John 14:15 // If you love me, keep my commandments.
It is often said that true love, a love that is authentic and worth pursuing, is one that is unconditional. It requires no prerequisites. And it makes no demands. However, when it comes to demonstrating a love for God, there are in fact a few conditions that exist.
John, the disciple who described himself as the one that Jesus ‘loved’ above all, said that in order to love God, keeping His commands are essential for us to do. Now we can look at this request as conditional, but either way, it involves us doing something.
It involves action on our part.
As believers, we know that the Word of God contains all of the commands of God. In fact, Jesus is not just found in the Word of God, John describes Jesus as the actual Word of God. When we understand that, we know that the only way to know Him or His commandments is to commit to reading His word daily. Our reading and obeying His word is a sign of worship.
I love what the Passion translation says about what John wrote. It actually says that loving God ’empowers’ us to obey His commands. It points to the fact that the more we love God, we have no other option than to obey what He says. When we commit to worshiping Him daily, we discover how worthy He is and how much He deserves our complete devotion.
Our act of worship and obedience to God is not done to make ourselves appear to be worthy in His eyes. Our goal, whether at home, work or at church is to worship in a way where our love for Him is clearly displayed. A worship so pure in spirit that it engages our entire heart.
When we embrace His commandments, we are embracing Him. And when we are keeping His commandments, we are embracing love.
Every action of obedience on our part unlocks the love our hearts have been longing for.
*This devotional is from A God First Life, written by Pastors Michael and Charla Turner
