“Meditation is the wing of the soul.”
Thomas Watson
Jesus links love and obedience, ‘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.’” (John 14:23-24) This link is found throughout Deuteronomy as well, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Deut. 5:8-10) Love and the keeping of the commandments is mentioned at the giving of the Law and other passages of in Deuteronomy.
In Sunday’s sermon on John 14, there is a question that stands behind the text and I said the question was, “are you born again?” How did I determine that that particular question was there? By examining 1 John 5:1-3. I will take these verses, which expand on Jesus’ discussion of love and obedience, slightly out of order. Here is 1 John 5:2-3:
“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”
Here John, the beloved disciple, links loving God and obeying his commandments, but he introduces in verse one, how we are able to do this, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.” (1 John 5:1) To love God and to keep his commandments we must be born again. Nicodemus studied all the commandments of God and Jesus did not add any more to the list that Nicodemus knew. Instead, he challenged him, “You must be born again.” Let me ask you, are you trusting Christ and have you received him as Lord? Do you have a genuine love for God in your heart? Have you been born again? Have a blessed week and we will see many of you on Sunday.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Dale
