Accomplishment 1

1 John 5:3-4

My parents used to spend many evenings together playing the game Yahtzee. It wasn’t until after my father passed away that I heard my mother say that my father loved the game and she always hated the game. But she said that she would do anything to play the game one more time with my father.

She may have hated the game but she was willing to play it because she loved my father. When we love the things we are expected to do are not a burden.

Following the fourth chapter which focused on love, John now reminds us of some of his previous statements. What does he say about love? What comment is made about the commands of God? What promise do we have? How do we achieve our victory?

In this final chapter of 1 John the author tells us of the accomplishment of our faith. To sum it all up briefly, the accomplishment of faith is a victory over the world. John is not talking about a conquest that makes us rulers over the land, but rather a victory in the sense that we are no longer controlled by the material.

If we can have the faith that John has spoken about throughout this book we will be living out the love of God. We will be in perfect communion with God and in that way we will be victorious over all the things in life that cause us fear and stress, and all those things that tempt us. When we have overcome these pitfalls and traps in life then we will certainly have peace in our hearts and in our lives.

It seems incorrect of John to claim God’s commands are not a burden. It can be very difficult to live like Jesus and obey the commands of God. But when our faith has reached that level of perfection that John calls for, when we know Jesus is real and we are invested in our faith, then obeying the commands are a natural part of who we are and we obey God in love. Then obeying God is not a burden.

DAILY CHALLENGE: What must you do to obey God’s commands?