On the suject of love and obedience, I agree with you that one can be obedient and yet not loving. One aspect I’d like to bring up is that the God we are talking about is the Almighty God who’s gracious and loving yet fully capable of zapping us into a pile of ashes(lol). I feel that the kind of love and attitude that we should have towards God is one of a child to a father. We love our dads and always want to hang out and have fun with them, sometimes joking and even poking fun at them. However, there is always a respect and reverence that we should have for our fathers, a line that we never cross because of who they are. This is where we do what we are told because we love or Father God. The perfect obedience-love relationship can be seen in Jesus’s relationship with Father God, that He obeyed the Father even unto death.

The same goes for our love towards Jesus, that it should be a revered love towards our Lord. There is also to be a balance, where Jesus also desires to be our friend and who knows, He might just turn out to be a really fun loving person!

We, as imperfect people, will always be unable to adhere to and to obey each and every commandment in the bible. Everybody has his own weakness and shortcoming and it is really God’s grace that helps us to be able to continue walking with our heads up high without shame. What really matters is that we try our best to love God and obey His commandments. That, I believe is what really pleases God and why Jesus died on the cross for us.

This leads to the last point: how we should act. I feel that we should base our actions on our best morals and convictions and also our best interpretations on the Word of God. We shouldn’t just blindly accept what others tell us as the truth or what is right, but should carefully think about the content’s soundness (not the best word I can think of) and sensibility (This will lead to another discussion about truth but lets not delve into that now). However, we should also stay receptive of other’s opinions as they do offer us a venue for improvement. Lastly, this is also quite abstract: being led by the spirit, that we do what we do because the Holy Spirit tells us to. This is quite a prickly matter to explain to people but I’m sure you do understand what I am trying to drive at having attended City Harvest.

Do reply to me regarding your thoughts and opinions. Cheers!

Loving the Lord means obedience. Disobedience is rebellion, akin to witchcraft.

Loving the Lord isn’t about wanting to hang out with the Dude.
What’s the point of hanging out with the Dude if everytime the Dude commands obedience, you say,’Nope, aint gonna do it.’

C’mon man, this is THE DUDE - Lord Almighty, Ancient of Days, Creator. Not some third-rate Jedi wannabe, not your high school buddy.

And obedience is all about our human will. Will you or will you not obey? If you obey, you love. If you disobey, you are not loving. (No matter how much you wanna hang out with the Dude.) And if you persist in disobeying again and again ….well, you know very well which way you’re headed.

e pur si muove

Above applies to everyone.