JOHN 14:15 – If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
THEME OF THE DAY. PROVING OUR LOVE FOR GOD. The Bible does not leave us in the dark with today’s nugget theme – proving our love for God. One of the most wonderful aspects in our Bibles is the amazing simplicity by which it instructs us how to love God. Now I didn’t say “the Bible offers us amazing ease in loving God.” There is nothing easy about the Christian loving God, but there is everything simple about the Christian loving God. Jesus said it was simple in today’s scripture – “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments”. To prove our love for God, we obey God.
When it comes to obeying God, we know that is why we were created. The whole reason why humans are a mess, full of evil, ignorant of God and in rebellion to Him is because our first parents, Adam and Eve, violated their created purpose; they disobeyed God. We also know the purpose of our salvation is obedience to God; an obedience that is the path to conforming to the holy image of our Lord.
Loving God is not hard to understand, and at the risk of overusing the word “simply” in today’s nugget, I re-emphasize that simply put, our love for God is measured by our obedience to His Word. It is both foolish and self-deceiving to profess to “love God” yet find obedience to Him something we are not passionate about, committed to, and living out daily with intentionality and purpose. Yes, there is an amazing simplicity Jesus provides for us to prove our love for Him. And with that thought, let’s consider three things from His Word helping us to live out this simplicity and prove our love for Him.
First, Jesus makes our love for Him conditional and it is only true if we meet the condition. He said, “If you love Me.” What is implied is the opposite. If we don’t meet His condition to prove our love for Him, then the conclusion is we don’t love Him. Let’s ensure we don’t treat ourselves too softly here. Jesus makes the bar or standard high in loving Him. And this is not unachievable; a life of progressive obedience to His commands. However, the condition must be embraced by us as the ONLY PROOF we love the Lord. We must not be duped to think just saying “I love You, Lord” or even giving half-hearted efforts to His commands will prove our love for Him. No. The condition from Jesus demands of us to make loving Him the most important thing in our life which means obeying Him the most important thing in life. As this occurs, our parenting, our marriages, our vocations, our other relationships, even the use of our time, will be shaped by and filter through the lens of loving the Lord Jesus by obeying Him in all those roles and things.
Next, our Lord states that there will be no question that His children will obey Him – “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.” There is no such person who claims to be a Christian that doesn’t strive for and delight in obeying God’s Word. A truly born-again person is given by the Spirit a hunger and desire for obedience. This is always present in the Christian. Sadly, we backslide and quiet these longings. That is why we need to be revived, but healthy Christians are consciously aware and purposefully seek to obey the Lord out of love for Him. Where there is no active obedience, there is no spiritual life.
Finally, the Lord Jesus states our loving Him will be through obedience that is revealed and specific – “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” We only obey what we know. Obedience to the Lord is not some vague, mindless life of morality or avoiding wrong behavior due to conscience. The Bible was given to us to know God AND love God with both requiring obedience to His revealed Word.
Yes, the Christian loving God is simple to understand. He didn’t make it confusing. And He gave us His Son, His Spirit, and His Word so that we could simply prove we do love Him – the simplicity of obeying His commands.
PRAYER: “Father, help me to love You by an obedience that fights against all sin”
QUOTE: “Our obedience and thus our love for God consists of what we do and don’t do”