Live As Jesus Did
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever
says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth
is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made
complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in
him must live as Jesus did.
Dear
friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had
since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am
writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the
darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
Anyone
who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the
darkness. Anyone who loves their brother
and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them
stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks
around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the
darkness has blinded them.
1 John 2:3-11
We
are encouraged by John to prove we are genuine Christians and not to just look
like Christians. The evidence that a person’s faith is real is not found in
some mystical experience with God. The proof that people
truly know and love God is found in submitting to His authority and to His
Word.
If
we claim that we have been transformed by the gospel and intimately know and
love God, we should validate it by our obedience to His Word.
Obedience to God is an expression of our love for God.
Our Daily Bread –