Performance or Obedience

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. … 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:16,18)

For the past few weeks, I’ve been railing against being judged by our performance, mainly because we all know we live in a culture that idolizes performance. We are graded by our performance. Our self-worth is defined by our performance. This applies to sports, of course, but also business, education, and sadly even relationships.

Over these years of 721 Ministries, I have witnessed men who simply cannot feel good about themselves unless they are meeting or exceeding the success of other men. I have witnessed women who are still performing for their father’s approval – and more than once their father has been dead, or out of their lives, for years.

Even more disturbing is how performance pervades our relationships with Jesus. Performance is about points, as in accumulating enough points to earn the rewards we … deserve.

If I manage to pull off several days of really good behavior, I expect to be patted on the back and treated appropriately by my wife. And if I am not treated as I now, of course, deserve, I stand ready to pull out the evidence file and remind Dina of all the points I have earned.

I think we all do it.

But not God.

Fear or Love

He is not keeping score. When you are his child, he loves you and adores you apart from your performance. And for a child of God, performance is soon replaced with obedience, because performance is fear-based. Obedience is love-based.

Ideally, even in human relationships, obedience is compelled by love. As a little fellow, I obeyed my parents out of love. As a teenager not so much. But as I grew older, I returned to obedience out of love and respect for them. I was simply compelled by their love for me.

And my life with Jesus mirrors this closely.

To me, God was just “God” as a young boy. I obeyed out of some love, I guess. But as a teenager and onward, I obeyed – if I ever did actually obey – out of fear of punishment. Even after I was born again, it took a while to leave fear and judgment behind, and for love to compel my obedience.

But now I seek to obey because I want to please my Heavenly Father. Don’t miss that: to please, not to perform. Out of love, not fear of his punishment. Remember:

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. … 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:16,18)

Today I am asking you to examine your personal motivations for how and why you act and behave the way you do. Do you have an audience of only One? Or are you trying to keep multiple plates spinning in the air, so as to accumulate approval points from your spouse, your peers, and even your God?

One is encouraging; the other is exhausting.