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Obey
Obey
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
We have been looking into the traits of a disciple following an encounter with Jesus Christ
“if you love me” - the here is Agape - the highest form of love expressed through the sacrifice of Christ to us
Humans can have Eros - physical love; or even Philios - Brotherly love - but we fall desperately shorty of unconditional total surrendering love
Jesus connects loving Him with observing His commandments
We see the sam pattern in the Old Testament
And God spoke all these words, saying:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Look at the reasoning hers:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage
The Lord is reminding them that He is the source of their lives and as such has the rights to set the expectations for His creation
He reminds them that He was the one who heard their cry and delivered them from their place bondage - of a dwelling place of slavery - literally
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
Now the mission of Jesus was to do the same - deliver the people from a life of slavery to sin!
But how were we to maintain this new found freedom?
If before we could not defeat the power of sin then how then can we now walk in obedience to His commands?
The word keep there means “to guard from loss by active observation” “to keep in custody”
Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.
Blessed are You, O Lord!
Teach me Your statutes.
Jesus gives us the key to successfully fulfilling the command
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
The promise was that another helper would come to assist us in accomplishing the command! Loving unconditionally
Wouldn’t you like to have someone that knows all the answers?
Imagine taking a test and having someone give you all the right answers?
This is the Holy Spirit’s job?
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
I love this verse because it speaks about the never-ending role of the Holy Spirit!
How will we make the final steps of our journey without fear? The Holy Spirit will be with us! - our COMFORTER!
Open my eyes, that I may see
Wondrous things from Your law.
It is the Holy Spirit’s job to bring revelation to you from His Word!
The the Word becomes a light to your path!
Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
If you were walking through a darkened cave wouldn’t you want a light to see where you are going?
One wrong step and it could mean you life!
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
God’s laws are not designed to bring burdensome activity to our lives…they are designed to give us the best chance of an abundant life in this fallen world!
As in the old testament, they were enjoying the fruits of deliverance and were in expectation of a speedy settlement in the promised land…What about you?
Are you enjoying the true liberty those who are in Christ experience?
Are you looking for a speedy settlement to promised land which is in heaven?
So Samuel said:
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.