Tuesday, October 16, 2012

1 John 5

We are in Kampala for a team day and time with the Nexus team before departure

The key to the entire letter is verse 11: “And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” Eternal life is not best described as living forever. Living forever may or may not be a good thing. The Eternal life that Jesus promised (whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life) is a life lived in relationship with Jesus. I am often astounded by people who say “I want to go to heaven but don’t want to deal with all that ‘religious’ stuff.” Eternal life, life in eternity – life in the Kingdom of the Heavens – is a life lived in complete fulfillment of the purpose of our creation – that is we will live forever in a love relationship with our creator. That is eternal life.

C.S. Lewis once wrote that heaven has no rewards for a mercenary soul. If we are only choosing to follow Jesus for what we might be able to get out of it (peace of mind, eternal rewards, etc.), we will never know the joy and peace of life as a Christ follower. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols (5:21).”

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