Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! We've been reading the Bible clear through this year. We are finishing the New Testament, so read along with me. But first, let us pray: 

Father,

When the fullness of time had come, you sent your Word in the One who said, “Whoever sees me, sees the Father.” No revelation can surpass this until Jesus comes again. By your gift, the Church continues to receive unfathomable riches from the inheritance handed on from the Apostles and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit.

Let the Spirit who inspired the writing of today's pages "guide me in the truth and teach me" to follow Jesus ever more closely, until he calls me to follow him to the Kingdom where he lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.

Today's chapters are 2 Peter 2-3 and 1 John 1.

Peter uses the stories of the Old Testament to exhort his readers to doctrinal and moral purity, noting that pride and idolatry often bring lust in their wake. He refers to the fall of the angels, uses a few examples that we will also find in the Letter of Jude, and brings back the apocalyptic language we have seen before, but this time it is not to say that the current enemies of God's people will be conquered: Peter is actually saying that the heavens and the earth will make way for a whole new reality "in which righteousness dwells" (3:13). It is rather comical to read the acknowledgement in Sacred Scripture itself that the letters of St Paul are "hard to understand" but there you have it (3:16). All the more reason to be guided by the Spirit-guided Church in interpreting the Scriptures!

The Second Letter of Peter ends with a doxology, not like a letter, but like a homily.

Before you read the First Letter of John, you might want to reread the Prologue of the Gospel of John. (I'll make it easy by pasting it in at the bottom of this post!) You'll notice the similarities immediately, even in translation across 2,000 years. There are three letters by John, but only the first has more than one chapter. Like the Gospel, the First Letter of John seems at times to pull away from its narration and offer a short reflection about light and truth (or their opposites).

Finish reading 2 Peter here and start 1 John here.

The Prologue of John's Gospel

In the beginning was the Word,
    and the Word was with God,
    and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came to be through him,
    and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
    and this life was the light of the human race;

the light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness has not overcome it.

A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world,
    and the world came to be through him,
    but the world did not know him.

He came to what was his own,
    but his own people did not accept him.

But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.

And the Word became flesh
    and made his dwelling among us,
    and we saw his glory,
    the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
    full of grace and truth.

John testified to him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’” 

From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.

John 1:1-18 (NABRE)