Love and Obey

Why do you Obey? out of obligation? Because the Bible says so? Because you want to be right? To try to avoid hell? To go to heaven? Or is it because we love God and want to obey, want to please Him?

What is the relationship between love and obedience?

All of those can be reality if you first and foremost focus on the love relationship with God through Jesus.

Be careful of the extremes.

Think of our relationship with our kids and their obedience. How do we want to relate to them and how do we want them to relate to us?

When we try to make our kids love us (or like us) but have no rules and boundaries, we pander to them and create spoiled brats. When we demand obedience without a loving relationship, we stifle and confuse them and create legalists (Pharisees).

Read

Mark 12:28–31 CSB

28 One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. 31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

Mark 12:29–30 CSB

29 Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

Mark 12:29-30

Start with as an intro to the command to love God. The boiling down of the law and prophets. Then jump back to the source of Jesus’ quoting of Scripture.

Points

The Key to the Commandments

Deuteronomy 6:1–15 CSB

1 “This is the command—the statutes and ordinances—the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may follow them in the land you are about to enter and possess. 2 Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life. 3 Listen, Israel, and be careful to follow them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates. 10 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give you—a land with large and beautiful cities that you did not build, 11 houses full of every good thing that you did not fill them with, cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. 13 Fear the Lord your God, worship him, and take your oaths in his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you, 15 for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise, the Lord your God will become angry with you and obliterate you from the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 6:1-15

Turn to

Israel approached the promised land Canaan, sent spies, 10/12 said no. God sent them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until the current generation of adults died off, then sent them back to the promised land.

As they gather preparing to enter the promised land, Moses speaks. Moses gives the 10 Commandments again as a reminder of where they came from, God’s care over them, and with warnings to remain obedient.

Read

Commanded to keep the commandments as you enter this new, promised land. All is waiting and prepared for you. Follow the commands so you prosper.

Just as Joshua exhorted Israel as he took over Moses’ position.

These are promises for Israel in a very specific situation and based on the old covenant. Our situation is not the same, but many of the same principles and commands apply. That’s why Jesus emphasized and focused on the greatest command.

Deuteronomy 6:4 CSB

4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Shema. Jehovah (YHVH) is God, Jehovah alone. The one and only.

Deuteronomy 6:5 CSB

5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Man’s response to this statement – commanded, imperative.

Love God with all you are with extreme diligence and intentionality.

Deuteronomy 6:6 CSB

6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.

Very next statement – words in your heart.

Read through these verses 7, 8-9

v.7 teach, instruct, correct, encourage your children at all times. Coming and going, at home and away, day and night.

v.8-9 symbolically, metaphorically in all you do, think, see, etc. individually, collectively as a family, and collectively as a group of people. Today home, families, church.

The blessings waiting in the land they are about to enter

v.10-11 when you enter the land you will have everything you need and more, all handed to you.

be careful not to forget the Lord. We do that today, when things are going well. “I’ve got this”

Fear the Lord your God and serve Him. Respect, reverence, awe.

Do not pursue, follow after, worship other gods. God is jealous over you.

As a husband is jealous over his wife, or wife over her husband. Will not share.

These are all relational words and commands. The 10 Commandments are ways that we show our love or show our rejection of God, either directly or through our relation to other people.

The real command is to love, worship, obey our God.

What Does God Require?

Continuing on in Moses’ speech

Deuteronomy 10:12 CSB

12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God by walking in all his ways, to love him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul?

What does the Lord your God require/ask/expect?

Fear, follow, love, worship.

Not reading but summarizing. Go back and read it later:

v.14-15 Goes on – everything is God’s and yet He wants you, He loves you, He chose you.

v.16 Therefore – peel off the sin from your hearts and don’t be stubborn.

v.17 God of gods, Lord of lords – no partiality.

v.18 Justice for the fatherless and widows, loves foreigners.

You also must do these things. You also were once (ancestors) foreigners in the land.

And continuing in

Deuteronomy 11:1 CSB

1 “Therefore, love the Lord your God and always keep his mandate and his statutes, ordinances, and commands.

Therefore – love Lord your God, keep His commands, consider God’s discipline/instruction and all He has done for you.

Therefore – love Lord your God, keep His commands,

v.2 and beyond - consider God’s discipline/instruction and all He has done for you.

Later in Chapter 11 Moses talks of the blessing of obedience and following God, as well as the consequences of disobedience and going after other gods.

Blessing and curse.

Repeat 11:1

Repeat 10:12 What does God require of you?

Fear, follow, love, worship.

Conclusion

Back to putting Jesus’ words in context of Israel

Mark 12:29–30 CSB

Mark 12:The background for Jesus’ teaching was Israel, but He brought it forward into the new covenant to say, this is still the highest and greatest command – Love God heart, soul, mind, strength.

The background for Jesus’ teaching was Israel, but He brought it forward into the new covenant to say, this is still the highest and greatest command – Love God heart, soul, mind, strength.

All other commands are summed up in this one – if you do this and get it right, you will already be doing all the others.

To love God drives/motivates obedience to God.

Big Idea: Let your love for God motivate your obedience to God.

If you’re struggling with obedience, focus first on your love relationship with God.

You do not overcome that struggle just by trying harder. You need the transforming presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.

If you need help with that we can help you. That’s what the church is about.

What About You?

Are you trying to obey and not finding success?

Do you want to learn to love God more? to walk with Jesus on a close, personal level?