Why and How to Keep God’s Commandments When You Don’t Understand
Obedience comes after love. Understanding comes after obedience.
I conducted an anonymous survey among Christians:
31 out of 53 participants reported that they struggle with sins.
Pay attention:
Only 9 out of 53 reported that they can’t make sense of God’s Word and Commandments.
- Then why 35 people struggle with sins and only 9 can’t understand?
- Is sin irrelevant to understanding?
- What does understanding mean?
What is sin: Disobedience to God
But why disobedient?
- Because God’s Word and Commandments are lost on the disobedient.
But you say, no, I understand every word He says. I just can’t obey as He commands.
- Then we’re not talking about the same “understanding” here.
In this article, I’ll unravel
- how to be painlessly, even joyfully obedient,
- how to keep God’s Commandments before understanding,
- how to TRULY understand God’s Word and Commandments,
and yes, in that order.
Because obedience must come before understanding.
I tried to make sense of God’s Word and Commandments
God’s Commandments and His Word are simple, no controversy and unnegotiable.
Simple, but difficult to keep.
I went through seasons of making sense of His commandments—and failed.
I didn’t understand what are the REAL reasons behind some of God’s commands—like keeping the Sabbath Holy, like no fornication, like love your neighbors as yourselves, etc.
Back then, they sounded,
- pointless(Sabbath),
- demanding(love your neighbors),
- and outdated(fornication).
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” John 14:15
At first, this verse sounded almost manipulative. I did not understand why Jesus judges our love for Him by whether we keep His commandments or not.
“Oh, if you love me you would do what I ask you to do!”
Yep, like that.
According my worldly values, submission is not equal to love. I love my parents, but I do not listen to them all the time.
However, I did realize we’re not talking about our parents here. We’re talking about God. So this logic is problematic.
I was in that legalistic trap—because I did not understand, my “well-educated,” “intellectual” mind refused to obey.
I prayed for understanding but God gave me something else
So I asked for understanding.
I prayed to God to give me the understanding of why it’s good for me to obey His commands.
Did God give me the understanding then?
No.
What God did was to bless me with tremendous love—not to be loved, but to love Him.
I naturally became obedient, even seeking His commandments to keep.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36–40
Reborn in Christ
Now, how that love for God transformed my spiritual life?
It’s the start of me truly following Christ.
It changed EVERYTHING.
Because of this love for God, I’m able to joyfully obey Him.
Moreover, I’m able to love my “neighbors,” which I found—and still find—it to be the hardest Commandment to keep. (Compared with people, God is so easy to love)
But I’ve made progress.
I used to apathetic and critical, brutally honest and self-disciplined, so I believed I was morally perfect. (I seriously believed so, just imagine that.)
“I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Luke 5:32
Now I see people’s affliction in sins with compassion, not judgement. I open my ears to hear and arms to comfort. I’m able to love people who are struggling in a flagrantly sinful life and come near them, so that they may hear the truth, and the truth shall set them free.
This is how God made my brutal honesty fruitful—to continue speaking the truth—but from now on, in love.
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1–3
What about the understanding I asked God for?
I asked for understanding but God gave me love.
Well, what about the understanding then? Did God ever address that?
So here’s how God answered my asking for understanding:
- God gave me love
- I became obedient because of my love for Him
- Understanding soon came after my obedience
“The one who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.” John 14:21
“I will also give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me wholeheartedly.” Jeremiah 24:7
Both these scriptures explain the sequence of receiving understanding from God:
- Love Him, so you obey with joy.
- Fear Him, so you obey before understanding.
- Obey Him, so He will reveal Himself to you.
Love comes first, then obedience, then finally, understanding.
Seek Him, keep seeking Him, each day, every day, forever and ever.
“You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
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With Love,
Alice
