Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. No matter how you slice it, our love is equal only to our obedience. To truly "take up the cross and follow Him" is to love and obey Him which is our "reasonable service of worship." Our obedience has to do with Lordship. Is He truly Lord? If so, our obedience becomes the essence of our worship.
Ultimately, Lordship is the laying of crowns at His feet which is a picture of our obedience to His Lordship. Revelation 4:10 states, "The four and twenty elders fall down before Him who sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, . . ."
Our response to the gospel is grace-driven. He who understands that Gospel knows that as a new creation, his nature is now in opposition to dis-obedience. Therefore, he seeks to not just weaken sin, but to destroy it. Out of a worshipping love for the Lord, he wants the power of sin to die. This is different than just wanting to be better or do good.
When God's overwhelming love takes complete control of us, it pushes out our love for self, for other gods, and for the things of this world. It releases our new and pure love to flow back to Him in authentic worship. Simply put, when we love God, we obey Him. mjm
