1 John 2:3 – 6 “By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments. If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him: Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked.”
There’s a story about a little boy who misbehaved. Wanting to punish her son, his mother ordered him to sit on a chair facing a corner for thirty minutes. Not long after the boy sat down, his mother passed by and heard him muttering, “I might be sitting down on the outside, but I’m STANDING UP on the inside!”
Many of us are like that with God. We want everybody else to think that we are really good people who follow God’s commandments; however, when it actually comes to keeping those commandments, we want to cut corners. Remember Satan in the Garden of Eden, “Did God REALLY say….?” Many of us routinely use that line of reasoning. “Oh, but surely God didn’t REALLY mean that I had to forgive all of my enemies all of the time! Surely there are some times when my anger is justified.” You fill in the sin that most besets you. It’s different for each of us, but each one of us has some little corner of our hearts in which we practice rebellion. The problem is that we are attempting to deceive a Supreme Being who knows our thoughts and the intentions of our hearts even before we do!
When I was a small child, we used to play a game in which one child would hold up a single finger and claim, “You can’t see me; I’m hiding!” The problem was that assertion was ridiculous. The child was only engaging in “magic thinking,” i.e., believing something was so because he/she hoped that it was. We do the same thing with God.
God wants us to keep His Word and to act in His Love. Will we get all of it perfectly right? Absolutely not! That is why we all need a Savior who can stand on our behalf. But is it necessary for us to keep God’s Word as much as we can? Absolutely yes! Practice still makes perfect, or at least more perfect. If we continue to attempt to walk as Jesus walked, the more we study His life and try to copy Him, the closer we will become to God. And the closer we are to God, the more joy and peace we will have in our lives, regardless of outward circumstances.
The Apostle Paul told the Philippian church, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have laid hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)
Why should we try to become like Jesus? Well, what do you have to lose? You will lose anxiety, stress, depression, despair, hopelessness, and the presence of evil in your life. You will gain the fruits of the Holy Spirit as described in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Such a deal!
PRAYER: Father God, we want to be like Jesus, but we have these corners of rebellion in our lives. Please help us to confess our sins so that you can forgive us and free us from them. Help us to walk in the light as you are in the light and to follow hard after you all the days of our lives. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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