What Is Our Motivation For Keeping God's Commandments

John 14:15-21

Story: As you all probably know I came to South Witham from Tilney St Lawrence /where I served as the Vicar for 12 years As we came to take the bed apart in our bedroom in Tilney Vicarage, I discoverd two small bowls

One bowl had 3 eggs in and nothing else.

The other bowl had £100 pounds in .

Baffled I asked Maddy about the bowls.

"Oh " she said " I must confess /that everytime you preach a bad sermon /I put an egg in the basket"

Secretly I was pleased: "Not bad three bad sermons in 12 years"

And then I asked her

"And what about the £100 in the other basket/"

"Well, Maddy said with a twinkle in her eye” every time I get a dozen eggs, I would sell them!"

I would like to comment on one verse from our Gospel reading this morning and the verse can be found John 14:15 where Jesus says:

If you love me, keep my commandments (Jn 14:15)

Story: Girolamo Savonarola

At the very start of his ministry/, Savonarola noticed an elderly woman/ who used to come and pray regularily /before the statue of the Virgin Mary.

One day, he took an elderly priest aside /who had been serving in the cathedral for many years /and said,

"Look how devoted this woman is.

She comes every day to offer prayers /to the blessed Mother of Jesus.

What a marvellous act of faith."

But the elderly priest replied,

"Do not be deceived by what you see. Many years ago /when the sculptor needed a model to pose for this statue of the blessed Mother, /he hired a beautiful young woman to sit for him.

This devout worshiper you see here everyday/ is that young woman.

She is worshiping /who she used to be."

She might have thought she was serving God with her devotion,/ but when there is an ulterior motive that is not worshipping God.

Our Gospel reading is part of a discourse that Jesus had with his disciples – and in which he made the momentous claim

I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me (Jn 14:6).

And you might be tempted to think that Jesus is therefore telling the disciples that by keeping his commands they will be saved.

You see- so often those - both inside the Church and outside - think that Christianity is all about keeping rules.

The picture they have of God is of a stern “Victorian Father” who doesn’t want us to have fun and has to be obeyed. Or else!

Yet I would suggest, this is not what Jesus is saying at all.

He said: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word;

It’s still a choice for us

Or as he put it in John 14: 21

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.

We don’t keep God’s commands in able for God to love us

We keep God’s commands BECAUSE WE love HIM.

And sometimes we don’t even realise that is what we are doing

And that is a world of difference.

We should want to do what God likes – defined by his commands - because we love him.

Story: Perhaps I can explain it better by telling you as story that the famous Canadian 20th Century Pentecostal missionary, Jonathan Goforth, used to tell.

When Jonathan was 16 and still living at home with his parents, his father bought a second farm.

He asked Jonathan to look after a huge field on that farm and get it ready for harvest.

Jonathan loved his father and wanted to please him.

So he ploughed and weeded the field. He tilled it, bought the best grain and planted it in the field.

When the field was ready for harvest, Jonathan brought his father over to inspect it.

Jonathan’s father came and stood on a small hill overlooking the field and said nothing. He simply surveyed the field to see if he could find weeds.

When he found nothing, Jonathan’s father simply smiled.

Jonathan Goforth used to say: "It was the smile on my father's face /that was all the reward I needed.

So it is with our heavenly father when we do what he commands us to do."

God is interested not just in our deeds, but in our motivation.

Put another way, God is interested in our hearts.

Jesus told his disciples in the next chapter John 15:9-10

"Remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love”

You see Jesus’ emphasis again on our motivation.

Our goal is to remain in his love. How do we do this – by keeping his commands.