Thoughts for the Day

Occasional series of Christian reflections

Day 9

Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.                      John 14:23

I’ve been focussing on how Jesus tells us to respond to God’s love by displaying love to the world around us – to neighbours, enemies and one another.  But what about responding to God’s love by loving Him back?  Jesus himself said that the greatest commandment is to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind’, something with which the Jewish leaders of the time completely agreed.  What they could not, of course, see and accept was the Christian viewpoint that Jesus was (and is) himself God.  So, we are not only invited to ‘believe in’ him but commanded to love him.  Still, the question remains, how do we do that?  The answer, or at least a large element of it, is in today’s verse.  We demonstrate our love for Jesus by obeying his teaching.  I might add words such as trust and worship, but nothing quite sticks in our gullet like being required to obey!

Obedience was at the core of the covenants in the Old Testament.  God promised to bless the Israelites if they would only obey all he told them to do.  Sadly, they repeatedly failed to do so and bore the consequences.  But the language here is different, more like a statement than a command and it is written in the context of Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to help us.  Three times in the passage John drums it home (four if you include an opposing corollary), as if to say, ‘If you love me, then as night follows day you will obey my teaching, not out of duty but because your obedience is the mark of your love for me’.  Gosh!

But still, what is the teaching we should obey?  We’ve considered love, but is there more? We’ll come to that! 

Nick

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2 responses to “Day 9”

  1. Chrispo Avatar
    Chrispo

    1Sam 15:22-23 .But Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

    23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.

    What is important to God is complete obedience to Him because everything else is a by-product of this initial obedience – even sacrifice

    I’m thinking, this is why ‘obedience’ has such great importance throughout scripture. We have not to look at obedience as a type of work that you need to do to be saved. We know that our salvation is by faith alone and a complete work of God and no works of our own, but Christ requires obedience because, in the end, it benefits us and ultimately glorifies Him.

    Obedience keeps us from the devices of evil, it keeps us from being led astray, it ensures that our focus remains on Jesus Christ and that we are led by Him. In fact,, it is also a sign of who the real children of God are.
    We must remember and know that this obedience flows out of our love relationship and our transformation by the Holy Spirit in Christ. If we are not grounded on this and we are not truly saved, it says in 1 Timothy 4:1 that “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,” So guard yourself by your obedience to Christ. It is for your benefit through which all glory is given to our Lord Jesus Christ.
    Blessings

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    1. Nick Avatar
      Nick

      Hi Chrispo, Thanks so much your comments on Day 9’s post. I really appreciate your time and study and to put this together … and feel we are very much in agreement. I would make it available on the blog site, but it is probably a bit long (it must be around the 300 word target that I set myself for each day!!) Blessings, Nick

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