He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” ~ Luke 10:27
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ~ Matth 22:37,38
We know that God is love (1 John 4:8), and throughout Scripture we are shown His love for us, and in turn He expects us to pattern our lives after Him, and thus to love Him and love others, and we can do this ‘because He first loved us’, 1 John 4:18.
The Love Chapter of 1 Cor. 13 will help us in general, as will the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), and we are even told to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). But first, we must learn to love God and John 14 is our starting point for a less discussed measure of our love for God.
First, we have to remember that God gets to give the guidance on what a thing means or looks like. He setup the Garden of Eden with a rule that needed to be followed. God gave the 10 commandments for Israel to follow, and the pattern of tabernacle worship which was from heaven. We can’t just decide in our ways to come to God, and what love looks like to Him. We have to learn His ways (Psalm 25:4, Psalm 86:11 and others), not just make up our own ways.
Love is obedience, and obedience is love
We are approaching this topic of obedience because this concept has seemingly lost favor in Christ’s body, and in a time of Revival we must fully understand what it means to be loved by God, and to love Him in return, and loving Him through obedience is a neglected truth that must be restored to the highest level. We will establish this idea in a look through John 14 and 15, as well as 1 & 2 John.
But before we go any further, I will make it clear, we are not talking about a work unto salvation, but a response out of salvation. By faith we are saved, not by works as Gal 3 clearly presents. Nor are we saying that this is a work to save the flesh in any sense as Paul said “Who bewitched you … to think what was started by hearing with faith, they would be perfected by the flesh.” No, an obedience of love is not a work, but a response. Rom 1:5 clearly marks out an obedience that comes out from faith, as a result of true faith.
Again, we love because God first loved us (1 John 4:18), but maturing believers want to abide more in God’s love, and also want to show their love to God more and more, and Jesus spoke these words to show us how to embrace more intimacy with God.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments” ~ John 14:15
“Whomever has my commandments and keeps them, is the one who loves me” ~ John 14:21
Let that sink in a bit. Take a moment to read those verses again. For freedom loving, independent people, it is a challenging thing to hear obedience directly linked with love. Jesus is saying that a person ‘in love‘ with Jesus will hear and obey the commands He gives them!
He said it backwards and forwards for emphasis, and for clarity. Those who love God will keep his commandants, and likewise those who are keeping his commandments, are by definition loving him.
Obedience isn’t a 2nd rate love!
Are we soldiers or are we family?
The short answer is ‘Yes’ since we are considered both the army of God, as well as the family God. But many people believe teaching too much on obedience leads to God as the Drill Sergeant in the sky, barking down orders for us to follow. This idea can be dispelled if we really believe God is Love, and that his commands (requests for obedience) originate from His love and goodness, and thus must be good for us. In a sense, His commands are really invitations to go deep in relationship with Him.
Also, loving God isn’t working for Him. The Old Testament says that God doesn’t need food, as though we have to bring Him meat sacrifices. He doesn’t need our money as though He was poor until we give to Him. Loving obedience isn’t a labor (1 John 5:3), but joyful fellowship with Him.
A Love Connection with God via Obedience
“If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” ~ John 15:10
So as Jesus followed the Father’s commands, and remained His love, similarly if we keep Jesus commands we will remain in His love. Obedience is an expression of love to God, and it also keeps us in God’s love. Love ascends and descends, with obedience in the middle. To say it again, obedience isn’t a 2nd rate type of love.The rich ruler from Mark 10:17-27 was seeking a deeper relationship with God as he asked how to inherit eternal life. Jesus answered him to pursue obedience to commandments. The young man pressed further by saying he had done those things. So Jesus invited the ruler to ‘Follow me’ but Jesus knew the chief thing that was in the way of the ruler, his money. So Jesus gave that man a specific command, ‘Sell all you own give to the poor, and follow me’.
Really this particular command for obedience to this man was to remove the hindrance to relationship his money would get in the way of being with Jesus, so Jesus asked him to set it aside. In many way, this is what commands really are, invitations to a deeper relationship with God, and what it takes to go deeper with God.
Early Church encouraged to keep commands
“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” ~ 1 John 5:2,3“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.” 2 John 1:6
Love in the Great Commission
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” ~ Matt 28:19-20
