We have to be very careful when we read the Bible, because it’s incredibly easy to insert our own preconceived ideas into the text or read a verse to say what we think it says/should say rather than what it says. Because of that, we can be guilty of misreading what God intended, and sometimes we may even read the Bible backwards. No, not in the literal sense of reading from bottom to top and right to left, but in the sense of misunderstanding the cause/effect relationship of some of God’s words.
One that comes to mind is John 14:15 – “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Simple enough, and one with which we’re all likely familiar. What it doesn’t say, but what we often interpret it to say, is “If you keep My commandments, you love Me.”
There is a close correlation between the two, as the verse indicates, and John’s writing goes on to discuss that close relationship, but they are not one and the same. Though it’s not possible to love Him without keeping His commandments, it is possible to keep His commandments without loving Him. Can one worship God, study the Word, and abstain from worldly temptations without actually having a love for Jesus? Sure, it happens all the time.
The praying Pharisee of Luke 18:11-12 and the rich young ruler in the following section (18:18-23) give the perfect example of what I mean by getting John 14:15 backwards. They kept God’s commandments about as well as anyone could… but that didn’t mean they loved God. God doesn’t look upon us with favor because we’re really good at following Him. The first sin we ever commit in life outweighs all the good we’ll ever do, for it is what put Jesus on the cross. Jesus’ problem with the Pharisee and the rich young ruler was that they thought their obedience defined their love for God. We see that neither of them had developed a true love of God despite all of that obedience, and it was the tax collector (18:13-14) who, though far less “perfect,” received Jesus’ favor, because He truly depended on God. The Father can’t look favorably on loveless obedience, because it is always an attempt to save ourselves by our own goodness.
This misunderstanding didn’t end in Luke 18 though. Sadly, it is alive and well today. We can even get caught up in this misunderstanding in the conversion process. How many times have you seen someone get baptized and never really start coming to worship or get baptized only to become a disengaged part of the church? Instead, our efforts should be focused on developing disciples who love Jesus above all else, and when they start working towards that repentance, confession, baptism, and submission to the rest of the Scriptures will be so much more natural for them.
If the mind isn’t engaged or an intellectual understanding exists without an emotional connection to God, Deuteronomy 6:5’s command to love God with all of your being isn’t fulfilled. So we each have to regularly ask ourselves, is my heart in it? Am I attending worship, reading the Bible, praying, staying away from certain sins, because I love God more than anything else, or is it out of some sense of obligation, perhaps doing what will help us go to heaven rather than hell?
Love for Him will always lead to more obedience, but obedience doesn’t always lead to love. We don’t love God because we practice baptism, a cappella worship, male leadership, proper interpretation of key texts, and abstention from sin. We do all of those things because we love Him. Though the gap between those two seems small, it makes all the difference in the world as to how God views our service.
By Jack Wilkie
Jack Wilkie is the author of “Failure: What Christian Parents Need to Know About American Education” and is the speaker for Focus Press’s “The Lost Generation” seminar. To schedule a seminar at your church, contact jack@focuspress.org.