The Result of Love
In this passage we hear about the natural consequence of love:
obedience. I love this about
Christianity. In the last chapter, John
spent much time talking about why our foundation rests upon Jesus as being both
fully human and divine. Then he talked
about love. Now he talks about
obedience. This is the natural
progression of how God works in our life.
You see, we have no ability to love God without the Holy
Spirit. We have no ability to obey God
without the Holy Spirit, either. Until
Jesus Christ came, we had no realistic ability to consistently either love or
obey! Christ must be first – the foundation.
Once we see Christ, our natural response should be love. What is the proper reaction to experiencing
love but to love in return? Yes, we love
because we have first been loved by God.
We can display our love because it is rooted in God’s love.
Once we love God, then we can obey. Obedience is always best when it is obedience
that we desire! Obedience that is forced
is always tense. Obedience that is out
of love is freeing and joyful! So we see
that the natural progression is Christ, love, obedience.
Once we hit true and genuine obedience we have victory over the
world. As I am obedient, my values and
goals shift to God. My agenda shifts to
God. I become less of a citizen of this
world and more of a citizen of God’s kingdom.
Victory comes as the things of God become more important than the things
of this world. Through this chain of
Christ, love, and obedience we can overcome the world.
What Does Victory Look Like?
I think this is a great question.
I often feel like victory in God looks like defeat to the world. It is tough being the humble one. It is tough taming the tongue and not being
able to say whatever I want to say. It
is tough doing for others whether they appreciate it or not – much less whether
they reciprocate or not! There are many
days when I feel like my obedience in Christ looks like defeat and weakness to
the eyes of the world. To be honest, it
probably does!
However, John reminds us here to make sure we see through the
proper perspective. Victory in God is
eternal life. Victory in God is being
with God forever. Victory in God is
being raised to life after death comes!
Who cares about winning for a few decades when you can win forever!
Yes, I again acknowledge that this is a difficult line to
walk. It is hard keeping that eternal
focus. It is hard to always live in the “delayed
gratification” that comes by always thinking about storing up treasure in
heaven and not here on earth. It is
hard; but it is true. And it will be
worth it in the end.
Difficulty in the End
John concludes this first letter with a fairly difficult set of
verses. John talks about sin, sin that
leads to death, and sin that does not lead to death. What on earth is John discussing in this last
section? John is stressing the
importance of three things: prayer, instruction, and repentance.
John encourages us to speak to God about those who sin but do not
die. Those people still have time to
repent. They still have time to make
things right with God. They still have
time to respond to the love of God. We
should be regular in our prayers for them.
If anyone needs our prayers it is those who do not yet know the love of
God!
Second, John speaks about our need to instruct. When we pray for people, it attunes our heart
to the will of God. We can then go to
those people and rather than speak out of our own voice we can speak out of the
voice and will of the Father. In fact, I
would say that we cannot ever go to someone and genuinely speak truth into
their life unless we have taken the time to go to God in prayer and attune our
will to His!
Finally, John is speaking of repentance. Sin that does not lead to death is sin that
is atoned. We all have that in our
life. We all know what it is like to
mess up heavily and not have to live out the full consequences of our actions. We all know what it is like to live with sin
that does not lead to death. How
grateful I am that my sin has not yet led to death and I have found forgiveness
in the blood of Christ who was sent from the Father!
So we turn. We repent. We walk away from the ways of the world and
the empty promises of the Devil. We walk
away from the idols of our life. We turn
and embrace God because He restores us from our sin that does not lead to
death!
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