Neville Goddard on 1 John 5:2-3 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read 1 John 5 in context

Scripture Focus

2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

1 John 5:2-3

Biblical Context

1 John 5:2-3 says we prove our love for God's children by loving God and keeping His commandments. Keeping His commandments is love, and His commandments are not burdensome.

Neville's Inner Vision

Within the psychology of faith, the 'children of God' are aspects of your own consciousness, stirred into harmony by the I AM—the awareness you are. Love is not a sentiment you chase; it is the active energy of consciousness when you align with the inner law. To 'keep His commandments' is to live from the conviction that you are already in right relation with your divine nature. The commandments become an inner orientation, not a list of rules; when you assent to them in imagination, obedience changes from drudgery to natural obedience, because you are obeying your true self. The statement that 'these commandments are not grievous' is the experiential proof: following them feels effortless when you see them as the expression of your own God-intended order. So, you do not enforce rules outwardly, you revise your inner state until your being loves the law you are choosing. In this light, the form of the verse dissolves into a present reality: I AM Love, I keep the commandments, and thus I know I belong to God. By such inner revision, the world begins to reflect this alignment.