Respect God: Obey His Commands

Far too many Christians today show up for worship services on Sundays and participate in a few religious acts yet fail to respect the God they have come to worship. The singings of hymns, customary prayers, or exclamations of "Amen" are meaningless without respect for our One and Only God.

Christians respect God by living their lives according to His will. This necessitates living a lifestyle that emanates a reconditioned heart and mind. A reconditioned heart and mind requires us to fear God and live according to his ways, to love and serve him with all our heart and soul, and to obey his commands and laws (Deuteronomy 10:12-13). Christians cannot worship God on Sundays and engage in worldly living the rest of the week.

If Christians want to respect God and have an honest relationship with him, they must not only love him but obey what he commands. Jesus said in John 14:15, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." Anyone who does not obey God's commands and claims to know God is a liar and does not live in the truth (1 John 2:4).

If someone claims "I know God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. (1 John 2:4-6, NLT)

Jesus lived his life by doing the will of God; that is, Jesus obeyed the Word of God. In His sermon on the mount, He told the crowds that "not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished" (Matthew 5:18). In other words, the Scriptures, in their entirety, were—and still are—valid. Yet, we see more and more Christians behaving as if God’s laws are outdated, old fashioned, or just plain "behind the times." According to George Barna in his book, Think Like Jesus, only 25 percent of born-again adults rely on the Bible for their moral decisions.¹ The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, warned Christians about their moral choices, particularly those relating to sexual immorality and greed. Sexual immorality, greed, vulgar language, or any impurity should not even be heard of among Christians, for persons engaging in such acts have no inheritance in the kingdom of God (Ephesians 5:3-5, paraphrased). And if I may add, such actions show no respect for God.

The Bible says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength...and love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these" (Mark 12: 30-31). The Apostle Paul later defined love as the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:10b). Living a life of blatant sin is not an example of fulfilling the law and is surely not an example of love and respect for God.

God desires us to have a loving and respectful relationship with Him. We were created for that purpose, not for our own sinful human desires, but rather for the will of God (1 Peter 4:2). And whoever loves and does the will of God, rather than the things of this temporary world, will live forever (1 John 2:17).

1. George Barna, Think Like Jesus (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003) p. 21.