1 JOHN 5:3 – For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
THEME OF THE DAY. OBEDIENCE AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. The theme of today’s nugget is an inseparable marriage. The Christian life is a life of obedience, and obedience is the Christian life. I am sure each of us hears sermons on a regular basis on calls to obedience to our Lord’s commands. Rightly so, but yet, we must be careful in our understanding of these exhortations to obedience.
The easiest type of preaching, if there is such a thing, is for a preacher to simply stand before a congregation and exhort the people to “do” the Christian life which may be interpreted as obedience. And on the surface that is true, but it would do us a great self-service to really ponder what acceptable obedience to the Lord really is. Obedience isn’t about “doing” the Christian life. I know many “doing Christians” and I have been one myself. “Doing Christians” are involved in a flurry of Christian activity and service but what is noticeably absent is joy, peace, and a sustained faithfulness motivated by the love of Christ. They are busy in Christian service and dry in Christian experience. And it is easy to spot these type of “doing” Christians. Their “ministries” are more functional than relational. That means they show up for start time of a program or area of service and they leave when the time slot is over. They also have a tendency to want to be recognized while in the ministry and complain when no one else helps out. One other thing that “doing” Christians will be marked by is their lack of investment in prayer and love to those they minister to or serve outside of the prescribed time frame of their service. This may look like acceptable obedience to the Lord but actually the “doing” Christian is accumulating wood, hay, and stubble to be burned up at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Now let’s look at acceptable obedience and do so by establishing first that acceptable obedience to the Lord does involve being a “doing” Christian, but different from what I just described. We cannot be a healthy Christian without activity and activity primarily through our local churches. It is the local church God has ordained and chosen to be the chief agent to accomplish His purposes in the world and He expects His people to be immersed in and serve through her. With that, here are three things from today’s scripture found in acceptable obedience to the Lord.
First, acceptable obedience is always motivated by love; “For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments.” Note this love is in two directions. We cannot offer God acceptable obedience without being controlled by His Son’s love (2 Corinthians 5:14). We only love God and obey Him out of love because He first loved us (1 John 4:10). We will not be sustained in acceptable obedience if we look first and often to our love for God. It fluctuates because of our sin and laziness. And one sign that we are not being controlled by Christ’s love in our service is our inconsistency in the service. We are called to faithfulness and only the love of Christ is able to make us faithful.
Next, acceptable obedience is specific in its expression. Twice in today’s scripture is the word “commandments.” These are not vague spiritual expressions. These are objective declarations of truth. Be very careful to reduce obedience to God to feelings and impressions. Obedience is first and foremost acting upon known commands of God. He gave us His book to do two things; let us know Him and direct us to obey Him. And that means we must be immersed in His book. We cannot obey which means we cannot love God unless we know what to do to express that love through obedience.
Finally, acceptable love is a delight not a dull duty. True Christians see obedience to God’s Word as a privilege, delight, and joy. Every command they encounter in the Word becomes prayer, “Lord, please help me to put this in my life. Thank You for showing me still yet another command to obey to show my love for You.”
Yes, the Christian life is obedience and obedience is the Christian life. Let’s strive to make sure it is the right type of obedience and we are the right type of “doing” Christians.
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for the privilege I have to obey You.”
QUOTE: “Obedience to the Christian is not a dull duty to perform but a heart delight to fulfill”