What Do Love and Obedience Have to Do With Each Other?

 Click Here to Read or Listen to the One Year Daily Bible Readings

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. 2 We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. 3 Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. 13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. 1 John 5:1-5, 13

Another aspect of the heresy that John is confronting is the idea that someone could be a Christian, and then live their life however they wanted. John teaches that the believer's behavior flows out of their identity as a child of God. 

He returns to the theme of his gospel. When someone believes Jesus is the Messiah, they are born again. And the direct result of being born of God is loving God's other children. At the heart of being a believer is to obey God's commandments. Like a child obeys their parents, a child of God obeys their heavenly Father. 

Importantly our Heavenly Father's commands are not burdensome. When we understand the nature of the Father's love for us, we realize that keeping his commandments are a lot less burdensome than not keeping them. Keeping God's commandments also increases our confidence that we are God's children. Our faith in our Father increases, as we see His desire for us is always in our best interest. 

John ends by saying, "I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life." 

Believing in Jesus brings you into God's family. Obeying God shows your love for God by loving his other family members. And finally, God wants us to know that we have eternal life. If we are part of God's family and are born again, this life will continue forever since God's Spirit now lives in us.  

We don't obey God's commandments to become God's children, we obey God's commandments because we are God's children! 

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