a few thoughts from 1 Jn 3:23

 "And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment."

How simple and yet how profound is this scripture in 1 John. In Matthew 11 our Lord said my yoke is easy and my burden is light and in 1 John 5:3 the apostle John writes "His commandments are not grievous". That is His commandments are not heavy or burdensome. So here in our text John sums up the believer's life in one verse; believe Christ and love His people!

We are to spend the rest of our lives believing the One that God sent into the world to be the Savior of the world, we are to love Him supremely and give ourselves to Him wholly. That is what it means to "believe". But John does not stop there he goes on to say we are to demonstrate this belief in Jesus Christ by loving His people, by loving one another. 

The beauty in the command to 'love one another' can be seen in this, if we love others then we will treat them right. We will not lie to them, steal from them, or covet what they have. We will forgive as we have been forgiven, we will love our enemies and bless them that persecute us, we will rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep, in short, we will love our neighbor as ourselves.

This thought is contrary to the world's thinking where we are told  it's all about you (self esteem), even at the expense of others, but this thinking is not in God's kingdom. His kingdom has different principles and its foundation is His Son Jesus Christ. It's all about Him! He is the Head and the fountain, out of Him springs life, love and light. He is the vine and we are the branches, we are forever joined and vitally united to Him and therefore united to our Father in heaven through Him!

So believer go forth into the world, the Truth has set you free. Free to believe God's Son, free to trust Him in all things in this life. Free to cast all your care on Him. Free to call upon Him, to praise Him, to walk with Him and He with you. Free to love Him with all your being. But it doesn't stop there; believer you are free to love one another, free to bear one another's burden and call each other's name before the throne of grace. 

So "believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment."