Over the last few days, I have been thinking a lot about how love and obedience go together. In John 14, Jesus made it clear that if we love Him, we will obey His commandments. We can be sure we know God if we keep His commandments. And this knowing is not just having information about Him, but being intimate with Him and knowing what is on His heart and wanting to please Him.
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:2-3
When we love God, we will also love His children. The enemy tries to cause so much strife and division among the children of God, but we must never forget that Jesus’ command is that we love one another. And when we love God, we will want to please Him by obeying His commandments and it will be a delight rather than a burden. The world should know we are Christians by our love. Unfortunately, I know many non-Christians who keep away from Christians because of the lack of love shown by people who say they are Christians.
When we love like Jesus, we will love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This is not easy, but it is Jesus’ way. It requires us to be walking in the Spirit and not the flesh. I recently had a conversation with a friend, and we were talking about how when we hear other Christians speak with a lot of hate we get angry at them. My friend said she had to stop and check her thoughts. I agreed with her because sometimes I forget that unloving Christians are also among the people I need to love. And as my friend said we should be praying for them. But it is difficult when we expect Christians to be like Christ, but their actions reflect anything but Christ. It becomes harder to love a Christian like that, but it doesn’t matter who, Jesus calls us to love that person. It is His command.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:43-45
Jesus brought a new way to love that went against cultural concepts. We are not to just love those who love us, or those who are lovable, but we are to love the unlovable. We are to love those who don’t like us and those who hurt us. That doesn’t sound normal. That is not the world’s way, but those are God’s instructions which He expects us to obey as His children.
“But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Luke 6:32-36
This type of love is definitely not easy. I need to be filled with His mercy and under His grace to obey His command to love like this as it is supernatural and can only be achieved through God’s Spirit. How the world loves is not the way God loves as His love is sacrificial and often comes at a cost to the one who loves. This can be seen in what Jesus said is the greatest love of all.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:13
This is exactly what Jesus did for us and if we love Him, we will obey Him and love in this way. It is not easy, and it makes no sense to the world as we put others above ourselves even sometimes to our own detriment. That, however, is what the cross was all about.
At Calvary, God displayed His grace for the entire world. The cross represents the intersection of His holiness and His love. – InTouch
I read the above recently during my devotion time. Because God is holy and loves us, He sent His only Son to die for us even though we did not deserve it. His Son, Jesus, the spotless lamb willingly gave Himself up for us and became like sheep to the slaughter as this was the Father’s will. And now we can be reconciled to the holy Father instead of having eternal death because of Jesus’ sacrificial love and obedience to the Father.
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