December 6

Hosea 4:1-5:15; 2 John 1:1-13; Psalm 125:1-5; Proverbs 29:9-11

Our relationship with God is inextricably connected to our relationship with our fellow humans.  We've seen this with Jesus' teaching on the greatest commandment: Love God and love your neighbor.  In our New Testament reading today, John talks about loving one another, a command "we have had from the beginning" (2 Jn. 1:5). But this love for each other is tied into obedience, which I find interesting.  Love for God and obedience to God have been linked together throughout our journey through the Bible this year, but John makes this love for others part and parcel of our obedience.  He seems to be saying that love for God is communicated as and through love for others, which is shown in our actions toward them.  Curious how John commands love, isn't it?  We think so often of love as involuntary, something we cannot help or create, but John reminds us that Jesus makes this demand.  It is an act of obedience to love those around us, to choose to engage on their behalf, to consider them above ourselves.

One way we can be obedient to love those around us is mentioned in our Proverbs reading. "A wise man keeps himself under control" though "a fool gives full vent to his anger" (Pr. 29:11).  Wow.  Proverbs doesn't pull any punches!  I'm reminded of the posts Esther did earlier this year about the benefit of a temperate tongue, and I can clearly think of the ways I've failed in this task.  But there are successes, too; I think of the un-learning I had to do early in our marriage, training myself out of sarcasm in order to love my kind-hearted husband.  So perhaps there is hope after all.

It's this hope that draws me back to John's letter.  Look at all the gifts of God that we have received: grace, mercy, peace, truth, love (see 2 Jn. 1:3).  What a power-packed set of qualities we have available to us as we seek to love others in obedience to Christ.  Of course there is hope!

As we're closing out this year, I can echo John's closing.  "I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete" (2 Jn. 1:12).  We've talked with some of you and gotten emails from others and read comments from still more, but I know that each of us bloggers would have loved the opportunity to sit down for a little chat with each of you readers.  Thank you for joining us as we have read through this adventure together.  May God's blessing - his grace, his mercy, his peace, his truth, his love - be richly upon you today.

- Sarah Marsh

How did God speak to you in Scripture today? Click here to share your reflections on God's word or read past posts. We'd love to hear from you.