His commandments are not burdensome.

1 John 5:1-15

 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. ² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. ⁴ For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

⁵ Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?...¹³ These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴ This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

As I reflected on today's reading from the One Year Bible(link available on link page) there was a lot of the contuing theme from yesterday equating love of God and man and our following God's commandments. While that is certainly a foundational principle, what stood out to me in today's reading was this simple phrase. His commandments are not burdensome.

His commands are not burdensome. That's the difference between relating to God without Christ, through the law and being in Christ, the fulfillment of the law. The old covenant, was God's way of making people aware of what they needed to do to meet God's standard of holiness and righteousness. Much of that was restrictive. The 10 Commanments are a list of things that thou shall not. In all of the 613 Levitical laws 365 were negative in nature, thou shall not. The rest were requirments, things that needed to be done and how to do them.

In Jesus, we have the fulfillment of the law. Jesus says “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.(Matthew 5:17). The difference between the old covenant law and the fulfillment of the law which we have in Christ is that in Christ we are set free. Galations 5:1 says.  It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.  The thing about the freedom that we have in Christ is that the world does not understand it. The world, unbelievers think that being a follower of Christ is restrictive. They think that a relationship with God is about the things they can no longer do. 1 Jonh 1:4-5 says …4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. The world can not comprehend the truth of the freedom that we have in Christ. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:14, The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

Jesus fulfillment of the law leads us to His commandments.  “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”(Matthew 22)

There is nothing restrictive about our life in Christ. All Jesus asks is that we first love God with all our heart, soul and mind. This leads us to do the second which is to love our neighbor(others) as ourself. We are not asked to give up. We are still to love ourself. The psalmist understood how loving God gives to us rather than restricts us. Psalm 37:3-5

Trust in the Lord and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
⁵ Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it. 

He will give you the desires of your heart. It's true that the desires of our heart will change as we love and trust in God more. We will become less self absorbed, less focused on persuing the things of the world. But it's not restrictive, it's not negative. Jesus says  I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. 

Abundant life, freedom, the desires of your heart, that's what a life in Christ should look like. Sometimes we wonder why others don't want to join us in a Christian life. Are we telling them what they should not do? Asking them to live under the law? Or are we fulfilling the fulfillment of the law? Are we loving them as ourselves? Do we love God with all our heart, soul and mind? We only can love Him because He first loved us.

His commandments are not burdensome. Jesus says Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Along with abundant life and freedom Jesus gives us rest for our souls.

If you know Christ and are in Him, I pray that you experience more of the truth of this each day. I pray also that your life will be the evidence of this truth to those around you. If you are one who has not been able to understand what a life in Christ would mean. If you have believed that it would mean a life of denial and a list of things you can not do I encourage you to accept Jesus Christ today as your Lord and Savior. Simply confess that you have fallen short of the standard of God's righteousness. Accept Jesus work on the cross as redemption for your life and restoration for your relationship with God. There is nothing to lose but the striving this world causes. What you gain is freedom, abundant life, rest and peace for your soul.

Thank You Lord.