“Obedience” (Luke 9:23c)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/24/2026 10:42 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                        Focus:  “Obedience”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                   Reference: Luke 9:23c

            Message of the verse:  “and follow Me.”

            MacArthur explains “The present tense of the verb translated follow indicates that a continual pattern of obedience characterizes a true disciple of Jesus Christ.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned, ‘Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord; will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter’ (Matt. 7:21).  In Luke 6:46 He asked the pointed question, ‘Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord; and do not do what I say?’  Speaking to the apostles in the upper room on the night before His death, Jesus emphasized that genuine saving faith will inevitably manifest itself in obedience:

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (John 14:14)

He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him….If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me (John 14:21, 23-24)

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love (John 15:10)

You are My friends if you do what I command you (John 15:14; cf. 1 John  2:5-6; 3:24; 5:3; 2 John 6).

(cf. 1 John  2:5-6; 3:24; 5:3; 2 John 6).

“5  but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6  whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

“5  but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6  whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

“3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”

“6  And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.”

            “As is the case with repentance (see the discussion above), self-denial, cross bearing, and obedience are not meritorious pre-salvation works that make a sinner acceptable to God.  Nor are they chronological, sequential steps that lead to conversion, but rather the logical components of saving faith.  Neither repentance nor saving faith can be produced under human power; they are components of the divine work wrought by the Spirit of God.”

Spiritual Meaning for My life today:  Continue to stay in the Word of God to learn and to grow up in the Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  “3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”

10/24/2026 11:04 AM