0815. Obedience and Love
Obedience and Love
"If Ye love Me, keep My commandments" (Joh_14:15).
We have considered "the obedience of faith" in its relationship toward others; we now consider obedience in our relationship toward Christ. "If ye love Me."
Our Lord would weigh our love by our obedience. He would discover the genuineness of our affections by considering the completeness of our obedience. He would measure the value of the pledges of our lips by the practices of our lives.
1. Let us observe three striking statements in John's Gospel. They are three:
"If ye love Me, keep My commandments" (Joh_14:15).
"He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me" (Joh_14:21).
"If a man love Me, he will keep My Words" (Joh_14:23).
What a revelation lies before us:
(1) There is a call to obedience. "If ye love Me, keep." Christ seems to be saying, I have heard your protestations of love; you have said again and again that you love Me–then prove your love by keeping My commandments.
"Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord * * but he that doeth." There is to-day much of Up service. There is much of professed piety. This may be acceptable to man, but God looketh not on outward appearance–God looketh on the heart. "If you love Me, keep." "He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked."
(2) There is a plain acknowledgment of fact. "He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, He it is that loveth Me." Enough is said. Obedience is a full proof of love. God acknowledges our love, when He sees our obedience. It is not he that saith he walketh in the light, who is in the light; it is he who actually walketh in the light.
(3) There is an assured conclusion. "If a man love Me, he will keep My Words."
No need to argue. Where there is love there is obedience. Apart from works faith is dead, and apart from obedience, love is dead.
Let all loud talkers hold their peace. Let those who offer religious "sacrifices," with large display of love, cease their folly. To obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken is better than the fat of rams.
2. Let us observe the keynote of all true obedience: "Ye have obeyed from the heart" (Rom_6:17). Certainly the obedience of love involves the heart. The heart is the seat of the affections. In Ephesians it is put this way, "Doing the will of God from the heart" (Eph_6:6; see Eph_6:7).
It is right to obey God from a sense of duty, but heart obedience deals in excesses; it goes far beyond the written requirements, it obeys with a joy and exhilaration unknown to legal obedience. It is God's second mile, the love mile. Let us not pitch our camp in the first mile of "have to," the law mile; let us dwell in the mile of "want to"–the mile of the heart.
3. Let us observe the ease of the obedience of love. Christ plainly said: "My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Can we not read between the lines?–it is love makes it light.
Illustration: A little lad was carrying his almost-as-big a brother across the muddy street. "Is he not too heavy?" asked one. The reply was characteristic–"No, sir, he isn't heavy, you see he is my brother." Just so. Love makes the most difficult task easy.
The load is light, when the heart is right,
And the life with love is filled.
The eye doth shine, with light Divine
And the life with joy is thrilled.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR