You Have to Keep the Commandments

“By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3-4).  In the Old Testament there were 613 commandments. Does He mean that one must keep all of these to have eternal life? That can’t be! Paul said that those under that kind of system are under a curse because “cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law to perform them (Galatians 3:10; Deuteronomy 27:26). Luckily, John defines what commands He is talking about in 1 John 3:23: “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another...”  Do you require more than Jesus?

In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul describes the fruit of one that is led by the Spirit. After giving the qualities, He says, "...against such there is no law." I have spent most of my life coming up with all kinds of laws to exclude people that believed in Jesus, loved God with all their heart, loved their neighbor, and had the fruit of the Spirit. Again, why do we try to require more than Jesus?