In looking at the chapters for today, we see another couple of chapters that align with the discussion from yesterday, where we see John reflecting on an episode with Jesus and the lessons weened from them.  But then we see the letter shift a bit...John moves into a phase where you can see that he and the disciples, and all of the Jesus followers for that matter, start to wrestle with their faith; that is, things start to get harder, they have to act in a manner that feels like they are risking something, and their faith begins to be tested.  It is the journey that every believer eventually has to take - it is the time when it isn’t convenient to be a Christian.  What do they do when challenged?  Well, they do what we do...they try to find a loophole, a way out of doing what they know they should do, but that they don’t WANT to do.  Then we see a couple of wonderful examples of how we can respond when our faith is tested like this, in chapter 6 with a comment by Peter and in chapter 7 with a comment by Nicodemus - these will be fun to discuss.

And we know that no New Testament letter would be complete without some tension with the religious leaders of the day, so we see that in the reading today as well, starting in chapter 8.

For me, in reading through these 5 chapter today, I am reminded that each of us has a unique journey as it relates to our faith, but we all will encounter some of the same challenges; in fact, the disciples themselves encountered them.  And no one seems to always get it right...it is one disciple here, another one there.  And it reminds me of the power of community, that when we surround ourselves with others that are on the same journey, someone is likely going to have their head on straight at any given point in time, and that’s of huge value to me.  The group is stronger than the one.  It is a great reminder this morning.