JUST
AS JESUS WALKED
“By this we know that we are in Him: the one
who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He
walked.” (1 John 2:5-6)
We can confidently say
that the commandment to “walk in the same
manner as He walked” calls the believer to a life of obedience following
the pattern of Jesus, (John 15:10). So I asked my family recently at lunch, “If
our ‘walk’ is measured by obedience to the commandments, what commandments did
you keep today?” Mark responded with, “Thou
shall not kill, thou shall not steal, etc.”
To which I replied, “True, but even the dead are capable of keeping the
negative commandments. What positive
commandments did you keep today?” That’s
a question not only for my family, but also for me since keeping the
commandments becomes the measure of how well my “walk” is reflecting the life
of Jesus. The more commandments I fulfill,
the more “Christ-like” I see myself and the more Christ-like my life. In reality, I need to replace my “fitbit”
with a “command-bit” that constantly reminds me to fulfill the commandments.
Herein lies the
paradoxical position of Jews compared to Gentiles. In Jewish thinking, the more the commandments,
the greater the opportunity to walk as the LORD God walks. In the Gentile mind, the more the commandments,
the more burdensome the requirements to keep and be judged against. Can you see how warped our thinking has
become as Gentiles? Rather than striving
to be more like Jesus, believers have used every justification we can muster to
remain in our current state of existence.
We should not have this mindset, rather we should, “Press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in
Christ Jesus,” (Phil 3:14).
I am ashamed to say that
I can name too few of the positive commandments. By tradition, there are 365 positive
commandments, although many are associated with the operation of the temple or
applicable only to those living in the land of Israel. To this total, Jesus added a number of positive
commandments such as “Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matt
5:44). Most positive commandments also come
with a subset of implied actions that can be seen as fulfilling the greater
commandment. For example, reading my
Bible, meditating on the word of God, and praying can all be seen as actions
that fulfill the commandment to “Love God”.
The Pharisees, their predecessors
and followers, developed many specific actions to fulfill the broader commandments. (In Pharisaic thinking, the larger the number
of specific actions, the greater the opportunity to walk after God.) One example is hand washing, which led to a conflict
between the Pharisees and the disciples, (Matt
15:2). While hand washing is not a
specific commandment, it does mirror the actions of the priests prior to coming
into the presence of God at the temple. When
I wash my hands before a meal, I am reminded of the priests as I go before the
LORD in prayer thanking Him for the food we receive. Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees was not
against the practice of hand washing, but that the practice had been elevated
to a commandment. In other words, a
person who does not wash his hands does not sin.
The gospel account of
John is probably the most popular of the four gospel accounts because of John’s
emphasis on God’s love for His creation, (John
3:16). What readers regularly overlook
is John’s strong connection between love and obedience to the commandments, “If you love Me, you will keep my
commandments” (John 14:15), and “He who has My commandments and keeps them
is the one who loves Me: and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I
will love him and will disclose Myself to him,” (John 14:21). John defines “love”
on the basis of what a believer does, not on the basis of what a believer thinks, “This is love that we walk according to His
commandments,” (2 John 1:6). Frustrated with the lack of action from the
German church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Unless he obeys, a man cannot
believe.” Bonhoeffer observed that the
first and last words that Jesus spoke to Peter were “Follow me,” (Mark
1:17)(John 21:22). [1] These words frame the calling and life of
Peter, and become the pattern for all disciples.
Largely unique to the gospel
of John is the concept of “abiding”, as reflected in the instruction of Jesus
to His disciples, “I am the vine, you are
the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart
from Me you can do nothing,” (John
15:5). If asked to define “abiding”,
most believers might say something like, “to dwell comfortably.” The Bible defines “abiding” this way, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide
in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love,”
(John 15:10). Abiding is testified to by personal obedience
to the commandments, but somehow the majority of believers fail to recognize this
close relationship.
Earlier in the fifteenth
chapter of John, we are told that the response to a person’s prayers are directly
related to abiding, “If you abide in Me,
and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you,”
(John 15:7). Since scripture defines “abiding” as
obedience, we understand that obedience to the commandments directly impacts
our prayer life. John repeats the same
principle in his first epistle, “Whatever
we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and to do the
things that are pleasing in His sight,” (1 John 3:22).
If obedience to the
commandments reflects a believer’s “walk”, how was your “walk” today? Can you name the commandments you performed
today since this is the basis the Bible uses to define a person’s walk?
“Therefore be
imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as
Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice
to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Eph 5:1-2)
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