The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1919, Page 2

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

a aa al

9 The Lutheran Pioneer.

the anxious questions that may arise in your mind;
He will solve all your painful doubts; He will
bring to full fruition all your budding hopes; He
will supply all your needs and remedy all your ills.

ee F. J. 1.

Christians Should Keep Christ’s
Commands.
1 JouNn 2, 3—6.

There is no better text with which to close the
old year and begin the new than the seventh verse
of the foregoing chapter: “The blood of Jesus
Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” The
principal thing that we need at any time during the
year, and the most precious thing, too, is God’s
gracious forgiveness of our sins for Christ’s sake,
which is appropriated by true faith. The begin-
ning of a new year, however, is not only an exten-
sion of the season of grace, but also an exhorta-
tion and opportunity for us to show our gratitude
for the gift of divine grace by walking in newness
of life. St. John admonishes us in our verses to
walk according to Christ’s commandments.

V.3. Hereby we do know that we know Christ,
if we keep His commandments. If we would know
assuredly whether we really know Christ, by a liv-
ing faith (2 Cor. 4,6), know Him properly as our
Savior, but also as our Example, we should examine
ourselves as to whether we fulfil the commandments
which He has given us. If men do not fulfil them,
do not serve their God and neighbor continually by
acts of godliness, charity, etc., do not daily seek
communion with their heavenly Father in prayer,
do not struggle against the evil within thernselves
or without; in short, if they are not careful to
maintain good works, they do not know Christ,
have no real spiritual knowledge of Him. Christ
is still a Stranger to them. ‘They are still essen-
tially in the same spiritual condition as the poor
ignorant heathen who haye never heard the sweet
name of Jesus, but bow down before their dead
idols. If we find, however, on examining ourselves.
that we are earnestly engaged in keeping our
Master’s precepts, then we may and should thereby
know and feel assured that we are indeed well
acquainted with Him, know Him intimately by
true faith, and are His close friends and faithful
followers. Hence He said to His disciples: “Then
are ye My friends if ye do whatsoever I command
you.” ‘The active service we render Him, our im-
plicit obedience to His precepts, show that we

deeply appreciate Him as our Redeemer and eagerly
follow His steps, being irresistibly drawn to Him,
our Ensample, by His virtues, which we know,
prize, and admire. We then know, understand, and
realize what He is to us, both as our Redeemer
and as our Guide and Pattern. We then know Him
as a man knows his bosom friend, brother, or
mother (Matt.12,50). All that actually know
Him, have a living knowledge of Him in whom
their soul delights, cannot but thank Him for His
grace from the depth of their souls, cannot but
carefully and studiously imitate His graces and
pleasant holy ways, being captivated: by the traits
of His character which has won their whole hearts.
It is their greatest desire to keep His beautiful
precepts with gladness of spirit. They simply can-
not do otherwise. ver since they have. learned to
know Him by faith, their hearts burn with a yearn-
ing to follow Him, being impelled by an inward
force, His Holy Ghost, whom Ele has imparted to
them. The more Christ is formed in them, the
happier they are. To know Him by faith means
to be led forthwith and always to love Him, adhere
to Him, and heed His words right willingly. The
deeper their spiritual knowledge of Jesus becomes,
the more they grow enamored of Him, delighted
with Him, and the more they feel urged to run the
way of His commandments, to live only for Him
and to love Him. “They scorn the richest earthly
lot, e’en heay’n and earth attract them not, if only
He be near them.” ‘The living knowledge of Christ
gently, yet powerfully and thoroughly, moves and
impels them to do according to His will, which
they adore and are most eager to comply with.
V.4. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth
not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is
He that does not perform good works
according to Christ’s will and Word, doing right
and shunning wrong, cannot possibly know Christ
in a living way. If he nevertheless claims that he
does, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. It
cannot be otherwise; for if he knew Christ spirit-
ually by faith, he could not help but being bent
upon doing good continually according to His
words. He could and would not be satisfied with
leading a life that is not Christlike, but would
loathe and detest such an existence. He would
not rest content until he became more and more like
Him. He would count every hour of his life lost
in which he would not be fruitful in good works.
But if a person’s life is not given to the per-
formance of Christ’s commands, he evidently has

not in him.