Obedience and Love
“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.”
– Jesus – The Gospel of John 14:23
Obedience holds a crucial but carefully balanced role in the Christian life. Pastor Bryan Chapell consistently emphasizes that Christian obedience is not a means of earning salvation but a grateful response to the grace already received through Jesus Christ. He says, “Grace is the foundation of all true obedience.” This distinction preserves the heart of the gospel and safeguards believers from legalism and the rabid pursuit of disordered desires that make empty promises.
Obedience is never about securing God’s favor through human effort; instead, it flows naturally from a heart transformed by divine mercy. Chapell writes, “We obey not to be loved, but because we are loved.” This truth reframes obedience as a joyful act of gratitude rather than a burdensome obligation. It recognizes that Christ’s finished work on the cross fully satisfies the demands of God’s justice. Therefore, Christians are free to obey not to earn acceptance but because they have already been accepted. This is a radically different motivation for obedience. It also underscores that obedience is vital for displaying the character of God to the world. Christians are to live distinctively, not boasting in their own morality or works but reflecting Christ’s beauty and goodness. I love the way Chapell expresses this idea, saying, “The world sees the love of Christ through the lives of his people.” Obedience becomes a means of witness; it shows the power of the gospel to change hearts and lives. The transformation evidenced in the Christian life points others to the source of that change — Jesus himself.
Coming back to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus emphasizes the importance and significance of obedience and alignment with the normal values of the kingdom. These values aren’t Christianity for superheroes. Instead, they are for normal and everyday believers. And when these values are lived out, they demonstrate the goodness of God and the joy of the Christian life. However, we know that we can’t live these out on our own strength. That is what makes Jesus’ promise in John 14:26 of the coming Helper all that more wonderful. Not only does God’s saving grace and the joy of our salvation motivate us towards obedience, but it is God himself that sustains and enables that obedience. As Chapell notes, “Christ lives in us by his Spirit… enabling the obedience that our hearts now desire.” This is a core distinction of Christianity; obedience honors God, and it is God who makes our obedience possible. When we consider the way we live as Christians and listen to Jesus’ instruction in the Sermon on the Mount, we cannot underestimate the power of that obedience as a gospel witness. Nor should we be swindled away by the lie that our obedience is on our own effort. God not only loves our obedience, but he makes it possible. Obedience and love go hand-in-hand in the kingdom of heaven by God’s grace and through God’s power.