Last week I read a passage that made me seriously reflect my walk with the Lord. The passage was 1 John 2:3-6 which says, “We know that we have come to know Him (Christ) if we obey His commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in Him…This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.”
To put in other words this verse appears to be saying…
- We have a true relationship with Christ if we obey his commands.
- If we claim that Christ is our Lord and Savior but do not obey God, we are liars and deceive ourselves.
- If we are true followers of Christ, we will walk as Jesus did.
Isn’t it so easy to tolerate sin? We think as long as we are not doing anything too terrible, we are fine. In our Christian culture we assume we can lust if we don’t commit adultery; we can be drunk as long as it’s not on a weekday; we can gossip as long as the subject of the gossip doesn’t find out what we said; we can be materialistic as long as we tithe; we can cuss as long as we don’t say God’s name in vain; we can fail to forgive others if we were severely hurt by them; the list could go on and on! However, scripture is quite clear that all of these “justifiable” sins are still in fact, sins. These actions that we do on a regular basis are still disobedient in God’s eyes.
What are the ways that you personally tolerate sin?
The simple but difficult truth is, if we truly belong to Christ, we will walk in obedience to Him. Can you imagine what the Church would look like if we walked like Jesus Christ? Maybe then unbelievers would want to find out who Jesus is? Maybe then Christian’s lives would look different than unbelievers. Maybe then we would actually be the salt of the earth and light to the world?
In closing, I would like to end this blog with some good news! John says a couple verses earlier, “I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” We aren’t perfect, and we may never be this side of the New Age, so if you are in need of grace and mercy from Christ, know that you have it through Christ’s blood that was shed on the cross. However, in light of Christ’s sacrifice, let us as God’s children respond by living a life of total obedience. Let’s walk as Jesus walked.
Greg Salmon
Youth Ministry Director
