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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Walk as He walked | 1 John 2:3 | Morant61 | 216887 | ||
Greetings Asis! Sorry for the delay, I had some family issues that I had to deal with yesterday. Is it really that simple? Yes and no! :-) It is that simple in that John specifically spells out for us what he means by obeying His commands. John is simply spelling out what Jesus Himself said, Love God and love one another. John repeatedly makes clear that obedience to God is to love one another, as Jesus loves us. Consider the following verses: John 13:34 - "‘‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”" John 15:12 - "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." John 15:17 - "This is my command: Love each other." 1 John 3:23 - "And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." 1 John 4:21 - "And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." 1 John 5:2 - "This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome," 2 John 5 - " And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love." Now, it is not that simple in that walking in love (or walking like Jesus) means that we will live holy lives - lives that match the demands of the ten commandments. Consider what Jesus said to the Pharisees: Matt. 22:34 - "Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 ‘‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: ”‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”" All of the law could be summed up as, "Love God and each other". Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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2 | Walk as He walked | 1 John 2:3 | flinkywood | 216891 | ||
Tim, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” (John 14:15) implies that keeping—doing--His commandments is required to love Jesus. Since Jesus is the Law, and since apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5) doing the Law flows from loving Christ in return; therefore not doing the Law--breaking any of the 10 commandments--is to fail to love Christ (1 John 2:4; 4:20). This might sound like a prescription for “doing” over “loving”, for “works-righteousness;” but the act of keeping a commandment--the moral law--strengthens our faith. Action is to faith what exercise is to the body: what we don’t use (our loving faith) we can lose. 2 quotations say it better: “People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, ‘If you keep a lot of rules I'll reward you, and if you don't I'll do the other thing.’ …I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself.” C.S. Lewis “Mere Christianity “ "If a certain character of mind, a certain state of the heart and affections, be necessary for entering heaven, our actions will avail for our salvation, chiefly as they tend to produce or evidence this frame of mind. Good works (as they are called) are required, not as if they had anything of merit in them, not as if they could of themselves turn away God's anger for our sins, or purchase heaven for us, but because they are the means, under God's grace, of strengthening and showing forth that holy principle which God implants in the heart, and without which (as the text tells us) we cannot see Him. The more numerous are our acts of charity, self-denial, and forbearance, of course the more will our minds be schooled into a charitable, self-denying, and forbearing temper. The more frequent are our prayers, the more humble, patient, and religious are our daily deeds, this communion with God, these holy works, will be the means of making our hearts holy, and of preparing us for the future presence of God. Outward acts, done on principle, create inward habits. I repeat, the separate acts of obedience to the will of God, good works as they are called, are of service to us, as gradually severing us from this world of sense, and impressing our hearts with a heavenly character." J.H. Newman "Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Hebrews 7:14. |
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3 | Walk as He walked | 1 John 2:3 | Morant61 | 216892 | ||
Greetings Flinkywood! Good quotes! You wrote: ""If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” (John 14:15) implies that keeping—doing--His commandments is required to love Jesus. Since Jesus is the Law, and since apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5) doing the Law flows from loving Christ in return; therefore not doing the Law--breaking any of the 10 commandments--is to fail to love Christ (1 John 2:4; 4:20)." The first sentence I would have disagreed with in isolation, but you explained it in your second sentence. If I may phrase it in a slightly different manner: Obedience is the result of the love of Christ, love is not the result of obedience. I have had some good Bible studies trying to get people to understand that concept. Our culture wants so much to be able to stand before God and say, "I deserve to be here because I obeyed your commands". Yet Scripture makes it clear that we are saved because of what He did, not what we do. If we were to be 'judged' based upon our works, we would all be in serious trouble. :-) Well, I have to get ready for our youth group now! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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4 | Walk as He walked | 1 John 2:3 | flinkywood | 216895 | ||
Thanks, Tim, now get to work... | ||||||