Every day I do my best to make it a habit to read the Word before I do anything else (at the very least, before I do anything major). Today's study affirmed things that I have been thinking for a while, but I knew I had to share it with you: God's love language is obedience! Consider the people of both the Old and New Testament: Abraham, who didn't have the laws Moses brought to Israel, believed God and it was credited to Him as Righteousness (Genesis 15:6). Whatever God said, Abraham believed, and did. He left his father's household, he sojourned in places God led him, he believed that God would make him the father of a nation that outnumbered the sands of the sea, even though he and his wife were childless in their old age, he moved to sacrifice his promised son, Isaac, at God's word. Rahab betrayed her nation for fear of the Lord, because she believed. She did everything the spies told her to do, and she and her entire family were saved. Gideon, David, Hezekiah, Elijah, and so many others believed God, and God did exactly what He said.
There are many, many more examples, from the Bible until today, of those who believed God. How can we know that we, too, believe and love God? The examples of the Biblical heroes of faith show us the way: do what He says. Jesus Himself echoes His Father's will for us at the last supper "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). If we love God, we will take Him at His word. We will explore the Word (the Bible), and live our lives according to God's standards. Paul says "Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may know what is the will of God, what is good, and pleasing, and perfect" (Romans 12:2). We cannot know God apart from His word, we cannot please Him apart from obedience. We show our love IN that obedience. Get in to the word. Do as God says, and watch how your love for Him draws others to Him. 1 John 5:1-12 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
