Authentic Believers Love God's Word and Obey It

A true believer submits to Christ as Lord.

Those who say they know Him but disregard His Word are liars.

We guard as a treasure the commandments of the Lord. (Adrian Rogers)

What are His commandments: Everything God said in HIs Word.

Anyone who picks and chooses what to obey in the Bible is not saved. They are pretenders. We live every day with pretenders who say they believe the Bible but disregard most of what God says in His Word.

Because we know Him we keep His commandments, we are not born again by keeping His commandments, we keep His commandments because we are born again.

1 John 2:3-5 "…3 By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments. 4 If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him:…"

A true believer submits to God, a pretender defends their sin, rejects those who challenge them about it, and even exacts revenge on those who bring the scripture to bear on everything.

A true believer seeks the lifestyle of Jesus. Those who say and do things contrary to the Bible and defend their sinful attitudes have not been born-again.

A true believer loves to hear from the Word of God, they do not fight against Him through fighting against His Word.

Pretenders are pretending about everything, they do not confess their sin to be cleansed and grow in holiness, they justify their rudeness and disobedience to God's Word. They make up their own rules about righteousness that God never said while negating Him through their self-righteousness.

1 John 2:9-11 "…9If anyone claims to be in the light but hates his brother, he is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

1 John 1:8

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

1 John 2:3

"By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments."

1 John 3:6

"No one who remains in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has seen Him or known Him."

Matthew 13:21

"21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution occurs because of the [a]word, immediately he falls away."

Those who love Christ authentically because they have been born again have all the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

We don't meet many people who are humble enough to love this way. When we do meet them we connect immediately because even though we are not perfect in these things ourselves we love to grow in holiness. We do not practice unkindness and other attributes contrary to the fruit of Christ's Spirit.

We cannot take credit for this fruit, Christ in us makes us a new creation, what we could not be before salvation He makes us when He changes us into a new creation. He gets all the glory what what we become when we are authentically born again.

Hallelujah!