Daily Bread

Live Like Christ – 1 John 2:6

“Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” – 1 John 2:6

Our verse today turns out to be one of the reasons why Jesus came to this world. True, that He came to save us from our sins and to restore our relationship with God. However, have you ever wondered why He still lived until He is a grown up man to fulfill the prophecy? If it takes suffering and death to redeem us, why wait? If we were in Christ’s shoes, we would’ve done it fast because our mindset is, “it is better to do it fast than make our suffering longer. The anticipation will be my death.” Yet, Jesus Christ took His time and did not fulfill the promise fast. He still lived as a boy, as a carpenter, as a grown up man. In short, He waited for the right time. 

So, what could be the reason? Well, aside from waiting for the right time, Jesus wants to leave us a good testimony. Jesus wants us to see His life as an example on how to live as a righteous man. Jesus wants us to imitate His life so that we will stop living our lives according to our sinful nature. This is why John wrote in his letter that whoever claims to live in Christ must live as Jesus did. 

When we read this passage, we will then ask, how did Jesus live? If God wants us to imitate how Christ lived, how can we know that? Well, this is the reason why Jesus waited for the right time. Aside from finding His disciples, generally, He was setting the steps on how to live our lives. He is like living trail of stones so that we will not get lost. He practically spoonfed us the right way and practically defeated all of the possible threats we will face in our journey. 

If Jesus made the work fast and got sacrificed the moment He was born, He will not say that He had overcome the world. But, praise God for He waited and He has overcome everything there is to overcome for us. He waited and left stones for us to follow so that everytime we face various threats, we will just say His name and believe that He already defeated it and we will be safe. 

Therefore, as we claim to live in Christ, we must indeed live just as He did. We cannot just claim that we live in Him and that we have Him in our lives but do not live like Him. Always remember that words should be backed up with actions. If we say and claim that we are living in Him but not living like Him it is just like saying we love someone but deliberately cheating behind their back. 

John wants to remind us in his letter that we would be liars and hypocrites if we just claim that we live in Him but not living like Him. That is the downside of most Christians, we want the privilege of being the child of God but we don’t want to do what it takes to become like one. We want salvation and our eternal life but we also want to enjoy here on earth. Always remember that the earthly definition of enjoyment cannot go together with the desire to enjoy eternal life in heaven. For enjoying the pleasures in this world means that we become pliable and we bend into its sinful whispers. John also wrote a warning and a tip for us all in the verses after our verse today about not loving the world. 

Thus, God wants to remind us that if we abide in Him, we should live like Him. As we claim that we are in Him, we should become more like Him instead of becoming slaves of this world. True Christians should be little by little becoming like Christ not becoming strangers of Christ. We should always take note of the importance of living like Christ because we will not be called Christians if we don’t because the word ‘Christians’ means followers of Christ and followers should eventually become like their master. A disciple should become their teacher. 

So, as Christians who claim to be followers of Christ; living in Christ; and loving Christ, we should live like Him. We should imitate Him at all times for indeed He has overcome the world and we will too overcome it only if we are with Him and like Him. We should always remember the importance of becoming like Christ. Let us always put in our minds that Christ came here not only to save us but to set His life as an example for us to follow and imitate.

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