The king-prophet David asked, “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?” (Psalms 15:1 NIV) By God’s Spirit he answered, “He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellow man, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.” (Psalms 15:1-5 NIV)
In answer to King David’s question the Apostle John gives us an even more profound and complete answer. By inspiration of God he tells us, “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God:” (1 John 3:21 ASV)
The words, “if our heart condemn us not” mean that the child of God must live in a manner that gives him internal integrity and consistency. If he should live in a way in which he feels self condemned, he cannot have self confidence, let alone ‘boldness’ (ASV) or ‘confidence’ (NIV) before God.
God wants us to draw near to him with boldness because it is only when we “draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need.” (cf. Hebrews 4:16).
God doesn’t want us, because of fear, to lurk in the shadows as Adam did after his transgression. “If love has been the guiding principle of our lives, then, in spite of occasional failures and of conscious faults, we shall have confidence that we are the children of God, that our new birth is a reality, that `we are of the truth.’” (Charles R. Erdman, The General Epistles, (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1919), p. 134.)
If we have so lived that we may come boldly into God’s presence, then, “whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.” (1 John 3:22 ASV)
Keeping “his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight” is not salvation by virtue of good works. This is the proper relationship between a child and his father. A true child will want to obey and please his father. The Heavenly Father then, like any good human father, in turn, will certainly want to bestow favor on his obedient child who brings delight his heart.
In keeping his commandments, there is a dual commandment which is especially important. “And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he gave us commandment.” (1 John 3:23)
The first part of the dual commandment is “that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ,” This probably refers to the command God gave on the occasion when Jesus took, “Peter, and James, and John his brother … up into a high mountain apart: and he was transfigured before them; and his face did shine as the sun, and his garments became white as the light. …a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” (Matthew 17:1-5 ASV) Hearing him means to obey him. Obeying Christ implies faith in him.
The second part of the dual commandment is that we should “love one another, even as he gave us commandment.” The pronoun ‘he’ refers back to Jesus Christ. It points to the time when Jesus said, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another: even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (John 13:34 ASV)
Obedience to this dual command has extremely important consequences. The Apostle John tells us that “And he that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.” (1 John 3:24 ASV)
The first consequence to the one who keeps this dual command is that “he abideth in him, and he in him.” Can anyone have a higher more profound blessing? The blessing of abiding in God and having God abide in him!
The promise that “he abideth in him, and he in him.” is confirmed by a gift from God to his obedient worshiper. “We know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.” (1 John 3:24b ASV) If we ask, Who gives us the Holy Spirit? That certainly refers to God for John says, “if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us: hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit.” (1 John 4:12-13 ASV) In perfect harmony with this statement by the apostle John, the apostle Paul says, “God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:6 ASV, See also 1 Corinthians 2:12). Not only does the one who obeys Christ abide in Christ (John 15:4-7), he also abides in God. (Compare 1 John 4:12-13.)
The follower of Christ is also assured that he is, indeed, a child of God, not only by his own response to the Father (He “keepeth his commandments”) but by the Father’s response to him, that is, “by the Spirit which he gave us.” The one who follows Christ knows there is a unique power working within him since he came into union with God and Christ through acceptance of the gospel message. One of the great promises of that gospel message is that we will at baptism receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:36-39)
While John does not give a list of the fruits of the Spirit as Paul does in Galatians 5:22-24, he, very clearly, indicates that the love which uniquely and increasingly dominates the life of the one who follows Christ has its origin in the activity of God’s Spirit within him. He says, “if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us: hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit.” (1 John 4:12-13 ASV)