"IF"

 "Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." (John 14:23 KJV)

  "But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you." (Romans 8:9-11 NLT)

 Now then, we have seen God's love, being unconditional and never-ending; does that give us liberty to sin? As Paul would say: "God forbid!" It is God's grace that gives us the ability to know and do what we otherwise could not, because He has given us His Spirit to help us. But we must allow the Holy Spirit to guide and direct our lives. 

 There are several different factors that are at work here, the greatest of which is LOVE! If there is any kind of example we could get, it would be Peter and the way Jesus asked him three times, "Do you love me?" Something we must take from that, is that Jesus kept on saying, "Tend my flock", as if there was nothing more, he could do that proves he loved Him, then to be faithful to feed and care for those who would be saved. 

 Our life is an open book for others to read; and we want this book to mirror that of the Bible! Does that mean that our life is to be perfect and without fault? Is that what you get from the characters in the Bible? There is only one who was perfect, and He was treated like a criminal and crucified on a cross! We might not be perfect, but we are justified in Christ, the one who paid the price for our sins! 

 We must be a testimony to the love of God, first and foremost; it is God's love that makes us love others, as He lives in us! Without God's help, we are helpless! He loved us first; thereby, we can respond to His love, by loving Him back: for most, that is the hardest thing to do perfectly... 

"If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts." (1 John 1:8-10 NLT)