Burdenless Commandments

The book of 1 John is amazing. I have been challenged, broken, beaten and convicted by the verses that small book contains. Recently, while on vacation, I was struck by a passage in 1 John 5, which has been a tough piece of meat to chew on.


1 John 5:3 says: "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome."


His commandments are not burdensome.


Not burdensome. This struck me, because I never thought THAT about God's commands. In fact, when I look at some of them, I would say they put a "heavy load" upon me. They are actually meant to be without burden?


My immediate reaction was something like: "John, are you joking? OK, I understand that following the Commandments of God are required of me, I know that they are good and right and you can determine whether or not I know God by how well I follow them...but not a burden? What are you smoking?"


Probably not your "typical" Pastoral response but hey I would throw "typical" or "expected" out the window when authenticity can be so much better, not to mention more healing (as well as revealing).


This verse has been going through my mind a lot recently. Taking the book of 1 John as a whole, it is a refutation of false doctrine as well as a small handbook for Christians to do heart checks as to whether they truly are following Christ, or not. It is a great book to determine whether you're a Christian or not. With that said, John while coming to the close of this book, reminds the believer the utter importance of God's commands.


1 John 5:1-5 says:

" ¹^A)">(A) Everyone who believes that^B)">(B) Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and^C)">(C) everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. ²^D)">(D) By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. ³For^E)">(E) this is the love of God, that we^F)">(F) keep his commandments. And^G)">(G) his commandments are not burdensome. ⁴For^H)">(H) everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—^I)">(I) our faith. ⁵Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes^J)">(J) that Jesus is the Son of God?"


Loving God=Following His commands.


Some people will take these verses and do whack job things with it. Some will say that if you sin at all, even once after conversion, you're not truly saved. This person obviously didn't read 1 John 1:5-2:2. Others will say that these verses don't say that this means what we think it means and will downplay the importance of the message.


Legalism kills as we see in Matthew 23, but so does apathy.


This is where 1 John 5:3 comes into play. We don't beat our chest and try to do the commandments of God by ourselves. We don't do do do...it is about surrender.


We must first come to the point that we realize that God is our creator. Next we must realize that God Loves us more deeply than we can imagine. After we sort of grasp that (I don't think this side of heaven we will ever FULLY grasp this), we then must come to the conclusion that he (since he loves us) has our best interest in mind. This is how eventually his commandments no longer become burdensome, but blessings. It is a hard mind shift, I know I have been wrestling with it for a month and anticipate much longer!


God created us. He knows how we work best. When he says to do something or NOT to do something...it's because doing those things or not doing those things is how we work best. He is a loving Father, with eons of life experience who knows the traps and folly that following Satan brings. He desires your best. He desires my best.


I am praying that I can experience the fullness of this verse. Where doing what God commands is not burdensome. I need to surrender my agenda, my attempts at living this "christian life" and allow His Spirit full control. Give over the keys to my life, my thinking and my actions, falling in FAITH into His loving, caring arms!

The Honest Truth

You know those people who love you that never fail to tell you the truth? I am proud to say that I have two of those people in my life.

My wife is one as well as my mentor Doug. Whenever I have a serious question about myself, my shortcomings or my own thoughts I know I can take them to these two and they will speak truth into my life.

Doug and Hilary (my wife) don't sugar coat anything. Nor do they try to "soften the blow" of the truth they speak into my life. They give it to me straight-up.

Sadly, we live in a society where "everyone is special" and no one speaks the truth. We try not to hurt peoples feelings when they ask us for advice. We try to always say "nice things".

Don't get me wrong, we need encouragement and we need to be told the good things...however sometimes we need to speak hard truth.

Hilary just read a couple lines of this post and said this true statement: "I can tell you the truth because I love you and that's the kind of relationship we have. We've built that. Oh and I love you too much not to tell you the truth."

She's hit the nail on the head...we earn this type of truth telling. We built it into our relationships.

This is true for Doug and I too. When I was his intern he did an "annual review" of me and my skills and weaknesses. This evaluation took place at Stir Crazy in the Palisades mall almost 4 years ago. Here Doug built in this truth telling by telling me I needed counseling.

You didn't read that wrong. At the tail end of my sophomore year Doug told me this statement of PURE TRUTH:

"Marvin, you have a lot of gifts and talents but you will never reach your full potential until you get some healing. You have a desire to be significant in the eyes of people, this will end up hurting you tremendously in your ministry and will cause your Senior Pastor to work extremely hard to disciple you...unless you get help. I am recommending you get some counseling to assist you in this. It is your choice and I will not force you but I am telling you that from where I sit, you need it."

This is the type of authentic community that 1 John 1:7 talks about: "walking in the light" brings fellowship with God and others. Doug (by the Holy Spirit's guidance) was shinning light into a dark cavern of my sin.

This is bringing truth to light.

A similar thing happened on Tuesday Night on into Wednesday. I was sharing some embarrassing thoughts I had about how good I am and how amazing I could be if I only got the chance with both Hilary and Doug.

You know what? They both told me the truth about my thoughts. They both were HONEST about who I am, why I think stupid stuff and how I need to stop focusing on myself and on Jesus more. "What will glorify Christ?" was Doug's main rebuttal. I had to admit that what I was thinking was glorifying to me, not Christ!

We as a Church community need more people to smack us with the Honest Truth. We need to be hit in our sinful crotches with the Truth of God! It sucks, I know but it is so worth it. I truly believe that this type of honesty can change the Church. This type of authentic living can cause people to GROW in Christ by leaps and bounds...I know it has done so for me!

I tremble to think where I would be without 1. The Counseling I went through and 2. my PSF class at Nyack College. These places are where God kicked me hard with his truth and called out a lot of change within my life.

Who smacks you with the Honest Truth? If your answer is: "No one" let me hit you with some Honest Truth: YOU NEED SOMEONE NOW!