Keeping the Word of God

Luke 11:27-28 NKJV

27And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” 28But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

And I read this in Luke 11:17 and 23 and 32 and 34:

17But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls.” “23He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” “32The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.” “34The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.”

When Jesus Christ gave himself up for us on that cross, it was to put our sins to death with him so that, by God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in our Lord Jesus, we will now deny self, die to sin daily, and follow our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands, in surrender of our lives to his will and to his purpose for our lives, all in the power of God. Therefore, obedience to our Lord’s commands is not optional, and it is not to be omitted from the gospel message. Dying with Christ to sin and obeying his commands are evidence of true faith and are required of God for salvation and eternal life.

For if we claim to be “in Christ,” and part of the family of God, and heirs of the Kingdom of God, but we don’t obey God, and we don’t serve him with our lives, but we continue living in sin, this is like someone who gets married on a vow of fidelity and of self-sacrifice only to continue to live like they are still single. They are not united in heart and mind with their spouse, but they are living in adultery against their spouse habitually and deliberately. Thus, this is a picture of a house divided against itself when one spouse chooses to live in adultery rather than in faithfulness and in love and in purity.

For if we are not really with Jesus, on his side, following his lead, and obeying his commands, then we are against him. We can’t just profess him as Lord and Savior with our lips and then go on about our lives as though nothing has changed, as though we are still free to live like we did before we made that profession of faith. For by faith in him we should have died to sin and been transformed of the Spirit of God away from sinful lifestyles to now serving Jesus with our lives. Now we should be his followers who follow him wherever he leads us in doing whatever he calls us to do, by his Spirit.

And what is the story of Jonah and Nineveh? Jonah was a prophet of God called of God to go to Nineveh and to let them know that judgment was coming upon them. But when the people got that message, they repented of their sins. And to repent is to have a change of heart and mind resulting in a change of behavior. It means to reject our lives of sin and to turn to our Lord to walk in obedience to his commands. And the one greater than Jonah is Jesus, and he is calling for all to change directions, to forsake their sins, and to now obey God and his commands as a matter of life practice, forever.

And with regard to the lamp of the body being the eye, the eye has to do with spiritual discernment, judgment, and discretion. So, if the discernment is bad, it is against the will of God, and it against his moral laws and his commands, and it is against all that is holy, morally pure, upright, godly, honest, and faithful to our Lord (and to one’s spouse, too). So one’s whole body is thus full of darkness (sin, wickedness, evil, immorality, etc.). But if the judgment is good, it is full of light (righteousness, honesty, godliness) because the judgment (discernment) comes from God and not the flesh.

So, as those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, we are to be those who hear (who listen to) the Word (teachings) of Christ/God and who then obey his teachings for us who profess faith in him, i.e. who put the Word into practice in our daily lives, by the grace of God, and in the power of God at work within us who are his. So we need to be students of the Scriptures who study them in their appropriate biblical context and who put the teachings for the church (for us who believe in Jesus) into practice. For if we refuse, and we continue in habitual sin, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22] 

Better Is

Based in part off Proverbs 27

An Original Work / October 5, 2018

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Better is Love’s chastisement

From a friend,

Than to have your sins coddled

To no end.

Wisdom is seeing danger –

Flees from sin,

Trusting in your Redeemer,

Pure within.

Jesus is your salvation –

Freed from sin –

Giving you life eternal,

Without end.

Trusting in His provisions,

Peace within,

Simply by giving your life

All to Him.

Living your life for Jesus

Ev’ry day,

Tell of His mighty power,

Lives to save.

Listening to Him speaking

To your heart,

Tell of His grace which gave you

A new start.

https://vimeo.com/293958787

Keeping the Word of God

An Original Work / May 13, 2026

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love