See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:
the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today,
and the curse, if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn from the way which I am commanding you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
Samuel said,
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Obedience is better than sacrifice,
a listening ear than the fat of rams.
Oh, that you had listened to My commandments!
Then your peace would have been as a river
and your righteousness as the waves of the sea.
But this thing I commanded them, saying, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.”
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.
He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.”
Peter and the other apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
By this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
Whoever says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whoever keeps His word truly has the love of God perfected in him. By this we know we are in Him.
Whoever says he remains in Him ought to walk as He walked.