"And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him." [1 Jn 2:3-5]
Jesus says to us, “if ye love me, keep my commandments.” [Jn 14:15] And again, “he that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” [Jn 14:21] And once more, “he that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.” [Jn 14:24] Clearly, we see that obedience to God is of utmost importance; in fact, if we are not obedient, if we do not keep Jesus’ words, (which are The Father’s words: for Jesus said, “I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.” [Jn 17:8]), He says we are lost and that we do not truly love Him. In another place Jesus asks those listening, “and why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” [Lk 6:46] Do you love Christ? Have you been born again? Do you belong to that blessed and heavenly family? Then you will obey His words. And if you do not obey His words, that is, The Bible, then you are lost: for how is it that one may call Jesus Lord and Master but fail to live in obedience to Him? It is a contradiction; a true Christian will live a lifestyle of obedience to God’s word.
We can see this in 1 John as well, when John says in our highlighted verse, “hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him.” Now, if we are New Covenant Christians under the blood of Christ, we know that we are not under the law. For it is written,
“Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” [Rom 7:4]
And,
“But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” [Rom 7:6]
We understand from these verses that the law has died. As a woman is no longer bound to a dead husband, so too we are no longer bound to the law, it having died upon the cross with Jesus, wherein it is said that He “[Blotted] out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.” [Col 2:14] And further, no longer being under the law, we are under grace; for, “sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” [Rom 6:14] But though we have been delivered from the law, no longer bound to its curse nor its punishments, yet as Paul says,
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of The Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” [Rom 6:1-4]
We do see, then, that much like in our last test wherein we discovered the true Christian cannot abide in a sinful lifestyle, so too the Christian cannot abide in disobedience. But in both cases, the proof that a man possesses a truly regenerated heart is that he continues in obedience, in righteousness, in accordance with God’s word.
The importance of obedience cannot be understated, for we cannot truthfully claim to belong to Christ and to God and willingly live in disobedience. We mustn’t be as Israel, of whom God said, “forasmuch as this people draw near to me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me;” [Isa 29:13] and of whom The LORD spoke to Ezekiel saying, “they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.” [Ezek 33:31] No, we cannot be as such: for such words describe a man who is still lost in his sins, not having received a new heart nor spirit. It is to the man, as Jesus says, who “heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them,” whose “house” as it were shall stand in the day of judgment. [Mt 7:24-27]
Further, John also writes,
“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” [1 Jn 5:3]
In this text, notice a truth which is added: “His commandments are not grievous.” Not only does the genuine believer have a lifestyle of obeying God’s commands, whether those be through The Word or through The conviction of The Holy Spirit, but those commands are also “not grievous.” Meaning, because the believer, as it says, has been given “a new heart…and a new spirit” and been made into “a new creature,” therefore, having received a new heart and spirit, a new nature altogether, that believer in Christ no longer looks upon God’s righteous laws with hatred but with love. [Ezek 36:26, 2 Cor 5:17] This is shown to us in that God’s laws are a reflection of His heart, seeing that He has spoken them, (they being “God-breathed”), and that Jesus says, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” [2 Tim 3:16, Mt 12:34] We must conclude then, that because God’s word, and thus laws, are merely a reflection of His heart and of His character, that if we are truly saved and do love God and love who He is, we shall love His commands. We shall not say, for example, ‘It is exceedingly troublesome and grievous that I must tell the truth or that I must be faithful;’ no, in no case, for we no longer are in bondage and under the dominion of such sins and thoughts, but being delivered from such, it now brings us delight that we can practice righteousness and obey God.
Therefore, joyful obedience is shown to be necessary in salvation: it is our fourth test. My dear brethren, do you long to obey God’s word? Does it bring you delight to submit to The Most High and His provocations upon your spirit? Or does it grieve you and do you most often feel no inclination whatsoever to the divine laws? If the latter be true, the truth of the matter may very well be you are not a true child of God and have not the love of God abiding in you. Let each of us search out our hearts, and answer the question: ‘do I obey God’s commands?’ for it must necessarily be true in the believer’s life.
To see past and future posts in this series of Testing Your Salvation, click here.