During the week I have been thinking about thequestion; how much do I love God? What am Iwilling to do for God?
Jesus said,“If you love me, obey my commandments.”(John 14:15 NLT)
When Jesus speaks of love, it is very different from what we might think about the topic. He sees love through the eyes of the Father, and from this point of view he deeply understands that true love is bold and strong, but also painful, messy, and sacrificial.
A love like this can only take root when we surrender all to God. When we surrender our ways, our thoughts, and our plans. It was this total and uncompromising surrender to God that led Jesus to say and do only what the Father told him to do. (John 14:10) This led him to the cross.
If we are to become just like Jesus, then we also must surrender or be abandoned to the Father. We must line up with the thoughts and plans of God so closely that we appear to be “at one” with him. I often say at a wedding that a married couple should be deeply abandoned to each other and appear to live as one. Through abandonment, we walk so closely with God that, when people see us, they see Him at work.
Jesus is teaching this abandonment when he says, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” In other words, he’s not demanding that we be obedient; rather, he’s telling us that love for him should compel us to embrace his ways for our life.
The Jesus way is that we obey God’s commands because we love God, not because we must obey God. I pray we all long to live like this. Andrew