The Importance Of Obedience
Some people think that if we stress obeying the
commandments of God too much, we will neglect loving God as a
consequence. But that is not what the apostle John thought. In 1 John
5:3 he wrote,
"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous."
John equated loving God with obeying his commandments! To
John, love was not just an emotion, but also something demonstrated by
our actions!
Likewise, Jesus said, in John 14:15,
" If ye love me, keep my commandments."
The acid test of our love for the Lord is our obedience to him:
"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."
John 14:21
How do we know if someone truly loves the Lord? By whether or not
he or she obeys our Lords' commands!
Our desire as a church is to express our love to our Lord by being
obedient to him, not only in our daily lives, but also in our church
life. It is for this reason that we strive to follow the instructions
and examples found in scripture on how to conduct our church meetings, where we
meet, how we organize our church government, our stewardship of money,
and the like.
