The Role Obedience Plays. Chapter 17. The proof is in the fruit. How am I to know the authentic from the imitation? It is a general rule concerning feelings and affections that their test is in their fruits. Francis of Sales. Imitation Christianity is one of the greatest obstacles to living the genuine kingdom life. How do we know the imitation from the real thing? Jesus gave us a simple but perfect test. "By their fruits you will know them." Matthew 7:20.
Once we get past the excitement and pious expressions someone makes, what do we find? Do we see the fruits of the Spirit? Do we find love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Galatians 5:22-23. Authentic Christianity produces these fruits. Producing godly fruit and obeying Christ are inextricably linked. John tells us, "Now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments.
He who says, 'I know him,' and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:3-4. Strong words, indeed. It's easy to proclaim to everyone how much we love Jesus. It's easy to be infatuated with the image of Jesus and to have warm, rapturous thoughts whenever we think of him. But is it true love? The test of whether or not we truly love Jesus comes down to one thing: do we keep his commandments? If we don't, we are only imagining we love him.
John tells us further, "In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God." 1 John 3:10. Because imitation spirituality is not something new, men of God through the ages have written a lot about it. 16th-century Anabaptist leader Dirk Philips writes, "Not everyone who claims the new birth and prattles on about the new creature is in fact a person reborn from God.
It is only the person who has taken on the godly character and nature of Jesus Christ." Scottish minister Henry Scougal described counterfeit spirituality in his day, "Some put all religion in the affections, in rapturous hearts, and ecstatic devotion. All they aim at is to pray with passion, to think of heaven with pleasure, and to be touched by those kind and melting expressions by which they court their Savior. Eventually, they persuade themselves they are mightily in love with him." 19th-century preacher J. C.
Ryle observed, "You may weep under preaching one day and be lifted to the third heaven by joyous excitements another day, and yet be dead to God." 20th-century Christian writer George Otis Jr.
has observed, "Many, many have wept at church altars only to arise unchanged and eventually engage themselves in the same sins over which they wept." Hymn writer Isaac Watts complained of those in his day who "seemed to make all their faith consist of a few warm and pious feelings." So although it is right to love God with our emotions, if our love consists of emotions alone, it is not real love. Jesus tells us quite plainly, "He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me." John 14:21.
But if we're going to live the kingdom life, one of the important things we must understand is that not all obedience is the same. Different types of obedience. Christians obey God's commandments for various reasons. Many Christians obey his laws mainly out of fear of punishment or desire for reward. Others obey because they appreciate what Christ has done for them, and they want to be his obedient, dutiful servants.
However, another secret of the kingdom life is that we must not only obey God's law, but we should actually love his laws. Surrendered Christians are glad that God has given us his laws, for they are convinced that his laws produce the happiest and best way to live. Although human governments don't care what motivates our obedience, God cares very much about our motivation. In his kindness, he accepts all three of these types of obedience: 1. Fear obedience, 2. Dutiful servant obedience, and 3. Love obedience.
However, fear obedience and dutiful servant obedience are both less than God's best for us. God wants to help us grow to the point where we obey him because we love his laws. Only then do we truly discover that his commandments are not burdensome. In the next few chapters, we're going to look at these three types of obedience in detail and see what factors distinguish love obedience from the other two.