PT-3 "The Test Started" (1 John 2:3)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/30/2024 11:03 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                         Focus:  PT-3 “The Test Started”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  1 John 2:3

 

            Message of the verse:  “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”

 

            I begin this SD by talking about the word that is rendered keep which is a form of the verb tereo, which stresses the idea of an observant, watchful obedience.  This can also be translated “guard,” and in this context would mean guarding His commandments. MacArthur writes “Since keep is a present, active subjunctive, it conveys the sense of believers continually safeguarding the commandments because they consider them precious (5:3; Ezra 7:10; Pss. 19:7-8; 119:1, 34, 77, 97, 113, 165; Rom. 7:22).  John did not want his readers to settle for a marginal or minimal standard of righteousness.  Rather, the apostle emphasized an extensive obedience that stems from a genuine reverence for God’s commands (Ps. 119:66, 172; cf. Acts 17:11; James 1:25).”

 

            The next word “Commandments” is from entole, MacArthur adds (‘Injunction,’ ‘order,’ or ‘command), not nomos (‘law’).  The term refers not to the Mosaic law, but to the precepts and directives of Christ (cf. Matt. 28:19-20).  But of course the moral and spiritual precepts the Lord taught were consistent with these revealed to Moses (cf. Matt. 5:17-18; John 5:46), all reflective of God’s immutable nature.”

 

            Now under the new covenant God accepts believers’ loving and sincere, albeit imperfect obedience, and forgives their disobedience (cf. Pss. 65:3; 103:3; Isa. 43:25).  Now it is by His grace they display a consistent, heartfelt devotion to the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16; cf. Hos. 6:6) as revealed in the Word.  That willing obedience to Scripture in daily living is a reliable indicator both to self and others that one has come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  It differentiates the unregenerate from the regenerate; Paul called the unregenerate “sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2), whereas the apostle Peter identified the regenerate as “obedient children” (1 Peter 1:14).

 

            MacArthur concludes this section by writing “God-honoring obedience is really reflective of genuine love; as John wrote later in this epistle, ‘we love God and observe His commandments.  For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome’ (5:2b-3).  But the principle was not new to John, as he had heard it from Jesus years earlier in the upper room and recorded it in his gospel:

 

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)

 

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” (14:21).

 

"If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24  "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me” 14:23-24).

 

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (15:10).

 

9/30/2024 11:28 PM