2 John 3 --- Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
Today the Lord and I journeyed again into 2 John and found the final verse of the opening to be full of beauty and treasure. There have only been three verses so far in this book and they have been amazing!
My Lord of the Rings nerdiness kicking in, gives me the image of leaving the Shire and walking through its lush green landscape, with the warm sun giving a golden highlight to all the eyes can see. A gentle breeze comes from behind cooling and nudging us further down the path of the Word.
So, the treasure found in verse three today is Grace, Mercy, Peace, Truth, Love, and all of it from God the Father and from Jesus Christ His Son. To me that is a treasure beyond imagination to find right at the beginning of an adventure. What is behind these treasures that John is speaking over everyone?
Grace - In the Greek, the word used is charis and means: good will, loving-kindness; favour of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.
Mercy - In the Greek, the word used is eleos and means: mercy, kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them; of God towards men: in general providence; the mercy and clemency of God in providing and offering to men salvation by Christ
Peace - In the Greek, the word used is eirēnē and means: peace, quietness, rest; of Christianity, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is.
Now you may think this was the loving and beautiful part of the treasure found today, but it's not. The real beauty comes in the fact that God loves us so much that he doesn't just throw out these deep, powerful, promises, then leave them here for us to try and humanly grasp and somehow fit them into our lives or activate them and experience them. NOPE.
He immediately connects it to the source of these things, "from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son" and it goes a step further to show us clearly how they give us these three precious and powerful things… IN TRUTH AND LOVE.
Apart from the Truth and Love of God, we can never have the grace, mercy, and peace we find here. The image I just clearly had was of the 1963 Disney movie, 'The Sword in the Stone'. About a sword that was embedded in stone and anyone who could pull it out, would become the ruler of the land. Many desperately tried but none had the strength and all failed. Until Arthur comes along and draws out the sword as if it were stuck in nothing at all.
You see, grace, mercy and peace can be read about, walked around, looked at, talked about, dreamed about, desperately grasped at, painfully wished for, but apart from abiding in Jesus, abiding in Love, which God is Love, apart from God's TRUTH and LOVE, these things will not budge at our own strength. It's only in and through Him that we can have these things as simply as taking a breath.
If you are frustrated because you read and hear everything about God's promises and things such as grace, mercy, peace, but you are not feeling those, or seeing them active in your life, then I vehemently urge you to go to the power source! To the One who brings these things to life and is also the very one who gives them to you.
Run to Jesus.
Pray and talk with Him. Make reading His word a priority. Not 2 min devotionals only, get into His Word. Read it in context. Let Him teach and guide you. Get to know Him. Jesus said His sheep know His voice… how can you know His voice if you are not reading/listening to where He speaks, in your bible? Prayer, Bible, and actively connecting to His Body, the church (not just a building, but brothers and sisters in Christ).
That's it for today. Please be the Berean, get into your Bible, read these things for yourself, ask God to show you what He has for you there. I'm just a man writing down what He shows me in my daily journey with Him in life and in His Word.
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