A Christian Guidebook: Who Is a Christian? (4)

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.” John 8.31

Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. 1 John 2.3-6

Time with Jesus
We need to be clear about a point we raised in the previous installment. There we said that Christians, who are disciples of Jesus, spend time with Jesus. We wrote, “[Christians] must ‘walk circumspectly’ (Eph. 5.15-17) to be like Jesus in all our words and deeds, looking to and communing with Him—if only in silence—so that He will direct, empower, and bless our being, speaking, and acting like Him.”

We “walk circumspectly” as we abide—that is, as we continue—with Jesus in all the time of our lives. John, as we see in our text for today, picked up on Jesus’ use of the verb “abide” or “continue” and explained that all who “continue” with Jesus are “to walk as He walked.” We want to continue with Jesus and walk with Him in all the time of our lives.

Time, as Jonathan Edwards explained, is God’s most precious temporal gift, a “precious talent” to be invested in loving God and our neighbors (The Preciousness of Time). We must strive each day to continue in our time with Jesus. We are accountable to God for how we use our time, Edwards reminded us; and we have already wasted far more time than ever we should have. We must improve our time by using our time more in line with the way Jesus used His. We want to continue in our time walking with Jesus as He walked when He was among us.

Improving our time with Jesus
Edwards exhorted us in three ways to improve our time and therefore our walk with Jesus. First, get busy at it right now. Today. This moment. Resolve to abide and continue in Jesus and to walk every step of your life with Him Who is with you always, even to the end of the age. Edwards quoted Psalm 119.60, “I made haste, and did not delay to keep Your commandments.” Right now is the time to begin improving our use of the time God gives us.

Second, Edwards urged us to improve those “most precious” moments of our time which are spent in prayer and in reading and meditating on God’s Word. We can all do better here. Edwards called this “holy time” and insisted that it “is more precious that common time” so we should always be seeking to improve it.

Third, Edwards pleaded with readers to use more of what he called “leisure” time to improve, not our bodies, but our souls. We must not waste our time in “useless diversions or amusements” but invest even this time to help “fit the mind and body for the work of our general and particular callings.”

All of which reinforces the importance of continuing with Jesus at all times so that we walk the path that Jesus walked in everything we do.

The path of God’s Law
But what path did Jesus walk? Obviously, the path of knowing, loving, and serving God and loving the people of this world enough to die for us. Put more succinctly, Jesus walked the path of loving God and His neighbors. That is, Jesus walked the path marked out by the Law of God (cf. Matt. 22.34-40).

A Christian is someone who delights in, learns, obeys, and helps others to delight in, learn, and obey the holy and righteous and good Law of God (Matt. 5.17-19; Rom. 7.12). Such a lifestyle may not appeal to those who are babes in Christ or who consider it acceptable to remain immature in Him. But Christians who abide with Jesus will want to discover, delight in, and dedicate themselves to walking the path that Jesus walked in all the time of their lives.

This can begin, as Edwards noted, right now. Today. Today you can take the Law of God into all your relationships, roles, and responsibilities to help you love God and your neighbor as Jesus did. Begin by memorizing Matthew 22.37-40:

“Jesus said to him,‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Until you have memorized this passage, write in on a note card and review it often throughout the day. This will begin to set your heart to know and delight in God’s Law, all the better for empowering you to love God and your neighbor, just as Jesus did.

Second, improve your time with Jesus by including something from the Law of God. Add meditating on the Law of God as part of your morning and evening time in prayer and the Word with Jesus (Ps. 1.1, 2). Stretch out in the Law by reading over and over from the book of Deuteronomy, seeking both to understand the requirements of the statutes and precepts of the Law and to see Jesus in them (Jn. 5.39).

Finally, work on your soul throughout the day, even in your “leisure” time, to fine tune it for delighting in, loving, and obeying God’s Law. Take Psalm 119 into whatever you do, just a verse or two to guide you. Every verse in this psalm teaches us how to improve our time, abide in Jesus, and walk with Him in whatever we’re doing by submitting our soul to God’s Law.

Spending time with Jesus involves all the time of our lives, whatever we’re doing, wherever our walk with Him may take us. But we want not only to walk with Jesus but walk like Him, and this requires learning and following the path Jesus did, the path of God’s Law.

Search the Scriptures
1. Some Christians think we no longer have to obey God’s Law. What does Ephesians 2.10 teach about this? And what about Romans 3.31?

2. Jesus said that learning, keeping, and sharing the Law had something to do with living in His Kingdom. What did He say about that in Matthew 5.17-19?

3. How did the apostle James refer to the Law of God? How did he counsel us concerning its use (Jms. 2.12)? We don’t keep the Law to become Christians, but because we are Christians. Explain.

Next steps—Restoration: Will you follow the suggestions for improving your time with Jesus? If not, why not?

Additional Resources
If you have found this study helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

Three resources can help you understand how to make best use of the Law of God as a Christian. The Ground for Christian Ethics explains why every Christian should learn and keep the Law of God. Order your copy by clicking here. The Law of God compiles all the various laws and statutes under the Ten Commandments for ease in meditating on the Law. You can order a copy here. And A Kingdom Catechism provides an easy approach to learning God’s Law a little at a time. You can order a copy by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.