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1 John 1:1-3 – Making “Sense” of the Gospel
In sixth grade, my daughter Rachel came home with science class work. They had to decide which sense, if they had to lose one, they would least likely miss.
Which would you choose? I chose smelling. Every sense is special, after all, they are gifts from God given to enjoy this world. However, for me, I have a damaged olfactory due to allergies, so I already am barely able to smell.
But our senses are not given solely for enjoyment. They meet a spiritual need.
Have you ever noticed how our senses are tied into the gospel, both in obeying and proving it? John used three senses: sight, hearing, and touch, as evidence that Jesus was real (1 Jn.1:1-3). Thomas used sight and touch (Jn.20:24-27) to remove his “doubting.” Jesus blessed those who are not able to see, “and yet believe.” (Jn.20:29)
We do not use the sense of sight to believe, Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. (Rom.10:17)
Spiritually, we even “taste” the heavenly gift (Heb.6:4) and the good word of God and the powers of the age to come” (Heb.6:5)
Faith has even been described as “seeing the unseen.” We are told to “look with the spiritual eye.”
And yet, if we try to walk by sight, we will fail. We are to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor.5:17). Why? Because we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Cor.4:18)
Did any of this make “sense?”
Perry D. Hall
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