1 John 3: 11–18; 3 John
They’ll know we are Christians by our love
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35).
Cotton candy, that quintessential spun sugar treat brings back nostalgic memories of county fairs, ball games, and the circus. The ingredients are simple: granulated sugar, corn syrup, water, and flavoring. The texture and melt-in-your-mouth experience of cotton candy comes from the spun layers of sugar and the air incorporated into them. Watch the masters spin the paper cone around the edges of the bowl of hot sugar, and you’ll see each layer adhere to the cone and then to the previous layers. The more the master spins the cone, the bigger the candy grows. The bigger it grows, the more it takes on the identifiable shape that distinguishes cotton candy from every other confection.
John is the master confectioner in his Epistles. “The message you have heard from the beginning” is the spun sugar that, layer upon layer, forms the sweet substance of our confidence in Jesus’s work on our behalf enabling us to share the joy of his salvation by imitating him in love.
“For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We…