"You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. Exodus 20:4-6
Just when you thought we would be moving forward, I want to point out one last thing in this parenthetical statement that is part of the second commandment (v.5-6). And this time I really mean it!!
Did you notice the words, “to those who love Me and keep My commandments”? This phrase reminds us of the inseparable link between love and obedience. We know that Jesus’ answer to the question about which is the greatest commandment was “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.”
Loving God is, therefore, a commandment—the greatest commandment! Loving God is, therefore, obedience to the greatest commandment. But there is another connection between love and obedience as well. Jesus commented on this love/obedience connection twice in John 14.
"If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (v.15)”
”Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.” (v.23-24)
Clearly, love and obedience is the appropriate response to the love of God in Christ Jesus, and the validation of our love for Him. Sadly, none of us obeys Christ all the time, which is proof that our love for Christ wavers. As R.C. Sproul used to say, “Every time we sin, in that moment, we love our sin more than we love God’s Son.”
The good news for the redeemed is that when we unlovingly disobey the Lord, we are convicted by the Holy Spirit. His conviction brings us back to love and obey God by confessing and repenting of our sin. That we do this is evidence that though we do not love or obey the Lord perfectly, we do love and obey the Lord pervasively—meaning that our failures, notwithstanding the general inclination of the children of God is to love and obey God.