Love and Obey

   "Thank God it is gloriously and majestically true that the Holy Ghost can work in us the very nature of Jesus if we will obey Him." (Oswald Chambers)

   What does obedience to Jesus mean to me?

   I have been struck over the past months with Jesus' words "The person who has my commandments and obeys them, is the one that loves Me" (John 14:21). I have googled the commands of Jesus to see a list that others have taken from the His Words, so that I might know what to do to really love Him. I have read articles on the net about this, trying to see what others have said as regarding this verse and others like it.

   I realized this morning that I can be on the wrong track here. If I find a list of these commandments that will prove my love, is it not just a checking off a list? Is it not just such a list of the laws of God that the Pharisees used to measure their spirituality? Did not these same Pharisees strive to look good on the outside, while on the inside be full of dead men's bones?

   True obedience is not to list of rules, but to a Person. It is not just of the body, but of the heart.

   The commands of Jesus are important, and I do need to know what they are. I want my life to be characterized by obedience, but I do not want this obedience to be mandated by anything other than Love.

   Obedience equals Love. Love equals Obedience. God help me to see what that really looks like.

   Amen