OBaD: What Would it Take for Jesus to Say I'm His Follower?

0 Amens

Amen

 

QUESTION: HOW AM I A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST? OR WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FOR CHRIST TO SAY THAT I’M HIS FOLLOWER?
ANSWER: IF YOU LOVE ME, YOU WILL OBEY MY COMMANDS.
FIRST, WHAT THIS DOESN’T MEAN.

IT DOESN’T MEAN THAT LOVE AND OBEDIENCE ARE IDENTICAL.

IT DOESN’T MEAN THAT IF WE JUST LOVE CHRIST, WE DON’T HAVE TO OBEY.

SECOND, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? IT MEANS THAT:

IF YOU DON’T OBEY CHRIST, YOU DON’T LOVE HIM.

IF YOU OBEY CHRIST, WITHOUT LOVING HIM, YOU’RE NOT REALLY OBEYING.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (ESV)

New Testament Christianity is essentially response to the revelation of the Creator as a God of love. God is a tripersonal Being who so loves ungodly humans that the Father has given the Son, the Son has given his life, and Father and Son together now give the Spirit to save sinners from unimaginable misery and lead them into unimaginable glory. Believing in and being overwhelmed by this amazing reality of divine love generates and sustains the love to God and neighbor that Christ’s two great commandments require (Matt. 22:35-40). Our love is to express our gratitude for God’s gracious love to us, and to be modeled on it (Eph. 4:32–5:2; 1 John 3:16).

The hallmark of Christian life is thus Christian love. The measure and test of love to God is wholehearted and unqualified obedience (1 John 5:3; John 14:15, 21, 23); the measure and test of love to our neighbors is laying down our lives for them (1 John 3:16; cf. John 15:12-13). This sacrificial love involves giving, spending, and impoverishing ourselves up to the limit for their well-being...

Love is a principle of action rather than of emotion.[i]

IMPLICATION: THE POWER TO OBEY IS DEPENDENT UPON OUR LOVE.

My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
Proverbs 4:20-23 (NIV)


[i]Packer, J. I. (1995, c1993). Concise theology : A guide to historic Christian beliefs. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House.

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