1 John 5:1-5

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

Have you ever felt compelled to obey someone but at the same time unwilling to obey them? When someone expects obedience from you without any kind of mutual respect or relationship between the two of you, it can be difficult to motivate yourself towards obedience. This is particularly true when the obedience demanded of you is costly.

Obedience to God is central to Christian discipleship. As followers of Jesus, we are committed to a life of obedience to God in every area of our lives. It’s that obedience which leads us to pursue a different job, move to a new area, reach out to a neighbour we’ve not spoken to before, donate money to a cause or individual that God lays on our heart. It’s that obedience that brings about changes in our hearts and lives as God reveals areas of sin which need to be brought to light and dealt with through repentance.

There’s something different about obedience to God compared to that burdensome obedience I described at the start. John tells us that “Loving God means keeping his commandments.” So our obedience to God is closely linked to our love for him. Why do we obey God? Not out of duty or in order to gain something back from him, but simply because we love him. That’s what we see modelled to us by Jesus. He obeyed God even to the point of death on the cross, because he loved God.

John continues, “and his commandments are not burdensome.” So there are two parts to this equation. We obey God out of love for him, and his commandments are not burdensome because of his love for us. If your obedience to God feels burdensome, it may well be that the burden comes from somewhere other than God. Perhaps you are weighed down by your own expectations, or by the expectations you feel from others. If the goal is pleasing God and obeying him out of love for him, then it’s time to let go of anything else which makes that obedience a burden to you.

Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”