John's writings have common threads whether we speak about his epistles or his gospel. Certainly, one of those is love - the love of God for the world, and the expected reciprocal love of God by people. Perhaps the most famous of his statements is that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son for the world to save it. But there is another thread common among his writings but it is not overly explicit. That is a corrective narrative against what appears to be the beginnings of what would become what we call Gnosticism. Specifically, a dualistic view of Creation. This view, arising from Greek influences argued that the physical world was corrupt and imperfect; destined for destruction. On the other hand, this view held that the spiritual life, or that of the mind was that which was to be perfected and leave the coarse physical reality behind. This view infiltrated the church such that some would teach that what we did in or with our bodies was of no consequence. Our bodi...
Ramblings and observations