Obedience, Faith and Love
1 John 3v23-24
7th April 2023
We've been reading:
1 John 3v21-22
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.
John continues:
1 John 3v23
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and to love one another as he commanded us.
We can never earn God's favour. Gods favour is a gift to us. But we can put ourselves in a position to receive the benefits of God's favour by obeying His Commands. Firstly, we're commanded to believe in the name – the authority – of Jesus Christ our Lord. Secondly, we're commanded to love one another.
To believe in the authority of Jesus is to accept that He can do whatever He likes, to whomever he likes, however he likes, whenever he likes. And He can demand whatever He likes from whomever He likes, including us. His word is final. He is Lord.
To believe in the authority of Jesus is also to know freedom from worry, because Jesus is Lord of tomorrow as well as today. He will never abandon us. He will never let us down. Strangely, wonderfully, Jesus Christ has your best interests at heart.
We've already studied in some depth what John has said about loving each other. Briefly, though, real Christians love each other from the heart, not out of loyalty to a set of rules, or even to God. Real Christians love each other with agape love – sacrificial love. They love their brothers and sisters in Christ, including the ones they find difficult, including the ones that have hurt them, with Christlike love.
The more we trust in Jesus like this, and love each other like this, the more we put ourselves in a position where we can live in the good of God's favour, and the more our prayers are answered.
1 John 3v24
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.
Most non-Christians think all we Christians have is a theoretical belief in a set of statements about the nature of God. They think our faith is a way of living, a system of morality, aided by some ideas about a God who doesn't communicate with us, and may not even exist. In fact, a true Christian has the closest possible relationship with God. He's a child of God. He's a citizen of heaven. He's one of God's chosen people. More than that, the true Christian lives in God, and God lives in him. The Bible says many times that we're in Christ:
Romans 8v1
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
2 Corinthians 5v17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; The old has gone,
the new has come!
Ephesians 1v13a
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation.
And there are many more. You are literally in Christ. And God is in you, by His Holy Spirit. That passage in Ephesians continues:
Ephesians 2v13b-14
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those
who are God's possession — to the praise of his glory.
You live in God and God lives in you. That really should persuade you that God is for you, that He wants to help you, that He will never condemn you, and He wants to answer your prayers, and sanctify you to make you fit for glory. And the Holy Spirit guarantees your inheritance.
Romans 8v16
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
God's grace to us never changes. But we can block ourselves away from God's blessing by making bad choices, and by allowing ourselves to feel condemned as a result. If we refuse to allow our hearts to condemn us, and instead trust in the redeeming blood of Jesus and the love of God, tehn we will commune with him, and His Spirit will speak to us, and assure us of our salvation, and help us to repent.
The degree to which we trust in Christ and obey God's commands, and love one another, is the degree to which we experience life in God, and the degree to which God is active in our lives. May we all put our faith wholly in Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord. May we accept His rules, and welcome His work in us. May we conform to the character of Christ more and more. And so, may we experience more and more of His grace and mercy, for ourselves and for others. Amen.