Defining the Commandments
The topic of obedience evokes different things for people, based on their experience in the church. For most it means "don't sin", to others it means "believe in Jesus," and some claim it means obeying God's Law as laid out in the Torah.
The best practice when we find commands or statements like "And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments," we should immediately look to the author of the writing we're reading to find what he means. The Apostle John's writings often discuss this topic, and oftentimes people will point to the verses where he discusses obeying commandments as justification for law-keeping.
However, the soundest way to find out what the author's writing, usually close to the statement we're concerned with. In this case, the writing of 1 John concerns the subject of obedience primarily in two areas:
1.) Belief in Christ.
2.) Loving the brethren.
The primary command of Christ is to believe in Him as Savior. This is in keeping with the Lord Jesus' own command to all the world, "repent and believe the Gospel," and is consistent with the Gospel message preached by the Apostles themselves. This commandment isn't simply a one time thing - it's a constant state of belief.
The second primary command is to love the brethren. This is also consistent with Jesus' testimony (Matt 25, sheep and goats judged on the works they did in regards to Christ's body, Matt 5-7, etc), and is constantly brought to mind in all the writings of the apostles.
In James, the legendary passage of faith vs works (James 2) is specifically targeted at professing Christians who claim to have faith, yet do not have works to support their faith. The two issues at hand are exalting a rich man in the church over a poor man (sin of partiality) and not providing for a brother in need.
Thus our commands are to cling to Christ in faith, and do all we can to take care of those who are doing the same. Ministries to the needy are good by their nature, but the focus of the commandment is not on all people, but specific to God's people.
This is why, in Matt 25, the Lord Jesus says that they did or did not do these works to Him directly. The Spirit of Christ dwells within His people, and we are one with Him. Thus works done to His people (or not done to them) are done to Him.
I have decided not to include the subject of sin in this discussion, for the sake of time, although I believe it ties in as well.
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