1 John 2:29
What
we believe changes how we live. If we believe we are Superman, we have no
problem leaping from the 10th story window of a building or standing
on a train track ready to stop an oncoming train. If we believe we are superior
we ignore the rules that normal people have to obey and jump right to the front
of the checkout line, or park in the illegal parking and “just pop in” and get
something. Or we believe the lies told to us by a family member that we will
never amount to anything, so we never risk trying to amount to something.
The
company we keep changes our behavior. That is because peer pressure works its
magic. If we hang around with positive people, we become more positive. But the
opposite is true as well. Unless you are that rare person who is truly a leader,
willing to step up and lead a group in a different direction, we all fall in
with the crowd. So be careful of the company you keep.
Our
belief in the character of Jesus, that He is righteous, will change our
behavior. But what is righteousness and what does it look like today? We could
start by looking at the Ten Commandments. They give us a good starting point.
And if everyone in the world believed and lived by them, this would be a much
different world. Our families would be much different since children would
honor their parents. Our political life would be honest and filled with
self-sacrifice. Our economic policies would not favor one class of people over
another. We would honor each other’s stuff and not try to gain more than we
need.
Jesus
always did and does the right thing at the right time in the right way with the
right attitude. We never have to question His motives. He is always doing what
brings God glory and what is best for us from an eternal perspective. And if we
know this, we act differently.
But
John tells us that people who do what is right have His life in them. John is
talking specifically in reference to those people who were teaching a false
idea about who Jesus was. They taught that Jesus was not fully God and fully
man, and as a result, they taught that all manner of sin was acceptable. What
we do in this world doesn’t matter, they taught. All that matters is our
spiritual side.
That
is why John could say that people who do the right thing must believe the right
thing. These false teachers believed something false and their lives reflected
it. They didn’t live a righteous life.
What
kind of life are you leading? What does it say about your beliefs?