Wednesday March 2, 2022

Communion and joy

"What we. have seen and heard, we announce it to you too so that you too may be in communion with us. Now it is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ that we have communion, and we write this to you so that our joy may be complete.” 1 John 1. 3-4

What did the apostle John want to announce to his readers ? That the source of our joy must be our communion with the Father, Jesus and other believers. The circumstances in which we evolve have no influence on our joy if it is anchored in our relationship with God. Reimar Schultze knew what he was talking about, he who had survived the horror of Nazi Germany. Listen to what he writes : “The gospel announced by the apostle is summed up in these two statements : 'that you also may have fellowship with us' and 'that our joy may be complete...' Now consider the circumstances in which he lived at the time he wrote these lines :

1- All the other apostles died a violent death.

2- The Romans had destroyed the temple of Jerusalem and killed many of its inhabitants. Flavius ​​Joseph, an eyewitness, writes : “The number of people who perished... far exceeded any destruction that men or God had inflicted on the world before.”

3- Jews and Christians who managed to flee became refugees, most having lost wives, children, relatives or friends under the sword of the Romans. Life expectancy then did not exceed 45 years and a quarter of the population of Rome were slaves.

4- John himself had just been incarcerated on the prison island of Patmos, ready to die overnight. However, at the heart of this misery, God speaks to John, then aged, to entrust him with the writing of these letters and especially of the Apocalypse. In doing so, God wanted to show the world the incredible power of Christianity and its victory over all obstacles to come, through the life of a disciple of Christ. Thus he became the last messenger to whom God entrusted the mission of finishing the writing of His Word... His writings concerning our daily walk with God put an end to the divine revelation contained in His Word : if we benefit from the communion of the apostles with the Father and Jesus, our joy will be perfect, whatever the circumstances. As the psalmist writes : "There is abundant joy in your presence, eternal happiness at your right hand" (Psalm 16:11).

Source (His Word for Today)