-When you truly love someone, you want to please them. You want to do what they want. Paul says this very thing when he is cautioning the Corinthians about getting married (1Corinthians 7.33). And there is nothing wrong with this. You care deeply for this person. They are important to you. You want to make them happy. You care about the things they care about. What matters to them matters to you. You want to know the things which are in their heart, and you want to please them. This is how it is with our relationship with God. The more we come to love Him, the more we want to please Him, make Him happy. If there is something He wants, it will give the one who loves Him great pleasure to be able to provide that somehow.
-In fact, this love gives wings to our obedience. When you love someone, it is no heavy, dreary burden to do what they ask of you. That’s what John is saying here. Doing what the beloved wants is not at all a drudgery. Rather, it is a delight. You find joy in doing things that they want. Making them happy makes you happy, doesn’t it?
-What makes God happy? What does He want, want us to do? There are hundreds of explicit commands found in Scripture - many of course were specific to the Levitical priesthood, which of course Jesus completely fulfilled. Nevertheless, the would-be ardent God-lover will find many, many things which God wants us to do in the pages of Scripture, aka His law. Of course, in Christ we come to God’s law now not as law-breakers needing to earn right standing thru perfect law-keeping. Rather we come as completely loved-and-accepted children who want to make their Dad happy. Happy dad, happy child. Isn’t that how it is? If you love your dad, you take great pleasure in doing the things that he wants. That’s what David said: “I delight to do what You want, O my God; Your law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40.8)(cf Psalm 1.2, 119.16, 119.35, 119.47). This was the heart of Christ as well: “My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me” (John 4.34). In other words, Jesus found sustenance and satisfaction in doing that which pleased His Father, in doing what He asked of Him. Truly, to obey is better than sacrifice. Meaning, it is better to pursue doing what God wants, what is good and right, as opposed to going thru the motions of religious ritual with your heart far removed and given to another. This is the way of the people who truly love the Lord - they seek Him day by day and delight to know and be absorbed in His ways (Isaiah 58.2).
-Let it not go without saying that the Word of God is surely an acquired taste (Jeremiah 15.6). It does feel heavy and hard to understand to those whose spiritual senses have not been trained by it, to those who have not learned to feast on its truth, to mine its treasures. But it surely is a veritable smorgasbord for the soul. Consider what the Psalmist declares about God’s law in Psalm 19.7-10: Perfect. Pure. Rejoicing the heart. More desirable than gold. Sweeter than honey. Remember this is our Old Testament to which he is referring, the one we tend to avoid. A burden is something you assiduously avoid. Something you want to get out from under. Something you will conveniently and consistently pass up and pass by. Is this not how many of us who profess to love the Lord approach His Word in general, not only the Old Testament? Sometimes some of us barely approach it at all, in fact. A hurried glance before we rush off to work or as we fall off to sleep at night. If we even take any time at all. Just a sip. A little dab'll do ya. So busy. So distracted. Nonplussed. Bored. Bothered. Bothersome. God’s commands are (or so they seem to some) bothersome, and we don’t want to be bothered. So we don’t bother. We hop on the bypass of life and pass on by the unimaginable soul feast the Lord has laid out for us in His Word. Friends, things should not be this way. Life is heavy and burdensome. It is the Word of God, His law, which thrills our soul and puts wind in our sails. And those who truly love Him delight to learn and do what He wants. Come, join the feast...!
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