JohnnyPoppin' 4; You think you know Him?

³We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. ⁴The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. ⁵But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

-1 John 2:3-6

It might be that it took me a long time to write on this passage because it had to incubate. What are His commands? The 10 Commandments? The 613 laws (same # as seeds in a pomegranate) that the Pharisees prescribed for their followers?

It might have took me a long time because I struggle so much with my own walk. I feel inadequate to write with any authority on these verses because I am such a miserable sinner myself.

Bottom line, God doesn't demand nearly that much. I don't think He really demands perfection either. But He does want to complete you. What kind of obedience is He looking for?

Matthew 22:37-39
37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

John 13:34
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

And what does it mean to walk as Jesus did?

Luke 9:23-24
23Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.

I recently learned a skill that made walking with Jesus and "as Jesus did" mean a lot more to me. My brother-in-law taught me how to haul corn. Having to drive a tractor up beside a combine and keep pace with it so that it can empty it's tank into the wagon you're pulling isn't very easy at all. Walking with, or how and where Jesus walks isn't always easy either. You have to keep up, but not move ahead. You can't be too close, or too far- other wise you could crash or you could lose corn. You have to be in sync with the driver of the combine. You have to know where he;s going and what his intentions are.

Sound too hard? Not really. The real keys to following along side a combine with a tractor and wagon is practice and experience. Hills, curves and bumps all make it more challenging. The real key to walking with and like Jesus, is to stay in touch with Him. Reading your Bible regularly, rather than leaving it on the shelf helps you stay in tune (like the graphic I used at the top of this post, the Bible is our user's manual, after all). Speaking and listening to Him in prayer helps keep you in tune. Exposing yourself to Bible study, devotions, or good teaching is a good way. Being involved in Christian fellowship is yet another way.

Above all, it's all about love, love for God and love for others. THAT's what Jesus did, what He does, and what He would do. Next time you see of hear about "WWJD." Remember, He loved, He loves, and He'd love. Let God complete His love in you, obey His commands- love Him and love others.

Also, sometimes if you're in park and can't seem to get it back into gear, it helps to pop the clutch.

JohnnyPoppin' 3; I write this so that you will not sin

Read all of 1 John 2:1-14 all at once

¹My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ²He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Why did John write this letter? "So you will not sin."
There were some controversies in the church already, and some false teachings going around. Being not just one of the original 12 disciples, but close to Jesus personally, John wanted to inoculate or vaccinate early believers from being misled. There are always people out there with wrong or misleading information.

It could be that they're simply mistaken or that they're motivated by profit, power, or fame, or for whatever reason, they may actually want to corrupt or destroy God's message of forgiveness. John wrote these letters to protect his readers from lies and/or mistakes that could cause them to sin. Ah, but he also assured them (and assures us) that if/when we mess up, we have an advocate, a defense attorney, someone who has the ear of God the Father- Jesus Himself. No matter how badly we've messed up in our lives, He has paid for us.

Wouldn't it be great to have Warren Buffett or Bill Gates show up and pay off all your credit cards and loans and mortgage and offer to pay your bills from here on out? To be totally debt-free through no doing of your own? That's exactly what we have from a spiritual (though not financial) point of view. Jesus is the once and for all sacrifice that makes us right with God.

And not just us. He died for everyone for all time. Granted, if anyone rejects His forgiveness, He isn't going to force it on anyone. Skeptics complain that if there really is a loving God, why doesn't He just save everyone? Well, hate to burst your bubble, but He did! Unfortunately, people don't believe it, don't accept it, deny it and refuse it- even ridicule and belittle it.

That's my explanation in a nutshell of a sad aspect of society's reaction to the Gospel- Here in these verse though John isn't talking to all people, he's talking to fellow believers and he's reminding them that Jesus- not anyone else, and especially not ourselves is the atoning sacrifice. THAT is the core of the Gospel, the basis of Christianity.

Some of the heresies, the false teachings John wanted to warn his readers about claimed that Jesus was just another human and not God's only begotten Son, and some of them taught that anyone could become "godlike" if they just got in touch with their inner light. But only Jesus is the light, and any light we receive is from Him. We can become "Christ-like" only through Him.

But again, in the book of 1 John, John wants to help his readers avoid these errors, but in verses one and two, he's also assuring them that if they fall prey to these false teachings but realize their mistake, God who is faithful and just will forgive them because of what Jesus did on the cross.