2 John 1:6

This is love, that we walk after His commandments.

Love, the principle of obedience

I. Love as the principle of obedience.

1. The excellency of this principle. It renders obedience.

(1) Divinely acceptable.

(2) Delightful to ourselves. “What are the most pleasing actions you ever performed? “was a question once addressed to a man, and who answered, “The services I have performed for those whom I love.”

(3) Perpetual. Christ’s people are not detained in His service against their will; they are volunteers, “made willing in the day of His power.”

(4) Impartial.

(a) In avoiding all sins.

(b) In performing all duties.

2. How is this love produced and maintained? Power may cause a man to be feared; authority, to be reverenced; wealth, to be envied; learning, to be admired; genius, to be praised; but it is only goodness that chains one heart to another. And this is the grand and only expedient that God has devised and revealed to bring back the minds of His alienated creatures to Himself. “Keep yourselves in the love of God.”

II. Obedience as the fruit of love.

1. It is practical, consisting in nothing less than walking. In Scripture you will observe, that walking never refers to a single action, but always to our conduct at large. Everything else, however valuable in connection with this, will be found vain without it. Even endowments and exertion will not be substitutes for obedience.

2. It is prescribed. Walking shows that religion is not a speculation, a notion, a pretence, for we are not merely to walk, but we are to walk after His commandments--not after the course of this world--not according to the lusts of men--not according to the imagination of our hearts, but to walk after His commandments. (W. Jay.)

Love the great commanding commandment

Love is in the heart, “the great commanding commandment, that commands all other duties whatsoever. It is the first wheel that turns the whole soul about.” (R. Sibbes.)