“Loving God IS obeying Him”

I appreciate your love for the scriptures and devotion to Christ. I am equally impressed with your knowledge of the scriptures along with your ability to be humble. (The latter two are easy to get out of balance.) However, when it comes to equating love and obedience I believe more than the end result (“Loving God IS obeying Him”) needs to be considered. For example, we need to consider a focus that will help us get to this end result.

Premise: A “love focus” will always leads us to obedience but “obedience focus” will not always lead us to love.

1.Example of love always leading to obedience:

•Rom 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: love therefore is the fulfilment of the law. ASV
•Matt 22:40 On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets. ASV


2.Examples of obedience not leading to love:

•Luke 11:42 But woe unto you Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and every herb, and pass over justice and the love of God: but these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.ASV
•1 Cor 13:1-3 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have (the gift of) prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed (the poor), and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. ASV
•Phil 1:15 Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: ASV

3.Example of love being more important than obedience:

•Gal 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love. ASV
•Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ASV
•Rev 2:2-4 I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false; and thou hast patience and didst bear for my name's sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have (this) against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love. ASV



Reasoning: If our focus is to grow in love, and we do grow in love, obedience will follow. This is because the Spirit of God is love and greater is he that is in us than he who is in the world. However, the same is not true for obedience. If our focus is on obedience, we will often not end up with love. We will normally end up with a "works orientation" and a "self righteous attitude"; just like the Pharisees did. This is because the battle that takes place in Romans 7 is not winnable without love.