Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s Scripture fits within the title.

 

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”  John 14:15.

 

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Obedience to Christ’s commandments could be motivated by different things such as duty, faith, fear, gratitude, hope, or love.  Or, to put it a different way, think of obedience as a car.  We could fuel our car of obedience by different fuels.  But, our Scripture for today teaches us to run our car of obedience on the gas of love for Christ.

 

“But now faith, hope, love, abide these three;  but the greatest of these is love.”  1 Corinthians 13:13.

 

This may be helpful to know,  But, who is adequate to love Christ as we should?  By nature, we are hostile to God:  “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God;  for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,”  Romans 8:7

                          

 

“We love, because He first loved us.  If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar;  for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”  1 John 4:19-21. 

 

“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.  By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”  1 John 4:9-13.

 

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love …”  Galatians 5:22.  The fruit of the Spirit is love, both love for Christ and love for man.  

 

This hope (that God fills us with the love that we need to both love Christ as we should and love man as we should) does not disappoint.  “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  Romans 5:5.