Who Loves the Lord
John 14:21-24 ESV
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.”
To love God is to obey him. It is to obey Jesus and his
commandments, his words to us. To know Jesus Christ is to love him and to obey
him. We cannot know God; we cannot know Jesus Christ and yet refuse to obey
him. If we say we know him, but we aren’t obeying him, we are liars (cf. 1 Jn
2:3-6).
If we want to be loved of God, we need to be keeping his
commandments as a matter of life course, of our walks of faith in Jesus Christ.
If we are obeying the Lord, thus we are loving God, and Jesus will make himself
known to us, and he and the Father will make their home with us.
Thus, if we are of the belief that faith in Jesus Christ
requires no repentance, no obedience to Christ, and no submission to Christ as
Lord, we don’t love the Lord, we don’t know Jesus, we are not loved of God, and
the Spirit of God does not dwell within us.
And, if we are not loving God, because we are not obeying
him, then we also can’t claim this promise of God: “And we know that for those
who LOVE God all things work together for good, for those who are called
according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28).
If we don’t know the Lord, because we are not loving him,
because we are not obeying him, then that also means our sins are not forgiven
us, and heaven is not our eternal destiny, but we are still enslaved to sin and
headed to hell (Rom 8:1-17; 1 Jn 1:5-9; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8).
The Holy Spirit
John 14:25-26 ESV
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
Jesus spoke these words to his followers while he still
lived on the earth. After his death and resurrection, he returned to the Father
in heaven, and he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell his followers, to teach us
all things, and to remind us of the things Jesus taught on the earth.
When Jesus lived on the earth, he could only talk with as
many people as could gather around him and who could hear his words. But when
he sent us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God could then indwell all followers
of Jesus everywhere in the world and he could speak to us all on Jesus’ behalf.
So, having the Holy Spirit living within us is like having
Jesus with us face to face, only we can’t hear him speak in audible words to us.
But he does speak to us in our minds and in our hearts. And, he will speak to
us only that which comes from God and agrees with the Word of God.
There are many people these days who are saying that the
Holy Spirit spoke to them when what they are saying is not consistent with
Scripture. So, they end up giving a bad reputation to the Holy Spirit, and thus
many end up denying the Spirit and quenching the Spirit.
When Jesus lived on the earth, he spoke some things
generally, to all people, but he also spoke to individuals specifically about
their life situations and about his calling on their lives and regarding the
things he had for them to do.
So, when he sent his Spirit to indwell us, he intended that
his Spirit would do the same, that he would speak to all people generally, to
his church more specifically, but also to us individually, to counsel, to lead,
to guide, to encourage, to give us gifts, and to call us to specific areas of
ministry.
Many people today are denying that the Lord can speak to us
in our minds and in our hearts, but only through the written word of God. But
Jesus sent us his Spirit to indwell us to be Jesus in us and with us to talk
with us like he was here with us.
We need to test everything we hear in our minds and hearts
to make certain that what we are hearing is from God, and not from ourselves,
or from other sources, but we must not close ourselves off to the Spirit of
God, either, for the Lord wants to speak to us individually, too.
Peace He Gives
John 14:27 ESV
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
The peace that Jesus gives is peace with God, not with the
world. It is that we are no longer at enmity with God, but now we have been
restored to friendship with God via faith in Jesus Christ.
The peace that Jesus gives is also not absence of conflict
with others, but it is an inner resting in the Lord in all things. So, we are
not ever to compromise our faith or our morals to make peace with the world or
out of fear of what someone might do to us or say about us.
We also don’t make peace with other Christians who are living
like the world who are pressuring us or who are trying to shame us into compromise
with the world to not appear so “religious” or “self-righteous” or “judgmental.”
For there are many within the church who are trying to convince us.
So, don’t be afraid of what other humans may do to you or
say about you if you are following the Lord with your life. Keep obeying the
Lord, and keep doing what he says to do, and keep on speaking the truth of his
word to all who will listen. For many need to know the Lord.
Knowing
You Jesus
By Graham Kendrick
All I once held dear, built my life
upon,
All this world reveres and wars to own;
All I once thought gain I have counted
loss,
Spent and worthless now compared to
this.
Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing.
You're my all, You're the best,
You're my joy, my righteousness,
And I love You Lord.
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