1 John 5:9-13

Easter 7 – Year B

1 John 5:9-13

Let's see, I am supposed to believe the human testimony of the writer of 1 John, but even more I am to believe the testimony of my experience of Jesus. This puts me in a particular bind - if 1 John corresponds to my experience, does that give it or me greater credence all along the way? This evidence is circular.

Might we say with 1 John that eternal life is in Jesus or say with our experience of Jesus that such life is in G*D. Is G*D stepping back, forcing Jesus to be the bearer and gatekeeper of eternal life? How do we reconcile the witness of scripture as commonly received with the gift of our own spirit base?

In some sense 1 John is propaganda (yes, these writing are as well) to which I sometimes respond, "Speak for yourself. As for me and my house, we arrive at a sense of life larger than life with the gift of creation and re-creation, not propositions about a "Son of God". Statements about a source of eternal life is one thing and showing one lives from that perspective is quite another.