Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 John 5:3

"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." — 1 John 5:3 (ASV)

The connection between love for God and obedience is meant to protect us against thinking of love for God as “emotional feelings” about God. Agape love requires action. In respect to humankind, it means willingness to lay down one’s life. In respect to God, it means a life of willing obedience, a filial relationship with God, and service on behalf of God. It requires laying down one’s life as being one’s own possession and taking up a new life in response to a Lord and Master.

John now qualifies what he has just said by adding, “And his commands are not burdensome.” To the natural man the will of God is strange; the requirement for righteousness, foreign and hard. Even the law of love is a burden. But when God enters into us and we trust God’s Son, then his yoke becomes gentle and the burden light (cf. Matthew 11:30). We who have been born of God have within us a desire and a yearning for the Father. Seeking and hungering after righteousness becomes our joy (Matthew 5:6). Living the life of love becomes our delight. The commands of God bring us the freedom and the liberty we so ardently long for.