OBEDIENCE: THE EVIDENCE OF HIS LOVE
Study Text: John 14: 15 - 21
Introduction:
- Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command”. Three motives for obedience exist: We can obey because we have to; we can obey because we need to; or we can obey because we want to.
- A slave obeys because he has to. An employee obeys because he needs to. But a believer obeys God's word because he wants to - for the relationship between him and God is one of love.
- Obedience is a central theme throughout Scripture. From the story of creation to the end of Revelation, it's difficult to turn a page that doesn't deal - directly or indirectly - with God's call for obedience.
- In our time, however, obeying God's commands often is ignored, dismissed, or glossed over. Why? Because obedience slaps us in the face. It confronts our sin. It challenges our lives.
- Yet God commands us to obey, not because he is on a power trip, but rather because he wants what's best for us. God's commands are not to kill our fun, but to increase our enjoyment
- God would have established Saul’s kingdom forever, but because of his disobedience, it was given to another person.
- Now obeying God is not like obeying anyone else. Even parents often lead their children wrongly by commanding wrong things of them. But God is perfect and all wise.
- He never commands of us that which is wrong. He loves us more than any other and would never lead us where it would not be for our ultimate good.
- We shall discuss the topic under three sub-headings:
1. The Subject of Obedience
2. The Strength for Obedience
3. The Stumbling blocks of Obedience
1. The Subject of Obedience 1 John 2: 1 - 6
- “If you love me you will keep my commandments,” says Jesus to us today (John 14:15). We could say that is a very strong statement by Jesus. Does this mean that every time we sin we do not love Jesus?
- Yes. Although we love Jesus, every time we commit sin we love something or someone else more than Jesus. If we love Jesus more than anything else we will keep ourselves free from sin for Jesus. If we love Jesus we will strive to give ourselves totally to him. When we sin we are giving ourselves to something other than Jesus or to somebody other than Jesus.
- And when we love Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind and strength we will not want to put anything, no matter how small, before Jesus.
- Four realities for obeying his commands are revealed in these verses.
i. Obedience proves our salvation (1 John 2:3)
- John is not answering the question, "How does one become a Christian?" He is not saying that if you want to be saved or receive God's grace or know God, then you have to obey.
- He is saying, "Here's how you know that you know God: it's manifested in the way you live. It's manifested in your obedience." In other words, we know that we know God because we keep his commandments.
- John is not teaching that salvation is conditional on obedience. John is teaching that salvation is evidenced by obedience. And, in turn, that obedience contributes to our assurance of salvation. Obedience is a sign that we know God, recognizing that God expects his people to live a certain way - His way.
- How do we know that we know God? The test is whether we keep his commandments. Do you obey God's Word? Is the Bible your final rule for faith and practice? Be careful how you answer for many people place a greater emphasis on traditions than on the teachings of the Bible.
ii. Obedience transforms our lives (1 John 2:4).
- His point is: If you claim to know God but your life is not changed by knowing him, then that is a certain sign that you don't know God.
- He is saying that the person who does not keep God's commands does not have the truth at all. Why? Because the truth of God turns our lives upside down. It changes us. It transforms us.
- Once you have the truth it fills you with a fire in your belly and a love for the living God; it changes everything. God's truth always leads to love; it always leads to obedience; it always leads to a transformed life.
iii. Obedience springs from our love (1 John 2:5).
- John seems to be saying that our love for God is a reflection of God's love for us and a response to it, so that our keeping of God's word could be a sign that God's love had done its full work in us. Made complete means that the believer's love is entire and mature.
- True love for God is expressed in moral obedience. We keep the commandments because of our love for God. When we comprehend what Jesus did for us by sacrificing himself on the cross, our response is to love him and to obey him.
- Love delights to do God's will because it understands the cost and sacrifice of that love. If we love God, we will keep his commands and that obedience will in turn evidence our true love to God.
iv. Obedience characterizes our walk (1 John 2:5-6 NIV).
- It implies a living relationship of the deepest and closest sorts with God through Jesus Christ. But, if you're in him, abiding in Christ, then you are walking like Christ, living like Christ." And, how did Christ live? He lived in obedience to the Father.
- Here's the question for you: Would people know that you are a believer by the way you live? Do you walk as Jesus walked?
- Are you living in Christ? If you're resting in Jesus Christ, if you've found him to be the source of every spiritual blessing, you're trusting in him for salvation; you're fellowshipping with him in grace; then your whole life will have been changed. You see, everyone who is united with Christ expresses that union with Christ by living like Christ, by walking as he walked.
2. The Strength for Obedience
- Jesus prepared his followers for his physical absence by telling them that they would experience his presence more fully and intimately because the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, would take up residence in them.
- Among the resources that the Spirit brings to our lives will be:
(1) An awareness of God's love;
(2) A sense of guidance and purpose in life;
(3) The power to obey Jesus;
(4) The realization that we are united in relationship with God; and
(5) A recognition and understanding of truth.
- It is the Holy Spirit that empowers us to obey God's commandments. Verse 16 tells us the source of our strength. It is the helper, the Holy Spirit, our encourager.
1. He teaches us what is right.
2. He guides us as by the hand to follow after God.
3. He is our cheerleader to promote God's will in our lives.
4. We cannot fail if we love God and have His Holy Spirit within us.
3. The Stumbling blocks of Obedience
- Love and obedience must be yoked together for obedience confirms love and love validates obedience.
i. Obedience which does not proceed from genuine love to Christ has no reality in it; it is not the genuine offspring of the heart, the real act of the soul.
- It lacks the essential motive and inspiration of all Christian deeds. It is formal, mechanical, legal, and empty.
ii. Obedience not arising from love is forced, burdensome, and even painful to the man himself and to others.
iii. Obedience which springs from fear, selfishness, legality, self-praise, or from mere custom, is insipid and wearisome; while the obedience of love is easy, natural, and pleasant.
iv. There is no spiritual value in unloving obedience. It may be acceptable with men, and pass as a genuine coin in human markets, but it is a counterfeit in the spiritual and Divine.
- It may benefit society, but will not spiritually benefit the man himself; and however extensive, minute, and ostentatious its performance may be, it will not score in heaven.
- Loving Jesus therefore is not just something emotional; loving Jesus means changing our lives, reforming our lives, working on our personalities and characters, overcoming sinful habits, stretching ourselves to love as Jesus loved.
- Loving Jesus means thinking about ourselves and others as Jesus thinks. Where does your information about yourself and others and the world come from? If it comes only from TV and a materialistic western culture which does not understand the difference between freedom to sin and the freedom to do what is right our minds may be contaminated by false images of ourselves, others and the world.
- But if we truly want to love Jesus we will fill our minds with his thoughts and his way of looking at the world.
- We can fill our minds with Jesus’ thoughts by reading the Bible, reading spiritual books and praying as much as possible every day.
- If we fill our minds with the filth of the world how can we love Jesus? It would be impossible and it would be impossible to keep his commandments. Let us fill our minds with the thoughts of Jesus so that we may love him and keep his commandments.
- Again the words of Jesus are, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) We cannot have both a pure love of Jesus and sin in our lives at the same time. As Jesus said in Matt 6:24, we cannot be the slave of two masters.
- Truly loving Jesus leads us to give up whatever in our lives draws us away from Jesus. Truly loving Jesus leads us to making changes in the way we live and think and act. Sinning is putting Jesus in second place but when we love Jesus we put Jesus in first place and so we will keep his commandments.
- How do we know if we love Jesus? Look at the way we live our lives. Do we live as Jesus asks? Do we live as Jesus asks us through the Church’s teaching? If we do, then we know that we love Jesus.
- But if we say we love Jesus and yet continue to think or act in a way that is the opposite of Jesus then we see that we do not put Jesus in first place, we do not truly love Jesus because we do not keep his commandments
Conclusion:
- This obedient, trusting love leads to two things. First, it leads to ultimate safety. On the day of Christ's triumph those who have been his obedient lovers will be safe in a crashing world.
- Second, it leads to a fuller and fuller revelation. The revelation of God is a costly thing. There is always a moral basis for it; it is to the man who keeps his commandments that Christ reveals himself.
- No evil man can ever receive the revelation of God. He can be used by God, but he can have no fellowship with him. It is only to the man who is looking for him that God reveals himself, and it is only to the man who, in spite of failure, is reaching up that God reaches down.
- Fellowship with God and the revelation of God are dependent on love; and love is dependent on obedience. The more we obey God, the more we understand him; and the man who walks in his way inevitably walks with him.
