Beyond Obedience

Obedience is an insufficient response to God. Doing what God says is not actually what he asks for or wants from his children.

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 1 John 5:2

The family God desires is defined by mutual love, where we love each other and God as Father. The order is important in what John writes: love God and keep his commandments. Following what God says is only meaningful is it flows from love for God, and is the natural expression of love.

Obedience, in itself, is inadequate because it is possible to do everything that God says, but for reasons other than love. God does not ask merely for us to submit to him by doing certain things, as if that were enough.

We might do as God says out of fear of his power and the belief that he might punish us if we don’t. But surrender to God’s power rather than his love is not what God wants, otherwise God would not have given us the cross as the full expression of himself. To kneel at the foot of the cross is not to yield to power, but love.

We might also act according to God’s instructions out of self-interest. We could make the calculation that it is to our benefit to follow God. Though our compliance could be called obedience, it would not be coming from love.

The eternal desire of God is that we become children who love our Father as he loves us. God’s acts of love for us are grace, and ours in return are the expression of his love received and embraced. All true obedience is love, the return to God of what he has freely given to us.

For anyone who thinks obedience is primary and the defining characteristic of a disciple, they will be surprised to find that God is more pleased with a disobedient lover than he is with the technically obedient person who lacks love.

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. Luke 7:47

The problem is never that we have too many sins, but that we lack love for God. Our mistakes are easily forgiven, but what is God to do with us if we do not love? There is nothing God can do to compel us to love. He must wait patiently, continuing to love us, until we finally respond in kind.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14:15

Love is what Jesus wants from us. Jesus is not our Good Shepherd because we obey him, but through our love for him. He wants us to be those, who like sheep, know the voice of the shepherd, and trust him. This trust comes from love, and our obedience from trust. Nothing else will please him.