Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” John 14:15. If I may I would like to alter the text to say, “If you love yourself you will keep His commandments.”
It is very safe to assume that we love ourselves. There are a few people filled with self-loathing but it’s rare. Most of us think we are the greatest. When things go wrong it usually is someone else who messed up. When we don’t get what we want it isn’t our fault; someone doesn’t like us. Therefore, I want to make a case for obeying God based totally on what is good for us.
In God’s great wisdom He shared with us the secrets to a good life. If we don’t kill we rarely have to fear someone wanting to kill us. If we don’t steal we rarely have to worry about being arrested for shoplifting. Black and white cars don’t make us pause to see if they are coming for us. If we don’t tell bad stories about others people will rarely tell bad stories about us. If we keep the Sabbath we get one day each week when we don’t have to go to work. If we don’t curse we don’t have to worry about offending someone.
We are talking about the quality of life. Jesus was not in error when He spoke of coming that we might have the abundant life. John 10:10. Sometimes we err by thinking the abundant life is a big bank account; not so. The abundant life is a life that is as stress free as possible and obeying God is the surest way to accomplish that goal.
Written by Roger Bothwell on October 12, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org