Scripture Text: 1 John 5:1–5
For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden.
1 John 5:3 (HCSB)
There have been many songs, in the church and in popular music, written about love. In fact, if you search “love” on the hymnary.org website you’ll find 59,040 hymn texts. The same cannot be said about “obedience.” That search turns up only 1,342 results. Apparently, we like to sing about one much more than the other!
Yet from the apostle John’s perspective, love and obedience are matching bookends. He uses family relationships to demonstrate why they connect. Because of our salvation through Christ, we’re God’s children. As children, we owe love and obedience to God, including the Father and the Son. We also owe love to one another, as members of the same family. Human families may be marred by sin, but God’s family is transformed to be like Christ.
As John explained, to trust in Christ for salvation is to be born of God (v. 1). No special knowledge is needed. To be born of God is to love God. Even further, to love God is to love His other children. Love and obedience are in fact how we can be certain that we are born again and members of God’s family (v. 2).
Love and obedience are so inseparable that we can almost regard them as the same thing (v. 3). Obedience to God’s commands is not burdensome. Why not? Because “everyone born of God overcomes the world” (v. 4). How? By trusting in the One who has already overcome the world (v. 5; 1 John 4:4). The victory, then, comes not by any merit of ours but through faith.
As Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light”. Spiritually, obedience is true freedom, not in this world’s cultural sense of doing whatever we want, but in the biblical sense of freedom from sin.
Reflect
1. How does genuine love for God manifest in our daily lives?
2. What are some practical ways we can demonstrate our love for God through obedience to His commands?
3. What are some challenges we may face in maintaining strong faith, and how can we overcome them with the help of God?
Remember
There is the inseparable connection between genuine faith and love. Through our faith in Jesus Christ, we are born of God and become His children. This spiritual rebirth transforms our lives, empowering us to live victoriously by overcoming the challenges of the world.
Read
Deuteronomy 10:12-13; Psalm 119:47-48; Matthew 11:28–30; John 8:34–36; Hebrews 8:10
Pray
Heavenly Father, thank You for the gift of faith and love. Help me to remember that through my faith in Jesus Christ, I am born of God and have the power to overcome the world. May this life of mine be a reflection of Your love and grace, and may my faith be steadfast in every circumstance. Empower me to love You wholeheartedly and to extend that love to those around me. In Your Son Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
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