FIRST RESPONDERS

1 John 4:7-19

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John%204%3A7-19&version=NIV;NLT

 

 

In high school, there was this kid named Blake who was a bully; a bad kid. On the other hand, I tried to get along with everyone; a good kid. The good and the bad were about to get ugly.

 

One day after school, Blake and I ended up on the athletic fields behind the school. I wouldn’t fight anyone because I was a chicken, but Blake bullied me into it. By the time I had pinned him to the ground, another student came along and said he’d take over. Blake didn’t have many friends, and I was happy to be done.

 

I don’t remember disliking Blake. For the most part, he was off my radar until this incident. One thing for sure though, I avoided him from that point forward.

 

John wrote his letter to address false teachers of the day. They didn’t believe that Jesus was the incarnate son of God. Instead, they believed that the body was evil, so in their minds, God couldn’t come in human form. As a result, some would treat their bodies harshly while others lived licentiously without moral constraint.

 

⁹ 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. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God,

but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us… ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us.            NIV

 

God loved us while we were still a sinner; His enemy really. Blake comes to mind. Maybe if instead of avoiding him I had tried to befriend him, we both would have changed. Or maybe I just would have got my butt kicked.

 

The question for us is, how do we treat those that God has brought into our lives? Do we love them because He loved us? Or do we avoid them because they are annoying? Or mistreat them because they offended us in some way? Or do we manipulate them because we want something?

 

Take some time to think about your relationships and how you treat others: your family, friends, co-workers and even strangers. Are you loving others because He first loved you? Are you one of God’s first responders to share His love?

 

 

The Good Shepherd

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” -John 10:14-18

We have all heard of Jesus referred to as a shepherd. In today’s passage Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd.  This drew my attention and I asked myself what would make a “good” shepherd? 

Reading the scripture, I noticed how four times he says “he will lay down his life for the sheep.”  This was not a foreign idea.  It would have been normal for the shepherd to bring the flock home to the fold at night.  He would then lay down in the gate physically to protect the sheep from wolves coming into the sheepfold.  He literally put his life on the line for the sheep.

Think of this though, the shepherd would lay down, as the gate, in case something dangerous threatened his flock.  Jesus knew why he came to earth.  His job wasn’t to be ready to die for us if danger came.  His entire calling was to die a sinner’s death, a death he did not deserve, because Satan had already attacked.

Jesus never swayed from his calling. His love for us is so deep that he willingly sacrificed himself.  He didn’t live his life thinking, “I’m ready to die, if that’s what’s needed.”  He lived his life knowing how it would end.  That is definitely what I would call a Good Shepherd.