Loving God = Obedience
Jesus set us free from the Law and paid the penalty for our sin, but he didn’t eliminate our freewill and he still calls us to obedience.
So, there humanity was, in the garden, all two of us. We had a great gig going. Face to face walks with God in paradise all the time. Perfect harmony with nature (imagine no allergies!). Delicious food. No bills or taxes. No worries, whatsoever, in fact. Perfection, all day and all night.
And God gave us very few rules. In Genesis 1, He says
28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
Genesis 1:28 (NLT)
And then in Genesis 2, he says
15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
Genesis 2:15-17 (NLT)
And then in Genesis 3, we blow it.
God says, “Don’t eat the apple.” And then we eat the apple. We lasted all of 13 verses between his command and our disobedience.
You ever want to scream at Adam and Eve for all the trouble they caused us? “How could they be so foolish?! Didn’t God just say don’t do it?” Yes, exactly. Thirteen verses ago.
But the reality is, I don’t think you and I would have fared any better. I think we would have eaten the apple, too. (At least me; maybe you’re more resistant to snakes. You might have lasted for 14 or 15 verses.)
Let’s face it, obedience is a tough word, mostly because of that thing called freewill that God gave us when we were made in his image. Freewill is important because it separates us from unthinking, robotic slaves. Robots can’t love, and God above all wants to be in a loving relationship with us. So, He gives humans freewill.
Here’s a little known fact: when you give humans freewill, it turns out that 100 percent of us want to be gods ourselves. Remember, that’s what the serpent offered in Genesis 3:
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
Genesis 3:4-5 (NLT)
“Be like God.” That was the extent of the sales job. That was all it took. Our pride did the rest.
Fortunately, an omniscient God had a plan to reconcile us to Himself. He loved us so much that He gave up his son to come to earth, become a human being, live a sinless life, and pay the penalty for our wanna-be-a-god-complex.
He payed the penalty, but He didn’t remove our freewill. When you become a Christian, you’re forgiven for all you’ve done and all you’ll ever do, but you’ve still got your pride, and you still have your desire to elevate yourself to be like God.
Now, here’s the issue.
Remember a couple of weeks ago when we talked about the Greatest Commandments, when Jesus summarized the whole Bible in four verses?
In the New David Roberts Translation (NDRT), Jesus summarized the whole Bible this way:
Love God completely.
Love other people as much as you love yourself.
Next, we talked about the dual structure of the Ten Commandments:
The first five commandments are basically ways that we show God love, and the second five commandments are ways we show our neighbors love.
When we obey the Ten Commandments, we show God and our neighbors love.
There’s a theme here: love and obedience are linked together. But just in case we still don’t get it, Jesus says it very directly in John 14:
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
22 Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”
23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. 24 Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. 25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
John 14:15-26 (NLT)
“If you love me, obey my commandments.” That’s pretty direct. Not a lot of ambiguity. It’s on the same level as “Don’t eat the apple.”
Jesus is also implying something with the word “if.” If we love him, we’ll obey. And if we’re not obeying, then we’re not loving him. He makes it really clear in verse 21, “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me.” And then in verse 23, “All who love me will do what I say.” And then verse 25, “Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me.” Not a lot of wiggle room there. Love = obedience to Jesus. Period. Failure to obey = failure to love.
But Jesus doesn’t just lay a guilt trip on us. He actually follows up this command with a really big set of promises. In the New David Roberts Translation (NDRT) it says
“If you obey me, I’m going to ask the Father to give you the Holy Spirit and He’s never going to leave you. And because obedience is love, you’ll demonstrate love to me, so the Father is going to love you, too, because he loves those who love me. And in return, I’ll love you and I’ll reveal myself to you. And since you love the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, demonstrated by your obedience, we’ll all love you right back. And because of all this love we’ll actually come and make our home with you.”
So, love Jesus and demonstrate it with obedience and the Trinity takes up residence with you. That’s huge.
In fact, that’s Simple Christianity. Simple. But not easy. Because you have freewill and always lurking in the back of your mind are the words of the serpent, “You will be like God.”
Are you falling down in your love of Jesus right now? Is He pointing out a part of your life where you’ve been disobedient? Instead of running away, embrace His correction. He loves you, and He wants to make His home with you. Imagine the Trinity taking up residence with you. Is that cool?
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Wow. Euge. Simply put. Thank you. And not surprised to see that Napoleon has commented here.