The Little Letters - Day 6

7 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. 8 Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.
9 If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness. 10 Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.
12 I am writing to you who are God’s children because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus.
13 I am writing to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I am writing to you who are young in the faith because you have won your battle with the evil one.
14 I have written to you who are God’s children because you know the Father. I have written to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I have written to you who are young in the faith because you are strong. God’s word lives in your hearts, and you have won your battle with the evil one.

Love and hate can’t live together in one person. There is an incompatibility between the two that has to be reconciled in our hearts. Hatred is the opposite of the unity we are called to in Jesus.

The author also talks about those who are mature in the faith and those who are young in the faith. Have you ever stopped to think about which one you are? Just because you have been a believer for a long time does not mean you are necessarily mature in the faith at any given point.
 
It also seems to me that the author is making the case that the mature in faith have a profound understanding of Christ. They know who he is, where he has come from, and the place that he takes in our faith.

We should take note of this. It sometimes feels like Jesus is where the faith begins, but we are asked to move on once we have that understanding. However, here it seems that the author is saying that those mature in the faith understand Jesus as the focus and object of our faith and not a great starting point.
 

1. Where does your faith begin and end? Where is Jesus in relationship to that? 
2. Do you feel like you are mature in the faith? 
3. What can help your journey to a mature faith?