“Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them’.” – John 14:23
When we are asked what is the best possible way for us to show our love to someone, how should we answer it? On an honest note, we may say that if we give our time or we give them gifts or know his or her love language. However, we have to see that the best possible way to love someone is through sacrifice and obedience. When we love our significant others or our parents, our family, we will see that it is not just merely giving our time or giving them gifts, it’s actually sacrificing. It’s them over us. So, where does obedience belong? Well, obeying or respecting them in such a way that you follow them, and not doing what they don’t want you to do.
So, we came to the understanding that love can be shown in the best way through sacrifice and obedience. Now, this is why we are reminded of this so that we will understand our verse today. We will get to see why Christ said that if anyone loves Him, they must obey His teaching. In loving, obedience really comes together with it. We cannot say that we love someone, but continue to do what the other party loathes. If we love, we have to come to an understanding that we will sacrifice what pleases us that can hurt the other party. So, if we love God, we will obey Him, and follow Him even if it means sacrificing our pet sins. After all, it is still for us, not for Him.
We have to understand that the one who will benefit from this is not Christ, but we are. God will remain, God, He will remain loving and good, even if we don’t obey Him. However, we are nothing without Him. We need Him, and the only way to truly have Him and the Father in us is through accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior. Now, it is not just accepting Him or believing in Him by words, but also by the heart. If we truly believe in Him and accept Him as our Lord and Savior, it will manifest in our lives. It will make us obedient to Him and follow His path. Yet, if our life doesn’t show it, then we must check ourselves again. So, we must understand that loving Christ means obeying Him and living our lives filled with Him. We must not continue to sin because we are not slaves of sin anymore but we already have freedom.
Therefore, as people who claim to love Christ, we must obey Him and make sure to give Him our lives. God is not asking for a sacrifice that requires death anymore because Christ has already done it for us, now the only response we can do is to offer our lives as living sacrifices. Thus, we must give our lives, and obey Christ at all costs. Let us live our lives in complete obedience to His commands, and have Him as the center of our lives. May we fully accept Christ and manifest Him in our lives through loving others unconditionally too.
