I’ve heard it said that being a Christian would be easier if God had given Moses ten suggestions rather than ten commandments. With suggestions you have the freedom to accept or reject but a command is different. There is no option, you must obey the command if you wish to stay in the organisation
God did not give Moses ten suggestions which would have given God’s people the freedom to yes or no to God. As our commanding officer God had given commands we must obey, there is no option if we seek to call ourselves Christians, if we seek to live as children of God and do not want to be lead astray
This letter is addressed to the congregation for it is often harder to express love to those we see as constantly opposing our views. Some times it is the people closest to us that are the most difficult to love. In our reading I see v 23 as the key verse “ and this is his command – to believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and to love one another as he has commanded us”
Not an easy command- but what is love ? A four letter word – easy to say but incredibly hard to do. It is a word that is used in many different ways. People think of love as an emotion – something that one feels. People say they fell in love which means that they could fall out of love. Someone might say they love their food , what they really mean is that they like their food
What though is God’ understanding of love ? Jesus who is the revelation of God’s life, ,love and will for the world. Jesus the only one called God’s Son reveals to the world God’s love by living the way God desires, namely by loving others in perfection in his decision to “lay down his life” on be half of
others.
Jesus’ act is the deepest meaning of love and so Jesus himself defines the character of the Church’s life. The Church proclaims and lives love, not as a vague ideal. Love is identified and known by what Jesus has done and that act is the grounds for all Christian though and hope, so how do live such a life
Knowing God’s love is a living response to Jesus laying down his life for us. The real test of love is the way we are willing to share the very means by which we sustain our life with others. Love is a costly business and means involvement with others, committing even ones life . Love apart from action is meaningless. Words can be powerful but if they are not backed up by actions they are soon mere noise
The actions may seem small by themselves but they are the actions of everyday life, giving your life for another. For John truly loving a person means getting to know them, more than gathering facts about a person. This is the love that is to flow throughout the life and witness of the church.
Jesus has commanded us to love but because we are imperfect people there are times we fall short. Our sense of failure should make us turn towards God as his children. Our identity as God’s children gives us the confidence to approach God and ask for help , assured that we will not be shamed. This confidence comes from the unity that exists between Jesus the Son, God himself and God’s children who have received God’s spirit.
This confidence is not based on our feelings which are variable. God judges us by the abiding relation of love to others rather than our passing moods V 19 – 20 “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts and God knows everything”
But God is not a spiritual vending machine operating to serve our desires v 21 – 22 “Dear friends if our hearts do not condemn us we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him’
So this is love as God commands . Not easy but life giving. We are determined by love for the love of Christ controls us. Christian love is not natural but is something that comes through Christ who lives in each person who follows the way of love one for another