There is usually no doubt that a Christian must obey Christ and follow Him. The confusion arises in another question: are we saved through our obedience, or are we to be obedient because we are saved? Sometimes the biblical requirements of obedience are used to proclaim salvation by personal effort. Does Scripture provide grounds for such an interpretation? We have already considered the verses that show that in order to serve the Lord, one must first be saved (see the chapter on justification by faith). I will cite another Scripture: And that we have come to know Him, we know by keeping His commandments. Whoever says: "I have known Him," but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and there is no truth in him (1 John 2:3-4).

The fulfillment of the commandments is a consequence, not a precondition, of knowing Christ. A warrior must obey orders, not in order to become a warrior, but because he is already a warrior; a slave serves his master, not in order to belong to him, but because he already belongs to him; a subject serves the Emperor not in order to obtain citizenship, but because he already has it. The position of a subject, slave or warrior is not determined by the quality of obedience. It is not our status that is determined by our obedience, but our obedience is determined by our status. To give you an example, because I am married, I have certain obligations to my wife: to be faithful to her, to provide for her financially, to take care of her, to treat her with love and respect. I'm not a perfect husband (there are no perfect husbands), but because I recognize myself as married, I can't shirk the commitments that come with it. The Apostle exhorts: "Therefore I, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling to which you have been called" (Ephesians 4:1).

That is, we must behave in accordance with the title that we already have. What if a person does not want to be obedient to Christ? This would mean that his conversion simply did not take place. To accept Christ as our Savior is also to accept Him as Lord—one cannot be separate from the other.

The children of God obey their Father: Whosoever is born of God commits no sin, because his seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are recognized in this way: "Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither is he that loveth not his brother" (1 John 3:9-10).

Sometimes the enemy distorts the meaning of these words of Scripture in order to deprive Christians of all confidence, to plunge them into confusion, and, if possible, into despair. The enemy says: the children of God are those who obey; your obedience is very far from perfect; therefore you are not a child of God. He who is born of God does not sin (1 John 5:1), but you cannot say that you do not sin, therefore you are not regenerated. The enemy's trick is to interpret obedience in a perfectionist sense—as if one who has come to know Christ is showing absolute and perfect obedience, of which there is not the slightest lack. In this case, there is not and never has been a single person on earth who has come to know Christ, for the same Apostle says: "But if we walk in the light, even as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and just, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, then we represent Him as a liar, and His word is not in us.

My children! This I write to you, that you may not sin; but if anyone should sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 1:7-10; 2:1-2).

Those who John says walk in the light still need the Blood of Jesus Christ to continue to wash them from all sin, to confess their sins, and to be forgiven again and again. At the same time, the Apostle definitely considers the addressees of his epistle to be "born of God" (1 John 5:1) and "those who know God" (1 John 2:12-14). As long as we bear "this body of death" (Romans 7:24), we will still "have sin" (1 John 1:8), as a kind of occupier with whom we are waging a guerrilla war and from whom we will be finally freed only in heaven. Thus, the Apostle speaks here about imperfect obedience, but still about obedience. Imperfect obedience can be easily distinguished from resistance; sins of weakness and ignorance — from stubborn and hardened disregard for God and His moral law. Such a distinction is already made in the Old Testament: "But if one man sins through ignorance, let him offer a goat a year old as a sin offering. And the priest will cleanse the soul that has committed a sin before the Lord by mistake, and it will be cleansed, and it will be forgiven. One law shall be for you, both for the native of the children of Israel, and for the stranger who dwells among you, if any man do anything by mistake. But if any of the natives, or of the strangers, does anything with a bold hand, he blasphemes the Lord: that soul shall be cut off from his people. For he despised the word of the Lord, and broke His commandment; that soul shall be destroyed; her sin is upon her (Num. 15:27-31).

The same meaning has the Lord's utterance in Matt. 7:21: if these words are understood in a perfectionist sense, then no one will enter the kingdom (see, for example, 1 John 1:8). The Lord here contrasts "the one who does the will of the Father" with the "workers of iniquity" (verse 23), i.e. the one who shows even imperfect obedience, to those who show obvious disdain. Were the "wrongdoers" here referred to as part of His sheep and then rejected? No! These people never fell away from Christ, because they never really belonged to Him: He says that He never knew them (Matt. 7:23).

When an earthly father says that his children are obedient to him, it does not occur to anyone to assume that they are absolutely and irreproachably obedient—there are no absolutely and perfectly obedient children in nature. Nevertheless, it is more or less clear to everyone what it is about. Children know exactly who their father is; he has indisputable authority for them.

Such words of the Apostle as 1 Jn. 3:9 or 2:6, as I understand it, has another meaning: it contains a command as to how God's children should behave. Let me give you an example: An officer scolds a cadet of the Suvorov School, telling him: "Suvorov men do not behave like this." Does this mean that he does not consider the cadet a Suvorov student? No, on the contrary, he reminds him of his calling, in order to demand conduct that is appropriate to him. To give another example, a king brings a thieving street kid into his palace and proclaims him crown prince (as God does to us in the act of atonement). When a former street kid begins, out of old habit, to swear dirty or drag something that does not lie well, he is reminded that "crown princes do not behave like this." This does not mean that he will no longer be recognized as the crown prince; This means that he is required to bring his behavior in line with his rank. Let me remind you of the words of the Apostle: "I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling to which you have been called" (Ephesians 4:1). If a person demonstrates a stubborn reluctance to change his behavior in accordance with his new status, then this means that he is an unbeliever and does not want to be a believer.

This is what Paul says in 1 Cor. 6:9-11: Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but they were washed, but sanctified, but justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God.

It is impossible to be a Christian and indulge in the crimes and vices that are described here. Let us say once more: For the grace of God has appeared, which saves all men, teaching us that, having rejected ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live chastely, righteously, and godly in this present age, awaiting the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, to deliver us from all iniquity, and to purify his special people, zealous for good works (Titus 2:11-14).

A particularly suspicious Christian may say that I do not indulge in these vices on the level of my actions, but I sometimes have bad thoughts. Of course, it is necessary to get rid of thoughts, but the Apostle here (and in similar passages, e.g., Gal. 5:19-21) does not engage in deep psychoanalysis: he speaks about the behavior of people. A person always knows for sure whether he commits these sins or not. If he does, he must leave them immediately; if he has already left them and sincerely believed in Christ, then let him believe the words of the Apostle: "And such were some of you; but they were washed, but sanctified, but were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11).

Thus, faith always means obedience to Christ. Obedience will never be completely perfect, but it will be obedience. A true believer will always show a sincere desire for righteousness and a desire to avoid sin. Here you can immediately console a person who is tormented by his sins and worries about his salvation – this very pain and anxiety testify to the fact that God has not left him, and will never leave him. As already mentioned, He rebukes and punishes only those whom He considers His own (Heb. 12:6). The Bible teaches us to pray with the Psalmist: "Establish my feet in Thy word, and do not let any iniquity take possession of me" (Psalm 118:133), and to believe with the Apostle in the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will also strengthen you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:8).