John 15:10 – “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
The dictionary defines obedience as “compliance with an order, request, or law, or submission to another’s authority”. To what extent are we willing to obey and comply with God’s commandments? Jesus “was” and “is” perfect in all His ways. He was the perfect Son, He obeyed His Father, He “became obedient to death – even death on a cross”. (Philippians 2:8).
God the Father loved His Son, but He had to give Him as a sacrifice for all of us: the undeserving. As a Son, and as a man, human in every way, Jesus could have denied His Father such a difficult mission. In fact, Jesus did try, and asked His Father if there was another way. He prayed: “Father, if You are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me; yet I want Your will to be done, not mine”. (Luke 22:42).
As an earthly parent, our hearts suffer when we see our children suffer. And as a child of an earthly parent, we know how difficult it is to really obey, although none of us ever needed to obey to the extent of death.
There are many rewards to obedience, and our God, Who is also our Father, does not forget when we obey. There is a beautiful reminder for us in the Book of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 28:1-14) when we obey.
May the Lord give us the strength we need to keep and obey our Heavenly Father’s commandments and abide in His love – just as Jesus did. Amen!
