[1 John Series 5] Our Love and LifeSample

Secrets to growing

As people who love the Lord Jesus Christ, we want to deepen our relationship with Him, and we want our lives to show it. This is not as difficult as it may seem. Spiritual growth is marked by two interdependent indicators, our faith and our obedience. Our faith pulls our obedience up. And as our obedience grows, our faith grows. Sometimes when you don’t feel like you have enough faith, you just take the next step of obedience. And when you don’t feel like you have enough obedience, take the next step of faith. 

Faith and obedience work interactively to our spiritual benefit. We shouldn’t neglect one while championing the other. If you have a whole lot of obedience but not a lot of faith, that is self-righteousness. At the same time, if we claim we have a lot of faith, there should be some evidence of it in our life.

We have some good days and some bad days. Not every day is perfect, nor do we do everything right. That is why we have an Advocate whose name is Jesus Christ. We will never be sinless, but we can sin less. God is going to stand in for you and me, through Jesus Christ, so that we can have forgiveness. Grow your faith, and obedience will begin to take care of itself. If you are not sure how to grow your faith, take a step of obedience and you will see God working in your life.

Growing in faith and obedience starts by knowing Jesus Christ. Knowing should result in growing. If you say that you know Him and you don’t keep His commandments, you are fooling yourself. Do you think that people should do what they say? Yes, of course. If not, they are inconsistent.

If you say that you know Him and then do not follow His commandments, the gap between your words and your actions is too big, and you are a liar. We believe that when you say something, you should do what you say. When you say that you are going to be faithful, then you should be faithful. When you say that you’re going to be there, you should be there. When you say that you are going to do something, you should do it. 

None of us do everything perfectly. We are sinners. We struggle. We will never be perfect until we get to heaven. But as we grow in our relationship with Christ, what we say and what we do should get closer and closer.