Easter 5: Epistle, 1 John 4:1-11                                               

1 John 4:1-11

Everyone gets frustrated some time. It doesn’t matter whether the angst comes from parenting, bad technology (think TV rabbit ears), a restaurant that doesn’t measure up or dare I say, vocation. Not vacation. VOCATION! Yes, work can cause frustration. But I find it humorous that so many people I have run into over the years think that those of us in full-time church work get to dodge what those with “real jobs” encounter. RED FLAG! There’s a great frustration. Some folks out there don’t think church work is a real job. “Do you work on other days than Sunday?”

Oooo. I could give them such a pinch.

Really that’s not too serious although I have heard that question more than once. But the real frustration for someone who loves Jesus and spends his days in study, teaching and leading others to know the Savior, is why don’t people just line up to say “yes” to our Lord? There is nothing to compare with walking in fellowship with Him. Nothing. Sins forgiven. Power to live a repenting and trusting life. A new and growing family (though slower than I’d like to see) and the sure hope that I will spend eternity with the One who loves me most. And that’s not my dear wife or my mom. It’s Jesus. And in our reading today John (another friend of Jesus) lays out the fact that there is a spirit at work in our world that keeps people from saying yes to Jesus. It’s a spirit that carries a name that makes us squirm: “antichrist.” It’s that spirit that does not confess that Jesus is from God. And there is so much of that in our world. He fills and dominates the hearts and minds of many. “Jesus is not from God.”

I was raised in a house where winning was important. Not all-important. But up there. So when anyone says “no” to Jesus or even isn’t on my approved timeline, I get frustrated. Here’s the deal. John is telling me and us, that there will always be people who cannot see Jesus as He is. It is painful. Painful. But that’s just how things are. John encourages,”We are from God, whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us” (1 John 4:6a). And that’s not just pointing to people already in the family. No, God is speaking to people still outside His family all the time. That is, outside from our limited perspective. But He knows some are coming home. Yes, some will. So I can work on, live on pointing people to Jesus. Frustration be gone.