If we consider ourselves God’s people, we must cherish and obey the commandments established by God. Let us explore through the Bible why it is essential for us to keep God’s commandments.
1. Those Who Love God Will Keep His Commandments
When people meet someone they want to love, they go to great lengths to express their love in various ways—sometimes through letters, sometimes with roses, and sometimes with various gifts. Then, how should we express our love for God? God does not want us to express our love with letters, roses, or gifts; instead, He has stated that we express our love by keeping His commandments.
“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.”Jn 14:21
In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.1 Jn 5:3
Therefore, as children of God who love Him, we must cherish and keep the commandments God has given us.
2. Faith That Does Not Keep God’s Commandments Is False
Keeping God’s commandments is a way to express our faith and trust in Him through our actions. However, many today claim to believe in God yet do not keep His commandments, insisting they have been abolished. Yet, these same people assert that they love God and know Him well. tHE Bible tells us that such people are liars.
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. 1 Jn 2:3–6
Who are those who claim to know God but do not keep His commandments? It is written that they are “liars” and have no truth in them. Therefore, those who do not keep God’s commandments, no matter how much they emphasize their faith in God, show that their faith is false and cannot lead to salvation.
3. Those Who Keep God’s Commandments Will Go to Heaven
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” Mt 7:21-23
Who did Jesus say cannot go to heaven? Those who practice lawlessness, meaning those who do not keep God’s commandments. Even if someone claims to have sincere faith in God and is confident of salvation, if they do not keep God’s commandments, such people cannot go to heaven. Jesus taught that only those who do the will of the Father, in other words, those who keep the commandments of God as commanded by Him, can go to heaven. Therefore, the Bible prophesies that the people of God, who will be saved in the last days, are those who keep God’s commandments.
This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus. Rev 14:12
We, as the protagonists of the prophecy, must treasure the commandments given by God and faithfully keep them until the end so that we can enter the eternal kingdom of heaven.
- Food for Thought
- How should we express our love for God?
- According to Mt 7:21–23, who are the people that can enter the kingdom of heaven?