Obedience as love

Often we are questioned as to why we still need to obey God's commands. If Jesus has saved us why can't we just do whatever we want and have God forgive us at the end anyway? I think "ummm well, cos" is not an acceptable answer to anyone, of course I also wonder how sincere a question this is but regardless, the Bible offers us several answers, indeed for John it concerns one of the key themes of the Bible.

That theme is love:
It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. (2 John 1:4-6 NIV)
John is right to point out that this is not a new command, Obedience as love is not something revolutionary when John writes about it, nor was it when Jesus spoke about, that has been the reality for a faithful Jew since Abraham, the believers were obedient because they loved God. Indeed their disobedience came when they were committing adultery and off loving some other god, a clearly unloving thing to do. And so that is the command, walk in love, and what is love? Walking in obedience to his commands, it's rather cyclical, but that makes sense, for God's commands are loving and so if we are obedient to God's commands we WILL be walking in love.

One of the great benefits is that means that it's largely the same thing for us today as it was when John wrote his letter, if we follow God's commands we will be loving others, which thus follows God's commands. If we love God, we'll long to be obedient to his commands and serve him.