Thought from today’s Bible reading from John 14-17.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15).
There are many people who claim to love Jesus. But how many are diligent to obey Him? Many in the religious world reject the necessity of obedience. They might say that obeying His commandments is good, but not something that the Lord requires. But notice what Jesus later said:
“You are My friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14).
Those who claim they love the Lord and believe they will be saved by Him despite their refusal to obey Him are deceiving themselves. One is a friend of Jesus if he obeys Him. The Scriptures make it clear elsewhere that if one does not obey Him, he cannot be saved (Hebrews 5:9; Matthew 7:21-23).
If we truly love the Lord, Jesus said we will keep His commandments. He did not say we might keep His commandments or that we will have good intentions about keeping His commandments. If we love Him, we will keep His commandments.
Rather than look for excuses and loopholes to try to get out of obeying the Lord, let us simply demonstrate our love toward Him by doing what He commands. John later wrote, “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18).
Tomorrow’s reading: Matthew 27; Mark 15
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
