"In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome."
1 John 5:3 NIV.
This is the first commandment, the most important of all. First of all, we are instructed to love our Wonderful God.
Unfortunately, I have seen Christians, for lack of understanding, serve God, however, without being out of love.
Their answers as to why they do it are usually these: "So I don't miss out on the blessings!" or "So as not to lose my salvation."
It's sad because in both cases their intentions are focused only on their personal gain. They do it to get something, rather than to honor and give glory to God.
I am not referring to new converts, I understand that they just started out and in the beginning we all did the right thing for the wrong reason. But I see Christians who have years of church behaving this way.
Is it wrong to wish to have blessings or to watch over your life with God? Of course not! The Lord Himself has made countless promises about blessings and when we believe, He fulfills them.
We also see several alerts to meditate on the Word and have it as the only guide for our path, pray so we don't fall into temptations and watch out so we don't be deceived by false prophets.
The fear most Christians have of God bothers me. They do things for God out of fear of being punished. The image we pass on is: "God is love, but... take one false step and He throws you into hell."
Not so, our Lord is love and justice. One thing doesn't cancel out the other, the two define who He is, the Bible clearly says "In Him there is no shadow of variation." God doesn't change or has changed.
In the Old Testament, a time when the people still lived under the law of Moses - God was merciful even to the Gentiles!
No matter what you do - God never stops loving us! Does that give us the right to sin willfully? Never!
"1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace."
Romanos 6:1-14 NIV.
By no means am I excluding the fact that He is just, The Lord does not leave those who do evil unpunished.
I want to encourage us Christians to do work for our Beautiful God out of love and with love.
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
1 John 1:4-18 NIV.
How are we going to show others that God is good, if we who know him... seem to be always walking on eggshells so as not to make him angry?
God is love and justice. We jump to extremes, either seeing Him as a Judge who only judges and chastises or just a Father who loves us unconditionally.
When, in fact, a facet of love is justice, correcting those who are in error because He wants the best for us.
"4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV.
Our idea of love is flawed, we think it means agreeing or pretending not to see the mistakes of the loved one.
True love reprimands not because it enjoys your suffering, but to make you repent so you'll allow The Lord to change you.
"Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent."
Revelation 3:19 NIV.
Don't use "God loves me!" as an excuse to sin on account of his immense Mercy. Have respect and fear for Him.
To fear is to recognize the Power and Authority of God, so we respect him with a measure of fear, not sheer terror. In practice, it is obeying the commandments because we know that breaking them is dishonorable.
"For the authorities
do not strike fear
in people who are
doing right, but in those
who are doing wrong.
Would you like to live
without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you."
Romans 13:3 NLT
Our God is the Authority of authorities, Lord of lords and King of kings. It is unnecessary to live in fear of Him, simply do good, in short - first, love God and second, my neighbor.
The Lord would never punish an obedient person, so calm down. Furthermore, when someone is in disobedience, God gives time for the person to repent and return to Him. If this does not happen, then He will punish them in the hope of seeing them realize their mistake and that they need to be changed.
Our Lord's purpose is never to destroy us, but to help us see things as they really are. Far from Him, we will be empty and sad.
"But as for me, how good
it is to be near God!
I have made the Sovereign
Lord my shelter,and I will
tell everyone about
the wonderful things you do."
Psalms 73:28 NLT.
Remember this: doing God's Will brings us joy, however, our flesh will fight against it because our flesh's desire is to sin and live in sin. On the contrary, our spirit wants to obey and longs to be in the Presence of our Mighty God.
"So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the flesh desires
what is contrary to the Spirit,
and the Spirit what is
contrary to the flesh.
They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want."
Galatians 5: 16-17 NIV.
So how am I going to do it? With the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us! He and the Word are our guides, pray asking to be led by the Spirit and that His Word will be as Lamps to your feet so that you can obey.
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