One of the weaknesses in popular Christianity today is an overemphasis on God’s love and an underemphasis on obedience to what He expects of those who follow Him. Love and obedience do not oppose one another. On the contrary, obedience that is without hesitation is the result of unconditional love.
Obedience is not a choice, an option that one may select out of several possibilities or lifestyles. You are either obedient or disobedient. Either you walk in obedience to what God expects and requires, or your love is less than genuine and sincere.
Grudging obedience, the kind that is exacted by someone who is stronger than you or who will severely punish your failures, isn’t what brings pleasure to the heart of God. Of course I will comply if my automobile is stopped and someone with a gun asks for my money. Yet–and this happens all the time–I freely give money, time and my energies to those whom I love, to those who are in need.
A certain woman badly in need of money answered an ad for a housekeeper. The man who was employing someone to take care of his children and his home had lost his wife and mother of his children. After the woman took the position of housekeeper, it became apparent that this man was no ordinary person. He was a pain in the neck. On her first day of work, he presented her with a neatly typed list of responsibilities, and he was so particular that she almost quit after the first week.
Eventually her resentment began to subside, and she began to see a softer, gentler side of the man who had employed her. In time, she grew to love the children and seemed to be able to overlook his idiosyncrasies of temperament and habit. Eventually, to the great delight of the children, he asked the housekeeper to become his wife, and they were married.
Everything that she had so disliked now was no problem. The difference? She had come to know and love the man who had hired her as a housekeeper.
A faith that assumes that because God loves you He will overlook the bad things you do is not true faith at all. It is a sentimental notion that God doesn’t really mean what He says.
"Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?" Jesus asked those who came for the bread and fish. In other words, don’t expect to enjoy the thrill of a religious experience and a good time without cost (see Luke 6:46).
Jesus’ question to Peter, "Do you love me?" is one that you can answer only by measuring your obedience against what He asks of you. Listen to the quiet echo of that question which never goes away, "Do you love Me? Then keep My commandments." - Resource Reading: Luke 6:43-49