Jesus Supplied A Perfect Pair of Shoes for the Sojourner

What Did Jesus Do?

I rejoiced to find some of your children walking in the truth…
now I ask that we love one another.
And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments.
2 John 4-6

Could you imagine getting ready for an arduous trek, I mean a serious sojourn over mountains, across deserts, crossing ice fields, scaling boulders, and putting only one boot on? I don’t think so. It’s one thing for my son John to go to bed “with one shoe off and one shoe on,” and quite another for the Apostle John to note that some of the children of the elect lady were attempting to follow Jesus with their feet only half shod, so to speak. After all, Jesus supplied a perfect pair of shoes for the sojourner, we should walk in them!

Not that John was totally bummed out. He could truly rejoice greatly over the news he had received about those who were walking in the truth. But his joy was not complete, because it was only some who had put on the “boot” of truth, and even then they still had the other “foot” dangling. With only one shoe on, the best we can do is limp along in our Christian walk, even when the path is smooth and even, and Jesus warned those who would follow him to be prepared for some hard going (John 16:33). With only one shoe on, we cannot help but be unbalanced, with the much greater likelihood of stumbling and falling. No, every disciple needs to have proper footwear for the journey of faith. Fortunately, Jesus supplied a perfect pair of shoes for the sojourner. We just need to be sure to put both of them on.

Certainly, we need to step out in the truth, more specifically the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Father, who came in the flesh. To deny or refuse of Jesus is to come under the influence of the many antichrists whose only aim is to deceive and to destroy (1 John 2:21-23, 26). But knowing and walking in the truth is not enough, if we do not also know and obey Christ’s commandment to love one another (John 13:34; 2 John 5). Our knowledge of Christ’s command to love springs from our experience of God first loving us, through his sending of his Son to be the redeemer who paid for our sins with his body on the cross (1 John 4:10). Our obedience to Christ’s command to love is nurtured and sustained by regularly reading his word of truth.

To walk the walk of a disciple of Jesus Christ is to walk in truth and in love. Truth without love becomes rigid legalism. Love without truth is no better than emotional sentimentality. Neither truth nor love by themselves can fulfill Christ’s commandment. Rather, truth and love are paired perfectly for the Christian’s sojourn through this world.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4