Why do God’s Commands Feel Burdensome?
One of the battles that my wife and I fight during the school year is getting our kids to do their homework. They don’t want to do it. They would rather do something else, something fun. So, we have to command them to do it. We sometimes have to yell at them, threaten to discipline them, or offer a reward in order to get them to start doing what they are supposed to do.
Sometimes, I think we as Christians feel the same way about doing what God wants us to do.
We think that we don’t want to do what He wants us to do. Those things feel restrictive. They feel like they are difficult to carry out. They don’t seem fun. Therefore, God has to “yell” at us, threaten us, or offer a reward if we’ll do what He says.
But the apostle John tells us that God’s commands are not burdensome.
And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
1 John 5:3-4
GOD’S COMMANDS ARE NOT BURDENSOME
This truth turns the way we think about God’s commands upside down.
If this is true, then why do we tend to think that we don’t want to do what God says?
Why do we think that we have to follow His commands out of duty to not be punished or to get rewarded by Him with more love, affirmation, or better situations and circumstances?
Because Satan wants us to believe this is true. He is a liar and a deceiver, and he is out to steal, kill, and destroy. He knows that God’s commands are not burdensome, so he lies to us and convinces us that they are restrictive or difficult to carry out. Therefore, we don’t.
Or he convinces us that if we follow His commands out of duty we’ll be more loved, accepted, and have better situations and circumstances. So, we do what God says out of duty and Satan has us trapped in religion, or believing a prosperity gospel, or chasing the approval of God through our behavior.
But again, none of this is true. God’s commands are not burdensome. And John even tells us why in verse 4…
“for everyone born of God overcomes the world.”
BORN OF GOD
As a believer in Christ, you have been born again. You are a new creation (1 Corinthians 5:17). You have been given a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
Your new heart is in union with God. You are His child. You are always loved. You are always approved. You always have abundant Life, regardless of your situations or circumstances. Therefore, you do not have to do what God commands in order to get more from Him. You already have all of Him!
Also, your new heart wants to do what God wants you to do.
Your new heart makes you capable of carrying out what God wants you to do.
If you want to follow God’s commands and can do so as a new creation in Christ, then you can see that His commands are not burdensome.
They are also not burdensome because as a born-again believer, John said that you have overcome the world.
And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
1 John 5:3-4
YOU HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD
As the ruler of this world, Satan has a worldly system in place to steal, kill, and destroy.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Ephesians 2:1-2
In this passage, Paul is writing to Christians about who they were before they became new creations in Christ, and he says that they followed Satan and the ways of the world.
Satan has a system of worldly ways that prevent us from experiencing the abundant life of Christ.
This is a system that says, “You want to do things that God doesn’t want you to do.”
“You desire sin and pleasure, and those things are good for you.”
“If you achieve more, you’ll be loved more.”
“Follow the rules God has in place in order to get more from God.”
See, even Satan is okay with you following God’s commands as long as they are from a place of burden. As long as you are doing them in order to merit God’s favor.
Satan isn’t just involved in the dark, ugly sinful behavior that we see in the world. He is involved in religion. He is involved in keeping us from seeing our true identity, and that we have been removed from his worldly system.
After writing about the Ephesians’ past in verses 1-3, Paul says this in verses 4-6…
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-6
You may still be in this world, but you live from above it.
You have overcome the world.
You have been removed from the enslavement to Satan’s worldly system.
You don’t want sin any longer. You don’t have to earn God’s favor. You have His favor and have been given a new heart that is in line with following God’s ways.
CONCLUSION
God’s commands are not prescriptions to be a better Christian but rather descriptions of who you are in Christ.
When you and I begin to see our true identity and that we are not who we once were, then we will begin to see God’s commands differently. They are not burdensome.
We will not read His commands in Scripture and see them as ways that God is prescribing us to do them as duty or to be better Christians. We will read His commands and see them as descriptions of the kind of behavior and actions that match the new creation He’s made us into!
So when Jesus tells us to avoid certain sins, we realize that those things don’t line up with who we are now in Christ and that we have been given new hearts that don’t want to do those things anyway!
When Jesus says to love our neighbors and serve them, we know that is because He has given us a heart that loves others and desires to serve them.
When we feel Jesus leading us to be generous with our time and our finances, we don’t see that as a burden but a delight because we have a heart that knows that there is more blessing in giving than receiving.
When we read that we are to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, we don’t see that as something to overcome but something that we have already overcome in Christ and will live out in the power of the Spirit.
Any of God’s commands that we come across gets us excited when we understand our true identity because we see that they are descriptions of who we are in Christ.
But if we don’t understand our identity as born again and having overcome the world, then we will always see God’s commands as burdensome instead.
You are new. You have a new heart. Go live who you are unburdened.