Articles
Our True Allegiance
Jesus says we are His friends, IF we do what He says (John 15:14). He had said something similar a short time earlier when He said "IF you love me, keep my commands" (John 14:15)
In both of those statements, Jesus points out our option not to love him and be His friend. His words are based on our willingness to, and He will not force us, but because He loves us, He certainly wants us to. It is equally clear from what He says in these verses that if we fail to obey Him, then we don't love Him, nor are we His friend. Yet, much of our world claims to be a friend of Jesus, holding onto Him with a false sense of security while willingly failing to obey what He teaches.
The trend of mankind is to live like most other people in the world, gauging our obedience to Christ by comparing ourselves to others. God is clear, it doesn't work like that!
If we measure ourselves in that way, we'd better look very closely at where our love truly is. If we say we love Jesus, but live like the world, we are lying to ourselves because our loyalty is not to Christ, but to ourselves. Jesus says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.” (1 John 2:15)
“But if anyone obeys His word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him:” (1 John 2:5) It would stand to reason quite easily that we would know we are NOT in Him, if we fail to obey Him, yet many lost people for some reason just don't see themselves that way!
These scriptures are pretty well the acid test of our love for our Savior. No, we won't be perfect in our love or obedience, and He is willing to cover those times with His blood, but if our allegiance is still with the world we said we left to follow Him, then we aren't following Him. His words, not mine!
