READ: John 15:5-12
The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people … but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath … the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand…. He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for … those who love Him and keep His commandments – Deut. 7:6-9
It is amazing to think that the church has been included in God’s covenant, while so many in this world have not. But the reason for this does not lie within the church itself, but in God’s election and His love. Israel had to hear this in Moses’ farewell speech: we are not worthy of this grace, we are not greater than the other nations. His covenant with us rests on His electing love for our fathers (see also 10:15). He swore to them that after 400 years He would redeem us from slavery (8:18; Gen. 15:7-21; 22:16). He even swore on Himself to prove abundantly the immutability of His counsel (Heb. 6:13-20).
In His good pleasure, God now loves us as well, as descendants of those who came before us. God’s people must realize that He loved them first. He showed this by His powerful redemption from Egypt. Therefore, there is every reason for them to love Him in return. Then they may take refuge in God and experience His loving-kindness, for God shows His mercy to thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments (second commandment). But if you neglect His commandments, you despise His love and demonstrate hatred toward Him. God will repay such behavior (vs. 10, 11).
God has shown His love to us infinitely more by giving His beloved Son as a propitiation, to free us from the power of sin and death. Do we always see this as a matter of incomprehensible love on God’s part? And how do we react to that? Do we remain in God’s love (John 15:9, 10)?
What does love have to do with keeping commandments?
Singing Ps. 63:2