Grace and Obedience

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:3).

Grace and obedience are a lot like faith and works. They might appear to be opposites, but they actually go together. James tells us, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also (James 2:26). And Paul saw a connection between grace and obedience when he said, "By who we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all the nations, for his name" (Romans 1:5).

If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15).

We work to help others, not for favors or special blessings, but because we love the Lord and want to do His work. We work because of our faith. Likewise, we obey God's laws, not from a sense of duty or fear of what might happen to us if we don't but because we want to please Him. Because of what Christ has done for us, if we accept Him as our Savior, we are covered by His grace. However, that doesn't mean we should totally ignore God's laws and commandments. It means that we should be more willing to follow them since He has done so much for us.

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him (John 14:21).

Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil (Matthew 5:17). Obedience to Him is a natural response to God's love and grace for us. Jesus brought keeping the law to a whole new level. He wanted His followers to keep the spirit in which the law was intended instead of being so concerned with keeping the letter of the law as the Pharisees tried to do. Most of them kept the laws without giving a care about their fellowmen.

And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself (Luke 10:27).

If we could get the Greatest Commandment right, we need not be concerned with keeping a set of laws because we would be obeying God. If we love God more than anything else and loved everyone else as much as we do ourselves, we would have all the laws covered. This makes it easy to remember what to do, but it's often difficult for our selfish natures to put into practice. Loving God means we obey Him as we accept His grace when we fail. We work to further His kingdom according to His call because we have faith and trust that His way is always best. Faith, grace, works, and obedience are all intertwined.

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