1 I’ll praise your love and justice, LORD;
I’ll praise you cheerfully.
2 I’ll strive to lead a blameless life—
when will you come to me?

Within my home the life I lead
will show a blameless heart.
3 My eyes will view no worthless thing;
from sin I will depart.

I hate what faithless people do;
it shall not cling to me.
4 All wicked people I’ll avoid;
from evil I’ll stay free.

5 I’ll put to silence everyone
who slanders secretly;
I will not tolerate the proud
who act so haughtily.

6 My eyes are on the faithful ones,
that they may dwell with me;
Whoever lives a blameless life
will serve me constantly.

7 No one who practises deceit
will dwell within my home;
Nor will the one whose words are false
before me ever come.

8 Each morning I will silence all
who wicked deeds have done;
I’ll cleanse the city of the LORD
of every evil one.

The editors of Sing Psalms suggest the tune York for this Psalm which you can hear here, or the tune Moravia (here) or the tune St James (here).

There are many jokes, proverbs, stereotyping sayings – whatever you wish to call them – that play on where people come from. As I was growing up in Derbyshire, I used to hear that people said of us, “Derbyshire born and Derbyshire bred, strong in t‘arm and thick in t’head”. I guess we’ve all heard grim jokes about Irish people, and similar jokes are told in other countries but different peoples – the Greeks tell them about the Bulgarians, for example.

In John’s Gospel, knowing where Jesus comes from (“above”, “the Father”) is particularly important in understanding his person and his work. In this verse from the first epistle of John, we have a similar sort of theology in action. We are to be children of God, and how we behave and who we are is going to help others identity where we’re from. We are born of the righteous Christ if we show his righteousness.

There’s a question that gets asked of folk sometimes today when another seeks to understand them: ‘where are you coming from?’ What are the origins or your ideas? What is your belief system rooted in? Why do you do the things you do? And one of the most powerful, and actually one of the least scary, ways of talking about our faith today is when someone asks us for our motivation for doing something. Why do you work in a food bank? Why do you run this toddler group? These questions give us an opening to talk … and I would say, isn’t that what John is encouraging from us here? Act in such a way that people recognise you are rooted in Christ and that that is where you’re coming from.

My first recollections of the Antichrist were from the 1970s horror film “The Omen”. I was a kid then, and such talk gave me nightmares for days. Are such threats real?

Firstly, lets nail down what a Christian might be. We can use many definitions, but theologian N.T. Wright’s characterisation of loyalty to Christ is compelling. Jews, including those in the first Century,  are defined by their loyalty to the One God. This continued in the embryonic Jesus movement through their loyalty to the One God through the Messiah.

An anti-Christ – either a movement or an individual – can be defined by their opposition to the reign and status of Christ. I would hypothesise that they would be loyal to their cause too. We should be mindful of such opposition, be it veiled or in the open, and the threat that they may present to the modern day Jesus movement.

But the tone of today’s reading is not one of hopelessness or dispair. It is a reminder that such threats, real as they may be, do not have the final say. We are reminded and encouraged to continue abiding in God’s love through our relationship with his Son, Jesus. The ultimate gift to us is eternal life – a quality of life, empowered by the Spirit, and extending out into the next life. Any earthly threats that we face, no matter how large, cannot annihilate Christ’s love for us.

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world …”
Hang on! Hang on!

I thought we were meant to love this world in which we live, from God’s beautiful creation to all the messiness which we humans have managed to generate. What about ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son (John 3:16).

Let’s just take a deep breath and start again. Here we have words which, taken out of context, seem to be saying something contrary to the messages we find in other places. We can be confident from what we can read in so many places in our bibles that God loves the world and all that that involves. We can also be confident in saying that, through his Son, he calls us to love and care for the whole of creation.

If we take the trouble to read the previous and the following verses, we find the context and we find some indication of some of the things which God really does want us not to love. We also find a call to do the will of God and so live for ever.

Sadly, we often find it so much easier to make a judgment based on the first words which present themselves – particularly if they are words with which we agree. I think there is a lesson here for us all. It is about taking time to listen and understand, the nuances and the backstory whether that is as we read the Bible, as we listen to the media or engage in conversation with friends. That way bridges are built and the world will become a more loveable place.

If you are an insomniac like me you might have seen the “infomercials” that run on certain channels late at night. Watch long enough and you will find yourself wondering how you ever managed to navigate life without a solar-powered-salad-spinner. The infomercials’ sales pitch works hard to convince you that their product is for everyone, absolutely everyone, especially you.

The writer of 1 John lets us know that Scripture is for everyone: young children, teenagers, grown-ups and those that refuse to grow up. That this is written for little children, young people and mature people. If Scripture is for everyone, then of course the Church also needs to be for everyone.

This passage goes further than inclusivity and affirms all those people; for their wisdom or faith or understanding or strength. Do we recognise what people of all ages bring to our faith families? The equally valuable contributions made by little children, young people and mature disciples?

Infomercials usually finish with a deal, an offer that goes further to make the product extra enticing. Order today and not only will you receive one patented onion carving kit, but two, and the first 100 callers will also receive a free set of hand crafted soup skewers.

We too need to go further than just recognising the gifts of everyone in our faith families, we must affirm these gifts too. We must remind those who can no longer take an active role in volunteering how valuable their prayer is to our mission. We must affirm those that do all the little jobs, without which the big plans never happen. We must show the children that they are not the future of the church but a full and vital part of it today.

Sometimes we all doubt if we are doing enough. We doubt if we are good enough disciples, dedicated enough. John’s words affirm everyone, let us hear the words of the passage and be affirmed ourselves.