referring just to the special signs Jesus did after his resurrection. Although that is much argued about, as is the question whether this was originally the end of the Gospel until John decided to add one more chapter, it doesn’t really matter. The one and only purpose of it all is that ‘by believing you may have life in his name’. make sure you do!

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 89

Gems in the Gospel of John
Part 89 - John 20:28
The Climax

 

Although no longer the largest diamond in the world the Koh-i-Noor is perhaps the most famous and the most beautiful. This verse, where Thomas says: ‘My Lord and my God’’ is the Koh-i-Noor of all John’s gems. John’s whole gospel is carefully constructed to climax at this point. He wants his readers or listeners to believe. He says so in the last verse of this chapter, 20: 31, where he says, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” He doesn’t challenge them directly, hitting them over the head with a blunt weapon of some call to believe. Instead he gives them an example to follow.

I think Thomas has been unfairly treated in getting his nickname of ‘doubting Thomas’. We do not know why he was not there a week earlier so we should not judge his absence as something wrong. He was clearly of a personality that wanted to be sure. Perhaps he was the sharpest mind amongst the disciples; the first to realise something of what Jesus really was. He needed confirmation, but once he had it he was the one who first called Jesus God. What exactly he understood and thought that meant we do not know. It certainly wasn’t all the things that we think as the statement has gathered so many ideas to itself over the centuries. But what ever it was he then acted accordingly.

This was only one week after the resurrection of Jesus so there will have been much talk but probably also much doubt even amongst the disciples. We cannot claim such circumstances. It is now nearly 2000 years since Jesus rose from the dead; much has been said in that time both for and against the truth of what happened. It is probably true now that virtually all those who say they do not believe because they cannot believe something so unlikely actually do not want to believe because it will upset the nice even tenor of their lives.

Thomas reacted, as he should, to the action of Jesus. He had asked Jesus to allow him to explore the wounds – a rather rash and demanding thing to do. Jesus had allowed him to do exactly as he asked. The king of all the world allowed a subject to do exactly as he wanted.! But that is the way Jesus worked and works. He does not react against our demands but meets them whenever it is for our benefit that he do so.

Thomas did as he should have done and it turned his life upside down – as it may ours if we respond to Jesus as we should. There is a museum in the town of Taxila in northern Pakistan. They have a stone tablet in the wall saying Thomas was there on his way from Jerusalem to South India. That is a guess but a reasonable one as Taxila was, in those days, the major city lying on the direct routs between those two places. Thomas is credited with the foundation of the Mar Thoma church in South India. He made up for any doubts at the end of that first week with a great, and undoubtedly difficult , journey, the founding of a church in a totally new and far away country and, probably, his eventual martyrdom.

There is one other thing to notice here. It is that little word that appears twice in what Thomas said, ‘my’. He didn’t say ‘The Lord and God’, he didn’t even say ‘our Lord and God’. No, he said, ‘MY Lord and MY God’. He recognized that in front of him was the invitation to have a personal relationship with the Lord God in Jesus. God was no longer a far away abstract idea, to be worshipped and venerated but scarcely loved. He was to be spoken to almost as an equal, a senior equal to be sure, but someone to be treated in a quite different way from that which everyone had used previously when they were speaking to a far-off infinitely superior being
Good on you, Thomas. Would that we all would react like that to the call of Jesus.

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 88

 

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 88 - John 20:21-23
The Great Commission and the Spirit

 

In 3 short verses John 20:21 - 23, John covers what took Matthew 4 long verses and Luke 47 verses, Those are the great commission of Matthew 28 and the giving of the Spirit in Acts 2. Here is John’s version: “Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

As has happened before John seems to have not been the least bit concerned about when things happened, only in their theological significance. So the fact that he says the disciples became Spirit filled on the day of the resurrection while Luke says it happened 50 days later should not worry us.

The way he has put it has highlighted the connection between the 2 things and, in particular, the importance of the Spirit for true evangelism. We are to be small copies of Jesus! Mark tells us in 1:14,15 that “Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.’” John never puts what Jesus did in quite those terms but it is clear that that is a good summary of what John records with his emphases on particular incidents in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus did not spend all his time in direct evangelism. He did a lot of teaching and healing as support for the direct challenges he gave to people like Nicodemus and the woman by the well. We are not all called to be evangelists in that direct sense. That is just as well because surveys in our culture seem to suggest that less than one believer in ten is likely to be a good and effective evangelist by directly talking to strangers. It is the job of the rest of us to teach, to disciple, to heal, to do the more and greater works that Jesus said we should in 14:12 - and to support and pray for those who have a true gift in direct person-to-person evangelism. And they may need it. It is easy to mix up the natural ability of the born salesman and the Spirit filled gift of evangelism. If you are one of the gifted ones you need to be careful because you may well have a natural gift for salesmanship as well but only what comes from, and is guided by, the Holy Spirit himself is going to be spiritually effective.

If a big white man with a strong personality tells unsophisticated villagers in an underdeveloped country to jump, they will jump. If he does not understand their culture and then goes home and boasts about how many converts he has made he has done more damage than good. (I have seen this happen!) Let us be careful and wise.

The last of these three verses is difficult for it seems to say that we here on earth can decide whether someone’s sins are forgiven or not and that heaven will then fall inline, always agreeing with our decision. That is a very simplistic way of thinking and you will probably have reacted against it when I put it in those blunt terms. The forgiveness of sins is the privilege and prerogative only of the heavenly realm. When, in Mark 2:5, Jesus said to the paralyzed man ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’ the surrounding people were rightly shocked because they said, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

That is an entirely healthy and Bible honouring reaction, both in Old and New Testament terms.

In all our dealings with other people, particularly those who are not yet believers, we need to be extremely careful, recognizing that only the Holy Spirit himself can forgive those who repent and give them the gift of new life and the Holy Spirit.

Indeed we need to be sent by God himself, as Jesus indicates when he tells the disciples, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Note too, that the words immediately before that command are about the peace that the presence of Jesus brought to them. We too shall know the deep peace of the presence of Jesus particularly when we obey his command to go where he sends us.

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