Join Me On the Journey

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 5:1-5 (KJV)

I used to read this passage of scripture and say to myself, “OK. Starting today, things are going to be different! I’m going to start keeping the commandments. I’m going to read my Bible every day. I’m going to pray for an hour a day. I’m going to start going to church every Sunday. I’m going to be nice to people.” On and on the promised went; again and again, I would fail.

Then, someone pointed something out to me. Most Christians suffer from spiritual dyslexia. When they come across a passage like this, they read the words, but jumble the meaning.

“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments…” When you read that, it’s hard not to think that loving God means that you have to make sure that you keep the commandments of God. But, the next phrase says, “and His commandments are not grievous.”

Well, I don’t know about you, but I found that trying to keep the commandments of God was grievous. It was just plain impossible. There are so many commandments! You start out with the 10 Commandments. Then, there are all kinds of dietary laws, there are ceremonial laws, there are festivals to keep. There are literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of “commandments” in the Bible.

And I thought, “Well, some of those laws don’t apply to me because I’m a New Testament believer. Jesus came and fulfilled the Old Testament law for me and now I don’t have to.” But, I was left with this vague ambiguity; a question. “What was God saying here? Exactly which commandments am I supposed to be keeping?”

Then, I began to read those verses again. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God…”

They key here is not “keeping the commandments.” They key is “when we love God.”

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

When you read this verse with and emphasis on “when we love God” and not on “and keep his commandments” you go a long way to discovering a truth that will change your spiritual life. When you begin to focus on loving God…following His commandments is a natural bi-product of that love.

Think about it.

When you love someone…I mean really love someone, don’t you naturally go out of your way to please that person? When you were first dating your husband, didn’t you wear clothes that you knew he would like? Didn’t you go out of your way to learn things about him and do things that you knew would make him feel special? Weren’t there things that you changed because you knew it would make him happy…and those things weren’t grievous. You did those things, made those changes, because you loved him and you wanted to make him feel special and loved.

What if you treated God the same way? What if you learned what He liked and began changing your life to accommodate Him? What if you fell so in love with God that you just naturally began to follow His commandments? Wouldn’t that be so much easier?

So, how do you “fall in love” with God?

It’s a legitimate question, I think. After all, God can’t “talk” with you. Remember those hours and hours you spent just gazing into your hubby’s eyes (or on the phone) talking about nothing and everything? Well, that just doesn’t happen with God. We cannot, on this side of Heaven, just sit and have a two-way conversation with God.

But, we can pray. We can read the Bible…God’s love letter to us.

Most of us have forgotten all about writing letters. We call; we text message; we email; we IM. But, not so long ago, calling on the phone was cost prohibitive; computers were unheard of. “Back in the old days” people kept in touch via “snail mail.”

Many of our grandparents “fell in love” via letters. A letter can be an intimate revelation of the heart of the person who wrote it.

The Bible is our love letter from God. In it, He pours out His heart and soul. He tells all about his family; all about His chosen people; all about His plans for those people. He tells of His heartache when His people rejected Him. He tells about how He sent His Son to redeem YOU to Him because He loved you so much.

Today, take a moment to sit down and thank God for His love. Take a moment to examine your thoughts about the Bible. Begin thinking of the Bible as a way to get to know God intimately.

Instead of focusing on what you have to do to love God, why not focus on loving God instead? If you fall in love with God, I promise, you will keep the commandments more fully by accident than you were ever able to do on purpose.

(This is a reprint of a post from June 19th.)

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