In the succeeding words, John now more particularly defines what is implied in obedience to the commands of Christ: "He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." To abide in Christ, designates something more than to be in Christ. It means, not merely to have entered through faith into fellowship with Christ, but also to persevere therein steadfastly; to hold fast, with a true heart, what has been once received. It is implied, that there are such as have already known Christ for a long time, in whom therefore fellowship with Christ must have received a fuller development as the animating principle of life And how then is this to make itself known? This abiding spiritual fellowship can only manifest itself, through a life conformed to him with whom the believer has thus entered into fellowship. We find here the confirmation of our previous remark, that not a multiplicity of single moral precepts by which one is to regulate his outward life is here intended; but the single commands are to be understood only as the development and application of an inward law, which is to embrace and transform the whole life. There is not meant here a law of the letter, like that of the Old Testament, which made its claims on men in single commands: "Do this and thou shalt live!" But here all refers itself to that new view of the life of holiness, whose model is presented to the believer in Christ himself. All single moral demands which he makes on men (as for instance, those ground-traits of Christianity developed in the sermon on the Mount, that Magna Charta of his kingdom) are nothing else than single features in which the life of holiness, whose perfect form he first revealed and actualized, is presented in contrast with what had been the standard of the world. Christ himself is in his commands; and they, on the other hand, are but single items of his self-revelation. He utters only that, testifies only of that, which he has himself actualized in his life. And thus also here, the Apostle speaks not of commands whose constraining force is from without, but of the spontaneous result of the process by which the new life in Christ is developed. There is implied an inward germinating power, which cannot but make itself known by such outward signs. If a man truly abide in Christ, then must Christ with whom he stands in fellowship, who dwells within him, be also reflected in his life which through Christ is formed anew. From the contemplation of the life of Christ, there must form itself a new course of life in conformity with that holy pattern, an unconstrained fulfilment of the commands of Christ. The life of each believer should be only a peculiar aspect of the image of Christ, as the great archetype of renewed and glorified humanity. Christ himself, assuming as his own all that is human, will glorify it in believers who live in fellowship with Him; the One Christ presenting himself in manifold forms of manifestation. And thus, on the conformity of the life to the model of Christ, must depend the proof whether the claim of being in fellowship with Christ is founded in truth.