Intro: Recently, God has been leading me to teach about genuine faith. Now, real faith is about action to what Christ has made known. Christ is the Living Word, so when we gain and understand truth from God’s Word we need to live and practice it; this is known as the obedience of faith. Jesus taught his disciples that love for him was shown through obedience to the commands/teachings of God (John 14:21). The Word of God opens our faith toward obedience and conformity to Christ—and God get’s the glory. We are to be imitators of God (Eph 5:1). This is a picture of genuine faith.
In our passage today, the apostle John wants us to focus on Christ—the Son of God. Three things in our verses stand out to me: 1) We must believe in Christ to be born of God; 2) We must obey God’s Word or Commands in order to love God and others in a righteous way; and 3) We overcome and defeat evil through the obedience of genuine faith in Christ! This is all such Good News!
1 John 5:1-5 NLT Faith in the Son of God
1 Everyone who believes [as fact] that Jesus is the Christ [Messiah] has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. 2 We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments [remain mindful of his teaching]. 3 Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome [oppressive]. 4 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. 5 And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Prayer: Father, thank you for sending your Son to bring salvation to your children. Jesus, thank you for being the Word we so desperately need in order to understand the Truth. Holy Spirit, thank you for guiding and empowering us to live for the glory of God! In Jesus’ name. Amen.