“If you
love Me, keep My commandments.”
John 14:15 NKJV
Most
of us have, at one time or another experienced the joy that comes from knowing
someone loves us. I am equally sure that
most of us would agree that there is no greater feeling than to know someone
cares about us in a loving way. Like
many parents, over the years I have saved many of the little notes that I
received over the years from all three of my daughters. The notes were written on different
occasions, and some are long while others are just short sentences, but they
all had one thing in common and that was that they all expressed their love for
me.
As
I sat and thought about those years, I began to remember all the little things
that they had done as they were growing up in order to show their love for
me. Some were big, some were small, but the
one thing they all had in common was that whatever it was, it was
demonstrative. In other words, they were
not content to just say they loved me, but rather they wanted to show me they
did by doing something they knew I would enjoy.
I think it would be fair to say we would all agree that when we truly
love someone it is a natural desire to want to do something in order to show
that person just how much we care. It
also stands to reason that we would seek to know the person well enough to give
them something we know they would want and enjoy.
Obviously
as believers we should have the desire to know God on such a way as to desire
to demonstrate our love for Him in ways that we know would please Him. We do that by studying His Word and
developing our relationship with Him in order to know Him better. In the
passage above from the book of John, Jesus tells us just what God wants from
those who claim to love Him, and that is obedience to His Word. In this chapter, as well as the next, Jesus
repeatedly explains that what God wants most, and expects, is that those who
claim to love Him follow His commandments.
"He
who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves
Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to
him." John 14:21 NKJV
Jesus
makes it clear that the proof of our love for the Father is the desire to
please Him by knowing and following His commandments. So how logical does it seem that many today
believe the greatest threat to the Church is the attack on the authority of the
Scriptures? It shouldn’t come as a
surprise considering we are shown exactly how Satan works by looking at what
happened in the Garden of Eden when the world is introduced to the deceiver for
the very first time. How does he choose
to attack? Simply by trying to create
doubt about the very Word of God.
“Now
the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had
made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat
of every tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We
may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; "but of the fruit of the
tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat
it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' "Then the serpent said to the
woman, "You will not surely die.” Genesis
3:1-4 NKJV
In
other words, God said it, but He really didn’t mean it? How often today do we hear those same words
or something similar when the Word of God commands a certain course of action
which the world may find objectionable?
More and more today we see examples of the Church compromising on
certain commandments we find in the Word in order to be “politically correct”. As believers though, the question the Church
should be asking is simply this; “do you really love Him”? If you truly love someone your concern is how
best to show them your love in a way that they would appreciate. When it comes to our relationship with God,
He has already made it clear how best to please Him.
"If
you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My
Father's commandments and abide in His love.”
John 15:10 NKJV
I
think the key word in this passage, and the answer to how best know what God
expects is contained in the word “abide”.
In the Greek the word is “meno”
which means “to sojourn, abide in or
tarry, or continue to be present”.
In other words, by striving to keep God’s commandments we are pleasing
Him, and as a result are able to live our lives in a relationship with our
Father in which He can manifest His love for us just as we do for Him. I like how David describes the relationship
we can have with our Father if we seek to please Him in this way.
“ALEPH.
Blessed [are] the undefiled in the way, Who walk in the law of the LORD!
Blessed [are] those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole
heart! They also do no iniquity; They walk in His ways. You have commanded [us]
To keep Your precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways were directed To keep Your
statutes! Then I would not be ashamed, When I look into all Your commandments.” Psalms 119:1-6 NKJV
Do
you really love Him? Are you trying to
please Him, or please yourself? You see,
that is what it really all comes down to.
We either do what we know is pleasing to God, or we choose to do what
pleases us. My daughters looked for ways
to make me happy, either by writing little notes or doing things for me they
knew I would like. That was their way of
showing me they loved me. Are you
looking for ways to show God you love Him?
You do that by studying His Word and keeping His commandments.
"But
why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?” Luke 6:46 NKJV
Keep
watching.
P.S. This is a link to a very good article on the
Isaiah 17 prophecy that I thought you might find interesting considering the
current events occurring in that region.
