Love, through Knowledge and Obedience
Passage to read: John 14: 15 - 24
"Those who know my commands and obey them are the ones who love me,
and my Father will love those who love me.
I will love them and will show myself to them."
(John 14: 21)
As children of God, as followers of Christ Jesus and being led by the Holy Spirit, we know that we love Him. Our love towards our Creator grows with every realization of His wonderful blessings and gifts given in our lives. We learn to love Him through every hard toil and difficulty we come through with His help.
We begin to show our Lord that we love Him with all our hearts by worshipping Him in full dedication. With every thanksgiving we proclaim that He has done this much in our lives and thus we love Him for what He is in our lives. But, my dear friends in Christ, I believe there is more. We need to go a step further to truly express our love towards our Lord. More than our worship and thanksgiving, there is something more that God wants us to do, to show that we love Him.
The passage we have read above (John 14: 15 - 24) relates to one of those beautiful moments when Christ Jesus promises to show Himself to those who love Him! There is a perfect synchronization in this love that is through the God of Trinity. And we find the secret to an intimate relationship with God is given in abundance in these verses; knowing and obeying God's commands - loving God through Knowledge and Obedience of His commands.
Knowing God's commands, indeed, is a long progress. It is not just about the Sunday School lessons on the commandments or even an adult's Bible Study on the lifestyle of a Christian, but it is through experience. Putting every command into practice and to realise the help God provides, if we ask Him to, in ensuring that we live a life of obedience. Thus, knowing the commandments does not just happen overnight, but for some of us it may even take years to learn the real meanings that these commandments imply. Every failure, every stumbling block and every fall would teach us the true meaning of God's commands. We learn about the providence we have in our Lord God.
Obedience to God's command comes next. Now that we have learned the true meanings of the commandments and the few intricacies that they imply into the simple human life, we begin to start living a life that focuses on obeying these commands. It is only through the obedience, the challenges of the commandments are put into practice. Only when we begin to discipline ourselves with the obedience to God's commandments, we begin to realize the love of God, His glory and even His power in our lives to ensure that we all look upon eternity.
Thus, we find, our love for God is not only expressed in our worship, in our regular schedule of spiritual routines or even the ministry that we do for Him on this earth, but in our knowledge and obedience to God's commandments. John 14: 21 says, "those who know my commands and obey them are the ones who love me." It's very clear! Christ Jesus defines clearly the love that we as His followers and God's creation could share, and it begins from knowing and obeying His commands.
Knowing God's commands, indeed, is a long progress. It is not just about the Sunday School lessons on the commandments or even an adult's Bible Study on the lifestyle of a Christian, but it is through experience. Putting every command into practice and to realise the help God provides, if we ask Him to, in ensuring that we live a life of obedience. Thus, knowing the commandments does not just happen overnight, but for some of us it may even take years to learn the real meanings that these commandments imply. Every failure, every stumbling block and every fall would teach us the true meaning of God's commands. We learn about the providence we have in our Lord God.
Obedience to God's command comes next. Now that we have learned the true meanings of the commandments and the few intricacies that they imply into the simple human life, we begin to start living a life that focuses on obeying these commands. It is only through the obedience, the challenges of the commandments are put into practice. Only when we begin to discipline ourselves with the obedience to God's commandments, we begin to realize the love of God, His glory and even His power in our lives to ensure that we all look upon eternity.
Thus, we find, our love for God is not only expressed in our worship, in our regular schedule of spiritual routines or even the ministry that we do for Him on this earth, but in our knowledge and obedience to God's commandments. John 14: 21 says, "those who know my commands and obey them are the ones who love me." It's very clear! Christ Jesus defines clearly the love that we as His followers and God's creation could share, and it begins from knowing and obeying His commands.
Look how the promise of the God of Trinity works in this. It is only through these two (Knowledge and Obedience) we could express our love to Christ Jesus, and He promises us "and my Father will love those who love me" (John: 14:21). See how synchronizing it is. It only when there is good knowledge of God's commands and obedience to those commands, we could enjoy the love that God the Father loves to share with us; while Christ Jesus being the way. And finally, it only through this love we would see the perfection of Trinity in our lives when Holy Spirit fills our life. Jesus says in John 14: 15-17 “If you love me, you will obey my commands. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth." Isn't it an amazing thing to realise?
I pray that all of us would commit ourselves to love God through the Knowledge of Obedience of His commands, and realise the glorious and mighty things that God of Trinity would do in our lives. Let us love our Lord God through the Knowledge and Obedience of His commands.
May God bless you.
Yours in Christ,
