Love Expressed in Obedience
The true test of love is our obedience to Christ's commandments, and many are denying the Word of God by rejecting or interpreting His words in a way that conforms to their theories.
A.W. Tozer emphasizes that love for Christ is intrinsically linked to obedience to His commandments, asserting that true love is demonstrated through our willingness to follow His teachings. He critiques the contemporary evangelical perspective that downplays the significance of Christ's commandments, warning that such views can lead to a rejection of the Word of God. Tozer calls for a reevaluation of how believers perceive their relationship with Christ, urging them to recognize that obedience is a vital expression of love. He highlights the importance of adhering to Christ's teachings as a measure of genuine faith.
Text
Our Lord told His disciples that love and obedience were organically united, that the keeping of His sayings would prove that we loved Him and the failure or refusal to keep them would prove that we did not. This is the true test of love, and we will be wise to face up to it. The commandments of Christ occupy in the New Testament a place of importance that they do not have in current evangelical thought. The idea that our relation to Christ is revealed by our attitude to His commandments is now considered legalistic by many influential Bible teachers, and the plain words of our Lord are rejected outright or interpreted in a manner to make them conform to theories ostensibly based upon the epistles of Paul. Thus the Word of God is denied as boldly by evangelicals as by admitted modernists.
Sermon Outline
- The Organic Union of Love and Obedience
- The Importance of Christ's Commandments in the New Testament
- The Rejection of Christ's Words by Modern Theology
- Denial of the Word of God by evangelicals and modernists alike
- The relation to Christ revealed by attitude to His commandments
Key Quotes
“Our Lord told His disciples that love and obedience were organically united, that the keeping of His sayings would prove that we loved Him and the failure or refusal to keep them would prove that we did not.” — A.W. Tozer
Application Points
- We must examine our attitude towards Christ's commandments to reveal our true relation to Him.
- Obedience to Christ's commandments is essential to demonstrating our love for Him.
- We must be careful not to deny the Word of God by rejecting or interpreting Christ's words in a way that conforms to our own theories.