Obeying God
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
John 14:15 (ESV)
The word obedience sounds bad to our modern ears. It evokes submission, loss of self, blind respect for a rule. That is why Jesus immediately links it to something else — to love. If you love me, He says, and everything else flows from there.
The obedience He speaks of is not a forced discipline; it is the form that love takes when it is sincere. You do not obey God to earn something from Him — you obey Him because His word seems right to you, and to love someone is to do what they say when you trust them. It sounds simple written like this. In practice, it is the learning of a lifetime. But it is a joyful learning, not a servile one.
If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
John 14:23 (ESV)
Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.
1 Samuel 15:22 (ESV)
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
James 1:22 (ESV)