Loving Obedience
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15)
John 14:15-24, 31; 13:34; 15:10, 14; Ps. 119:97
What Is God Saying?
In these great, rich chapters of John 13-15, much is said about love and just as much is said about obeying. Love is not an emotional satellite swinging around in its orbit of fantasy, wrapped in the silent security of benevolent feelings. It is not out of touch with the practical matters of earth. Love is related to a mundane thing such as obedience. Jesus makes much of this. In Chapter 13, He washes His disciples' feet, then rises from the lowly but necessary task with the words, ‘Do as I do. As I have loved you, love one another (Jn. 13:34).’ Loving Jesus and obeying His commands go hand in hand.
Chapter 14, perhaps the best-loved chapter in the Bible, continues with the theme that love is something we do. The test of love is not only what it does to us but how it motivates us to do something for others for Christ's sake. Jesus talks about the Father's love for Him, His love for us, and our love for Him as expressed in our love for others. He talks about the peace that the world can neither give nor take away (14:27). He talks about the Father's House prepared for us (14:2), but these wonderful promises are not spoken in a vacuum of non-involvement. They are all intertwined with things that need to be done. Heaven is coming but obedience is now. No heart can be at peace with itself unless it shares that peace with others. No one can come to the Father through Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (14:6), without wanting to help others find that way, learn that truth, and receive that life.
How Does This Apply To Us?
Christ, the living Word, and the Bible, God's written Word, show us the love of God. ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son’ (John 3:16). Love was what God did, and the same Word spells out in clear detail that love is obeying Jesus. We don't obey because we can earn God's approval. We don't obey because we are afraid that something bad will happen if we don't. We obey Him because we love Him. God, in Christ, has given us both the command and the example. He tells us what to do and draws a picture of how it's done. We are without excuse but if we love Him, we aren't looking for an excuse.
Pray With Me
Lord, You are both holy and loving and in Your love, You have given us law. I thank You that my hope is not based on perfect obedience to the law. In the weakness of my flesh, I have not kept it. In the waywardness of my thoughts, I have not loved it. I am determined not to ignore or despise the kindly disciplines of divine law. Restraining, they guide me safely and give me liberty. I would praise You with the psalmist, O how I love thy law.’
Today, dear Lord, lift me by Your Spirit to a far better understanding of law and love. I want to keep Your law for no other and no lesser reason than because I love You. Let love be the force that inspires and controls. Let it be as real and as simple as saying, ‘Here I am, Lord. Send me.’
• Some keep Your commandments because they fear Your anger.
• Others keep Your commandments because they are proud of their righteousness.
• I would keep Your commandments because I love You.
• I would keep Your commandments because I know You first loved me.
• I would keep Your commandments because I know You love me forever.
Forgive me for ever supposing that a human’s love for God and God's law for humans could ever live apart. Let the keeping of Your law be on the plane of love. Nothing else is worthy. Let all love for You be on the plane of obeying Your will. Nothing else is real.
In His name who, though He were a Son, yet learned obedience by the things He suffered. Amen.
Moving On In The Life of Prayer
Prayer is the time to be renewed in our love for God.
• Think of all the gifts we have received.
• Think of the days of sunshine and blessing.
• Think of the cup that overflows with the joys of friendship and love.
• Think of the times that love warned us and, to our good, we heeded the warning.
• Think of the open doors we might never have entered without the gentle and persistent nudge of God's love.
• Think of all the riches that love has deposited in our account.
Think! Think and thank!
