1 John 5:3-4, “This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

Interesting points:

1. Building on the previous verses, John drives home the point that a believer's love for God is measured by obedience. Obedience to God's commands is a necessary expression of love. Just as a child obey his or her parents in love, we believers obey our heavenly Father to show Him love Him. Obedience is NOT the vehicle to receive salvation, rather it is the expected result of being a child of God.



2. Faith in Christ makes possible obedience to the commandment of love. Some of John's readers may have felt daunted about a list of expectations which seemed impossible to obey. However, we saw in 1 John 4:21 that John had already defined the fundamental commandments of Christianity: as loving God and loving one another. Christ's commands are not a burden, but a blessing for those who know God. Jesus said in Matthew 11:30, "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" and in Luke 11:46 indicated that it was the teachers of legalism and hypocrisy who made the burden of the commandments hard to bear.

3. In Verse 4, John returns (again) to the theme of believers as overcomers. In John 1:5 we find the light (Jesus) has overpowered the darkness, and in John 16:33 that He has defeated the powers of this world (John 16:33). Because of Him, we believers are not to be overcome by evil, but can overcome evil with good as Paul reminds us in Romans 12:21. Christians are not left weak and defenseless in spiritual battles because Jesus Christ has already won them! This point is the result of John’s words in 1 John 2:13–14 that believers have overcome both the evil one and even evil spirits (1 John 4:4).

4. How do believers overcome the world? John will unpack this in Verse 5: by believing in Jesus as the Son of God. Here in verse 4, John simply refers to "faith" as our victory. The faith of the believer is the victory that overcomes. Every believer is an overcomer and is victorious because they have eternal life in Christ (John 3:16) and abundant life now (John 10:10). God's Spirit lives within the believer to provide power over the battles of this world.

Application:

Brothers, in John 14:15 Jesus told us, “If you love me, you will obey what I command,” right before saying (Verse 16), “…I will ask my Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.” Since we studied that the One who is in us “is greater than the one who is in the world” in 1 John 4:4, we can attack our spiritual battles with confidence knowing that God’s good work is ongoing in us, transforming us and resulting in the ultimate victory. Let’s live that way!