There's a false teaching floating around out there in evangelicalism that obedience for obedience' sake is a bad thing.
Well, it is. Not once do you see such obedience urged in the New Testament. The believer's obedience is always to be arising out of his/her love for God. In fact, the First and Great Commandment is to love God with all of one's being. (
Matt. 22:36-38) Your very first act of obedience ought to be to this command. And when it is, obedience for the sake of obedience to God's other commands won't happen.
The ideal is obedience from the heart.
This is not merely an ideal; it is the very first and great command of God! Obedience from a heart of love for God is the starting point for all Christian living. This is why we read what we do in
1 Corinthians 13:1-3:
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
As the apostle Paul makes very clear here our obedience and sacrifice as Christian believers is spiritually useless whenever it is disconnected from a love for God (and others).
About the primacy of love in the Christian's obedience, however, Christ said it first:
Matthew 7:21-23
21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
What is the fundamental will of the Father in heaven for each of us? To love Him with all of our being. As Jesus said, this is the FIRST and GREAT commandment. Those who obey God's other commands and attempt to serve Him without obeying this prime command will find themselves one day standing before the Lord hearing from his lips, "Depart from me. I never knew you."
But even when we do not desire to obey God's commands we still ought to obey them. Indeed, that's what makes it obedience! When we do it even though we don't want to do it we are submitting ourselves to the Lordship of Christ.
Inasmuch as God's commands to us protect us as we obey them, it is worthwhile obeying them even when a heart of love does not prompt that obedience. But as I've explained, such obedience should never become the norm for a true disciple of Christ. In fact, I would go so far as to say that what fundamentally distinguishes a true believer from a false one is a heart of love for God.