Finding Joy Through Obedience in the Lord
05/13/16 
Eyoung Min
Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me."
- John 14:23-24
By God's grace and love, I have received forgiveness from my sins and the gift of eternal life. I am thankful to call Him my Father and have faith in His goodness and protection in all circumstances. Therefore, I believe that I have been given a willing heart to obey His commandments. I feel exceptionally blessed to know the secret of a faithful life and pray that more people will come to know it.
It is not clear whether and how much obedience is valued in today's society. On the one hand, obedience is valued over disobedience. We all have experiences of obeying (authority) but sometimes we have obeyed more willingly than other times. Regardless of how willing we were to obey, doing so may have led to positive consequences, such as personal success at work, relationships, or health, whereas not doing so may have led to negative consequences, such as personal failure in these aspects of life. Indeed, children are taught at a very young age to obey rather than disobey their parents and teachers because doing so helps you and not doing so hurts you.
On the other hand, obedience seems to be an unpopular concept and may not be as valued these days. Many people argue that obeying authority has led to some of the worst tragedies of human history (e.g., World War II). When commoners obeyed (evil-minded) authority, the consequences were horrendous and inhumane (killing several hundred thousand innocent people during World War II). As a result, obedience became to be seen as unethical and destructive with disobedience having the potential to be ethical and virtuous (e.g., by going against evil-minded authority, people could have prevented horrendous outcomes).
In sum, obedience might lead to positive consequences but not all the time. In fact, at times, disobedience leads to positive consequences. Put briefly, my perspective is that it is unclear as to how to make a statement about how much we should value obedience versus disobedience in todayЎs society. However, I can say with confidence that our calling as Christians is to obey God and His commandments, which are given to us clearly in the Bible. I believe that by obeying God, we are expressing our love for Him and our faith in Him. Importantly, God provides us with His divine protection when we obey Him.
To illustrate this idea, letЎs think about a toddler who tries to climb a fence that is too high for her. Her mother tells her to not climb the fence because she wants to protect her from falling and hurting herself. It is important for her mother to discipline her - by doing so, she protects her from hurting herself. Why does her mother want to protect her? Because of her genuine love and concern for her daughter.
We can apply this same example to ourselves, in which we are the child and God is our parent. We can think about times in our lives in which we wanted to do something that went against God's word. Did I love my neighbor (colleagues, relatives, church members, strangers) as I love myself? Did I forgive someone who has done wrong to me? Did I love an idol (career success, power, status, pleasure, comfortable life) more than I love my God who loved the world so much He sent His one and only son save us from our sins?
From my understanding of obedience as taught in the Bible, God disciplines us to obey His word because he loves us and wants to protect us from falling into sin and hurting ourselves. This means that loving our neighbors as ourselves, forgiving others who have done wrong to me, and letting go of idols and worshipping our one and only God provides us with divine protection. If we truly believe and trust in His love and protection in all circumstances, we are encouraged to obey his commandments in all circumstances. "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching" and "Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching." (John 14:23-24)By obeying the word, we are allowing Him to work in our lives - to do what is best for us in His eyes, which is to live in Him. And living in God is true joy.
Importantly, obeying GodЎs word allows us to find joy in Him. When we seek to learn and live according to GodЎs word, we have a more intimate relationship with Him. We read the Bible because we want to read it, we enjoy reading it, and we find satisfaction in reading it. We pray to the Lord about glorifying Him through our everyday thoughts and actions. We sing praises to lift up His glorious name. We are glad and thankful to do this together with brothers and sisters in Christ, whom we have been gifted to one another. Through all this, we are able to experience His love, which is perfect, great, beautiful, and all things good. We come to delight and be joyful in being with our Lord, our savior, when we obey His perfect word.
We are told, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." (John 14:23) I think this means that when we love God, we desire to obey Him, and when this happens, we will be given a taste of heaven on earth in which the Father and Jesus will come to us. God promises to prepare a "home" for us in which He will be there. This is the promise and protection that is given to us in the Bible as we love Him and obey Him in faith. I believe there is nothing sweeter and comforting than finding joy in being with the Lord at His home. "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4) I want to live this way and encourage brothers and sisters to encourage one another to do so as well.
My heartfelt prayer is that fellow Christians and I will live every day with a passionate love for God and those He loves, and to obey His word by faith and trust in His promises. I also pray that those who do not know the love of Christ will come to know His love and that His work will be done through them. May all the people in all the nations delight in the Lord and find joy in Him.
