1 John 5:3-4: Obedience Made Easy

"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith." 1 John 5:3-4

For those of you who've read this blog for a while or have ever been under my teaching, you have probably read or listened to my speech on this topic before. Yet, I can't help but this again. The truths of God contained in 1 John 5:3-4 are beautiful. I desire that each one of us write them on our hearts and never forget them, for by them obedience can truly be made easy.

The common Bible reader, when he comes to 1 John 5:3-4, is verily confused. John outrightly states that God's "commandments are not burdensome." Last time I checked, obeying God's commands is hard. Trying to read my Bible each and every day, "pray continuously," honor my parents, not be anxious, love my neighbor, and a myriad of other commands are hard enough to keep track of--nevertheless trying to follow perfectly! Often, God's commands feel like more of a burden than anything else. But according to John, this simply isn't so. According to John, if you see God's commands as a burden, your theology is messed up.

You see, according to John, God's commandments aren't burdensome because of this one, five-letter word: faith. By faith, John says, we overcome (or "conquer") the world (that is, sinful temptation). By faith, we resist temptation, live godly lives, and love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. By faith, we overcome, and thus God's commands are not burdensome. But how is this so?

Let me present before you this morning a simple analogy. Say I walked into your living room this morning when you were drinking your morning cup of coffee and asked you a simple question: would you rather have $5 right now, or $50,000 tomorrow? I reminded you that you could only choose one. Now, think fast: what would you choose? Obviously the latter, right? 24 hours is certainly worth a $49,995 profit.

Now, let us talk about what you just did in that little analogy. You just acted in faith. You laid aside something tangible, something which you could see and experience in the present moment (a $5 bill) for something that you trusted would come to you tomorrow (a $50,000 check). Faith, as defined by the Holy Spirit, is simply the conviction of the unseen (Hebrews 11:1). In that moment, you had a conviction that and unseen $50,000 later was better than $5 now. You trusted that a laying aside of present pleasures ($5) would result in future pleasures. That is the essence of faith.

Now, let me rephrase the question. Say I walked into you living room this morning, and instead of offering you various amounts of money, said this: "You can either live for yourself today and live in eternal hell tomorrow, or you can live for the Lord today and live in eternal heaven tomorrow. Which will you choose?" Let me bring it closer to home: "You can either choose to watch pornography one more time, choose to love yourself rather than your neighbor, choose to not read your Bible one more time today, or disobey any of the other commands found in scripture, or you can obey those commands and enjoy God's eternal pleasures rather than enjoy your sinful pleasures now."

Do you see the point? Now, listen: I'm not preaching salvation by works. I'm not saying that you can lose your salvation. Salvation is fully by God's grace, and once you have it, you cannot lose it. But what I am saying is this: every day we have a choice: We can either live by faith, trusting that God's commandments, though perhaps difficult now, will obtain us an eternal, all-satisfying joy later, or we can live faithlessly and obey our own passions and desires. The choice is ours. Will we live by faith, or not?

Now, back to what John was saying. If we live by this faith, John tells us, following God's commands will not be burdensome. How so? Well, let me ask you. On that day I walked into your house and offered you the $50,000 tomorrow, would that one day you had to wait for that $50,000 be "burdensome"? No! Why? Answer: because you had a conviction that it was fully worth the wait. Now, let me compare this to our sin. When we have a full conviction of the unseen (faith) that God's commands for us are better than our sin and that his eternal pleasures for us in heaven are far more satisfying than the temporal pleasures of this earth, we will have no problem not sinning. Thus, my friends, let me tell you this: you don't have a sin problem, you have a theology problem. You don't have a problem with sinful hands, you have a problem with a sinful heart. You don't sin because you have to; you sin because deep down in your heart you believe that obeying God's commands simply isn't worth it. Just like Adam and Eve in the Garden, you think that your way is "better" than God's way. And thus, rather than living by a conviction of the unseen (that God's way is better), you act out your own lustful intentions.

Thus, let me encourage you this morning: the solution to your sin isn't moralistic body-beating, forcing yourself to obey God's commands. These will just lead you into deeper depression. Rather, the solution to your sin is simply having faith that God is better than your sin. And, dear brother and sister, if you simply believe in this, obeying the Lord will not be burdensome. It's not a behavior problem, it's a beholding problem.

And how do you get to the place where you adore the Lord more than your sin? Well, I'm so glad you asked. If only there was a book that God had written to tell us who he is, that we might take a hold of those characteristics and adore Him. Oh wait! There is! It's called the Bible. Readers, it purely astonishes me how much people are so confused about why they can't stop sinning, yet they don't read scripture! I want to look at them and say: No wonder you can't stop sinning! You're not filling that void in your life with the truth of God's word and the truth about the character of Christ! Dear brothers and sisters, read God's Word, find out who God is, and behold him, that by faith you would trust that God is greater than your sin. Amen.