“Keeping the Commandments of Jesus!”

“Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” (1 John 3:24 ESV)

For many years, I was taught “That we, as believers, need to keep all the commandments that Jesus taught if we want to stay in His good graces”. After all, doesn’t John tell believers that “Whoever keeps his (Jesus’) commandments abides in God?” Before we go too far down this line of thinking, remember we need to keep every verse we find in the Bible in its grammatical, biblical, and historical/cultural contexts. We can’t just “cherry-pick” a verse from John, and one from Paul, and another from James, and put them all together and put forth doctrines that we say are supported by Scripture. The exhortation from Paul to Timothy to “Study to show yourself approved to God…” is an exhortation to do a bit more than just read a couple of verses and make them fit whatever thoughts you have in mind. The word that the KJV translates as “study” means to be diligent with the word of truth.

Now, for us to “be diligent” with this verse in 1 John, we need to see exactly what John was talking about when he said “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him…”. The first thing we need to understand is the “commandments” of our Lord, and what they are. The grammatical context is found in 1 John 3:23, “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us”. Now, by defining exactly what the commandments of Jesus are that John is referring to, we can see that John limits the commands to two things. First is to believe in and accept the gift of salvation offered by God through His Son, the Lord Jesus. And secondly, to love other believers. That’s it. Verse 24 is not a general exhortation to keep everything that Jesus ever taught to the Old Testament believers that was recorded in the gospels, but to really boil down what the New Covenant was all about, accepting the gift of eternal life by faith, accepting that God offers, by His grace through His beloved Son, eternal life. Once we have kept this commandment of Jesus, we will have eternal life. Now that we have eternal life, we will abide or reside in God, and God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit will abide or reside in us. Now, once we have the trinity living in us, we will be able to keep the second command of our Lord, to “Love one another”. We are now capable of loving others as God loves us.

All too many times, I’ve heard that we as Christians need to follow “all the commands of Jesus”. We need to follow the 10 Commandments, we need to follow the Sermon on the Mount (good luck with those teachings), we need to get out our “updated” copy of the Old Covenant with its 613 laws and start living like Jesus said. They try to use guilt and obligation to cause believers to live God-honoring lives, but it doesn’t work. All of us have seen way too many miserable Christians trying to keep all the “commandments of Christ”. They are trying to earn their rewards from God by keeping their lists of dos and don’ts. That’s no way to live in grace; that’s no way to live under the new covenant of mercy and grace.

When we realize that when Jesus said “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:29-30), that He meant just that. His commandments are not burdensome; they do not weigh you down; they do not give you a heavy heart. His commandments are uplifting; they free our souls, they show us how to accept His gift of grace and how to share it with others.

So, my friend, don’t be tricked by false teachings about “keeping the commandments of Jesus” and how much you need to give up in order to abide in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. All we have to do to “keep Jesus’ commandments of believing in the name of Jesus and to love one another” is just that, accept the gift and appreciate the love that God has already given us. Those are the commandments that will allow us to enjoy this life of grace that Jesus has secured for us.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"