Listen and Obey

When we follow the Lord Jesus Christ with our lives, and we go where he sends us, and we say what he commands, and we share the message of the gospel of our salvation (the one Jesus and his New Testament apostles taught, in the correct biblical context), we will face opposition from those who are following “the thieves & robbers” Jesus spoke of in John 10. Some will just silently oppose us by discarding and rejecting us, while others will vehemently oppose us with their lies taught them by “the thieves & robbers.”

For what these “thieves & robbers” do is they teach the Scriptures deliberately out of context and then twist the words to make them say what they do not say if taught in the correct biblical context. And some of these partial texts which they teach out of context could not be more blatantly obvious to those who make it their practice to read the Scriptures and to interpret them in their correct biblical context. Others, not so much, but let me give you a few examples of what I am talking about here.

Many people are teaching John 10:28-30 absent of verse 27. But verse 27 is what tells us to whom these words apply. But rather than include verse 27, they willfully exclude that verse and they arbitrarily apply the next three verses to anyone who says that they believe in Jesus Christ, even if they are the most evil people to live on the planet. But verse 27 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” That means we listen to Jesus, he knows us intimately, and we follow him in obedience to his ways.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

And then we have those who teach Ephesians 2:8-9 while they exclude verse 10, which is part of the message. And they teach that God requires no works of us, and that he does it all for us, and all we have to do is to verbalize faith in Jesus Christ. But verse 10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Yes, we are not saved by our own fleshly works, but we are saved out of our lives of sin to do the works God has for us to do.

And then we have those who teach Romans 10:9 out of context and they make it the totality of the gospel message, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” But that contradicts what Jesus taught in Luke 9 and Matthew 7 and all his other teachings and the teachings of Paul and the other apostles, when taught in their appropriate context. For it is not the one who professes Jesus with his lips, but he who obeys the Lord who is saved.

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

My Sheep

Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…

They know my voice, so they follow me.


Listen and Obey
An Original Work / August 6, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love