Conscience and Commandments

This message will largely be one of running application, not saving it up for the end

Last week was essentially, putting our money where our mouths are

Maybe money, maybe other resources

This passage deals with conscience as it relates to our behavior

We’ll explore it as it relates to our convictions

We’ll use the term acts of service to refer to the self-sacrificing acts done in love for other people per vv. 16-19

Which sets the ...

Context

“By this...” What “this” is he talking about?

If we miss that, we miss the set up for the rest of the passage

Showing love in deed and truth not word or talk

Acts of service can be done without the love of God…whatever the motivation

Some people are just generous by nature

Once “arrested” as a charity fundraiser—had not trouble raising the required “bail” because I know a LOT of generous people—not a matter of their faith

Some have a “look at me...” complex

Little House on the Prairie—I’ll donate the ??? and the plaque...

Some truly do what they do “in deed and in truth” not talk and show…so often unknown

Conviction

Our fickle heart may cause our conscience problems, God knows more than our conscience

Very difficult passage for the scholars, complex Greek grammar—I surely get lost in it

If we are doing our acts for all the right reasons, BECAUSE the love of God is in us; because we have not closed our hearts (v.17) to others, our hearts should be at peace

If not at peace, if questions arise in our minds, God will settle that for us

If we have NOT done our acts of service for the right reason, God SHOULD cause our hearts to convict us, and we should NOT be at peace until we make it right

Confidence

If we’re getting it right, it is part of the proof of our relationship with Christ

Following that:

Because we have confidence before God that we can then approach Him with our requests

Which opens a can of worms

Can we ask ANYTHING of God and get it?

Our text tells us “yes,” IF we keep his commandment—note that here it’s singular—and do what pleases Him

From the text, it appears that the commandment in view is to love one another

…but then John switches and goes to the plural: commandments

This follows the idea of asking according to God’s will

We must take a sneak-peak ahead in this epistle to 1 John 5 14

1 John 5:14 ESV

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

We’ll explore that entire “according to His will” part when we hit that passage

We’re also given the passage about asking in faith Mark 11 23

Mark 11:23 ESV

Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.

There are context issues to be understood there, Jesus was teaching his disciples—who really didn’t have their spiritual lives on track yet; he was teaching a specific lesson—we dealt with it some years ago when we preached through Mark

Too many well-intended people, not to mention the name it and claim it preachers take these passages and try to blow them into things they are not

Commandments

We can start this concept it Gen 26 5 where Abraham is blessed because of his obedience

Genesis 26:5 ESV

because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

And move to the Gospels in John 14 21

John 14:21 ESV

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

That’s proof of loving God which precedes loving our neighbors and our brothers in the overall scheme of Scripture

If we are loving God above all things, we will love our neighbor as ourselves

Those to things being right, we will be following all the commandments

We will have our sins confessed, have forgiven our neighbors for offenses against us

Then, only then, will we have a right attitude for prayers of petition

With that attitude, we’ll not be asking for selfish, frivolous things

Communion

…our communion with God and with the saints

If we’re getting this right, we should feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives

This is Abiding in God and He is us

When we are together in this relationship, we are then bound together with other believers

All of us trusting in in Jesus Christ for our salvation

This is true “communion of the saints”

This morning we gather together and and receive “communion” the Lord’s Supper as it is called

We recently were taught on its origins during our Maundy Thursday service

It was the night Jesus gave the command to His disciples John 13 34

John 13:34 (ESV)

...you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

This morning as we celebrate this time let’s be sure we’re getting it right

Loving one another as He loved us

We must be trusting in Him, abiding in Him