OBEDIENCE = LOVE

When it comes to God, obedience is NOT about feelings or the forcing of our will. It's not about fear and punishment or do-this-get-that. It not about a when-all-else-fails-obey mentality or an attitude of "Well, I better do this or else..."

Obeying God is about something so profound, so beyond what one perceives and how they react that once fully embraced, it changes us, our now and our future forever. It becomes the forethought that guides all action and the reactions that arise out of the deepest love one can know. To obey Yahweh is to love Him with absolute abandonment. Abandonment of self, abandonment of the me, myself and I. It is not normal to the ways of this world or human thought. On the contrary, we all relish in rebellion to varying degrees which ultimately makes life all about us, not realizing it leads us away from God, not towards Him.

Everything inside of us rebels against the simplicity of this basic truth. "Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world–the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one's own resources or in the stability of earthly things]–these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself]. And the world passes away and disappears, and with it the forbidden cravings (the passionate desires, the lust) of it; but he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life abides (remains) forever." 1 John 2:15-17 

So then, love is action... it is by no means passive. "God so LOVED the world that He SENT..." Love compelled God to act. Therefore to obey God is love and to love is to obey. They are synonymous. They are inseparable. 

Obedience to God is BETTER THAN sacrifice; though sacrifice was a required response to a command; it was not definitively from the well of the heart but rather an act of the will. Religion sacrifices and says, "you see?" Love obeys out of love and says, "I know"! 

To God, obedience equals love... its just that simple. But as someone told me long ago... simple is the hardest thing to do.

© 2017 Steven Bliss