Title: What do people live by?
Our first child went to church one Sunday when he was a toddler and told me that he had seen Jesus, but he had not seen God yet, and said that it would be good to see God once. Then I asked my son where he saw Jesus. My son answered that he saw it in the church. When I asked where he was in the church again, he pointed out the portrait of Jesus hanging on the wall of the church entrance.
Then, after a while, my wife put five postcards with watercolor portraits of Jesus on the mirror. The figure of Jesus depicted on the five postcards was different. None of these portraits could take the place of Jesus. However, even if we synthesized all the different images of Jesus in the five chapters, we could not draw the complete image of Jesus. However, some impressions can be retained. After that, I did not confirm what impression he had.
Everyone wants to see God. So, to meet God, I go deep into the mountains and immerse myself in deep meditation. The apostle John said that he had met God. But he did not go anywhere to meet God. I met God, who came to visit mankind.
The Apostle John said that he heard, saw, and touched God who came to us. When John said he had heard of God, he did not hear about the outward appearance of God. What John meant was that he had heard of the mode of being of a God of love. I have heard that God is love and that He is a God who loves the world, especially man. And I saw that through Jesus. And I experienced it firsthand.
If Jesus had gone deep into the mountain and immersed himself in meditation, John would not have seen or experienced the God of love in Jesus. But Jesus did not do that, but showed what kind of a God of love is in the realities of human history. John did not see the God of love in the appearance of Jesus, but in the actions of Jesus' life, he saw the God of love who was with mankind.
With God's love, the world was created, with His love, the order of the world is maintained, and with His love, all living things are preserved. God didn't love us because we loved God, but God loved us first. Such love of God was confirmed by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, into this world. Therefore, to see God is to hear, see, and experience the love of God revealed in this world. Love is not logical, it is empirical.
“As for the word of life, which was from the beginning, which we have heard, and which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands” (KJV)
In the text it says:
“Herein is love, not that we love God, but that God loved us and sent his Son as a propitiation for our sins” (verse 10).
After I enlisted in the army, after about three months of training, I stopped by my house for a while before being deployed to an established unit. Then I discovered a new fact. From the day I enlisted, I learned that my mother had been praying for me without a day off. I found out that when I enlisted in the military, I put the watch I had left at home on the dresser and woke up every morning to look at the watch and pray. At that time, I learned that it was not because of my concern and effort that I successfully completed the training course at the training center, but because of my mother's prayer.
We believe that what we live in the world is made up of our cares and worries. That's why life feels harder and more difficult. But Jesus came to show us that it was not because of our worries, but because of God's love. Jesus showed us what kind of power our lives are supported by.
There is a story about the angel Mikhail in the short story novel "What Man Lives by" by the Russian writer Tolstoy. An angel named Mikhail was cast out into the world naked because he disobeyed God's command. God's command that Mikhail broke was a violation of the command to bring back the soul of the mother who had given birth to twin daughters. Mikhail failed to do it out of concern for the future how the poor little ones would live if the mother's soul were taken away. When God casts out the angel Michael, he gives three tasks. The first is to find out what is inside a human being. The second is to find out what is not permitted to humans. The third is to find out what people live by. God told the angel Mikhail that when he realized these three things, he would bring him back to heaven.
The angel Mikhail was trembling naked on a cold winter day, clinging to the church wall. Then, with the help of a poor shoemaker named Semon, they work together in his house. Mikhail realizes that humans have love from the care that the shoemaker's wife, Semon, shows for him.
After that, while working in a shoe store, one day, a rich man put his boots on his boots with fine leather and died right away, so instead of the boots he ordered, he saw a dying man looking for slippers, and knowing what humans really need. You realize that you are not allowed.
Then, some time later, when a woman with her twin girls goes to a shoe store, Mikhail learns that they are the daughters of the mother from whom she was trying to take their souls. The mother dies six months after giving birth to her daughter, and seeing the twins raised in the care of another woman, she realizes that the child can live without parents, but not without God.
The angel Mikhail learns all three tasks. It is thought that each person can live by worrying about their own work and working hard, but that is only what humans think, in fact, that they live only by love. I came to know that those who have a heart full of love live in the world of God, and that God is in that person. After realizing all these things, he goes up to the place of God again.
The mode of existence originally permitted to us humans is to live in cooperation with each other through love. In such a mode of existence, God exists, and in such a way of life, what kind of person God is becomes known. In such a life, you will experience comfort and hope. In such a life, all fear disappears and God's love is perfected. Therefore, those who love belong to God and come to know God from God.
Jesus said, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Wholeness here does not mean ethical perfection, but love. Jesus spoke of God's love with perfection. Because it is the perfection of love, it can be divided into several meanings as follows.
First, the perfection of love means giving yourself up for others. God gave Himself for man. When Jesus came into this world, God gave Himself.
The next perfection of love is accepting the other person as they are. God has accepted us as we are. He did not ask for our faults and accepted our reality as it is.
Then wholeness means forgiveness. God has forgiven us.
Finally, there is healing in wholeness. God heals us. So you make it perfect.
After all, in the perfection of love, all can become one. The reason we don't accept each other is because we're not the same. The very fact that we are different is proof that we are not reaching perfection. So we can't forgive and accept each other. But in love all these are overcome.
In our daily life, the integrity of this love should be shown in the following ways in our relationship with each other.
Rather than forcing them to listen and listen to us, we should try to listen seriously to what others have to say. Listening to others is an act of love.
Let's make sure that our time is reserved for those who need our help. There are people around us who need our help. What we dedicate our time to for them is a concrete act of loving them.
Love is not abstract, it is very concrete. In that sense, love is doing something good for another. Writing a letter of consolation to a lonely person or making a consolation call is an act of love.
Love is giving without expecting anything in return. We spend most of our time and wealth in our interests. But love goes beyond those interests to show mercy and compassion.
Love is praying for others. Prayer is not outwardly manifested, but it is very noble to pray while thinking of him who needs help outside of his interests. It is necessary to think about what kind of relationship we have with those who are always remembered and included in our prayers.
We are all first loved by God. Because they are loved ones, we must love each other.
"Dear friends, let's love each other.
Love comes from God.
All those who love are born of God and know God.
Those who do not love do not know God.
Because God is love.
God's love has been revealed to us in this way, that is, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live by him.
Here is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to be a sin offering to atone for our sins. Beloved, since God has loved us so much, we must love one another.
No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, then God is among us, and God's love is perfected in us." (Standard New Translation)
- Amen -