Do You Love God?…Are You Obeying God?
Good Morning Friends,
It is a spiritual impossibility to love God and not obey God. They are linked in perpetuity. Genuine love of God births wholehearted obedience. It is not an occasional love or partial obedience that fosters great relationships. Then there is the love of our King who does not demand obedience but offers mercy and grace. With that in mind I ask today’s questions knowing full well that they are two questions and yet at the same time, almost very same question. So, Do You Love God?…Are You Obeying God?
Scripture: 21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’
John 14:21 (NRSV)
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23Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
John 14:23-24 (NRSV)
30I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; 31but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.
John 14:30-31 (NRSV)
8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:8 (NRSV)
‘If you love me, you will keep* my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,* to be with you forever. 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in* you.
18’I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’ 22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’ 23Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
25’I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26But the Advocate,* the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.
John 14:15-26
Message: Has your worship become empty and routine? Have you lost your motivation to read God’s Word? Are you experiencing spiritual lethargy? Is your prayer life reduced to a ritual? These are symptoms of a heart that has shifted away from God. We are to return to our first love. Here we discover that love is the greatest motivation for a relationship with God and for serving Him.
Love is the greatest motivation for building community. In today’s scripture we see the path laid down before us. Friends, to have happiness we need to have something to do, someone to love and a future to look forward to. These three things are found in being obedient to God.
Obedience is not one of our favorite words even when applied to our relationship with God. There is a very fine line between a love that submits to the needs of others and obedience. You see keeping Christ’s commandments, loving the Lord with all our heart mind and soul and our neighbor as our self, and looking forward to Christ’s return and experiencing God forever are intertwined and connected. Today’s scripture teaches us that when we trust in the Lord’s plan, joy can be ours. When we love, the Holy Spirit will be within us, will guide us and take up residence in us enabling us to obey. Friends, when the Holy Spirit comes to take up permanent residence in a believer’s heart and life, the body becomes a temple with God and we obey. Trust and obey friends. Obedience without love is legalism. Obedience for its own sake can be nothing more than perfectionism, which leads to pride. As helpful as spiritual disciplines can be, they never can replace our love for God. Love is the discipline. Love is obedience. In love we love. In obedience we obey the Father’s will. Trust in this for there is no other way. Obedience is the standard of love between the Father and the Son and has implications for us that provokes all kinds of thinking that eventually all lead to the foot of the cross. Repent, love and rejoice. This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad in the presence of love.
Pray that today the power of the Holy Spirit would fill each of our lives with the love of Jesus, the strength of Jesus, and the joy of Jesus. Pray God would look beyond our godly habits, beyond our moral lifestyle, beyond our church involvement with a penetrating gaze upon our heart teaching us to love and obey. Pray we realize that we cannot love God out of our own efforts. Pray we realize that there can be no legitimate relationship with God and His Son apart from obedience to love. Pray we have a life pattern of obedience indicative of a heart that loves God that is also an assurance of our salvation. Pray we love and obey. Pray we ask God to express His divine love through us.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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