John’s reflections about God’s fatherly love prompt him to implore us to stay at God’s side. God is committed to you because you are the source of his greatest joy. If he is grieved by you, it is only because he loves you. The love of God is a more compelling reason for obedience than any amount of punishment might otherwise be. When you realise how much of a claim you have on the heart of God then you will find yourself compelled to return to him very quickly when you take a wrong turn. If God was merely our Lord who cared only for obedience, then we might reasonably be concerned with what we can get away with. But obedience is required for no other reason than to keep us at God’s side, and this is what makes disobedience all the more shameful and foolish. When you stray from God you do much harm to yourself, and this grieves God. God may not add a punishment to the natural consequences of your bad choices, but punishment always follows. If it is not borne by you, then it is borne by God himself. Our waywardness punishes God for his love for us. Does that seem like an outlandish idea? Does that appear to bring God down to earth too much and make him too vulnerable? If you feel it does, then consider Jesus on the cross and reflect on what this says about God’s condescension and willingness to suffer.
Thank God for his great love for you and ask for forgiveness for the times when you have grieved him.
Read 1 John 3:1-6
