Godly Obedience

Col 3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
Col 3:24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ.
Col 3:25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done; and there is no respect of persons.

God has offered us the reward of reigning with Christ in His kingdom if we will obey Him. I think that some would say that to seek the crown would be a selfish motivation and we should be obeying out of the goodnes of our heart (yeah right) but Christ COMMANDED US to seek the kingdom, and to despise the promise of reigning would be an affront to the Lord. Perhaps being unwilling to obey would tend toward finding less motivations for obedience?

 

I can find no Biblical basis for saying that God ONLY accepts obedience motivated by love alone.
What I do find is multiple motivations.
For example, if not love, then service/duty. If not service/duty then fear.
Two examples come to mind.
Rom. 12:1-2 conveys the command to sacrifice yourself. Command=obey! Then it says this is "your reasonable service".
Next would be out of fear."Therefore knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men." And "Lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."
So we see in just two of many examples that "Love" is not the only motivation for obedience to the Lord.
I might add, "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?"

In HIS service;
Jim

 

2Th 3:14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.

Heres another one, making us ashamed not to be obedient.

 

BUMP!

Strange how the subject of obedience gets ignored, ain't it?


In HIS service;
Jim

 

We obey also because we are bought with a price. We do not any longer belong to the devil or ourselves.

As AV611jin so eloquently put it: Rom. 12:1-2 conveys the command to sacrifice yourself. Command=obey! Then it says this is "your reasonable service".

We were created for service to Him. Thats why we obey.

 

I beleive that all forms of obediance must have a strong ellement of LOVE in them and without love it wouldnt be.Wich is to say anything done without the ellement of love probably will not be all that pleasing to God.