The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his commandments. 1 John 2:3 NABRE
John offers an implied question, how do we know God and are we united with Him. John answers this implied question; we may be sure that we know Him keeping His commandments. John is concerned with knowing God but more significantly John wants us to know how we can be sure we know Him. It is a question of assurance, of being convinced we are in right relationship with God. We need to have a criteria by which we can judge ourselves knowing God. The criteria; do we keep His commandments. What does it mean to keep His commandments, certainly we have to include the Ten Commandments, but when we look at the life of Jesus the God-man, we must consider love as priority. But there is so much more, do we feed the hungry, care for the ill, visit the prisoner, clothe the naked, and give drink to the thirsty. We don’t read Jesus “commanding” these things but certainly if we are to follow Jesus we must consider all He spoke about when it comes to the care and love of others. Jesus leads us to be concerned for the other, even our enemy requires our love. It doesn’t seem we live this message very much today, we tend to point to others, label them, often with some derogatory term; liberal, conservative, alien, Muslim, Christian, Jew, and more, then we discount them. This is likely more hurtful than hating them, we ignore them, declare them not worth anything to us. We tend to justify our behavior as following some commandment of God putting the priority of love lower than this other commandment.
Jesus desires our love for one another and we should consider this His most important commandment. To know if we keep His command we must test our love for everyone.
How is your love for others? Do you respect others?
Jesus desires our love for one another and we should consider this His most important commandment. To know if we keep His command we must test our love for everyone. Click To Tweet#bible #godisgreat #jesus #christianity #dailybibleverse @youversion #BeAnEncourager #love #commands #John #everybodyalways #god #jesuschrist #jesussaves #godisgood #dailydevotion #biblestudy #scripture #bibleverse #verseoftheday #cross #last #Matthew #loveeachother #godisgreat #thisVineyard #youversion #everythingalways