John 14:15
"If you love me, obey my commandments.

John 14:23
Jesus replied, "All those who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and live with them.

The greatest demonstration of human love for God is to walk in agreement with the mind and heart of God. The Bible calls this kind of agreement with God obedience. Obedience takes faith because it is a demonstration of our trust in God. We trust God is good and all wise. We trust He knows what is best for us. We trust He unselfishly has our best interest at heart so we choose to obey Him. It is a wise thing to obey God and foolish to disobey Him.

Anything outside of God will is imperfect. This imperfection the Bible calls sin and it will bring nothing but evil and heartache into this world affecting many. We read in Isaiah 14:13 how Satan lifted his imperfect will against God’s perfect will. Several times Satan opposed God’s good will with his evil will. He has created in this world nothing but evil and heartaches for centuries. If we truly love God we will know that obeying Him benefits ourselves and others. Evil came into the world because Satan selfishly wanted to oppose God’s will with His own will. Like Satan there are many people who will for their own selfish ends challenge Gods perfect will. To act outside God’s will is a sign of selfishness and ignorance.

The reason we read the word of God is to find out God’s perfect will for our lives. We read His will and do it because we love and trust God. This is the essence of true Christianity. We are motivated by love and by faith not, law, fear, or self interest. 1 John 4:10 tells us, not that we first loved God but that He first loved us. Real Christianity is a response to God’s great love for us. We love Him out of thanksgiving for His work in our lives.

We will love God with a grateful love for all eternity because He showed His generous love to us first even after we have failed to love Him.
We love God because even though we all have chosen to oppose His will He has provided forgiveness for us.
We all at some time or another did evil choosing against His perfect love which is also His perfect will but God through Christ has restored us to His love.
We have all chosen to act selfishly not agreeing with God’s good will but God sent Jesus to bring us back to His perfect will and all the blessing it will bring back into our lives.
We all failed to love God by trusting Him and obeying Him but God gave us a chance through His grace to love and believe Him again by obeying the gospel.

When we obey the gospel it is turning from our sinful will to obey God’s perfect will. The gospel is God’s message about putting our faith in Christ to bring us forgiveness and restore our broken relationship with God. To obey the gospel message brings salvation to our lives. God sent Christ to pay for our sins and to restore us to God and His perfect will. The moment we learn of the selfless and sacrificial love of Christ to restore us to God we live as lovers of God. We see God’s selfless love for us in action. Rather than condemning us God comes to save us to restore us to His perfect will God sent His Son Jesus Christ to restore our broken relationship with God. He has secured for us God’s forgiveness by His death on the cross paying for our sin and all the evil we caused to Him, His kingdom and others by breaking God’s will.

Love and faith are two sides of the same coin. If we trust God has our best interest and believe in His love we will love and obey Him. Adam and Eve were told by Satan God is keeping us from being like God. Satan lied about God’s plans for us. He lied about God’s character and God genuine interest to love us. God has always been interested in us sharing His nature and character, His power and authority. We will never be God but by union through Christ we become partakers of the divine nature. Through the Spirit of God in our lives we partake of all that God is. Satan in His jealousy lied.

The promise of God indwelling us is humanity’s greatest gift from God and our highest achievement. God will live with us and in us. In John 17 Jesus talks about us becoming one a wonderful union of God and man. God desires to pour out upon us the fullness of His love. This is the gift of eternal life. This is the great inheritance given to mankind. This is the great achievement of the human race to be like God and man united in Christ.