John 14.15
“If you love me you will keep my commandments.”
Loving God and obeying God are inextricably tied together. Scripture makes it clear that you cannot legitimately lay claim to one without the other. To obey Christ is not a burden. It is a blessing. It should be our natural response to who he is and what he has done for us.
It is worth noting that the Greek word for “keep” in this verse is the Greek tereo, which means “to guard.” We should guard God’s commands as a precious treasure. Loving God means loving his principles, precepts, and standards. Because we know him and are the recipients of his grace and his truth, we should delight in obeying him.
Authentic Christians are not careless about the Lord’s commandments. The evidence of someone knowing God and being in relationship with him is that they keep his commandments. A simple, loving obedience is a natural result of fellowship with God. The person who claims to know God but who does not seek to obey his commands is false. A spiritual deceiver. A counterfeit. A fake.
Here is how First John describes it:
“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (1 John 2.3-6)
We obey God because we know him and love him; because we are in relationship to him. The Holy Spirit within us prompts and energizes and motivates us to do what is pleasing to the Lord. The Spirit also convicts us when we disobey.
Obeying the commands of God is not a test we must pass in order to earn a relationship with the Lord. Rather, obedience is what follows in response to being redeemed by grace and transformed by the Holy Spirit. Obedience is an act of love in response to the God who loves us, redeemed us, and calls us to himself.
