Love, love, love
Someone mentioned gnosticism at church today in the context of studying 1 John 4. This got me thinking about the backdrop of the commands to "love one another" dispersed so liberally throughout I John.
I John was written at least partially to combat an early form of gnosticism. Gnosticism, among many other things, maintained that the way to true "spiritual enlightenment" was through knowledge (Greek: gnosis). By contemplating mysteries and stripping oneself of all earthly and fleshly distractions, one could obtain true understanding of and communion with the Deity.
John directly attacks that belief. True knowledge of God is to be found, not in abstract navel-gazing or esoteric contemplation, but in 'loving one another.' Loving one another, in contrast to the sublime meditation gnosticism promised, is earthly, dirty, and grimy; it requires being involved with and caring for people who smell bad, look ugly, and treat each other poorly. Gnosticism taught individual, inward contemplation of the divine; John taught that knowledge of God is to be found in the difficult and taxing struggles of living in community.
This also seems to be the point of verse 9 - "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world." Whereas gnosticism was preoccupied with reaching toward the divine, John taught that God reached down to the earthly, smelly rhythms of every-day life to be 'en-fleshed' and dwell among us.
Just my thoughts for today.
February 15, 2004 12:27 PM