Love Measured by Obedience

If God is really our God, then his majesty and holiness requires full submission by his people, in other words, full obedience to his requirements and commands. Jesus says that those who love him will obey him. Obedience to Christ's commands, therefore, is a mark of a Christian as well as a concrete manifestation of the depth (or shallowness) of our love to him. Obedience to God has always been a hallmark of mankind's proper relationship to the Almighty. As people saved by the sovereign mercy of God, we are enabled by the Holy Spirit's internal work to both desire and have the ability to obey Christ's commands. Obedience is not only a characteristic feature of the Christian disciple's life, but it is also a practice that reveals the strength of our love toward Christ, and it is a practice in which we find deep joy and satisfaction.