I John 5:3 says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”
This means the man of God doesn’t find the imperatives in the Bible as “troubling.” It doesn’t mean that some of His commands aren’t difficult, because there are a lot of commands that are difficult to follow (e.g., Exodus 20:3 – having no other gods or Ephesians 4:26 – be angry and sin not).
Jesus made this promise to us in Matthew 11:29-30: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” In Jesus’ day, the religious leaders made God’s Law a burden to the people (Matthew 23), but that was not Jesus’ design for His law.
So can God’s command NOT be a burden? Let me give you 4 reasons this is the case.
- In light of the greatness of the reward, His commands don’t seem difficult. In comparison to the joy ahead, they seem light.
- Our love for God makes the commands light. In other words, as saved people we long to obey God. We long to please Him however we can.
- We are given an enablement to obey, which makes them seem light. He gives us the ability and the desire to obey.
- God never asks us to do something that will harm us. The author R.A. Torrey wrote, “I never knew anyone to come to Christ yet who did not have to give up something. But the only things God asks you to give up are the things that are doing you harm. God has given to each one of us a guarantee that He will never ask us to give up anything that is for our good, and that guarantee is His own Son. I do not think if God has given His Son to die for us, He is going to ask us to give up anything that is good for us.”
In conclusion, there should be a real level of excitement when we hear what God asks of us!
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