“If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and come unto him, and we will come unto Him, and make our abode with Him.”
“Love” is a word that is used a lot in the Bible. It is used in reference to our love for each other, and is always noted as important. It is also noted that, against all odds, the Lord loves us. It is important that we love the Lord in return. If He loved us enough to send His Son to die as a sacrifice for our sins, we owe it to Him to love Him. John 14:23 gives us some insight into loving the Lord. It points out to us that to love the Lord is paramount. Jesus said, “If a man (anyone) loves me…” “If” presupposes that not everyone will love the Lord. We might even say that the majority of the people in the world do not love God, because they do not know Him through Jesus. Love reaches its supreme good when it is given to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is important that we love our parents, our spouses, our brothers and sisters and people in our churches. In fact, we are told to love everyone. I do not think that we will love people as we should until we really love the Lord and are thankful for all the blessings that He has brought into our lives. Jerome O. Williams wrote that love for the Lord is “love’s highest height.” We need to frequently check our love quotient. Do we love the Lord as we should? Jesus asked Peter in John 21, “Do you love me more than these?” Some argue over what Jesus meant by “these,” but we can never argue over the fact of whether or not we should love Jesus. We know what “these” means in our lives, and it would be a good idea for us to occasionally ask ourselves if we love Jesus more than “these.” Jesus pointed out that love for the lord is obedient: “If a man love me, he will keep my words.” Those who love the Lord supremely will certainly seek to know and to do His will on a daily basis. They will certainly seek to keep the commandments of Jesus, the greatest of which is love. They will seek to worship Him when they are alone and will want to worship Him publicly in fellowship with other Christians. Those who love the Lord will seek to win others to Him. They will want to minister to their fellow human beings in times of great need in their lives. All of these, and more, are signs of obedient love. We should remind ourselves that Jesus was obedient in His love for us when He died on the cross to save us from sin. The most wonderful fact is that the Lord returns our love: “My Father will love him…”This does not mean that the Father does not love us already. John 3:16 has already told us that He loves the world so much that ”He gave His only begotten Son.” Among other things, I think this means that we will realize the love the Father has for us when we love the Son. Sadly, there are millions of people who do not know that the Father loves them. If we love Jesus and are obedient in that love, surely we will know that He loves us supremely. The fact is that, “We love (God) because He first loved us.” How can we not respond to Him in love? You can really express your love for Him if you will turn your life over to Him by putting your faith in Him. Jesus said that the first commandment is to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” That pretty well covers it doesn’t it? Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|