John 14:15

The Secret Of Obedience

If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. John 14:15.

A small boy of my acquaintance has a wonderful toy. It is a motor wagon which runs upon a circle of rails. On the driver's box sits a little man who, when the toy is wound up, raises his right hand to his cap. Then my young friend lays a tiny parcel beside him and says, “Take that to Mr. So-and-so.” A companion stands at the other side of the circle. The motor stops beside him; he lifts the parcel off. The little driver again raises his hand and is soon back to the point at which he started. Again he salutes; again he is sent on an errand; again he shows the same obedience.

The obedience of the little man is only an example of clockwork. When the toy is wound up, he obeys orders because he cannot do otherwise. He does not think: he has no feelings: his little master is nothing to him. His is the obedience of mechanism the poorest obedience of all.

Now, I feel sure that some of you have at one time or other asked yourselves, “Why does not God make us always want to do the right thing? Here we are put into the world, and left to do as we like. Just think for a moment. Have you seen a wind up toy that does the same thing over and over? Wouldn't you get tired of doing the same thing over and over? Wouldn't you want to have some living creature that you could train to do things? Some of you have a dog of your very own. You have taken a great deal of pains to train him to obedience. You punish him if he does anything wrong; yet he loves you all the time. Isn't he really much better than the a wind up toy?

I have met boys and girls not many, however who seemed just like the mechanical toy. They always behaved well; but it was as if they had never wanted to do wrong. They had been trained to do the right thing without thinking.

There is a kind of boy, and a kind of girl, that I like better. Once a little fellow went to Jesus when he was called. Somebody wrote that little story down. The boy never dreamed that he would be mentioned in the greatest book in the world, and that thousands on thousands of people would read about his obedience and be better for doing it.

Jesus may call you by using your mother's voice. He may say, “Tom, I want you to go an errand.” I read the other day of a boy who had been hoeing weeds all day. His mother called him to go an errand. Now, the little boy was so tired that the tears would come at the thought of trudging off on an errand when he wanted to go and lie on the grass in one of the parks. But he wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his poor jacket and said, “Yes, Mother.”

“If ye love me,” said Christ, “ye will keep my commandments.” A love to Christ that does not keep His commandments is not worthy of the name of love at all; and an obedience without love is like the obedience of the little wind up toy. Jesus would not count it as obedience at all.

“How can I keep Christ's commandments?” you ask. The answer is, Take Christ for your Friend and Savior first of all. Bead the story of His life over and over again. Get to know Him better than you know the characters in your history books. You will love Him; you will want to trust Him; you will not be able to disobey Him, because you feel it would hurt Him. To obey Him will come to you naturally.

“Did you get tired today?” said a minister to his little daughter on the way home from church.

“Yes, father, but I beared it because I love you.” That little girl had found the secret. Love makes hard things easy and obedience a joy.