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00:00Music
00:00Brothers, hello, welcome back to this class on the writings of Saint John.
00:28In the last class we had seen the topic of divine affiliation, as John explains it to us in his first letter, and then we briefly, but with great consistency, saw the second and third letters of this same author, or at least the letters that in the Catholic tradition are attributed to Saint John.
00:52These letters are certainly brief, but they are of great importance in revealing certain themes that are fundamental to all of Johannine theology.
01:02Now I would like to suggest that we return to the first letter of Saint John, but a very particular theme which is the end, the final part, like the final door of this letter, which is actually quite rich.
01:20Brothers, do you remember the last thriller or drama movie you saw at the cinema or at home?
01:29Have you seen those mysterious movies whose ending leaves us in suspense?
01:35Those movies where we would think there is no ending, or that it will lead to a later sequel, but we don't quite realize it.
01:45Note that Juan's first letter seems to go through a very similar suspense at the end.
01:55Chapter 5 ends in verse 21 saying, My children, keep yourselves from idols.
02:03Now, make sure that the first letter of Saint John doesn't leave us with a negative suspense like some mystery or drama movies.
02:13But it does catch our attention that it appears here in this place in the last verse.
02:20What is he doing here? What is this recommendation from Saint John having to do with this?
02:25It would seem that the author is going to start another topic, but he doesn't.
02:29Or it seems that he didn't finish writing his text, that it was interrupted.
02:35We could even say, he ran out of paper or ink and therefore couldn't finish his idea.
02:40In fact, some Bibles, such as the Jerusalem Bible, subsequently add ellipses,
02:48implying that an idea is coming, but that it has not been finalized and will require further explanation.
02:57In this regard, we will see that this verse 21 of chapter 5 is more important than we might think.
03:06For this session I will be using the Jerusalem Bible translation.
03:11Okay, let's see how John ends this letter in this chapter 5.
03:17And let's see the place this verse has, how it comes to conclude this entire letter with a golden touch.
03:25John's letter, the first letter, ends with a very dense, but also very well constructed text.
03:35In this ending of the letter, the main articulation is made by a triple repetition of the Greek verb,
03:43oídamen, which translates as we know.
03:47This appears in chapter 5, in verses 18, 19 and 20.
03:53I'm going to read next.
03:55Verse 18, says John.
03:58We know that everyone born of God does not sin, but the one born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot touch him.
04:09Verse 19.
04:11We know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
04:17Brothers, this construction that I tell you about, this we know, we must understand the believer born of God.
04:45But how is it narrated?
04:48It is narrated within us.
04:51We know.
04:53Now, John writes these verses by contrasting two ideas.
04:59What can we say, they are opposites.
05:01One idea that is necessarily opposed to the other idea.
05:05Let's take a look.
05:06In verse 18, it says.
05:08The one born of God who does not sin is contrary to the idea of the evil one who cannot touch him.
05:17In verse 19, places are mentioned.
05:22The world lies under the power of the evil one, while believers are children of God.
05:31Here we can understand it as a kind of place belonging to two different communities.
05:36The community of disciples, which is not strictly in a geographical location, but which are of God.
05:45Whereas the community that is contrary to the community of disciples is the community of the world.
05:52Before moving on to the next verse, verse 20, it is important to point out that these two verses, 18 and 19,
06:01They are speaking brilliantly about the mystery of the children of God.
06:06A small aside.
06:08We already know that.
06:09A major teaching of the letter of St. John is the theme of divine affiliation.
06:14How is it that we are children of God in the only Son, Jesus Christ?
06:19Verse 18 speaks to us in the present tense of the action of the one begotten of God, who guards the one born of God.
06:30And this, the begotten of God, is a name that John himself will give to the Son of God, to Jesus.
06:38What is your action?
06:40He protects and guards the believers.
06:43Clearly, John is speaking here of the incarnation of the Son and how this incarnation has salvific effects on us.
06:55How do we experience incarnation?
06:58Verse 20 has a very particular structure.
07:03We move on then and in this verse 20 we see that the word true appears three times.
07:11What does it say?
07:13But we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true.
07:22We are in the true one, in his Son Jesus Christ.
07:27This is the true God and eternal life.
07:30Brothers, that we know refers to a group of people, but a very particular one.
07:39It is the community of believers, to whom John addresses himself and to whom he directs his entire letter.
07:45And that we know is to say that the incarnation of Jesus has borne fruit.
07:54Which?
07:55We were given the capacity to know, that is, intelligence, to know the true one, that is, Jesus himself.
08:04Now, in this verse 20 there is no opposition.
08:10Remember, in verses 18 and 19 there are oppositions.
08:14The world, the community, the evil one, the Son of God.
08:18What would be the opposition or contrary idea to Jesus, the true God, of verse 20?
08:28As I was saying, verse 18 and verse 19 contain antagonistic, opposing ideas.
08:36As I was saying, verse 18, the one who has been born of God, is kept by the one begotten of God, contrary to the idea, to the action of the evil one.
08:50Verse 19, John says, we are of God, contrary to the world.
08:58In verse 20, who are the "we" who know the true God?
09:06It seems then that verse 21 will give us the idea of that which is contrary to us.
09:18We who know the true one, what can possibly oppose him?
09:25Verse 21 gives us the answer.
09:27Verse 21, when speaking of idols, implies that these are the ones that oppose us in our condition of knowing God.
09:41So what does verse 20 say?
09:43We have come to know the true one, contrary to the idols of verse 21.
09:52Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
09:55Idols, we, like two opposing ideas that are contrary.
10:01Therefore, idols are those who represent the opposition to believers.
10:09And then we come to ask ourselves, what place do idols have in my life?
10:16I see now, we see now, after reading this letter with John, that idols are not statuettes or objects of worship from pagan religions.
10:29No, for Juan, the term idol is more precise and at the same time longer.
10:39It is everything that opposes the intelligence of Jesus Christ, true man and true God.
10:46In other words, it is that which deceives us, confuses us, and instills in us a contrary idea, a contrary teaching, certain theories contrary to faith in Jesus.
11:02The idols in our lives are things that deceive us by putting us in the place of God.
11:09And John warns us very severely, little children, beware of idols.
11:17We must guard against them.
11:20Because man very easily puts things in the place of God that are not God.
11:27And as I mentioned, Juan is not pointing to pagan statuettes, objects of worship from other religions,
11:35that should not take place in the community of disciples, we agree.
11:39But Juan has a different mindset.
11:42What is he pointing to when he says to beware of idols?
11:45It is everything, every reality that deceives and confuses us.
11:52That is an idol in the thinking of Saint John.
11:55And that is the attitude of the evil one.
11:58In fact, if we read the Bible with this perspective of discovering the action of the evil one, of the devil,
12:04Regarding believers, regarding us, we see that the devil always confuses us.
12:10He wants to seduce us with his lies.
12:13He wants to deceive us.
12:14Sometimes even with half-spoken words, with half-truths.
12:19And we will see it from Genesis to Revelation.
12:23In Genesis, what will happen to Eve?
12:26She was deceived by the serpent who is going to tell her,
12:30No, no, no, it won't die if you eat from the tree in the center of the garden.
12:34And in the Apocalypse, we see that the devil is called, he is considered the accuser of the brethren.
12:43That is, like someone who comes to complain, to reproach us for our sin, and ultimately to deceive us.
12:51And the evil one, not content with deceiving us about God and telling us what God is not,
13:00He also wants to deceive ourselves.
13:03The evil one, as John says, wants to deceive us about our status as children of God.
13:10What does the evil one do?
13:13He deceives us by saying, no, you do not deserve to be a child of God, you are not a child of God.
13:19That is contrary to faith.
13:22That is contrary to faith in Jesus, true God and true man.
13:27The real one, as Juan says.
13:29Let us discern how many times we have put things in our hearts that deceive us,
13:37who tell us things contrary to God.
13:40These are the idols.
13:42And these, even worse, tell us that we are not children of God.
13:47And that's what we need to discern, to be and live as children of God.
13:56Let's stay here with that pause,
13:59asking the Holy Spirit to always give us this discernment of what the idols of our life are.
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