Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 152 · June 1
Walk in It
“And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.”
"And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it."
The sentence goes round in a circle, and John means it to. Love is walking in God's commandments, and the commandment, as the verse before says, is "that we love one another." So you walk in love by obeying, and you obey by loving. If you pull the two halves apart, you get the two mistakes churches keep choosing between: obedience with no heart in it, and warmth that never has to do anything on an ordinary day. His first letter says it too: "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments."
He sends all this in a short note "unto the elect lady and her children," and he would rather come and "speak face to face." So ask yourself which half of the circle you have been living in lately. Whichever it is, the way back is the same commandment you have "heard from the beginning," and John promises that "his commandments are not grievous."
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 152 is Perfect Peace (Isaiah 26:3).