THE FINAL TEST OF LOVE IS OBEDIENCE

           By A. W. Tozer
 

       "He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me;
         and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and
         manifest myself to him." John 14:21
 

             The final test of love is obedience, not sweet emotions, not willingness to sacrifice, not zeal, but obedience to the commandments of Christ!

             Teach the Bible with High Moral Obligation -

             Much that passes for New Testament Christianity is little more than objective truth sweetened with song, and made palatable by religious entertainment.

             I take the risk of being misunderstood when I say that probably no other portion of the Scriptures can compare with the Pauline Epistles when it comes to making artificial saints.  Peter warned that the unlearned and the unstable would wrest Paul's writings to their own destruction, and we have only to visit the average Bible conference and listen to a few lectures to know what he meant!

             The ominous thing is that the Pauline doctrines may be taught with complete faithfulness to the letter of the text without making the hearers one whit better. The teacher may and often does so teach the truth as to leave the hearers without a sense of moral obligation.

             One reason for the divorce between truth and life may be lack of the Spirit's illumination.  Another surely is the teacher's unwillingness to get himself into trouble.  Any man with fair pulpit gifts can get on with the average congregation if he just "feeds" them and lets them alone.

             Give them plenty of objective truth and never hint that they are wrong and should be set right, and they will be content!  But the man who preaches truth and applies it to the lives of his hearers will feel the nails and the thorns. He will lead a hard life - but a glorious one!

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         Yours in Christ,
         Paul N. F.