Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Any of you C.S. Lewis fans? One of the things he said was, “Everyone agrees that love is important until you have to demonstrate it.” Feeling love is one thing. Showing love is another. Saying you love somebody is one thing, and showing somebody you love them is another.
In my family, we say "I love you" a lot. When someone leaves and someone goes to bed, someone hangs up the phone—I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you. We say it so much that it could lose its significance and it wouldn't mean anything.
If you came over to our house and you saw us telling each other how much we loved each other, but then we were treating one another horribly, you'd probably doubt whether or not we actually love each other because you know that love is not just this feeling. Love is not just affection. Love is action.
Love Requires Obedience
So this verse gets to what does it look like to love God, and it requires action. If we love God, there will be action and specifically, according to 2 John chapter 1 and verse 6, there will be obedience. So here's how this works: God loves us and so we love God. Don't reverse those. Scripture says that, “we love because He first loved us.” So God loves you. Christ has died for you. He has adopted you into His family. He loves you. And of course you love Him.
And now because you love Him, isn't this right, Christian? Because you love Him, you have in your heart a desire to please Him, a desire to obey Him. So let me give you a quick quiz. I want you to ask yourself a question: Why do you obey God? If you're a Christian and you want to obey God, I'm asking you, why do you obey God?
The Right Motivation
There's a couple answers that you could give, and one is wrong and one is right. Do you obey God so that He will love you? Or do you obey God because He loves you? We get this mixed up all the time. If you obey God so that He will love you, and so that He will accept you, and so that He will be good to you, then, friend, I fear that you misunderstand the gospel. The gospel is, we obey God because He loves us.
If you're a believer and you've put your faith in Christ, you've been adopted into God's family. He is your heavenly Father. You are His child and He loves you. And He doesn't love you only on the days where you do good and obey Him. He loves you on the days when you do bad and you don't obey Him. And at the end of that bad day, He doesn't love you less. And on the end of a really good day, He doesn't love you more.
God does not love you based on what you do. He loves you based on what Christ has done. That has freed God now to love you no matter what, forever. We must understand this as Christians, that the love of God is a gift. And now we do this verse. Now we freely obey Him.
I want you to think of one person. Think of one person that you love. And I want you to demonstrate your love for them today. And I want you to know that when you demonstrate your love for them, you're also demonstrating your love for God.
