“I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father.”
as we received commandment from the Father
Faithfulness to God’s commandment is the foundation of true Christian living. The lady’s children of 2nd John made a close correspondence between how they lived their lives and God’s commandment or His Word.
True Christianity cannot separate truth, love, and the application of truth to experience. Love without truth is mere sentiment. Application of truth to experience without love is simply a ceremony. Truth must always direct our love.
Ga 2:5, “…to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.”
Ga 3:1, O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?”
Ga 5:7, “You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?”
Eph 6:14, “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness…”
2 Th 2:10, “…and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”
2 Ti 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
1 Pe 1:22-23, 22 “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever…”
PRINCIPLE:
Faithfulness to God’s Word is the foundation of Christian living.
APPLICATION:
Love without application of truth to experience is mere sentiment. It is deficient of reality. Service without love is servility. True Christianity harmonizes doctrinal orientation to truth and living truth out in experience.
Continuance is proof of conversion. The evidence of divine life is when people live out what they believe.
Jn 8:31-32, 31 “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 ‘And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”
Jn 15:9, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”
Co 1::23, “…if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.”
1 Jn 2::19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”
There is a point when children are too old for parents to do anything about their lifestyles. All they can do then is to hold them up before the Lord.
