Praise the Lord! Greetings to you all in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Before we go any further with this week’s SftW meditation, let me wish all our readers, ministry-partners, and well-wishers of ScriptureSource Ministries a Blessed and Happy New Year 2025! The Lord has been good to us during each and every day of the past year 2024. Now, we are here in the very first week of the year 2025, and about fifty-one weeks are in store for us in 2025. The days and weeks and months and years are moving past us so quickly because time (seconds and minutes and hours) neither stops for itself anytime nor for anyone ever, which indicates that our given-time on earth will quickly pass away. Many of the Old Testament saints had questions regarding the duration of their life on earth and they wanted to know about it and pleaded with God to reveal it to them. They all realized that their days on earth are already determined by God even before they were born: for instance; Job said: A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed (Job 14:5); Moses said: Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12); King David had questions regarding how long he is going to live on earth and he pleaded with the Lord, saying: Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure (Psalm 39:4-5); and all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16b). So, the given-time that we have in our possession ought to be used very wisely and productively as only the Lord’s plan and purpose will stand unaltered forever, as it is mentioned: The LORD of Hosts has sworn: “Surely, as I have planned, so will it be; as I have purposed, so will it stand (Isaiah 14:24); again, the Lord God said: I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please (Isaiah 46:10), and, again, the Lord continued saying: I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass (Isaiah 48:3). Apostle Paul urged the believers in Ephesus saying Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:15-16). In the light of all that we have discussed above based on the Scripture, in this new year (2025), let us try our best to use our days and weeks wisely (i) to correct all our short-comings (if any) and return to Him wholeheartedly, (ii) to make everything right with our Lord God and everyone else around us, (iii) to edify/improve our spiritual life, (iv) to get better in our walk with Jesus on a day-to-day basis, (v) to fulfill God’s purpose in our life, and (vi) to try our best to complete the ministry that is entrusted in our care. May the Lord God Almighty enable each and every one of us to live a meaningful and productive life in the year 2025 and the years ahead!

The Lord has blessed us with an all-important Scripture passage to read, study, and meditate upon during the very first full week of the year 2025. The Scripture passage is taken from the Epistle of Second John, that is 2 John 1:6. The main focus of the passage is love, especially the love of God, which, in fact, is the sole interlinking theme of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Apostle John, one of the Twelve disciples whom Jesus chose to be one of His apostles, and who wrote the Second Epistle of John is well-acquainted with Jesus Christ, the Lord God who incarnated as a human being, and experienced the full extent of God’s love through his fellowship with Jesus Christ.  John said I and the Father are one (John 10:30; also refer to John 1:1-3; 14:9-11; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:3). Jesus commanded His disciples saying Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34-35). Apostle John who experienced the fullness of his savior’s love asserts that God is love and, therefore, we, the faithful followers of Jesus Christ, ought to love one another since love derives itself and comes from God:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us (1 John 4:7-12)

Apostle John talks a lot about love, particularly about God’s love, in his writings (John 3:16; 15:12-13; 1 John 3:16; 4:7-12). God’s (Christ’s) love for us is selfless, sacrificial, self-denying, unconditional, boundless, and infinite love. John himself experienced the love of God in his life through God’s call in his life to be one of Jesus’ twelve disciples/apostles (John 6:44, 65; 1 Corinthians 1:9; Ephesians 1:4) and being with Jesus who laid down His life for his sake and ours (John 10:11; 15:13; 1 John 3:16; 4:9-11). The Scripture describes John as the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 13:23; 21:7, 20). These could be some of the reasons that he is widely known among the followers of Jesus Christ as the apostle of love. Apostle John asserts to us from his own experience that we need to love one another as God/Christ loved us for God is love. The truth regarding love is that love comes/begins from God (1 John 4:7) and finds its culmination in God Himself. In fact, we all will be able to experience God’s love in our life through our bond with His Son Jesus Christ and our fellowship with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 16-19). Christ’s sacrificial and atoning death on the cross reveals the reality that God is full of love (Romans 5:8).

There is no doubt that Christian faith is rooted in the love of God. The reward for our love for God and our goodwill to the rest of humanity will be automatically credited to our spiritual account when we walk in obedience to His commands (2 John 1:6a; also refer to Psalm 5:3; 141:2; Malachi 1:11; Revelation 5:8; 8:3-4). As Christ’s followers, we are called to obey the righteous laws and commands of our Lord God that are explicitly recorded in the Scripture, as it is mentioned in the Scripture: And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good (Deuteronomy 10:12-13; also refer to: Deuteronomy 30:16; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). During the Old Testament times, the people were asked to obey God’s righteous laws and commands and set their lifestyle accordingly, but in the New Testament we are asked to obey the teachings of Jesus Christ in addition to obeying God’s righteous laws and commands that are recorded in the Scripture. This means, we, as God’s dearly loved children, ought to live our life exactly according to what is already written in the Holy Scriptures, which includes the righteous laws and commands that were given to the people of God during the Old Testament times as well as the teachings and commands of Jesus Christ during the New Testament times. This will help us understand the love of God for us in its fullest measure and the boundless love of Christ that is displayed on the cross of Calvary. Apostle Paul stated:

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19)

Apostle John states that the love of God we talk about is not a new thing but it is displayed right from the beginning of human history (2 John 1:6): it reflected in the creation of man in His own likeness and image (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7; Psalm 8:4-8; Job 33:4; Isaiah 45:12); it was extended in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commands and sinned against Him that He came down to them and offered them a second chance to repent and return to Him and save themselves from perishing (Genesis 3:1-24).  And finally, in the fullness of time, God sent His One and only Son Jesus Christ (Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 1:1-4), the anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ, to this world as the Savior of mankind to redeem sinners from eternal condemnation and offer them a second chance to inherit eternal life (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7; Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:35; John 3:16; Galatians 4:4-7). Apostle Paul also notes the fact that the Lord God revealed His eternal power and His divine nature and the truth about the gospel of salvation to humanity through His word and deed: For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse (Romans 1:20).

For the faithful followers of Jesus Christ, obeying His commands and teachings are not an option but it is mandatory. Jesus said to His disciples (and to us, now): If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15). Apostle John urges his readers to love Christ – to love Christ means  to obey His commands or, in other words, to obey His commands means to love Him (2 John 1:6). In fact, love and obedience are interconnected and go hand-in-hand. Our obedience to Christ’s commands must be derived from our genuine love for Him, which means, if we love Him we will obey His commands in its entirety. About three thousand years ago, prophet Samuel insisted the Israelites that obedience is better than sacrifice: Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams (1 Samuel 15:22; also refer to Deuteronomy 10:12-13).

Apostle John urges the followers of Christ to love Him wholeheartedly and obey His commands in its entirety because many deceivers are gone out into the world to deceive people, even those who follow Christ faithfully, as he mentioned in his Epistle:

I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work (2 John 1:7-11)

In fact, Jesus Christ Himself warned His disciples during His earthly ministry that false messiahs and prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive people, including God’s chosen people, as Apostle Matthew mentioned; Jesus answered: Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many (Matthew 24:4-5). Jesus continued saying: For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect (Matthew 24:24). Apostle Paul also agrees that there will arise many false teachers and preachers to deceive the followers of Christ. Paul stated that although these so-called false messiahs and prophets and teachers and preachers and deceivers knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him. Apostle Paul very clearly noted about it while he was writing to the believers in Rome:

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles … 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen! … 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them (Romans 1:21-32)

And, Paul continued saying in his Epistle to the Ephesians that the followers of Jesus must not live the way the ungodly people live:

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed (Ephesians 4:17-19).

Instead, Paul asserts, the followers of Jesus Christ ought to live a life worthy of their calling and the way they learned when they heard about Christ and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus:

That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:20-24)

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, we can notice that even in our days many false messiahs and prophets and deceivers are rising up day-after-day to oppose Christ and deceive His elect in addition to the existing enemies of the gospel. Therefore, we need to be very careful and watchful at all times so that we, the chosen people, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the special possession of God (1 Peter 2:9), will not be misled or misguided by such people. Remember that Jesus and His apostles already warned us (Matthew 7:15-16; 24:4-5, 24; Acts 20:28-30; 2 Peter 3:17; 1 John 4:1). We worship and serve a God who examines our hearts and minds to see whether we are righteous before him or not. God spoke the same through prophet Jeremiah: I, the LORD, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve (Jeremiah 17:10; also refer to Psalm 26:2; Provers 21:2; Lamentations 3:40; Romans 8:27; 2 Corinthians 13:5). Therefore, let us examine ourselves and see if we have failed our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in any way, just like king David prayed to the God of Israel: Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24). If we have failed our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in any way, let us ask for His forgiveness in our lives, and let us repent and return to Him with a sincere heart and make our Father in heaven and the heavenly hosts happy (Ezekiel 18:23; 33:11; Matthew 18:14; Luke 15:7). May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!