Love and Obedience

John 14:15
"If you love me, you will obey what I command."


I think most of us would love to believe that we don’t have to do anything - God does everything, while we sit around and eat bon-bons. Ah, wishful thinking. Yet, God is pretty clear. It’s pretty simple. And Jesus wants us to remember this simple concept - He repeats it two more times in this chapter of John, so it must be pretty important, too. So, if it’s so important, how is it that we can’t seem to grasp the concept?

Now, I will say that there is nothing we can do to earn the love of God - once we have received His gift of salvation, it’s a done deal. Even sanctification is a work of the Holy Spirit (although, there is much we can do to help or hinder His work). So, why is obedience so important? Well, because God asks it of us. It is how we show our love to Him. Sound strange? Maybe.

I think of it in terms of my children. They will always be my children, regardless of what they do, or how they behave - they will always be mine, and I will always love them. However, the way they behave is an indication of how they feel about me. When Regann does not do as I ask her, or goes against something I’ve asked her to do (often, numerous times), it grieves, and angers me, and ultimately, it saddens me because of the discipline I must then give her. Do I love her any less? No. But will I be blessing her because of her actions, or lack of them? No. Will I be pleased with her? Will I be able to enjoy her and her company during her disobedience? No. When she obeys me, it is generally a show of love on her part - she does it because she sees how her obedience pleases me and her dad. I wonder if it must be the same with God.

Our obedience or disobedience does not make us any more or any less His children. But if we want the abundant life in Christ that He has promised, if we want Him to delight in us, and to not be grieved by our actions, we must obey Him. That’s how it all started, after-all, isn’t it? In the garden, really the only major thing God asked of Adam and Eve was obedience. It was their disobedience that put us all in a tail-spin. Of course, if they hadn’t done it, I’m sure I would have. However, we must still strive to obey Him, and to serve Him as He made us to.

This obedience is for my sake, more than His. It is for my benefit that God asks what He does of me. And it is for your sake that He asks what He does of you. We have the choice to obey, or not. But if we choose to not obey, then we cannot complain when we begin to reap the consequences of that disobedience, can we?

So, do we love God? Do we love Christ as much as we say we do? Then why do we not obey Him? It would seem that we think we hold Him in higher esteem than we really do, if we say we love Him, and do not obey Him. Oh, how it must make Him feel to see us declaring our love for Him, while thumbing our noses at His simple requests for us.