Love Made Visible: Why Obedience Is the Evidence - Ep 48

What does love look like when you can't see it?

Love is an inward reality, but it always produces an outward expression. We may not be able to see love itself, but we can see what love produces—faithfulness, sacrifice, patience, forgiveness, service, and obedience.

In this episode of Milk to Meat, we continue exploring why obedience is evidence of our love for God. John tells us plainly, “In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands.” But that doesn't mean we obey God in order to earn His love. The direction matters:

Love → obedience.

Not:

Obedience → earning love.

We go back to the garden and discover that humanity's first disobedience wasn't simply about breaking a rule. At its deepest level, it was a failure to trust God's goodness and a decision to believe that we knew better than God.

Then Jesus enters the story.

Where Adam chose his own will, Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Where Adam's disobedience brought death, Christ's obedience led Him to the cross—and through death into resurrection.

The cross is therefore not only the ultimate demonstration of God's love for us; it is also the ultimate picture of love expressed through obedience.

We also explore why obedience is not opposed to grace. The gospel doesn't say, “Obey God so God will love you.” It says, “God has loved you, pursued you, redeemed you, and reconciled you in Christ—now live as someone who has been loved.”

That changes everything.

Christian obedience isn't about earning the Father's approval. It's about responding to the Father we already know has loved us. It's the difference between legalism and discipleship, between trying to become accepted and learning to live from the acceptance we've received in Christ.

God loves → God gives → God rescues → we receive → we trust → we obey → we are transformed.

Obedience isn't the price of admission.

It's the evidence that the gospel has taken root.