God's Commands, My Delight!

[Christsfreeservant]

“If Your law had not been my delight,​

Then I would have perished in my affliction.​

I will never forget Your precepts,​

For by them You have revived me.​

I am Yours, save me;​

For I have sought Your precepts.” (Psalm 119:92-94 NASB1995)​

We who believe in Jesus Christ are under the New Covenant God has with his people of faith (Jew and Gentile by faith in Jesus Christ), so we are not under the Old Covenant liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial, purification, circumcision, dietary and Sabbath laws of the Old Covenant. But the New Covenant is not lawless. We still have commands of God which we are required to obey as followers of Jesus Christ, which are mostly God’s moral laws. So, by faith we must die to sin and walk in obedience to our Lord.

But this is not something to be seen as a drudgery or as something to be avoided or dismissed just because we are now living under grace and not under the Old Covenant Law. Obedience to our Lord and to his commands should be our delight, i.e. something we want to do because we love God, because we want to serve him with our lives, and because we know that obeying our Lord is the right way and the good way and the best way.

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).

Obedience to our Lord is of upmost importance under the New Covenant, not just under the Old Covenant. And the subject of obedience is stressed often throughout the New Testament writings. For obedience is a sign that our faith in Jesus Christ is biblical faith which saves. It is also an indication that we are, indeed, in an intimate relationship with God, by faith in Jesus Christ. And it says to God that we love him. And it means that we know him.

Many people today who profess faith in Jesus Christ are not teaching the importance of obedience to God. Many are teaching that we do not have to obey God, by faith in Jesus, and that we do not have to repent of (turn away from) our sins. For they are teaching that a verbal confession of Christ as Lord is enough to save them from their sins and to promise them heaven when they die, but regardless of how they live. If some do teach repentance and obedience, it is often taught more as a suggestion, not as a command.

But the commands of God are for our good. They encourage us to walk in the ways of the Lord, and to forsake our lives of living in sin. And this brings us much peace and joy and victory because we are no longer living under slavery to sin but as servants of the Lord and of his righteousness! We now belong to Jesus, our lives are surrendered to him to do his will, and by the grace of God we are able now to walk in the ways of the Lord and not in sin.

[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]

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.

God’s Commands, My Delight!
An Original Work / July 29, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love