The Divine Paradox: How Love and Obedience Create True Freedom

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What happens when your feelings and God's commands seem to pull you in opposite directions? 

The wild horses of our emotions—sometimes beautiful, sometimes destructive—need a steady rider to guide them. Without this guidance, we make decisions we later regret, especially when hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. That's why Jesus' words in John 13-17 offer such profound wisdom: "If you love me, obey my commands."

This seemingly simple statement reveals a profound truth about authentic spirituality. Love and obedience aren't opposing forces but natural companions. When we genuinely love someone, our actions align with what matters to them—not from obligation but from relationship. God's commands to love Him and our neighbors become not burdens but opportunities to express our transformed hearts.

I learned this lesson through my four-year-old son and a hostile neighbor. Despite my careful attempts at friendship, this woman across the street responded only with contempt. Then my young son, innocent and unaware of adult complexities, simply walked over and started a conversation. His childlike approach melted her defenses instantly. Sometimes the most profound spiritual truths are demonstrated through the simplest actions.

The beautiful paradox is that while we don't base our decisions solely on feelings, our obedience ultimately transforms our emotional landscape. As we live aligned with God's commands, empowered by His Spirit rather than our limited abilities, our feelings begin to follow. We experience the joy, peace and love that come not from chasing emotions but from walking in divine truth.

Have you experienced this transformation? How might your relationships change if you approached difficult people with childlike simplicity rather than sophisticated strategies? Join us in exploring how love and obedience create the framework for a truly fulfilling spiritual journey.

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Shalom to you and your home.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
if I were to live my life by my feelings alone,
sometimes it would be absolutelyincredible, because my feelings
are so they're rich.
I can have a feeling of love,joy, peace.
They'd be some of the bestfeelings that I know of, and

(00:28):
when that happens it's reallyenjoyable to live that out.
However, feelings alone are nota dependable guide for a
person's life.
It's kind of like having horsesand a carriage, and if the

(00:50):
horses don't have a bridle and arider on the carriage,
periodically they can go allover the place, like my feelings
, because my feelings, eventhough sometimes they are
incredible, there are othertimes where they're not.
They're feelings and I feelangry, upset, depressed,

(01:17):
confused, and those feelings.
To base one's life on thosefeelings, feelings, is really
not a wise thing.
In fact, there's an acronymcalled HALT, h-a-l-t, and if

(01:44):
you're hungry, angry, lonely ortired, your feelings are really
affected by that and it's notwise to make choices, major
choices, in life when you'refeeling hungry, angry, lonely or
tired.
It's time to halt, time to stopand really find a basis for
making decisions, and I havefound the best basis for me,

(02:09):
making decisions in my life isliterally the Word of God,
specifically the written Word ofGod, the Scriptures, both Old
and New Testament, made up inwhat's known as the Bible, old
and New Testament made up inwhat's known as the Bible, and

(02:33):
we've said it several times onthis podcast and I'll say it
again that, unapologetically, webase this whole podcast on the
foundation of the Scriptures,that the Scriptures are the
written Word of God, and theanchor point that I've been

(02:53):
finding myself looking at againin the New Testament is found in
the book of John, the gospel ofJohn, john, chapters 13 through
17.
John, john, chapters 13 through17.
It's known as the upper roomdiscourse or the red letter

(03:14):
portion of the Bible.
If you have a Bible that hasthe words of Jesus in red.
These chapters contain the mostread letters throughout the New
Testament, because it's reallya time where Jesus is bearing

(03:37):
his heart to his disciples justprior to his crucifixion, just
prior to his crucifixion, andthe things that he's pouring out
of his heart.
I mean it's almost unbelievable, but we actually have a written
record of what he said, thevery words of Jesus, the Son of

(04:02):
God, god the Son speaking.
Words of Jesus, the Son of God,god the Son speaking, and we
have a record of it.
I mean, if there's anyfoundation for you to build your

(04:32):
life on, it's on the rock, andJesus is the rock and his word
that comes from him is solid asthat rock.
And so there's a statement thatJesus makes while he's talking
to his disciples and he said ifyou love me, obey my commands.
Interesting Love and obedience,they wouldn't necessarily be

(04:58):
two things that I would puttogether, but Jesus pairs them
up and when you really look atit, it's so powerful Because
love is the basis within whichGod does everything.

(05:22):
John, in writing this portion ofthe scriptures down, also wrote
a few of the letters, and inone of his letters he said
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is God.
God is love.

(05:47):
And some say well, you knowthat means that love is God.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I mean the love of God is God,but not everything that's called
love is love.
Right, in our talking about love, we have a variety of different

(06:11):
slants on it.
You know you can love a type offood that you eat, you can love
to go somewhere.
There's a variety of shades oflove.
You can love a friend or youcan love your spouse a different
level of it, right.
And so love, in our language,is not God, but God is love,

(06:37):
perfect love and perfect loveinterestingly enough, also
perfect love casts out all fear.
Fear, being afraid of life'ssituations and love don't
coexist.
It's like you can only reallythink about one thing, focus on

(07:02):
one thing at a time.
About one thing.
Focus on one thing at a time.
Well, you either have fear oryou can have love.
The love of God and perfectlove casts out all fear.
That's so powerful.
But Jesus said if you love me,then obey my commands or obey my

(07:30):
teachings, obey what comes frommy heart, from my mouth.
And that's exactly right,because love is demonstrated
best through action and ourgenuine love for Jesus is

(07:53):
expressed through actions.
If we love God, then our lifewill reflect that love by
aligning with his instructions.
I mean, it only makes sense.
My wife doesn't go aroundcommanding me to do things, but

(08:14):
she'll say, dave, would you dothis?
And because it's in her heart,I do it, because I love her.
I don't always feel like doingit right, that whole thing of
feelings, but when I do feellike that man, that's like bonus

(08:36):
man.
But when we put action to ourlove, something happens, because

(08:57):
Jesus gives certain commandsthat are not necessarily easy,
and one of those commands isloving your neighbor as yourself
.
Now, on the surface that soundslike yeah, right, exactly.
But man, people are people andneighbors are people and people

(09:19):
do people things.
And sometimes the things thatpeople do, myself included,
irritate, we irritate oneanother.
And Jesus commands us or, betteryet, the full Godhead, god, the

(09:40):
Father, son, holy Spirit, godcommands us to love our neighbor
.
And there's another command tolove God with all of our heart,
soul, mind, strength and ourneighbor as ourselves.
Right, there's two commands.
There's two commands, and thereason that they are commands is

(10:05):
because they're not negotiableand sometimes they're absolutely
hard, and I've even found itsometimes hard.
I'm being very, very, veryhonest.
I found it hard to swallow someof the things that God says and
to love him.

(10:25):
Because of that, I've had towork some things through with
him, but I found that God hasvery broad shoulders and he
loves honesty because it's arelationship.
I'm not a robot.
I have a mind, I have a will, Ihave emotions, and so there are

(10:49):
things that sometimes I got towrestle with right, we all do,
and love and commands andobedience sometimes it's a deal.
And the neighbor thing.
Back to that, the neighborthing.

(11:11):
Sometimes our neighbor can be anenemy.
I had one one time and I was apastor in Minneapolis, minnesota
, and I had a neighbor whoabsolutely despised me and my

(11:34):
family, reasons being I don'tknow.
I think it was a result of herwoundedness actually, but she
was like an enemy.
And man, I'm commanded to lovemy neighbor and to love my
enemies.
And so how do I do this man?
I tried waving at her, happenedto be a female, tried waving at

(11:59):
her.
Nothing.
She'd see me come out of thehouse, she'd go in the house or
she would fire insults our way.
I'm not an enemy, I'm nottalking about being persecuted
physically but, man, it was hardliving in that type of close

(12:20):
community environment, living inthat type of close community
environment.
And you know what really brokeinto the whole enemy thing?
It was my youngest son.
He was about four years old.
He innocently walked over.

(12:40):
They lived right across thestreet from us.
He walked over and he startedhaving a conversation with this
lady and you know what it meltedher heart.
He demonstrated love, in a waythat it disarmed her and I

(13:03):
learned something about that.
I learned that it's not always,you know, putting together a big
gift package and giving it tosomebody, but sometimes it's the
simplicity and childlikedemonstration of love that can
break into the situation andthus we live out the if you love

(13:30):
me, obey my commands.
It's focusing on loving God andour neighbor.
The commands that Jesus refersto often involve loving God with
all of our heart, as I said,and our soul, our mind, and
loving our neighbor as ourself,and it brings joy to God.

(13:56):
When we do this and then, as wedo that, interesting enough,
our feelings are affectedbecause our feelings are based
upon what we believe.
Some people can look at a snakeand they can say, ah, terrible,
because they believe thingsabout it.

(14:17):
Another person can look at thesnake and say that's so
beautiful.
Look at the different way thatthe colors shine on the snake
when it goes through the shadowand the sun hits it.
They see beauty in it Becausethey believe something about the
snake.

(14:37):
Well, when we experiencesomething different because we
obey God, our belief system canbe impacted and we start feeling
things that are different.

(15:01):
We don't operate by our feelings, but nonetheless, our feelings
are affected because we are afeeling, people and feelings are
important.
Some people downplay feelingsand I think that's unfortunate.
I think also it's unfortunatesome people elevate feelings too
high.
But feelings are important.

(15:25):
I love having feelings.
I'm a feeling person and so Ihave to be careful that I'm not
ruled by my feelings.
But also I also need to becareful that people don't put it
down or put me down because Ihave feelings and then I kind of
take offense at that.
Need to be careful that peopledon't put it down or put me down
because I have feelings andthen I kind of take offense at

(15:49):
that.
Also, obedience is not aburdensome duty but a natural
response that stems from aheartfelt love for Christ.
It's not about earning oursalvation through good works,
but demonstrating ourtransformed heart and a desire
to please the one who loved usfirst.

(16:11):
May I say that's so important.
He sought me out.
I didn't go looking for him.
He came looking for me.
He loved me first.
He loved me into the kingdom ofGod.
I got loved in Holy Spirit,loved me into a relationship
with Jesus.
Jesus loved me into arelationship with the Father.
He loved me into the kingdom ofGod.

(16:37):
So love first comes from him andthere's a transformation that
comes into our lives and theHoly Spirit empowers us to live
a life that reflects the lovefor Christ and to obey his

(16:58):
commands.
See, we don't just have to doit on our own power.
We're empowered to do this, tolive this out, because some of
it is absolutely beyond us, andI want to live that type of life
.
I've said it before I want todo things that are doomed to
failure unless God is in them.

(17:22):
I want them to be beyond me.
I know what I can do and I knowwhat we can do as people, and
some of these things are reallygood, but in comparison to what
God can do and what he does,they pale in comparison.
They pale in comparison, and Iwant to live like Jesus, walk

(17:47):
like Jesus, talk like Jesus, bein a place where the kingdom of
God is demonstrated not just inword but in power, the power of
God, and it comes through love.
Love is the driving force ofGod's power, not just brute
force and bravado.

(18:08):
It's love.
His love conquers, his lovenever fails, his love is the
creative power of creation andlove.
This is meant to be a lovelyplanet demonstrating God's love

(18:28):
the colors, the textures, thesmell.
Love Jesus said this is mycommand.
Love, jesus said this is mycommand that you love one
another.
Wow, and again.

(18:52):
Sometimes that's not a problemat all, and other times, we all
know it, it's a challenge, andthat's why it's so good to know
that we are empowered.
We have a divine life within usthat can do divine things.

(19:14):
God's love can love God's wayand his spirit.
Holy Spirit, is in us.
If we believe that Jesus is whohe said and says he is, if we
place our faith and trust inJesus in the work that he did

(19:37):
not in the works that we havetried, but in the work that he
accomplished.
Not in the works that we havetried, but in the work that he
accomplished on our behalfThings that we couldn't do, like
breaking the barrier of sin anddeath, overcoming that.
Only a perfect man could dothat and then a perfect
sacrifice would be acceptable onour behalf, and that is Jesus

(19:59):
Christ on our behalf.
And that is Jesus Christ, theonly begotten Son of God.
Begotten, not made and not madeup.
He came from God and God comesfrom God.
It's like man comes from man.

(20:21):
God comes from God, and placingour belief in him causes us to
experience what's known ascovenant, and covenant means
what's mine is yours, what'syours is mine A divine exchange,
a life, taking the sin anddeath life and nailing it to the

(20:42):
cross and imparting to us hisdivine life and nature, which
empowers us to love like heloves.
Hallelujah, let's pray.
Father, I thank you, I thankyou, I thank you.
I thank you for sending us yourson, jesus.

(21:06):
Thank you for coming, living,dying.
Your resurrection, yourascension.
Your soon coming again.
Thank you for resurrection,your ascension, your soon coming
again.
Thank you for doing what you'vedone and then not leaving us as

(21:29):
orphans, but you've sent us one, just like you.
Holy Spirit, thank you forbeing here in the name of Jesus.
We receive you in all that youdo and we look to grow in our
response to you so we can becomemore and more like Jesus and

(21:51):
function for the glory of theFather.
And we stand here, just likeJesus and we say amen, amen,
amen, in his name, amen, allright, alright, folks, I love
you.
If you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, please feel
free to drop us a line atlifearoundthefire, at gmailcom,

(22:15):
or type in lifearoundthefire andlook us up on the web.
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
God bless you.
Adios amigos.