Salvation, Love, and Obedience

November 5

(Psalm 119:166-168 NIV) “I wait for your salvation, O Lord, and I follow your commands. {167} I obey your statutes, for I love them greatly. {168} I obey your precepts and your statutes, for all my ways are known to you.”

(John 14:11-21 NIV) “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. {12} I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. {13} And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. {14} You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. {15} "If you love me, you will obey what I command. {16} And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- {17} the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. {18} I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. {19} Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. {20} On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. {21} Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

Salvation, love, and obedience are like three sides of a triangle. If you remove any one of the three sides, it collapses. Sometimes in this age of grace, we forget the importance of obedience and love. We are not saved by loving and obeying -- we love and obey because we are saved. Where you find genuine salvation, you will find obedience and love. Jesus ties them together in the package called discipleship. He told his disciples in John 14 that if they believed Him, they would love Him… and if they loved Him, they would obey His commands. It wasn’t a matter of choosing one or the other -- it was a matter of all three being present in their lives. It is much the same for today’s disciple. We start by coming to salvation, we begin to love the Lord who saved us, and we naturally grow into loving obedience. Salvation, obedience, and love: necessities for today’s complete disciple. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day