Live Like Jesus

“But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” 1 John 2:5–6

The apostle John, the author of 1 John, walked closely with Jesus during His ministry, witnessed countless miracles, and experienced hardships and suffering as a result of claiming Christ and proclaiming His name for decades following Jesus’ resurrection. He understood the self-sacrificial reality of following Jesus. Yet he was also completely consumed with the Truth and the desire to make it known. As believers in a modern world, it is so easy to blend in and do what is comfortable, to live for Jesus on Sunday, but be consumed with the world by Monday. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” We are called to be on guard, actively pruning our thought life, filling our minds with Truth, and leaving no room for darkness. God graciously calls us His children, and as such, we must seek purity and peace in the way we live. As 1 John 3:3 says, “All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure.” By filling our hearts with the Spirit and meditating daily on the Truth, we begin to live in a constant state of overflow. We become able to love fully. Obedience is the measure of our love for Christ over our love for self. Living like Jesus involves humility, serving, and dying to our desires so that we can be made complete in Him. This is not a call to perfection, but a daily choice to choose Him over ourselves. The evidence of a life rooted in Him is not what we say, but how we live. As 1 John 3:18 says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”