Episode 802: If you love Me, keep my commandments

Jesus said, “if you love Me, keep my commandments”-implying that He didn't want just an obedience that was done out of necessity but out of love for Him under the new covenant. The old covenant spirit was summed up in the ten commandments: “Thou shalt, thou shalt not, thou shalt, thou shalt not...” The Israelite's had no choice. But Jesus came saying, “IF any man wants to follow me, let him....”
In Exodus 15:26, God said to the Israelite's, “If thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and do what is right before him, and obey his commandments, and keep all his precepts, none of the evils that I laid upon Egypt, will I bring upon thee: for I am the Lord thy healer.” this was not, as some understand it, a promise of healing. It was a promise of something even better than healing-health. Don't you think health is better than healing? To get healing you have to be sick first! But God told them that if they obeyed all His laws, they would not even get sick. They would be healthy! This was one reason why He gave them many laws on hygiene. If you are a glutton and you fall sick, you have to blame yourself. There is essentially no difference between a drunkard who dies prematurely due to his addiction to alcohol and a glutton who dies prematurely due to his addiction to good food! God's laws can preserve us in health. You won't need to go and ask God for healing so much, if you begin by obeying His laws. He will keep you in health. You will grow old and be a healthy, old person, not a sick, old person full of sickness caused by tensions and overeating.