The 3 Last But Not Least

1 John 5:1-5

Verse 2  This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands.

    We continue our journey of learning to love God through obeying so we can love others.  We have been seeing a theme as we have gone through the list of commands, a thread of how it isn’t simply about our actions but the thoughts that proceed them and even more so, the heart where they grow before becoming thoughts.

    Our next command is one we all know well, we must not steal.  By simple definition stealing is taking something which isn’t ours.  It doesn’t have to be of a certain price value or have a price at all, if it isn’t ours and we take it, we are stealing.  This may be a pencil from someone else’s desk or a candy bar at the store.

    Next is a command which we often think of as simple but there is a depth to it we don’t want to acknowledge.  It is easy to think lying isn’t a problem for us.  Even the kids among us know how bad it is to lie about something and yet every one of us is guilty at one time or another.  Whether it is the half-truth said to keep us from getting into trouble or an out-right lie to get our own way, a lie is a lie.

    There is a lie which fits our theme of loving each other through obeying God, it is the kind of lie which is said about another person.  When we use our words to tear down someone else or destroy their character, we are doing something that proves we don’t love them and we don’t love the Father.  Love needs truth.  As Paul said in his list about love in 1 Corinthians 13, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” (1 Corinthians 13:6)

    The last of the commands in God’s list of loving others through obeying Him is one of the harder commands to obey and one we don’t hear as much about as some of the others.  We are not to covet – desire to the point of obsession – the things which others have.  Semi related to our earlier command of not stealing, it has us focusing on what others have instead of God Himself, another way of showing we want something other than God and proof we don’t love Him enough to love others.

Making It Personal

    Is taking what isn’t yours a problem for you?  How much do you desire what others have?  How truthful are you in life?

Making It Personal Kids

    Have you ever taken something that wasn’t yours?  Have you ever wanted something someone else had so bad that you thought about it all the time?  Have you ever lied?

Closing Prayer

    Father, we know we don’t obey you as we should and so we know we don’t love others as You have commanded us to.  Help us want to obey You by loving others.  In Jesus’ name, amen.