If you love Me, you will keep My commandments

John 14:15-31 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

¹⁶ I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; ¹⁷ the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you.

¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. ¹⁹ After a little while, the world no longer is going to see Me, but you are going to see Me; because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I in you. ²¹ The one who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.” ²² Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what has happened that You are going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?” ²³ Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. ²⁴ The one who does not love Me does not follow My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

²⁵ “These things I have spoken to you while remaining with you. ²⁶ But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you. ²⁷ Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor fearful. ²⁸ You heard that I said to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. ²⁹ And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. ³⁰ I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in regard to Me, ³¹ but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let’s go from here.”

In today’s text Jesus says: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments… If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. The one who does not love Me does not follow My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”  In Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus says: “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  The argument that some make, that Jesus never spoke directly about certain areas of immorality in our culture today, in order to justify sin, is discredited and disqualified by what He says here. The Ten Commandments and all of God’s commandments regarding sin and unrighteousness are still in force today. Jesus did not do away with the consequences of sin. He fulfilled the penalty of sin for us. Romans 6:23 says: For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus died so that we could live, but we are to live in His righteousness, not in our sin.  We need to choose whether we ourselves will keep the all of the commandments or accept the fulfillment of Christ and the cross. Either way, unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Even to relax God’s commandments, as if for some reason He would change His mind about sin to suit the whims and lust of our culture, can exclude us from the kingdom of heaven. Being excluded from participating in the rituals of religion pales in comparison to being excluded from the kingdom of heaven.

In the text Jesus says: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. After a little while, the world no longer is going to see Me, but you are going to see Me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I in you… These things I have spoken to you while remaining with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you. Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor fearful.”  In John 16:7-15 Jesus says: “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I am leaving; for if I do not leave, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world regarding sin, and righteousness, and judgment: regarding sin, because they do not believe in Me; and regarding righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you no longer are going to see Me; and regarding judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them at the present time. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take from Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; this is why I said that He takes from Mine and will disclose it to you.”  The Holy Spirit will teach us and remind us of all that Jesus said. He will guide us and convict us concerning sin and righteousness so that we know the truth and there is no excuse for choosing disobedience to His commandments.

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit, my God, my Lord and Savior and my guide. Amen.