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I was talking with a friend earlier this evening and he said, in essence, that he didn’t want to study scripture, and dissect the word and debate what this or that verse might mean.  He wanted his faith to be simple – just belief.  He didn’t want to be worried with the logic or theology of scripture – he just wanted to worship God and believe.  Here’s today’s lesson scripture:

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,
4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.
5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?  1 John 5:1-5 (NRSV)

But now here’s the thing – my friend also believes strongly that faith and belief are part of a process and, as we continued to talk, he explained that for faith to grow it must grow in community and love of one another.  Isn’t this what today’s lesson scripture says?

There are always going to be those who doubt and question and analyze and come to God past all these hurdles.  There are also going to be those who come to God with simple faith.  Both roads, however, not only have the same destination - they involve travel; they involve growth if you will.  They are . . . roads.  We are tempted in this day and age to focus so much on the destination that we forget about the way we must travel to arrive at that destination.  The one who comes to God despite doubt and the one who comes in simple unquestioning faith must both travel their separate roads to ultimate victory and those roads involve loving God and obeying his commandments:  not as a requirement for love, but as a result of that love.