As lovers of Jesus, one of the biggest topics that He talks about in His word is obedience. Jesus calls us to obey His commands, teachings, instructions, life style, and worship. Jesus wants us to hear His words and go and do what He says. The world will know those who love Jesus by the fact of whether they obey what Jesus says and live the way Jesus wants them to or not. Obedience is also a gauge of our spiritual health and walk with Jesus. If we obey His teachings then we are close and in deep love with Him, where as when we disobey what Jesus teaches us, then we are distant from Him and not walking close with Him like He desires. But an important question to ask around obedience is what motivates us to obey Jesus. I want to spend a few post to start this week talking about 3 important motivations for obeying Jesus. Tonight we will look at the first motivation for obeying Jesus.
#1-We obey Jesus because we love Him.
If I love my wife it will motivate me to serve her, care for her, show affection to her, and stay faithful to her. The same is true and more important of Jesus. When we love Jesus we first will listen and take seriously what He is telling us about. When we love Jesus we will listen and take to heart and cherish what He is instructing us about. When we love Jesus we will desire to please Him. One of the biggest ways to please Jesus and worship Him is by obeying what comes out of His mouth. The Bible is filled with commands from God and Jesus to keep their words. "If you love me you will keep my commands" was a very common saying by God to His people Israel. It is still a common command to us today as the church and lovers of Jesus. Loving Jesus and keeping His commands today can be a positive thing, such as; do this and go there and talk about me to those people and love the world like I did. Keeping the commands of Jesus and loving Him can also be a negative command such as; do not do this, do not go there, do not commit that sin, and do not say that. If we truly love Jesus, desire to worship and praise Him, and want to fill Him with joy, walking closely with Him and obeying Him is one of the biggest parts. Surrendering our lives to Jesus is loving Him and surrendering our lives is a daily act of obeying Him. When was the last time we thought about the fact of loving Jesus and obeying Him as equal?
Tuesday and Wednesday we will take a look at 2 other motivations for obedience.
#2- We obey Jesus because we love others.
#3- We obey Jesus because we hate sin.
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