Proverbs 6:20-23

In Proverbs 6:20-23 Solomon explains how God’s Word can keep us from falling to sin. “My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching.” It’s clear that teaching is a parental activity and includes both dad and mom. We can’t push that responsibility to the schools or church or anywhere else than the home. What and how we teach our kids matters. It’s a responsibility we must not take lightly. Ross wrote “Implicit in these verses is the basic understanding that a good home life—i.e., father and mother sharing the rearing of the children together—will go a long way to prevent the youth from falling into immorality.”

Parents are not responsible for the choices their kids make – those are theirs alone – but we are responsible to teach them God’s truth and commandments. Solomon tells us what that needs to look like; “Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck.” As parents, the charge is to teach in such a way that God’s truth is bound to their heart. A wise child will keep God’s word close, upon their heart and around their neck. Waltke explains that bind them means: “here it pictures him memorizing them in such a way that they are permanently impressed on his essential mental and spiritual being that prompts his every action.”

Solomon also tells us the outcome of having God’s Word in us. “When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.”  The word of God is living and active. When it is cherished and kept close, we benefit from its living power. It then will lead us, it will keep us, and it will speak with us. Anyone who wants God to lead, keep, or speak should begin with cherishing God’s Word. Proverbs 6:22 presents God’s word as a person who helps in many ways.

• A guide: will lead you.
• A guardian: will keep you.
• A companion: will speak with you.

God’s Word can light our path and lead us to God’s way. “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.” When given attention and properly valued, God’s word brings light to us in our darkness. One of the outcomes of knowing God’s commandments and teachings is that they keep us from falling into sin. God’s Word keeps us from making the mistake of chasing evil or being deceived by the enemy who is out to destroy us. Jesus taught us that God’s Word is our defense against the attack of the enemy and we need to know it and use it to walk with Him!

2 John 4-6

In 2 John 4-6 he talks about how we should walk with God. He is rejoicing that they are walking in truth which translates to abiding in God and walking with Jesus. “I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.” Trapp explains it this way: “Not taking a step or two, not breaking or leaping over the hedge to avoid a piece of foul way, but persisting in a Christian course, not starting aside to the right hand or the left.” Walking in the truth is not an optional decision. God has commanded us to walk in truth. It’s why we need to be in His Word which is the foundation of truth.

John again reminds us of the commandment that we’ve been given. “And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.” John presses us to realize that this is important stuff and we must love each other. It’s not new or mysterious. It’s been God’s heart and commandment for a very long time. John knows how important it is so he repeats it again and again before this letter and here reinforces and reminds us to make it so. The integrity of our Christian walk can be measured by how we life out this commandment.

John defines what it means to love one another. “And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.” If we love God, we will obey His commandments. We do this not because we think His commandments are heavy burdens, but because we see that they are best for us. They are guides and gifts to us from God. Real love will always walk with love through obedience. Perhaps John warned against those who thought the only important thing in the Christian life was a vague love that had no concern for obedience.

Meyer explains “Perhaps you fail to distinguish between love and the emotion of love. They are not the same. We may love without being directly conscious of love, or being able to estimate its strength and passion. Here is the solution to many of our questionings: They love who obey.” Love requires action, not merely a warm feeling. We can’t truly love others without first loving God and His Son Jesus Christ which will translate into a desire to be obedient to the truth. That’s what we are called to do – to walk in truth which will in turn cause us to love and be the person God intends us to become.

1 John 4:19b-21

In 1 John 4:19b-21 we are reminded again that “We love because he first loved us.” Love is not our idea. God loved us first. Spurgeon explains He loved us when we were still sinners: “Every man that ever was saved had to come to God not as a lover of God, but as a sinner, and then believe in God’s love to him as a sinner.” Poole wrote “His is the fountain love, ours but the stream: his love the inducement, the pattern, and the effective cause of ours. He that is first in love, loves freely; the other therefore loves under obligation.” And Clarke said it this way:

“1. We love him because we find he has loved us.

2. We love him from a sense of obligation and gratitude.

3. We love him from the influence of his own love; from his love shed abroad in our hearts our love to him proceeds. It is the seed whence our love springs.”

Spurgeon simply said it this way: “Love believed is the mother of love returned.” But as that love comes to us, it has to flow through us to others. “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” It is often easier for someone to proclaim his love for God, because that is often viewed as a private relationship with an invisible God. But John rightly insists that our claim of loving God is false if we do not also love our brother, and that this love must be seen. It can’t be theoretical or in thought but must be lived out in action.

John is strong in his insistence – if we say we love God but don’t love our fellow brethren, he calls that person a liar. Not someone who is in training or working to develop love. By this crucial measurement, Jesus said the world could measure our status as disciples by the measure of our love for one another: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”. (John 13:35) Boice explains there is a difference between the love of man, and divine love. “These verses are the equivalent of saying that a person cannot practice agape-love unless he can first practice philia-love.”

But to make sure we don’t miss the truth – loving our brother is not an option. It is a command. “And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” Being born of God and abiding with Him give us the ability to love; but it is a choice of our will to draw upon that resource and give it out to others. Therefore we are given a command to love, not the option or opportunity. We learn how to love God by loving people. You might say, “I want to love God more; I want to grow in my love for Him. But how can I love a God who is invisible?” God would say to us, “Learn to love Me, Whom you cannot see, by loving My children, whom you can see.”