Obedience does not mean love

I am very thankful for the sermon by Rev. Petrus this morning. The title of the sermon was that Christ is above the human morality. The point is that obeying law including God’s laws does not mean that we love God. On the other hand, it is possible that we look as if disobeying law while we actually do it for the love of God.

A good example is on giving offering or tithe in the church. Many people typically question this and it is one of the hindrance for some people to go to church. I have seen some churches trying to overcome this problem by stating in their bulletin that a first-timer or a symphatizer does not need to give offering.

After the sermon this morning, I can explain better about offering. That it is not offering that matters, it is how much we love God and how we are given the wisdom on how to express it. The illustration was that even believers or church members sometimes feel grateful if the ushers skip them in collecting the offering. Or a possible experiment is that instead of the offering bag is distributed during a particular session, just leave a box in front of the hall for the offering. If the amount collected is much less, it means that the people are still giving out of duty instead of love.

On the other hand, Jesus often seemed to disobey the laws such as by helping people during Sabbath. But the thing was He did it out of love to God and to people that He reminded us that the law is created by God for the goodness of men and not the other way around.

A personal example is on my relationship with my wife. Two examples of my wife’s requests are no need to buy gift or cake during birthday; and to write a conference paper. Usually what I will do is I will obey the first request. Why? Not because of love, but because it is easy to do. I do not need to take the risk to buy a wrong gift or cake. But when it comes to the second request which require more efforts, suddenly my obedience seem to go away.

Now compare the case if I truly love her. In that case, I will have to disobey the first request simply because giving is flowing out of love even if it means making mistake. And for the second request, I will give my best to do it even when it is hard.

I remember what my counsellor said. We are now adults which mean that we are in essence not bounded by rules. We have to make decisions on what to follow and what not to follow based on something. And I hope the foundation is love to God and people starting from my wife, my family, and my friends. Not based on fear or based on love of comfort and convenience.