“And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment. 24. And he that keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him, and hereby we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given us.”
I lifted my title from the text to emphasize the importance of God’s command. Look at the wording: “this-is-His-commandment.” This is the Lord’s commandment concerning being saved and living the Christian life. God’s commandment is that “we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ.” We didn’t pick the idea of Jesus being the only means of salvation out of thin air. It’s right here in our text. We are saved by believing on the name of Jesus Christ. It can also be stated as inviting Jesus Christ into our lives. The Greek word "pisteuo" carries the force of believing to the extent that Jesus takes over our lives. Another way of saying this is that “we are saved by grace through faith.” The command is clear: It does not say that we should just believe any religion or any other religious personage. Some people roll their eyes when we make this statement. We can believe them or what the New Testament tells us is God’s commandment. God’s commandment further states that we “love one another.” The root Greek word for love here is "Ahgapay." This is the word that is translated love in John 3:16. This means that we must love one another as God loves us. The love we should have for each other is not just "philos," which is brotherly/sisterly love. It is a giving and sacrificial love. This is a stiff command. When I think of some of the things that I have seen in churches, I know that it is difficult to love in this manner. In fact, it has often been problematic for me. Let’s just be honest, there are some people that we just have to “love anyway.” They don’t make it easy, so to speak. I’m confident that I have been this person for some people. One of the main themes of 1 John is God’s kind of love. Give some thought to your personal love quotient. How are you doing? Pray, brothers and sisters, pray!!! Verse 24 brings our theme together. If we believe in Jesus we “dwell in Him.” Jesus becomes an integral part of our lives. He is always with us. What draws this together is that we “know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given us.” It is through the conviction of the Holy Spirit that we see our need for a Savior from our sins. This is when we take, what has been called, "the leap of faith.” We have the Holy Spirit driving our faith. We grow in our faith as we surrender to the Spirit. It is the Spirit who makes it possible to love as God does. We grow in faith and love as we grow in the Spirit. Bro. Joe
1 Comment
Linda Brooks
9/19/2016 11:45:31 am
I am TRULY dwelling on the wording....This IS HIS COMMANDMENTS.......I know this is NOT an OPTION for CHRISTIANS. Thank You
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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