Live Upright Lives; First John

May the mumbling commence!

God commands us to upright living.  To live any less than an upright life is to sin.  So, here we have both part of a definition of sin and a command of God – two sides of the same coin.  Read from First John chapter three (The New Jerusalem Bible translation):

Now you are well aware that he has appeared in order to take sins away, and that in him there is no sin.  No one who remains in him sins, and whoever sins has neither seen him nor recognized him.  Children, do not let anyone lead you astray. Whoever acts uprightly is upright, just as he is upright.  Whoever lives sinfully belongs to the devil, since the devil has been a sinner from the beginning. This was the purpose of the appearing of the Son of God, to undo the work of the devil. 

No one who is a child of God sins because God's seed remains in him. Nor can he sin, because he is a child of God.  This is what distinguishes the children of God from the children of the devil: whoever does not live uprightly and does not love his brother is not from God. (Verses 5-10)

Do not let Satan fool you with a slight of hand.  For the author of First John, the issue is rather black and white.  Those who live upright lives are upright in the eyes of God.  God commands us to live so.

The flip side is this: no one born of God can continue in habitual sin.  As we accept Christ, we accept the seed of God – which prohibits the growth of habitual sin.

So, what does God command us to do?  Remember that to love God is to obey His commandments.  God commands us to upright living.  Upright living is put in clear opposition to sin.  Upright living is living in harmony with the Spirit of God.

And the last thought in this passage leads us to another of God’s important commands for us.  Love of God must be paired with love of our fellow brothers and sisters.  The author of First John goes into great depth with this command.

I wonder is the ancient command that the author speaks about in chapter two (verses 7-8) is the command to obey the commandments… and if the new command is to love God and love one another.  It will be interesting to look at how much time the letter of First John devotes to each piece…

And the age old question that was posed to Jesus… “Who is my neighbor?”  It is also interesting to see how various translators approach loving the brother… just a Christian brother or just a fellow Christian.  Or is the definition much broader than either?

These are interesting thoughts to mull and meditate over… interesting thoughts to help give purpose and anticipation to our study of First John.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out