Who God is and what we do

This past Tuesday night I was teaching in the training school at my church. It was my assignment to teach James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2 & 3 John and Jude (all in a hour and a half, which is a lot of fun). It's always a fun experience and I generally learn a lot not only in preparing, but in teaching it. One of the things we talked about was the connection of theology and ethics. Perhaps the most clear example of this occurs in 1 Peter (who is quoting Leviticus): "you shall be holy, for I am holy" (1:16).

The thought is this: because (insert theological statement here) you should (insert ethical command here). In this case: because God is holy, we too should be holy. Simple enough. This connection is seen all over the Bible. In Exodus 20, before God gives the Ten Commandments, He starts with "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (v2). After the Lord lays out who He is and what He has done for His people He proceeds to tell them how they should act.

This same thought process occurs in the famous passage in Philippians 2. Paul starts with the ethical commands for unity and self-deference (vv1-4), then he gives them the basis for this command- Christ's sacrificial attitude (vv5-11). Because Christ Himself emptied Himself on behalf of others, so we should do the same. Paul also uses this pattern on a larger scale in Ephesians. Chapters 1-3 are full of theology (election, calling, the unity of Jew & Gentile, etc), while 4-6 contain the actions we should take because of everything he talks about in the first 3 chapters. This is made quite clear in 4:1, where Paul says "I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called."

The point is this: everything we are called to do- every command given to us as the people of God- is rooted in the character of God. God doesn't simply say "do this because I say so" (although if He did we ought to pay attention). We are to live humbly because we have received undeserved grace from Him ("undeserved grace" is an intentional redundancy). We are to forgive because He has forgiven us. And so on. I find this quite freeing.

But something hit me this morning as I was pacing around in my kitchen before I left for work. This is why Jesus says "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15, see also 1 John 2:3-6 for something very similar). He isn't arbitrary or needy. This isn't a perverse form of manipulation like it is often used in our time (how many guys have used the "if you love me..." line to take advantage of a girl?). He's stating something deeper: "what I am commanding you to do is based in who I am, so if you love Me, you'll love to do what I command."

This is why John can stress to his readers, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3). It is not a burden to do as the Lord says! If it is a burden, it's because we misunderstand and don't appreciate who Jesus is and what He has done for us. It should not be a burden to serve someone you love- it is a joy!

Do I delight in serving the Lord? Do I delight in His commands? Do I delight in Him- what He has done for me on the cross and in the empty tomb? I confess that I often feel burdened in trying to live a holy life. This, however, just reveals my lack of comprehension of all that Jesus has done for me. My ethics/actions should be grounded in who He is, but they often are not. I have some repenting to do.