Love And

           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)

          This is the definition of Christian. It is someone who loves Christ and therefore obeys Him.  As a result, God and Jesus make their home with the person. We struggle with the idea that love means we obey God. We don’t have as much trouble with the notion that God should obey us. We call that answering prayers. And we’ve all experienced broken relationships within our homes or witnessed them in the homes of those around us. We’ve been told having healthy boundaries is essential to personal and interpersonal well-being.

          So why is it that we have such problems with the notion of loving and obeying God? Yes, our fallen nature is a big part of it. But I think another part of it might be just the need for a paradigm shift – a small change in our worldview. As humans, we want to be “like the Most High.” As Americans, we see ourselves as everyone’s equals.

Loving God meaning obeying God is partly a case of letting God be God. It’s not that different from “I’m the parent/teacher/boss.” If your children, students, or employees try to assume control, things don’t work well. Being a good parent, teacher, or boss doesn’t involve whips, chains, and shouts of “Tote that barge. Lift that bale!” In the same way, obeying God doesn’t mean debasement or abject slavery. But neither will God tolerate our taking the role of master over Him. This is why we run into trouble if we're not careful about making statements like, "My god would never _______."