Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. . . . Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching! If we Love Jesus, we need to follow, reflect, and imitate Him, to love like Him!

 

Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. 

~John 14:23

Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. . . . Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching! If we Love Jesus, we need to follow, reflect, and imitate Him, to love like Him! A lot of people say they love God or love Jesus, but then want to do what they want to do, and not obey His Commandments. We need to obey God, we need to show our love to Jesus by following Him, imitating Him, and reflecting Him, no questions asked. We need to stop sinning. While it is not easy, true love for God is obeying His teachings! 

Our Daily Bread today said, "Winters in the Netherlands seldom bring a lot of snow, but it can get cold enough to freeze over the canals. When my husband, Tom, was growing up there, his parents had a family rule: “Stay off the ice until it is thick enough to hold the weight of a horse.” Because horses would leave evidence of their presence behind, Tom and his buddies decided to get some manure off the road. They threw it on the thin ice and ventured out onto the surface. No harm came to them, nor were they discovered, but they knew in their hearts they’d been disobedient. Obedience doesn’t always come naturally. The choice to obey or not to obey can spring from a sense of duty or fear of punishment. But we can also choose to obey out of love and respect for those in authority over us. In John 14, Jesus challenged His disciples by saying, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. . . . Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching” (vv. 23-24). It’s not always an easy choice to obey, but the power of the Spirit living within us gives us the desire and ability to obey Him (vv. 15-17). With His enablement, we can continue to follow the commands of the one who loves us most—not out of fear of punishment, but out of love."

If we really love God! If we say we are Christians and love Jesus, then we need to obey God, we need to follow the teachings of Jesus, and we need to imitate and reflect Him, which means loving all people. We need to pray for others and love all, no matter what! I hear many say, they won't pray for others, but this is wrong. Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies and those that persecute us. We need to still always try to love all, all! That is key. We need to stop sinning. We need to obey God, He gave us 10 simple Commandments to follow, He also gave us Jesus as our example to follow, what more do we need? Just His love, guidance, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and love, we can love others if we follow Jesus!