Day 31: October 9, 2025 – I John 1-5 and II John

We just read two complete books of the Bible. These writings were given by the same disciple who lay on Jesus’ breast at the last supper and the one who was at the foot of the cross and given charge over Jesus’ mother, Mary. I want to focus on I John 4:16ff. It is within these verses that so much of what we believe and who we are is focused. Vs. 16 tells us that God is love and that then transitions into what impact does the fact that God is love have on our daily lives? In vs.18 we read that perfect love, the love of God, casts out fear. Can you imagine how your life might be changed if you live it without fear? Can you imagine the difference.

Think of all the things of which we are fearful. If you have children I don’t even have to start, we have a plethora of fears from which to choose. But the perfect love, that love that we have in Jesus as his disciples, is what ought to cast out fear. This is something upon which we can rely without any conditional statements attached to it. When we love and follow Jesus we can live our lives without fear. Vs.19 gives us the basis for infant baptism which is that we love because he first loved us. We come to follow Jesus because even before we were born (Psalm 139) he knew us and loved us. Even while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8) Jesus chose to die for us and redeem us from our sin. The love that God has for us from the very beginning, from even before the beginning, is sufficient to allow us to live without fear.

Finally, in vs.20 the very clear commandments to love our neighbor. John tells us that it is impossible to love God if we do not love our neighbor. That should be very sobering and convicting to us and should place us on a path to loving our neighbor.