On Monday, I promised to share a few more gleanings on obedience. Here is a section from Tim Keller’s commentary on First John that also helped me understand obedience more fully.
“The Christian life under this motivation becomes performance-centered rather than acceptance-centered. Acceptance-centered obedience comes from knowing we have already been accepted; it is not obeying to be accepted. It is grace-motivated rather than fear-motivated. We obey because God loves us, not to get him to love us. We seek to please him and walk in his commands out of gratitude for what he has done, not out of fear of what he might do to us.”
“We love because he first loved us.” We must fill our hearts and minds with the understanding that God lavished his love on us while we were still sinners; then we allow that love to spill forth in obedient gratitude. Finally, we must remind ourselves that God has nothing but our good in mind; his commands are for our good. Whenever we obey God to avoid judgment or gain acceptance, we will find the commands burdensome. When we view his commands as arbitrary, harmful, and stunting to our humanity, we will find them burdensome. When that happens, we must argue against such false thinking and convince ourselves of the truths of God’s love, acceptance, and dedication to us.”
