Not Burdensome Commandments
As we have been going through the 1st Epistle of John over the past couple months, one truth should stand out clearly: that God is love and has brought us into the circle of His love, to love Him and one another. But there has not been much detail of what it looks like to love God and our neighbor, except believe in Jesus and keep His commandments (3:22). Then this verse says: This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. Everything Jesus has told us to do fits under His commandments, and the Ten Commandments give us specifics of how to love. Typically, the two parts are our duty to God and our duty to fellow man, today we emphasize how in the circle of God’s love, all the commandments express our love toward God and our brother. We will ask three questions: (1) How do the Ten Commandments show us how to love God? (2) How do they teach us to love one another? (3) How can they possibly be called not burdensome?