Walking in Love 2 John 6

What is love? How do we know when we are in love? Is it simply a feeling or wave of emotions? Is it manifested only when things are going our way or is it constant? Just how do we know that we are in love? John the apostle helps us with the idea of love in our verse for today. He wrote it this way in Second John in verse six:

And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.

Sometimes it seems that some ideas are more abstract in the Bible than others, however, this one is very clear. John says “this is love, that we walk after his commandments.” How do we know that we love God? “we walk after his commandments.” In other words, we walk in love, because when we walk after his commandments, we manifest our love for God. Jesus said it this way as recorded in the gospel of John in chapter fourteen and verse fifteen:

If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Whenever we love God, we subject ourselves to what He desires for our lives. To be in opposition to His commands is to reject Him. John employs the word “walk” when describing our love. In other words our love is constant, moving, regular and daily. We move from one action to the next in obedience to God's commandments and God's superior command is to love.

So let's examine ourselves. Do we daily walk with the consciousness of keeping God's commands? Are there people who challenge our love? Are there groups or individuals whom we are having difficulty loving? Do we keep Jesus' commandments? We should all be so grateful for Jesus' next words recorded in the gospel of John in chapter fourteen and verse sixteen thru eighteen:

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but ye know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

Jesus gives us the key to walking in His commandments in these verses. When we receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord, He sends the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to lead us and guide us in walking in His commandments. We do not accomplish the keeping of His commandments on our own. The Spirit of truth, the Comforter, provides us with reminders, and equips us to walk in love at all times. With the Holy Spirit within us we can walk after His commandments and thereby manifest our love for God.

Little children, walk in love. Obey His commandments, and rely upon the Holy Spirit of God who will help you do that which may seem impossible to do.

Next time we shall take a look at what John says about deceivers who are in the world, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow...there is more...

Look for the new devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ; www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore