Obedience is My
Proof of Love towards God
In fact, this is love for God: to
keep his commands. 1 John 5:3 (NIV)
A businessman
well known for his ruthlessness once announced to writer Mark Twain, “Before I
die I mean to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I will climb Mount Sinai and
read the Ten Commandments aloud at the top.”
“I have a better
idea,” replied Twain. “You could stay in Boston and keep them.”
In the Christian
life, obedience is the proof of spiritual life. Unfortunately, obedience has
received a bad rap in the world today. When a word like obedience is mentioned,
it immediately evokes the negative image of doing something that you do not
want to do. But for the Christian, obedience should not be seen as a chore but
as a reflection of one’s love and devotion for God.
There are three
reasons we obey, according to Warren Wiersbe: We can obey because we have
to, because we need to, or because we want to.
A slave obeys
because he has to. If he doesn’t obey he will be punished. An employee
obeys because he needs to. He may not enjoy his work, but he does enjoy
getting his paycheck! He needs to obey because he has a family to feed and
clothe. But a Christian is to obey his Heavenly Father because he wants to, for
the relationship between him and God is one of love.
Why do you obey
God?
John tells us
that love for God is more than a feeling. Love for God includes obedience to
God. Without obedience, saying that you love God is nothing more than phony
flattery. John insists that the child of God not only wants to keep the
commands of God but enjoys keeping the commands of God. Love for God
will result in love for God’s commands.
No one can keep
all the commands of God perfectly, but it should be our aim to keep Gods
commands as perfectly as possible. The guaranteed way to know you are in the
center of God’s will is considering whether you are obeying His commands. And
the only way to experience all that God has for you is to walk in complete and
continued obedience to God.
Do you find the
commandments of God to be nothing more than harsh rules and tiresome
regulations? Or, do you enjoy doing what God tells you to do? If you say you love
God, then you must not run from God’s commands but run toward them. Our love
for God is expressed through our obedience.
Love delights to
do God’s will because it understands the cost and sacrifice of God’s love for
us. Jesus loved to do God the Father’s will and daily lived to do His will and
so should we who call ourselves Christian.
For me obedience
is the proof of my love towards God. What about you?
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