1. Surrounded by false prophets

During these Sunday Services we have been reading from the epistles of John. Today is the 5th session. In John’s church some believers who followed false teachings provoked conflicts then left the church. They became known as Gnostics and it seems their new break-away churches became very influential. But John says, “They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them” (1 John 4:5).

“the world listens to them,” suggests that gnostic churches acquired more believers. Even today we find a tendency similar to that period. People prefer preachers who give comfortable speeches which please the listeners’ feelings. The audience don’t want to listen to facts which might inconvenience them. So if false prophets claim the power to exempt their listeners from physical pain and suffering, they will easily follow such teachings.

Once I remarked that a song, “You are born to be loved,” became very popular among young Christians. The words are, “Your are born to be loved. Your life is filled with love.” Frankly, just by saying the words makes it a very comfortable lyric to the ear. But it does not have the power to move the emotions of our heart. Because there is no notion of the Cross, nor redemption. Sweet messages cannot lead us to repentance and confession of belief.

John commenced his letter this way, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).

As Jesus’ teachings were spread into the Hellenistic world, false interpretations multiplied, one of which became known as Gnosticism. Gnostics altered contents of the Gospels in accordance with Greek philosophy, whose base was reason and logic. So they rejected what they could not explain and understand by reasoning. In consequence, they denied the Incarnation of God’s Son born as Jesus of Nazareth, and His death on the Cross. Thus they denied also our redemption through Jesus’ sacrifice. They accepted Jesus as a human moralist, a prophet, but refused to witness to His divinity.

Therefore John teaches, “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:2).

False prophets would not recognize the Spirit of God. They could not give credence to God’s mysterious power, because it went beyond their human faculty. But real faith is to believe in the supreme existence which surpasses all human intellectual capacity. This is the message from the Apostle John, who said: “For 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” (John 3:16).

So John thought one should consider those who denied the divinity of Christ, to be false prophets. False thinking by fake prophets and teachers sprang from human desires. People who seek self-gratification rather than the happiness of others. In contrast, God’s love gives priority for the sake of others, instead of one’s self. John encourages us to accept the real love of our brothers and sisters, and try to distinguish between the authentic teachings of Christ, and those of the false prophets.

John then begins his ‘homage to love.’ “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” (1 John 4:7-11).

This passage is as important as Paul’s homage to love, which is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 . Through these verses we can measure or verify the righteousness of our own faith, by seeing whether we love our neighbors sincerely or not.

2. What is love ?

Greek vocabulary has three words meaning, love. They are, Eros, Philia and Agape. A Japanese Catholic Priest, Father Testurho Honda, explains their differences: “Energy which supports human relationships comes from love as “Eros, Philia and Agape”. However our notion of love is disturbed very often by mixing all three. So I will try to differentiate them. Eros means spontaneous and natural love, for example love of man toward his wife, or other beloved ones. Philia occurs from sympathy, fondness, friendship, a sort of camaraderie. Agape is a type of love by appreciating and respecting others’ existence, regardless of who and how they are. Eros might be enfeebled and Philia may be disrupted as time goes by, whereas Agape won’t disappear as long as we esteem the existence of all human beings as we esteem our own being. Facing those who are suffering we won’t ask ourselves whether we can have empathy for them and love them as we love our family or friends. That is the attitude we must chose, to respect and esteem their existence itself. Then a relationship of co-lateral respect commences.”

Eros and Philia are part of human nature and their base is an emotional feeling, like or dislike by simplification. Such love is impermanent, which mostly comes to an end sometime in the future. Human love is to love for our own sake. Therefore, when external circumstances or features of a beloved-one change, our love may soon disappear. And the result often causes affliction. Young lovers are always afraid of disloyalty towards each other, and wives often complain that their husbands do not love them. Many of us have experienced a betrayal of love by friends.

Those, who are made redundant from their work with whole-of-life trusted companies, become depressed and some even commit suicide. Almost all of our sufferings are caused by the failure of human relationships. So much so, we need to learn more about, Agape love, or Christian love. But Agape or Christian love is not embedded into our nature. That is the very love given to us through the Cross of Jesus, as John says, “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” (1 John 4:9). We are granted Jesus’ love through God.

John continues to write, “We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:13). “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen’” (1 John 4:19-20). Real faith should be accompanied by a responsive act, which causes us to love. Faith without reaction, expressed by the lyric, “stay as you are, it’s enough to be loved,” cannot really be an authentic faith.

3. Love, even for enemies

Today’s invocation verses are Matthew, 5:43-35: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the un-righteous .”

Many people have given speeches by quoting those words from Jesus, and Dr. Martin Luther King* was one of them. Dr King was a co-pastor, with his father, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta until his death. I would like to reflect upon “love” by referring to certain extracts from the book which compiles his several speeches: “Strength to Love,” published in 1963.

During those times racism was rampant, and the enemies of Dr. King even threw bombs inside his church. The congregation was often terrorised and some members were even lynched - including children. Dr. King experienced imprisonment, because of his anti-segregation activities. The speech he gave was verbally delivered under such circumstances.

Dr. King said, “Jesus compelled us to love our enemies. But how can we come to love our enemies?” It¡Çs impossible to love those who seek to destroy our houses or attack our children. We cannot be fond of our enemies, but we can try to love them. Indeed, we must seek to do so. Because, hatred does not provide any positive vision for the future. Hatred is an evil, which harms both the enemy and ourselves. Moreover, hatred aggravates situations and breeds other conflicts. On the contrary, love contains a redemptive power. It is love that will save our world, and our civilization. Love even for our enemies, often changes them into friends.

Dr. King even addressed his opponents, “We put our power to endure against your force of oppressing us. Do continue to abuse us with what you want. Then we continue to love you. We won’t observe your unfair laws, so send us to prison. Nevertheless we continue to love you. Do send masked aggressors into our house to beat us to death. Still we continue to love you. But, remember, we erode you with our power to endure. Some day we shall win our freedom. It is not only for our sake but for yours too. Because, in the process of seeking to win, we will win your conscience too. Thus our victory should be twofold.”

Dr. King believed in God’s power to shape history. Therefore he entrusted the judgement to God instead of revenging his enemies by human means. In the past many whites, segregated and imprisoned the blacks. Even houses of blacks were burned or bombarded. Nonetheless, Dr. King would not hate the whites because Jesus chose death on the Cross for the sake of such aggressive people.

Dr. King’s love surpassed human love. His love was already God’s love, agape. We must adopt ‘agape’ into our daily relationships, in order to become God’s children. Dr. King appealed, “You are Christians. So we should live by believing that history is guided by God.” This speech challenged and changed Americans. Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. Since then the US government declared Dr. King’s birthday, 15th January, a national public holiday.

Paul said, “We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). In Greek, knowledge is gnosis, and love is Agape. Faith which is based on the Cross, and the Resurrection of Christ, opens the pathway to agape love for all humans. And I hope and pray we can continue to raise our church by believing in that.
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Reference:
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
http://www.mlkonline.net/ (speeches, quotes, audio,video sources)