Reasons For Obedience
- Christ’s love motivates us to live for Him.
- Sin is destructive and should be avoided.
- Our Father lovingly disciplines us for wrongdoing.
- His commands for us are good.
- We will receive eternal rewards for obedience.
- He is worthy of our obedience.
Sin Is Destructive:
Satan has effectively blinded
man to the painful, damaging consequences of sin. The effects of sin are all
around us, yet many continue to indulge in the sex, status and pleasure
seeking, and rampant self-centeredness that cause so much anguish and pain.
Satan contradicted God in the Garden when he said, “You surely shall not die!”
Gen. 3:4. Sin is pleasant, but only for a season. Sooner or later, sin will
result in some form of destruction.
Sin is destructive in many ways. Emotionally, we may
experience the pain of guilt and shame and the fear of failure and punishment.
Mentally, we may experience the anguish of flashbacks. We may also expend
enormous amounts of time and energy thinking about our sins and rationalizing
our guilt. Physically, we may suffer from psychosomatic illnesses or experience
pain through physical abuse. Sin may also result in the loss of property or
even the loss of life. Relationally, we can alienate ourselves from others.
Spiritually, we grieve the Holy Spirit, lose our testimony, and break our fellowship
with God. The painful and destructive effects of sin are so profound that why
we don’t have an aversion to it is a mystery.
Christ's Love - This is a great motivating factor that is missing in many of our lives because we don't really believe that God loves us unconditionally. We expect His love to be conditional, based on our ability to earn it.
God's commands are given for two good purposes: to protect us from the destructiveness of sin and to direct us into a life of joy and fruitfulness.
Our noblest motivation for serving Christ is simply that He is worthy of our love and obedience.
(taken from The Search of Significance by Robert McGee)
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