What the Bible says about Loving God is Keeping Commandments
(From Forerunner Commentary)
Verse 2 is a kind of specific purpose statement for all of the nation of Israel then and for the Israel of God today (Galatians 6:16). God thunders that His people shall be holy—different and separate from the world around them—because God Himself is holy. The people are to reflect the God they worship. When others see the people of God, they are to see an image of God Himself in how they treat one another. In this way, God's people represent Him to the world. So Jesus teaches His disciples, "You are the salt of the earth. . . . You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. . . Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:13-14, 16).
Then, in verse 3, God gives the first and most important of the physical instructions in how to treat others. It begins with one's parents, for they are the neighbors that children come into contact with first and most often. Children see their parents in the same way that we come to understand what God is to us, and we learn to love God by loving them. So our first lessons in loving our neighbors happen within what should be the friendly confines of the family.
Interestingly, the duty of showing reverential love to one's parents is connected to the proper observance of the Sabbath. This indicates a link between the fifth and fourth commandments. We show love to our neighbor, first of all, by revering our parents, and we show love to God, first of all, by keeping His Sabbaths. They are foundational starting points for proper interactions within those two most important relationships.
John O. Reid
You Shall Love Your Neighbor (Part Three)
Saul had convinced himself that God would accept an extravagant offering of animal flesh, bestowing on Him great honor and glory for their victory over the Amalekites, in place of his simply doing what He said. Put another way, the king had prioritized a pious demonstration of worship (read, appeasing gift) over obedience. Samuel's inspired response is essentially, "Sorry, Saul, but you got it completely backward!"
As the prophet says, "To obey is better than sacrifice" (see Mark 12:33). God looks more favorably on a person who takes His Word at face value and single-mindedly follows its direction than on someone who blithely excuses his failures and reframes them as "opportunities" to bring God glory. This latter attitude is perilously close to the apostle Paul's rhetorical question, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" (Romans 6:1).
The explanation for Samuel's declaration of God's priorities appears in I Samuel 15:23: "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." Not doing as God says is not merely disobedience but rebellion: "open opposition toward a person or group in authority," as the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it. In other words, it is a manifestation of an individual's active, anti-God nature. Disobedience to God's commands puts a person on the wrong side of the battle line dividing right from wrong. Such a one may as well have taken up arms against God!
His comparison of rebellion to witchcraft can seem strange at first, since insurrection and sorcery appear to have little in common. However, the comparison is not focused on the kinds of sin they represent but on their magnitude: Rebellion is just as bad as witchcraft. Disregarding God's clear commands is just as spiritually dangerous as getting involved in demonism. In fact, rebellion is one of the demons' great sins. Both rebellion and divination lead a person away from God, and without repentance, open a place for him in the camp of the demons. This is why God rejected Saul as king over His people. He would not have a declared enemy ruling over Israel.
A few clues in the chapter show that this singular act of rebellion over the punishment of the Amalekites was not the first, although it may have been the worst. For one, Saul speaks to Samuel of "the LORD your God" three times (I Samuel 15:15, 21, 30), suggesting that the LORD was not truly his God but Samuel's. By this time, he appears to have begun going through the motions of serving God, but he had no personal devotion to Him.
For another, despite being the undisputed leader of the nation, he blames the people for failing to do as God commanded (I Samuel 15:15, 21, 24). His shifting of blame is just an evasion, since he could have ordered the animals and other plunder destroyed at any time. He probably did not want Agag and the spoils of war destroyed because he had other plans for them—most likely to enrich himself and to reward his soldiers to keep their loyalty.
In this light, his seeking of pardon for his sin and his worship of God are a sham (I Samuel 15:24-25, 30). He is merely saying the right words, but they are not from his heart. There is no contrition for his grievous sin. In fact, in the second instance, after Samuel tears the kingdom from Saul, the king does not even bother to ask for forgiveness. Instead, he requests that the prophet join him as he worships God—a cynical act of political theater.
Undoubtedly, God knew Saul's heart had been trending away from Him for a long while, and his willingness to compromise in the Amalekite matter was simply the last straw. The man had declared himself a rebel and would not return to Him. So, Samuel proclaims:
The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent. (I Samuel 15:28-29)
God's decision was final because Saul's rebellion had hardened into permanent character. He was as apostate as a witch.
This vignette has dire ramifications for those nominal Christians who believe that it is no longer necessary to obey God's commandments, many of whom do not keep even those from Jesus Himself! While God desires that we worship Him and wants us to be sincere in doing it, He wants us even more to take His commands seriously and make obeying them an integral part of our lives.
It is so vital that Jesus tells the rich, young ruler, "If you want to enter into [eternal] life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17). Reason tells us that refusing to keep them will deny us eternal life. Later, Jesus commands His disciples in John 14:15, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." If we strive to do this in faith and without compromise, He will provide the grace we need and lead us to salvation.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Rebellion as Witchcraft
Many people think of good works only as giving to charity or doing some sort of free public service like working in a soup kitchen. However, one of the most overlooked good works is submitting to and obeying God and His law. We should do so not to try to earn salvation—that is through God's grace—but to align ourselves with God and His righteousness (see Matthew 6:33).
There are other benefits to obedience that most never consider. For instance, when we faithfully obey God out of love for Him, we set a good example for others, modeling for them the right way to live. John writes in I John 5:3, “For this is the love [agapē] of God, that we keep His commandments.” Obeying His commandments shows both our love for Him and others.
John Reiss
Waxing Cold
It is commonly thought—if not commonly taught—that obedience plays little part in New Testament Christianity. People are urged, "Believe in Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." They are told to love the Lord and have faith. But obey? If the law of God has been done away, what need is there of obedience? If God's grace covers all sin and works avail us nothing, then what place does obedience fill? Did not Jesus remove lawkeeping from the salvation equation?
Many professing Christians reveal the deficiency of what they have been taught by believing that such things are the end-all of Christianity. They have been hoodwinked by preachers who adhere to the "once saved, always saved" line of Protestant teaching, a false doctrine easily refuted (see, for example, Matthew 7:16-20; John 15:6; Hebrews 6:4-8; 10:26-31; etc.). The lure of "easy grace" has filled the pews of many a church with people eager for life after death but unwilling to change their present lives by living according to the teachings of God's Word.
It is true that the word "obey" is found just a few times in the gospels and never in a command such as "obey the law" or "obey God's commandments." But that does not mean that Jesus does not command us to obey—He just uses other words. For instance, He tells the rich young ruler, "But if you want to enter into life [eternal life], keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17). It does not get much clearer than that.
However, this instance is not the only time He says such a thing. In Luke 11:28, He tells a crowd gathered to hear Him, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" In His final instructions to His disciples before His arrest, He appeals to their affection for Him, saying, "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15), and a little later, He restates this, taking it beyond them to Christians of all times:
If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me. (John 14:23-24)
Finally, in John 15:10, Jesus reveals that we have to be just as diligent in obeying Him as He was in obeying His Father in heaven: "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love."
From the mouth of our Savior Himself, obedience is plainly a very New Testament, very Christian, teaching.
In this handful of statements, He was quite pointed about what we must obey: the commandments, the word of God, His words (which are the Father's words), and His and His Father's commandments. Plus, He gives us incentive to do this! We should obey His teaching if we want to have eternal life, if we want to demonstrate our love for Christ, if we want to be blessed, if we want God and Christ to make their home with us by the Holy Spirit, and if we want to have and abide in the love of the Father and the Son. That is some healthy motivation!
It is worth looking at these from the negative side, just to see how disastrous it is to refuse to obey God and His Word. Thus, if we do not obey Him and His commands, we will not enter into life, we will not be blessed, we will not show love toward Christ, we will not have the Father and Son living in us by the Spirit of God, and we will not have the love of God in us. For a Christian to lack these things is utterly devastating! In fact, it would mean that he is not really a Christian! (Consider, for instance, Paul's statement in Romans 8:14, defining a true Christian.)
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Christian Obedience
The last phrase, "but faith working through love [is everything]." It is contrasted to circumcision, which avails nothing.
Faith works through or by love. This is a two-sided statement. The love of God produces faith in us for Him because, without His revelation of Himself, we would never have faith in Him since, before conversion, we do not know the true God. We do not know what He is like. We do not know where to look for Him, and until He reveals the truth about Himself, we are behind the proverbial eight ball. So, faith works by love in the sense that in God's revelation of Himself, He opens knowledge and understanding to us that was not previously available to us. God's love begins by building faith in us in Him.
The other side of the coin is, in return for God's love given to us to produce faith, faith reveals itself to God by returning love to God. We give it back to Him in submission. "If you love Me," Jesus says in John 15:14, "keep My commandments." A living faith will do that.
Suppose a husband asks his wife, "Do you believe that I love you?" and the wife answers, "Yes, I know that you exist." Do we get the point? If our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, said to us, "Do you know that I love you?" how does He expect us to reply? Does He want to hear, "Yes, I know that You exist?" This answer is faith at its lowest form, merely a belief.
If we really love Christ, our faith in Him, our future Husband, will respond, not by merely acknowledging that He is, but by loving Him back. Faith works by or through love. In this way, God can tell how much faith we have. He learns this not merely by testing us through trials, but by seeing if and how we give the love of God back to Him through submission. We understand by experience that we can return love, an intimate love, only to someone we trust—faith. If one's spouse, the one to whom we should be giving such love, disregards us and commits a horrible sin that destroys our trust, it is quite difficult to return real love or even feign love to him or her.
This understanding is a way we can test our faith, and it is probably the one that God will evaluate us on most thoroughly. The first of the great commandments is whether we love God with all our heart, soul, being, might, strength, etc. If we love Him, we will submit to Him and keep His commandments. That is where faith works—in submission and obedience, revealing our love for God. How well have we done in this area?
John W. Ritenbaugh
A Pre-Passover Look
John presents these verses as a challenge, a test, to his readers. There are many who say they “love God” or “I have fellowship with God” or “I know God,” and John is saying, "Prove it by loving your brother." The proof that love is real is the action that it produces. It will always help the other person in the long run.
If a person really loves God, he will honor his parents, he will not commit murder, nor will he fornicate, commit adultery, lie, steal, or covet. In other words, he will keep God's Commandments. If a person is really becoming close to God, he will not do any of these things—and not their spiritual counterparts either.
This verse, then, offers a permanently valid test to see whether our religion is the true one or not. Do we love God? Do we love one another? The proof that we love God is that we love our brother with agape love, for that kind of love must have an outlet, or it will not be reciprocated back to God.
The feelings associated with agape love arise as a result of our fellowship with God through experiencing life's events with Him as a dominating influence on our thinking.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Love's Emotional Dimension