For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5:3)

What Is The Love Of God?

There has always been one thing God wants from His creation. Creating man and woman was the highest of His creation, and He crowned humanity with the divine image of an eternal nature. God did not ask much, but He expected everything. To love God, one must keep His commandments. God has always wanted men to love Him enough to keep His commandments. Rejecting the word of God is an affront to the nature and character of God. It shows disregard for the love of God. Man was created to show the glory of the Father. When men refuse to keep the will of the Father, it shows the lack of love needed for God’s blessings. The love of God is found when men keep the commandments of the Lord.

It is easy to say one loves God. What becomes difficult is to have that love and keep His commandments. The problem men have faced with their relationship with God is that they want to say they love Him but are not interested in doing what God says. Many will claim to love Jesus and never consider following His commands. Today’s health and wealth religion hawks the pleasure-driven-do-what-you-want-to-do gospel of loving Jesus and not worrying whether one is following the will of God. If a person believes in Jesus, that is all required. Loving God is an expression of outward faith without any action on the part of the individual. Religion becomes nothing more than a shallow emotional experience.

Keeping the commandments of God requires obedience to the word. This is called action. It is not possible to choose and pick which commands to keep. Obedience comes from the act of doing what the word of God says one must do to be saved. Saying you love God and refusing to be baptized for the remission of sins will not change a person into a saved individual. Proclaiming love for Jesus does not bring salvation apart from keeping the commandments. The faith-only doctrines of men destroy the fabric of the gospel to its core. There is no doctrine of faith-only in scripture, with the exception that salvation does not come by faith alone. Too many souls walk aimlessly through life, saying they love God and Jesus Christ and never do one thing to keep the commandments of the Lord.

The striking character of the commandments of God is to know that none of them are burdensome. When has God asked any man or woman to do something they could not do? The Lord told Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering because God knew the test that would go through the mind of Abraham would be proven by his faith. God did not ask too much of Jonah, but Jonah thought so. On the day of Pentecost, when Peter and the apostles preached to the multitudes gathered at the temple, did the Holy Spirit ask them to do something they could not do? Peter told them to repent and be baptized for the remission of sins, and three thousand people obeyed. Why? They loved God.

When the scriptures say that salvation is found when a man repents and is baptized, refusing to obey the command shows a lack of love for God. Whatever the Lord has told men to do is not hard to understand and no less challenging to follow. At the root of the problem is love. People who refuse to do what the scriptures say show a lack of love for God. Do you want to love God? Keep His commandments, and remember that God has not and will not ask you to do something hard to do. Jesus did the hard part so that we could enjoy the grace of His Father. Love God. Keep His commandments.