1 John 5

 TEXT TO REFLECT ON

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

1 JOHN 5:4-5

REFLECT

Lately I have been scouring the news daily for signs that the wars in Rusia and Ukraine, and Israel and Hamas/Hezbollah would end. But more than that, that the evil oppressors will be vanquished and the victims vindicated. Sadly and very disappointingly, the oppressors seem to be winning all the time. I don’t get to read much good news these days.

Blame it on my naivete, but deep down within me is a yearning that the righteous will be vindicated and that evil will be overcome. Since the days of my youth, I had resonated with the words of the Christmas Song written by David Foster and made famous by Amy Grant, My Grown Up Christmas List, part of which goes thus:

So here's my lifelong wish

My grown-up Christmas list

Not for myself

But for a world in need

No more lives torn apart

And wars would never start

And time would heal all hearts

Every man would have a friend

That right would always win

And love would never end

This is my grown-up Christmas list

Truth be told, the older I get, the more I sense that this innate yearning of mine for good to overcome evil is merely a childish dream. The older I get, the more cynical I become. I lose hope that the evils of this world will ever be vanquished. I become more and more resigned to the dictum that might is right. The harsh reality of life seems to be that the one with the larger arsenal of weapons (more guns, more money, greater access to the courts or social media) will always prevail, regardless of how wrong they may be. 

The Christian however, has a different vision of reality. Amidst the morass of wickedness and cruelty, the Christian sees that the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world. In his day, the Apostle John saw Christians pursued and persecuted, made homeless, mercilessly killed, bullied by their enemies. And in that context of the seeming domination of the bullies over the powerless, John saw that the Christian, the ones who seemed to have been trodden underfoot, were the victorious ones.

How do we make sense of this paradox – that the last will be first, the weak will be strong, and the least shall be the greatest? We can only begin to grasp this paradox when we believe the other paradox – that the creator made himself to be the weakest of His creatures, that the Righteous One was made sin and condemned as the worst of sinners, that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords became a servant to the least of those He had created. And it begins to dawn on us that Power does not exist in the subjugation of another, but in one’s love for the other. God is Powerful, not because He is able to wipe out nations, or to physically destroy His enemies (though He is capable of doing so). God is Powerful because despite His enemies deserving to be wiped out, He sacrificed Himself for them and gave His life in exchange for theirs. And therein lies true Power. God did not allow hatred and despair to dictate His actions. Instead He overcame hatred and despair by steadfastly loving those He had created. 

RELATE

But these lofty concepts of love overcoming hatred, and good prevailing over evil, are not merely to be gawked at from a distance. They need to be lived out. It is in the daily grind of annoyances and injustices that we learn to love those we could not love, and discover that in loving, we overcome the tyranny of the evil one.

REST

I'm forgiven because you were forsaken

I'm accepted, You were condemned

I am alive and well, Your spirit is within me

Because You died and rose again

Amazing love

How can it be?

That You, my King would die for me?

Amazing love

I know it's true

It's my joy to honour You,

In all I do, I honour You.

Amazing Love by Seven Places

Chiu Ming Li