We do not obey God and follow His commandments because we fear Him and seek His approval. We do not do anything He asks of us merely because we want to obey for obedience’s sake. We do not obey out of a spirit of legalism or self-righteousness.
We obey and follow; we work and rest; we give and receive; we cook and wash; we love and serve; we write and teach; and we live and die — only because of one thing: to love the Lord our God, Jesus Christ. To love Him with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, and all our strength. We love not out of obedience. We obey out of love.
Whatever we do out of love, we do so for the love of God, first and foremost. We do not do good out of a need for approval or applause from Man. We do not even care if those who have received our good works and benefitted from our service fail to show gratitude for the kindness received. More than that, if the ones who receive food from our hand turn around to bite us, accuse us, blame us, and malign us in front of others, we who are in Christ do not retaliate with anger or hostility. We rest in the primordial space of coolness and non-reactivity given unto us by Christ in the Spirit — we allow our false self and all its false programs for happiness to melt away, returning and resting in the ground of our regenerated spirit or pristine awareness. Our pristine spirit is embraced and suffused by, immersed and embedded in the pristine supra-awareness of Christ. This is easier said than done, given as we are to instinctive reactivity rooted in the sin of self-grasping ignorance, which in turn stems from the primordial sin of resistance to God.
And we will fall short. But it is okay, for our flesh is weak and stained with sin. Yet our spirit is pure and holy, sanctified by God and is the primordial ground where His Spirit dwells. For whenever we fail, we know we have a Redeemer in Jesus. He succeeds where we fail. He perfects us even as we allow ourselves to be perfected in and through Him. We can confess, repent, resolve, and re-enact in the direction of Christ-likeness. For where sin abounds, grace super-abounds. We can always and at any time return to the primordial ground where the Spirit of Christ resides. There, we can dance with Him and walk with Him, in His easy yoke and light burden. The rhythms of life here are uncontrived and unforced.
As long as we keep running to Jesus, leaning on Him and into Him, we will prevail. In Christ. This is how we witness Christ in every moment: by practicing the presence of Jesus in the melting of our whole being unto Him.
Love is the first and last word. For Christ is Love.
