Focus: Prove It

Text: Jh.14:15

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

It's not enough to believe. God wants you to prove your faith by your obedience.

*Prove to me that you LOVE me.

From our text, God is saying to you, 'Prove to me that you love Me by keeping my COMMANDMENTS.' He says in His word, "Why call me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Lk.6:46). Why? And what's the point? John declares, "And this is love, that we WALK AFTER his commandments" (2Jh.1:6). Obedience is the proof of your love to God.

*Prove to me that you KNOW me.

John says, "And hereby we do know that we KNOW him, IF we keep his commandments" (1Jh.2:3).

God is saying to you, 'Prove to Me that you know Me by keeping My commandments. Prove to God that you love and know Him by doing what He says. There's no other way.

*The blessing of obedience. 

John writes, "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight" (1Jh.3:22). For your obedience, God is committed to granting your requests and responding to your needs.

Again, John writes, "And he that keepeth his commandments DWELLETH in him, and he in him" (1Jh.3:24). You make Christ your home by observing His commands. Living in Christ and doing what He says go hand in hand, and John tells us that God's "commandments are not GRIEVOUS" (1Jh.5:3). It's not irksome or burdensome to do God's bidding.

*Learn from Saul.

God commands Saul to fight Amalek and see to it that everything is brought to ruins. In other words, Saul must spare nothing, including man and beast. Samuel met with Saul after the battle, and here's what he says, "I have performed the commandment of the LORD" (1Sam.15:13). But Samuel responds, "What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" (1Sam.15:14). Saul claims to have complied with the divine directive, but Samuel retorts in effect, 'I hear noises that prove otherwise.' Saul didn't go full blast in his obedience. He stopped halfway. He spared some things that he shouldn't have. Those noises were a testimony to the contrary.

Your disobedience is a big noise in God's ears. While you are claiming faith and obedience, your disobedience is shouting in God's ears. God is angry at your partial obedience. Partial obedience is tantamount to disobedience.

Do you love God? Then obey Him. Do you know God? Then do what He's telling you to do. Is Christ your Lord? Then submit wholeheartedly to His authority. Mary the Virgin says, "Whatever he tells you to do, do it." As you prove your love to Him, He will hear when you call, and attend to your needs when you pray. He's a faithful God. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter