Love and Obedience

Opening Scripture

John 14:15 15 “If you love me, keep my commands.” (NIV)

Devotional Reflection

Love is more than an emotion. The nature of human emotion often traps us in a limited view of what love truly is. While love includes emotion, genuine love endures regardless of how we feel. Scripture reminds us that God loved us while we were still sinners. God even compares sin to adultery to help us understand the pain it causes Him when we turn away from His ways. Sin is serving another; it is spiritual unfaithfulness, and it breaks God’s heart. Yet, at the moment our actions were most hurtful, He chose to love us in the fullest sense of the word by giving His very life. Love, therefore, is a behavior that continues regardless of emotion, and that behavior is defined by the commands of God.

Love keeps no record of wrongs. When we are commanded to love God, this is expressed in how we love others—by refusing to hold their past against them. We do not bring up previous failures in a harsh way meant to wound, insult, or retaliate for pain we have experienced.

Love is kind. To love God means being kind to others, even when their actions have been hurtful. When we choose unkindness, we are serving our own ego rather than God. That, too, becomes a form of spiritual adultery.

The way we treat others reveals the depth of our love for God. How can we claim to love God while mistreating those He loved enough to die for? If someone says they love you but repeatedly mistreats your children, do they truly love you?

It is easier to love God directly. He is consistently good and faithful toward us. It is far more difficult to love the people He loves. People fail. People wound. People cause pain—sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. Our response to them is not primarily a measure of our love for them, but a measure of our love for the Lord.

There are times when someone deliberately harms us and, after patience and kindness have been extended, we must speak more directly and establish boundaries. This is why we see Jesus confront hypocrisy in ways that may not initially appear gentle, and why He overturned the tables in the temple.

Kindness and patience do not always correct hypocrisy. Love seeks to help, and sometimes that means speaking the truth. This is why Scripture calls us to speak the truth in love. Yet until we know without question that someone is willfully engaging in hypocrisy, love continues to trust. We give the benefit of the doubt, assuming weakness rather than malice, and failure rather than intent. Until that point is reached, loving God means obeying His commands in how we treat others.

The Examen

Where is God inviting me to express love through obedience rather than emotion?

How do my recent responses to others reveal the depth of my love for God?

Lectio Divina Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. (NIV)

Read the passage slowly several times. With each reading, emphasize a different word or phrase. Notice what stands out and why.

Prayer Prompt

Lord, help me love You so deeply that my behavior toward others reflects Your love even when I am hurt by them. And when I fail, give me the humility to own it and the grace to make it right. Amen.