by Lloyd T. Anderson Pastor, Bethany Baptist Church West Covina, California
Studm in I John T here are three features of Chris tian life described in these verses: 3-6, of chapter 2: Walking These do not exactly follow upon each other, for all three are true essentially the very moment of con version. Unlike in the natural life, a new-born babe in God’s family can walk immediately, for he has the na ture and power (the indwelling Holy Spirit) to enable him or her to live the life of Christ right away. That walk may in some cases be a halting walk, while with others it may be full of life and energy, as with the lame man of Acts 3, who after his healing not only walked, but also leaped as well. Obedience is also a mark of divine life. Like Paul, every believer asks: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” The gospel is preached for the obedience of faith, and therefore the initial faith that converts the soul is itself the first step in the path of obedience. The natural man is a child of disobedience, but the Christian is, as Peter tells us — I Peter 1:14 — a child of obedience. The Christian, then, as ver. 3 states, keeps his com mandments. These are not the ten commandments, of course, but the truths of the New Testament, the commandments the Lord has left with us in His Word. Those command ments are not grievous, we are told in ch. 5:3. For we have received a divine life and nature through faith in Christ, and that nature loves the things of God, and delights to do His will. Love is the motive force of this new life, and so our Lord said to His own, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments”—John 14:15. Obedience Fellowship
Notice that it does not say in ver. 3 that we know Him if we keep His commandments, but that we know that we know Him. It is the test the believer applies to himself. He knows he is a true Christian because he walks in obedience to God’s Word. So, in ver. 5, we know that we are in Him, when we keep His Word. The third thing that marks the Christian is “fellowship.” We abide in Him. However, in each of these three marks, there is to be constant growth and development. A Christian not only walks, living the life of God now, but also is to walk “even so as He walked.” Nothing less than the Lord’s own perfect life should be the aim of every Christian: a life of faith in God; a life of dependence upon God. We have a beautiful sam ple of such a life in Matthew 14, where Peter walked on the water. He reasoned that if the Lord could walk, so then he could also. And he was right; he did walk on the water to go to Jesus. Had he kept his eyes on the Lord, there would have been no trouble. If the child of God keeps the eye of faith fixed on Christ, he too will walk even as He walked. So also in regard to obedience. In ver. 3 we read of keeping His com mandments ; in ver. 5 of keeping His Word. This latter is a distinct step ahead in the path of obedience. The believer not only asks, “What must I do?” (that is equivalent to keeping His commandments), but al so “What may I do?”, which would be “keeping His Word.” Of the be liever who keeps His Word it is said in ver. 5 that in him the love of God has been made perfect. Children are under commandments; we order them to do thus and so, but older ones in the family act on their own initia-
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