Does our obedience influence God's love towards us?
When I assign a task to my children, I can predict fairly accurately who will obey and who will delay. When I ask them to put on their coats and shoes, I know which child will need wrangling, which one will need constant reminders, and which one will be standing by the door ready to go.
Does this cause me to love one more than the others? No. My love for them is secured by the fact that they belong to me. Behaviour cannot undo their belonging. Yet the question lingers—what does obedience influence?
Their obedience displays their level of trust in me, which ultimately shows their love for me. When I see that my child trusts me enough to obey without delay, something happens. There is a special echo of love from my heart to their own that they experience as they respond in obedience.
Similarly, there is great rest and deep relief in knowing that God’s love for us rests on the life of Jesus, not our own. We can’t earn it, deserve it or undo it. God’s love for the world was so great that He sent Jesus to save it. It has been secured (Jn. 3:16).
Yet this truth is tucked into John 14:21—“The one who loves me will be loved by my Father.” If Jesus has already secured the love of God for us, what love is He talking about here?
It would seem that in a similar way that my love echoes between my obedient child and me, there’s some sort of reverberation of God’s love unlocked when one’s love for Jesus is displayed by obedience to His commands. In addition to this reverberation of love, there’s a readiness that obedience accomplishes in us.
I know who I can rely on to complete the task with the least resistance. My coatless children are not condemned, nor do they cease to belong to me, but they’re not prepared for what I have planned. I don’t tell them to get ready without reason, nor do I tell them to pack their school lunches simply for the sake of seeing them labour. I know what the weather forecast holds, what the demands of the day will bring, and what they’ll need to get through it.
I have a little tune that goes like this: “Okay, then obey, right away, no delay. Anytime you can ask along the way.”
I know who is ready for more responsibility based on their track record. As we walk in obedience to God’s ways, we experience His love and we ready ourselves for His work. Sadly, many believers never emerge from the classroom of obedience ready for the work God has called them to do.
They are no less loved by God, but they are not ready. The spiritual muscle of faith and obedience that the race so often requires has not been built. This is not about condemnation— we have none if we are in Christ. This is about consequences.
We are physical beings that live within a spiritual reality. Sometimes there are no immediately observable physical consequences to our obedience or disobedience. But don’t be fooled into thinking this is the same as nothing happening. Scripture tells us that we are to focus not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
Though our spiritual reality (the consequences experienced in our hearts, minds, bodies and souls) is unseen, it is very real.
Will the love of God reverberate through your life? Will you be ready for the race He has set before you? Can your heavenly Father trust you to carry out His work? Are you willing to build your obedience muscles today
Start walking in His ways. You need them to be ready for the work He has prepared and planned for you to do, and you’ll want His love reverberating through your heart as you do it.
