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On Wednesday, April 24, 2024, we explored 1 John 4:7-21, the epistle pericope appointed for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B. Our handout included commentaries on the other appointed texts from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 8:26-40), the Psalms (Psalm 22:25-31), and the Gospel according to John (John 15:1-8).
From a commentary on 1 John 4:7-21
Tucked away in verse 7 is an even more sobering claim. We know God by seeing what God has done, but seeing is not enough. We know God in the fullest and most authentic sense only when the love of God flows through us. God is love; only the one who loves can know this love that is God. Love is not a concept, known abstractly. It is an action, lived concretely. It is not enough to remember Jesus’ self-sacrifice, to think about it, or even to be moved by it. We must live it. To know the God of love is to live the love of God.
Ronald Cole-Turner, “Theological Perspective on 1 John 4:7–21,” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year B, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, vol. 2 (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 468.
Most Wednesday mornings a group of us gather online to explore the readings that will be used in worship the following Sunday. Our handout features readings, commentaries, and notes for the Fifth Sunday of Easter (April 28, 2024) in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary. Please: View or download the handout we used to guide our discussion and tune our hearts to the Spirit.
View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, April 28, 2024, on the Revised Common Lectionary site curated by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.
Ronald Cole-Turner is the H. Parker Sharp Chair of Theology and Ethics, at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. More.
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