“If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I
have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” John
15:10
When Jesus spoke the line above, He followed it by saying, “I have
told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be
complete.” These two lines, taken side by side, provide a helpful
unity of Jesus’ teaching regarding holy obedience to Him.
First, Jesus speaks of the necessity of keeping His commandments.
To some, such a statement, when taken by itself, can seem
burdensome, dictatorial, oppressive and confining. But is it? The
answer is found clearly as we read on.
The next thing Jesus teaches is that the effect of keeping His
commandments is that we “remain in His love.” He further explains
that He is not asking us to do anything that He Himself was not
willing to do. He was obedient to the will of the Father, keeping
the commandments of the Father to perfection. Therefore, we should
hear His command as a dictate flowing from His own freely lived
choice to be obedient. As the Incarnate Son of God, He perfectly
obeyed the Father in His human nature. The result was that He
remained perfectly filled with the love of the Father. But that’s
not all. Joy is also experienced in a “complete” way when we
imitate Jesus’ perfect obedience.
In light of the teaching from our Lord, how do you view holy
obedience to the will of God? Take, for example, each of the Ten
Commandments. Do you struggle with unwavering obedience to them? Do
you experience them as oppressive and imposed limitations rather
than what they truly are? When understood correctly, the Ten
Commandments, and every other dictate of the will of God, are
exactly what we need and, even more so, exactly what we deeply
desire in life. We want interior order rather than chaos. We want
integrity rather than fragility. We want joy rather than sadness.
And we want unity with the love of God rather than the loss of God.
The path to the life we so deeply desire is obedience to the
commands of the will of God in all things.
Reflect, today, upon your immediate interior reaction to holy
obedience. If you do find yourself resistant in any way to this
teaching of Jesus, then that is a good sign that you need this
teaching more than you may know. Try to look at obedience in the
light of truth. Try to see that, deep down, your soul yearns for
obedience and the interior order it brings. Examine, especially,
any areas of obedience you struggle with and firmly recommit
yourself to unwavering obedience to each and every command of our
Lord.
My obedient Lord, You obeyed the will of Your Father in Heaven
to perfection. Through this obedience, You not only experienced the
full love and joy of the Father in Your human nature, You also set
for us a perfect example and model for holiness. Help me to see the
areas of my life in which I need to be more obedient, so that I,
too, will share in Your holy life and that of the Father’s. Jesus,
I trust in You.
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