Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
I loved playing Little League Baseball growing up. But there were moments when there was a teammate on second base, and I was batting, and my coach would give the signal from third base telling me to bunt. I knew that this meant that I was, more than likely, going to be thrown out at first so that we could advance the runner to third. I didn’t always like listening to my coach, but I realized that he was always making the best decision for the team.
God knows that we love him by the way that we treat others, how we treat ourselves and how we treat God. And when we follow commands, it shows that we respect him. If I would have refused to bunt in Little League, I would have not only let my team down, but my coach would have been very disappointed in me. But if I bunted and failed, it showed respect towards my coach and towards my team. We carry out God’s commands for his team…for his church. We show God that we love and respect him and his children by doing what he asks of us. We’re not in this alone; it’s a team sport.