The Long Fly Out

September 13th, 2006

THE LONG FLY OUT

I like baseball. Most people these days go to a game to see the big flashy homerun, the big numbers on the scoreboard and the fireworks when the home team puts up some huge show. And being a baseball fan myself, I can’t say that I’m not much different. But I do like a great pitching game. I can stand to see a game where the final score is 2-1, or heaven forbid 1-0. And in 12 innings at that! But if it weren’t for my parents, I most likely wouldn’t like baseball. And if it weren’t for the Rangers being here in Arlington, my parents wouldn’t take me to games, thus I wouldn’t like baseball. But right now, if I had to liken myself to a baseball metaphor, I would choose a fly ball out.

1st John 3:11-24
This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

1st John 3:20 condemn:
kataginōskō (verb)

• To find fault with, blame


• To accuse, condemn


• To note against, that is, find fault with: - blame, condemn.

Condemn (verb):

• To express an unfavorable or adverse judgment on; indicate strong disapproval of; censure.


• To pronounce to be guilty; sentence to punishment.


• To give grounds or reason for convicting or censuring.

1st John 3:18 words:
logos (noun)

• Of speech, a word, uttered by a living voice, embodies a conception or idea, what someone has said, a word, the sayings of God, decree, mandate or order, of the moral precepts given by God, Old Testament prophecy given by the prophets, what is declared, a thought, declaration, aphorism, a weighty saying, a dictum, a maxim; discourse, the act of speaking, speech, the faculty of speech, skill and practice in speaking, a kind or style of speaking, a continuous speaking discourse – instruction, doctrine, teaching, anything reported in speech; a narration, narrative, matter under discussion, thing spoken of, affair, a matter in dispute, case, suit at law, the thing spoken of or talked about; event, deed


• its use as respect to the MIND alone, reason, the mental faculty of thinking, meditating, reasoning, calculating


• account, i.e. regard, consideration


• account, i.e. reckoning, score


• account, i.e. answer or explanation in reference to judgment


• relation, i.e. with whom as judge we stand in relation, reason would, reason, cause, ground


• In John, denotes the essential Word of God, Jesus Christ, the personal wisdom and power in union with God, his minister in creation and government of the universe, the cause of all the world’s life both physical and ethical, which for the procurement of man’s salvation put on human nature in the person of Jesus the Messiah, the second person in the Godhead, and shone forth conspicuously from His words and deeds.


• something said (including the thought); by implication a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension a computation; specifically (with the article in John) the Divine Expression (that is, Christ): - account, cause, communication, X concerning, doctrine, fame, X have to do, intent, matter, mouth, preaching, question, reason, + reckon, remove, say (-ing), shew, X speaker, speech, talk, thing, + none of these things move me, tidings, treatise, utterance, word, work.

1st John 3:18 tongue:
glōssa (noun)

• The tongue, a member of the body, an organ of speech


• A tongue, the language or dialect used by a particular people distinct from that of other nations


• Of uncertain affinity; the tongue; by implication a language (specifically one naturally un-acquired): - tongue.

1st John 3:18 actions:
ergon (noun)

• Business, employment, that which any one is occupied, that which one undertakes to do, enterprise, undertaking


• Any product whatever, any thing accomplished by hand, art, industry, or mind


• An act, deed, thing done: the idea of working is emphasized in opp. to that which is less than work


• To work; toil (as an effort or occupation); by implication an act: - deed, doing, labor, work.

1st John 3:18 truth:
alētheia (noun)

• Objectively, what is true in any matter under consideration, truly, in truth, according to truth, of a truth, in reality, in fact, certainly


• what is true in things appertaining to God and the duties of man, moral and religious truth, in the greatest latitude, the true notions of God which are open to human reason without his supernatural intervention


• the truth as taught in the Christian religion, respecting God and the execution of his purposes through Christ, and respecting the duties of man, opposing alike to the superstitions of the Gentiles and the inventions of the Jews, and the corrupt opinions and precepts of false teachers even among Christians


• subjectively, truth as a personal excellence, that candor of mind which is free from affection, pretence, simulation, falsehood, deceit


• Truth: - true, X truly, truth, verity.

I don’t want to give a big speech about how much I love God or my parents or my friends. That would be all great and wonderful, but how much better would it be to do something for them. How much better would it be to put my love into action. Would I like to be a homerun? Would I like to “going, going, gone”? Or would I like to stay in the game and hang short for a fly ball out? Tough call. For me, I just don’t want to be gone. I’d rather be short than gone. Johnny Out.