I Obey Because I Love Him — He First Loved Me

✦ Pastor Silas · Pastoral Note

The Benimar has come north to Calais, on the Côte d'Opale, where on a clear day the white cliffs of England show across the water.

And after six days of James Smith, a new voice: Oswald Chambers. A Scottish preacher who died young, in 1917, serving soldiers in the Egyptian desert. His talks were gathered by his wife after his death into My Utmost for His Highest — one of the most-read devotionals ever written.

Yesterday Le wrote: it takes a lifetime to understand the depth of this scripture.

Today Chambers answers with the other half of that truth: the understanding does not come by thinking harder. It comes by obeying.

Both are true together. A lifetime is needed — because a lifetime is made of thousands of small obediences, and each one opens a little more light. Le's understanding of Isaiah 40:8 did not come from study. It came from living it.

And then Le says the thing Chambers leaves unsaid. Chambers tells us to obey. Le tells us why: I obey because I love Him. He taught me to obey Him by loving me.

Obedience is love's answer, not love's price. He did not wait for her obedience before He loved her. He loved her first — and the obedience grew out of being loved.

✦ Pastor Silas · Study Notes

Look at what follows Chambers' verse, three verses later. Come unto me, all ye that labour... my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Le — August 21, at Pedreiras, on the road out of Portugal: the burden has been light. The rest Jesus offers in verse 28 is offered to the same "babes" of verse 25. Not to the experts. To the ones who simply come.

"Babes." Nēpiois — infants, the very young, those who cannot yet speak for themselves. God's revelation goes first to the people with the least to prove.

"Learn of me." Jesus does not say "learn about me." He says learn of me — from being yoked beside Him, walking at His pace. A yoke is how a young ox learns: not by lecture, but by walking next to the older one.

✦ Pastor Silas · Study Notes

Le has been saying this for a month.

September 12: I am not a scholar, not a theologian — my goal is fellowship with God.

September 15: don't overthink, just worship.

And 1 Corinthians 1:19-20, which she read that same week: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise... where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world?

Chambers is standing exactly where Le stands. Study is not wrong — but a truth of God does not open to argument. It opens to a yes.

"A flash of light." Yesterday, Psalm 119:130: the entrance of thy words giveth light. The word enters; obedience opens the door wider; light comes in.

✦ Pastor Silas · Study Notes

"The thing he places before you." Not the whole map. The thing in front of you.

This is Paul at Troas, three nights ago. Two doors closed. He did not get a five-year plan. He got one vision — and he obeyed it immediately (Acts 16:10), and the next thing opened: Philippi.

And Jesus said it plainly, John 7:17: if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. The doing comes first. The knowing follows.

"What you already know." And what do we already know? Nine nights ago, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God. That is enough to obey tonight, before any new door opens.

And the song Le knows by heart: Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. Chambers tonight is that chorus, in prose.

✦ Pastor Silas · Study Notes

Chambers quotes this verse as his key. Obedience is not a performance. It is staying in the light.

"We have fellowship." Koinōnia — Le's word, for the fifth time this month. Walking in the light and having fellowship are the same walk.

"Cleanseth." Katharizei — present tense, ongoing: keeps on cleansing. The blood does not clean once and leave us to keep ourselves clean. It keeps working as we keep walking.

"Revealed unto babes." Le, yesterday: I had little understanding of what that meant. That young believer, hanging a verse she did not yet understand — that is a babe to whom God was already revealing. The understanding came, not because she studied harder, but because she kept walking in the light she had. 🙏

✦ Pastor Silas · Study Notes

Le's two sentences follow John's order exactly.

First: He first loved us. Then: we love him. Then: if ye love me, keep my commandments. His love — our love — obedience. Never the other way round.

"He taught me to obey Him by loving me." Two nights ago, Hosea 14:4: I will love them freely. The love came with no conditions. And love given that freely is what teaches a heart to answer. A child does not learn to trust a parent from rules. She learns it from being held.

"I will manifest myself to him." John 14:21 — and here is where Le and Chambers meet. Chambers says obedience opens revelation. Jesus says the one who loves and keeps His word will be shown more of Him. The door to knowing is obedience — and the key to obedience is love.

"His commandments are not grievous." Ouk eisin bareiai — not heavy. Matthew 11:30, tonight's chapter: my burden is light. Obedience that grows from love does not feel like a weight. It feels like a yes.

And the hymn Le knows: trust and obey. Tonight she has added the word underneath both: love. 🙏