What does 1 John 5:3 mean?
John begins this verse by defining the believer's love for God in terms of obedience. Obedience to God's commands is a necessary expression of love. Just as a child will obey his or her parents to show love, believers will obey the heavenly Father to show love toward Him. Obedience is not in any sense a way to receive salvation, rather it is the expected result of being a child of God.Faith in Christ makes obedience to the commandment of love possible. Some of John's readers may have been concerned about a list of expectations impossible to obey. However, John had already defined the fundamental commandments of Christianity as loving God and loving one another (1 John 4:21). Christ's commands are not a burden, but a blessing for those who know God. Jesus said, "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:30). Jesus indicated that it was the teachers of legalism and hypocrisy who made the burden of the commandments hard to bear (Luke 11:46).