If you love Me, keep My commandments. —John 14:15
Our Lord never insists on obedience. He stresses very definitely
what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to
obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him. That is why whenever our Lord
talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an “If,” meaning, “You do not
need to do this unless you desire to do so.” “If anyone desires to come
after Me, let him deny himself…” (Luke 9:23).
In other words, “To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to
Me.” Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but about our being of
value to Him in this life here and now. That is why He sounds so stern
(see Luke 14:26).
Never try to make sense from these words by separating them from the One who
spoke them.
The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very
clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says
without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed
in competition with Him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not force me to obey
Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My
personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether
insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances
of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. Then, when I
stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience
thousands were blessed. When God’s redemption brings a human soul to the point
of obedience, it always produces. If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God
will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of
obedience is the reality of Almighty God.
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