He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him (John 14:21 NKJV).
Recently, I’ve been reading through the Gospels, and I’ve discovered something I never really considered before: love, obedience, and faith are all so intricately connected that one cannot exist without the other. You cannot love God and not obey Him. In fact John goes so far as to say that love itself is obeying God.
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments (1 John 5:3a NKJV).
You cannot obey God unless you love Him.
But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him (1 John 2:5a NKJV).
You do not have faith unless you obey God. Obedience is an expression of your faith in God. If you don’t obey God, you neither believe in Him nor love Him.
You see how they are all connected? Keeping these three things in mind is a good way to check yourself in your Christian walk. If one of them is off, then chances are you’ve slipped off the narrow path. Too often we see people who profess to love God, but their actions prove otherwise. They profess to have faith but when called to act on that faith, they cower in the corner.
Jesus always demanded action from those He called to follow Him. He never asked them simply to recite the sinner’s prayer and then go about their business. Everyone He called to Himself, everyone He healed, He either rewarded for stepping out in faith or He required to step out in faith. What is interesting is that all of these people had very little faith at the time they encountered Jesus. Oh, sure, they may have heard about Jesus, heard He was some kind of prophet; but their faith in Him as the Son of God was pretty much nonexistent. In fact, most of Jesus’ own disciples didn’t even truly believe He was God until after His resurrection.
But they obeyed the call of Jesus, and their faith started to grow with that very first step.
Do you find yourself lacking in faith? Try obeying Jesus and stepping out of the boat!
MaryLu Tyndall