The Faith that Overcomes the World: 3) We know we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commands.

This is the sixth segment of my sermon on 1 John 5:1-5, entitled "The Faith that Overcomes the World", delivered to College Group at College Church on 8/2/09.

Before reading on, make sure you've read 1 John 5:1-5.

3. We know we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commands.
This is strange because it seems to contradict the order of the previous point. The previous point, that everyone who loves the Father is going to love his children too, seems to be telling us to check our love for the Father by whether or not we love his children. Whereas this point seems to be saying that we should check our love for God's children by how we love God and obey his commands. Which is it? Do we check our love for God by our love for Christians, or do we check our love for Christians by our love for God? And I think John would say... Yes! It's both! That's his point. It goes both ways. Love for God and love for his people are inseparable. The true presence of one necessitates the presence of the other. If you don't have one, you don't have the other. And if you do have one, you must also have the other. And anyone who thinks they just have one and not the other is wrong! And the same thing is true apparently if you throw obeying God's commands in there. You don't love God, nor do you love his children, unless you also are obeying his commands. After all, his commands are, as John puts it, to love God and to love his children.

Augustine: "The commandments of which John speaks are the two given by Jesus: Love God and love one another. You need not be afraid of doing harm to anyone, for how can you harm the person you love? Love, and you cannot but do well." Augustine is saying, basically: Love, and you will necessarily do well, because love and keeping God's commands come together or not at all, if you love you must keep his commands.

So, how does this help us know that we have eternal life? Well, if we know we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commands, then all we need to ask ourselves to assure our hearts of eternal life is, "Do we truly love God and obey his commands?"