Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command…You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit” (John 15). The best way to do that, as with any endeavor in life, is to find people who do it well and emulate them. Only true, fruit-bearing friends of Jesus will enter the kingdom.
Please do not think I am speaking law, and not spirit, here. The purpose of being obedient is not obedience itself. That inevitably leads to legalism. Obedience is not an end, but a means to an end wherein the goal becomes the natural outcome. Obedience to the call of Christ to follow Him and keep His commands that begins with diligence, “and that sorrowful,” will then become a joy as the Hebrews 12:11 transformation occurs. Afterwards, as a result of all that initial discipline, the “peaceful fruit of righteousness” is yielded!
Perseverance, peace, fruit, and righteousness are the endgame of obedience, and as obedience evolves into maturity keeping His commands will be all you desire to do. At that point you will reach the goal of obedience, a place John described when he said, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and they are not burdensome” (1 John 5). You will have crossed a threshold between simply knowing of God’s love and “abiding in God’s love” (John 15) when you joyfully keep God’s commands.
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