What it Means to Love Jesus

John 14:15-17, 23, 24

What It Means to Love the Christ

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

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. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.[1]

Some months past, I laboured for the better part of a week preparing a message. As the Lord’s Day neared and the weight of worship pressed down on my soul, I realised that the message I had drafted failed the test of sound exposition. It was not that what I had prepared could be deemed doctrinally errant, but I had forced the text to say something that it could not support. There was a message in the words I had drafted, but it was not the message of the text that then lay before me. I determined that I would continue my studies and use the research for a future message. Today, I will employ the fruit of my research to bring a message that burns within my soul.

It is appropriate that I should speak of the way we are to express love for Christ our Saviour on this Mother’s Day, a day when we honour the love of God that is expressed through the love of mothers. It is appropriate to consider how we are to love Christ, because godly mothers need to be encouraged to love Jesus unreservedly in order to ensure that their children receive the best example of love. It is appropriate to study the way we should love our Lord, because godly fathers need to model the love of Christ, both for the sake of their wives and for the sake of their children. It is appropriate that we learn to love Christ in the manner that pleases the Father, because our children need to see godly love revealed in the way we live.

Love is Revealed Through Commitment — If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Despite the assertion of some contemporary evangelicals, especially those of the Emerging Church Movement, Christians are confident that there is but one way to God. I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me [John 14:6], says the Master. Jesus asserted that He alone, in contradistinction to all others, is the sole means of approaching the Father. What one believes does matter after all. Commitment to Christ is commitment to His teaching—to the doctrine He has given.

If it is possible to approach the Father on any basis other than through the sacrifice of Jesus, then the death of our Lord Christ Jesus is emptied of meaning and His resurrection may be dismissed as a myth. If through praying and prostration five times daily it is possible to draw near to God, then Christ did not need to die. If I can know God through my own meditations, then there is no need to believe that Jesus died to give me life. However, if Jesus is indeed the sinless Son of God, and if He died because of my sin and rose from the grave for my justification, then I am driven to the realisation that there cannot be many ways to the Father.

Do you care whether your neighbours are saved or lost? Does it matter to you that they live only for the moment without thought of that awful day when they must give an account to Him who lives forever? Friends and neighbours may be good people, nice people, but if they have never put their faith in Christ as Lord, they are lost and without hope in the world. Tragically, far too many of us who are Christians have bought into the meaningless life embraced by the world about us; we live for the moment instead of living in the light of eternity. We fail to make preparation for our eternal future.

While serving on the Lower Mainland, included among the membership of one congregation I pastored was a gracious lady from Quebec. She was deeply concerned for her husband. Though he professed to be a believer, she was apprehensive because other than saying that he believed in Christ he gave no evidence of having been born from above. He frequently attended the morning worship services of the church, but he gave no evidence of concern for his spiritual welfare. He did not pray. He did not read the Bible. He attended all the potluck suppers, but he studiously ignored other meetings.

One day, she bluntly asked him why he never spent time preparing for eternity. “You dress up each week for your lodge meeting. I see you carefully prepare for those meetings by reading the required literature and ensuring that your clothes are ready. Whenever we travel to Montreal, you pack your suitcase and fuss about the travel arrangements, but I never see you getting ready for Heaven. Why is that?”

She was deeply concerned for his spiritual welfare, so she asked me to speak with him. I inquired about his commitment to Christ. “I served my time,” he asserted in a dismissive manner. “My grandfather built the Baptist Church in Sherbrooke. I was a deacon there. I’ve served my time. I don’t need to do any more.” I reminded him that there is no discharge from war [Ecclesiastes 8:8]. That man simply laughed and said, “Pastor, I’m all right! Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” I conducted his funeral just a few months after that conversation.

Though he had been a church member and though I had spent time speaking with him, I was unable to say anything concerning his relationship to Christ. Had I spoken of his love for Christ, I would have been forced to speculate. Had I spoken of his commitment to the Word, I would have no basis to speak affirmatively. Protestations to the contrary, he was unfamiliar with the Word of God. Had I attempted to speak of his communion with the Father, I would have been compelled to confess that he had never once prayed to my knowledge. All I could do was present the Gospel and urge those present to consider Christ as Master of life. It was a sad occasion, made sadder still by the uncertainty of a life consumed by that man’s self-centred attitude.

Let me contrast that sad funeral with the funeral of another man who united with that same church during the same period of time. Courtney had led a rough life, at last landing in a nursing home as he progressively lost independence because of the toll from a hard life. Having no better options on a Sunday morning, he accepted the invitation of another resident of the home to attend church services.

He didn’t intend to become religious, but he could not escape the pointed words that were preached week-by-week. Like well-crafted hooks, they pierced his soul and permitted the light to enter into the darkened interior of his life.

One Sunday afternoon as he sat in his room doing nothing much, a care attendant knocked at the door and announced that she had his favourite snack, a cheese sandwich and a glass of milk. “Come in,” he snapped. “Set it there,” he snarled.

As Courtney picked up the sandwich, he began to think. “She could not come into my room until I invited her. Mike said that Christ is standing at the door. He can’t come in until I invite Him in.”

Through precisely such thoughts, lives are transformed. Courtney invited Christ into his life, and he was forever changed. He couldn’t get enough of church. He asked for a Bible, and when we gave him a large-print Bible so his failing eyes could read it, he consumed the Word, reading it daily. He began to pray, keeping a prayer list and asking those for whom he prayed to tell him how God was answering prayer. What is more important, as he spent time in the presence of the Living Christ, his life was changed.

Courtney did not just profess Christ, he possessed Christ. Until his death, the nurses and care aides commented on how much he had changed. I am not saying that his tongue could not be as sharp as ever, but there was a pronounced change in Courtney. Now, there was genuine concern for the welfare of the workers and residents in the nursing home instead of what had once been an utterly self-centred attitude. There was gentleness and restraint where there had once been sarcasm and retaliation. The matron spoke with me about the change in Courtney’s attitude, wondering what had happened to him. The new Courtney was enjoyable, whereas the old Courtney was always on the verge of being asked to leave. The change persisted for almost twenty years.

I had been at this church only about one month when I was asked to return to Burnaby to conduct a funeral service for Courtney. I spoke of his faith—faith that led him to read the Word, faith that taught him to pray, faith that created a longing to be with God’s people. Courtney had witnessed to almost all the care aides, the matron and even the doctors that tended his broken body, telling them of Jesus and how he could transform a broken life. It was a joyous celebration of victory, made all the more joyful by the certainty that this man had a faith that had transformed him and produced commitment to something greater than all the treasures of this dying life.

Knowledge of God creates commitment to Him and commitment to His cause. Loosely associated with the Baptist Faith are people who drift into our services for a brief period and then eventually drift away to some other religious activity. Perhaps these spiritual drifters even openly unite with the congregation for a short while, but when a better offer appears they will go elsewhere, or when they become bored they will take leave, looking for something more entertaining or less demanding.

A recent study of U. S. teens made a point that can accurately be applied to individuals without commitment to the Faith of Christ the Lord. Christian Smith, a sociologist of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was quoted as writing, “God is something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist” who’s on call as needed.[2] These teens take their cue from parents who seek an undemanding God who exists mostly to solve problems and make them feel good. The article cautions, “truth in any absolute, theological sense, takes a back seat.”

Either we call on the God of the Bible, a God who expects obedience to Him and to His commands, or we create a god of our own making, a god that is kindly and tolerant and undemanding. Who we worship becomes evident through the degree of commitment to the One we worship and through obedience to His commands.

Love Leads to Confession — 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. The God we serve calls us as Christians to a life of confession—confession through how we live. Notice the direct manner in which this issue of confession as lifestyle is confronted throughout the Word of God. Jesus said, You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house [Matthew 5:14, 15]. Likewise, we are taught to be always prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks … for a reason for the hope that is in us [1 Peter 3:15].

Jesus made no attempt to make us feel good about ourselves; instead, He confronted our tendency toward self-preservation and cowardice. On one occasion He stripped away our excuses with biting words that haunt the conscientious Christian. Listen to Him and weigh the impact of His confrontation with our spirits. Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels [Mark 8:38].

Perhaps we should take a moment to consider what shame concerning our relationship to the Saviour would look like. Would it be silence in the face of evil? No doubt that would qualify as shame. Would it be going along with actions that fail to honour the Lord Jesus? Again, the answer is affirmative. Shame of Christ and of His words likely includes such simple failures and omissions as a lack of gratitude, exalting personal pleasures above opportunities to serve Christ or to share in advancing the word of His church. Shame is less observed through how we feel than through what we do.

I am often astonished at the account of Jewish leaders who heard Jesus speak. John says of them, a considerable number from the ranks of the leaders did believe. But because of the Pharisees, they didn’t come out in the open with it. They were afraid of getting kicked out of the meeting place. When push came to shove they cared more for human approval than for God’s glory [John 12:42, 43].[3] My astonishment arises from the fact that these leaders recognised the truth, but they refused to risk their standing as religious experts.

Perhaps this reaction is not so very different for us as modern Christians. We will perform an act of worship, so long as there is no censure associated with the action. However, if someone challenges us, we are quick to back away from any overt demonstration of conviction. The same is true for adults as it is for teens.

Confessing Christ demands more than a mere agreement on one occasion. Confession is obviously important to the Christian life, and I indeed make much of confessing Christ openly. I make it my goal to conclude each service with the call to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord [Romans 10:9]. The confession demanded is agreement with God, to “say the same thing” (literal translation of homologēsēis). If one will be saved, that one must agree with God that he or she is incapable of saving himself or herself, and that one must agree with God that Jesus died because of his or her sin, but that He has raised to ensure his or her justification. Indeed, the Word calls us to confess Christ verbally, but agreement with Him will lead us to identify with Him in baptism [Matthew 3:6]. Some among us have yet to confess Christ through baptism, perhaps thinking that they might be inviting ridicule from someone whose opinion they value more than the commendation of Christ.

Confession is evident through participation in the ministry of giving. Paul, urging the Corinthian Christians to give generously to support relief efforts for suffering saints indicated that the gifts given were a confession of the gospel of Christ [2 Corinthians 9:13]. Those who fail to worship through giving generously are failing in confessing Christ. Living a holy and righteous life is a form of confession [1 Timothy 6:12, 13]. Obedience to Christ and to His calling is confession of His reign in that life [1 John 4:15].

The author of the Letter to the Hebrew Christians presents a powerful chapter that has thrilled saints throughout the long ages. In a chapter that presents “Faith’s Hall of Fame,” the writer speaks of Abel, of Enoch, of Noah, of Abraham and of Sarah. Then, he makes this observation of those we call great in the galaxy of righteousness. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city [Hebrews 11:13-16].

God takes note of our confession, and our confession flows from our convictions. Can it be that we fail to live powerful lives in the workplace because we have no conviction? Can it be possible that our teens have such scant power and influence with their peers because we have failed to instil convictions concerning the Faith in them? Can it be that we fail to advance the cause of Christ through generous giving because we have no convictions concerning the call of God?

Here is my concern for us as Christians. I fear that we are not confessing Christ. My great fear is that we are not confessing Christ in the small venues, the safe areas of our lives. Our children grow to be adults and they never truly see commitment from us as parents. We attend a worship service, but we would not inconvenience ourselves to share in an evening Bible study or to participate in one of the ministries of the church. We will say a prayer before we eat a meal at home, but we will not give thanks before eating out at a restaurant. We will give our children a Bible for a birthday, but we don’t read the Bible with our children on a regular basis. If we are failing in these safe arenas within our homes, can we truly expect that we will succeed in our Christian witness at work?

Consequently, while some may protest that I am not qualified to judge the depth of our love, I am simply applying the standard that Christ Himself has given for our love. We have already discovered in the text that those who love the Master are those who keep His commandments. Also, we have already discovered that those who love the Lord Christ are those who keep His Word. We have just discovered through concentrating our focus on passages bearing on this particular issue that the Saviour anticipates that we will live a life of open confession. We who are Christians cannot be silent; we must live in such a manner that we are identified as belonging to the Master. Our lives must be indelibly stamped with the righteousness of Christ.

Permit me to point to just a few areas that will reflect the stamp of life. North American culture has become a culture of death. We no longer favour life, but rather we promote death—especially death when life would inconvenience us. When Terri Schivao was starved and dehydrated in her final hours, the majority of Americans and Canadians—including many who identified themselves as evangelical Christians, argued that she should be permitted to die of dehydration.

Hubert Humphrey, Vice President under Lyndon Johnson, once said, “The moral test of a government is how (it) treats those who are in the dawn of life … those who are in the twilight of life … and those who are in the shadows of life.”[4] Likewise, the moral test of Christians is how they respond to assaults against the most helpless. Orphanages, hospitals, homes for the aged, are all the work of Christians concerned for the plight of suffering humanity. Long before governments discovered “compassion,” Christians were driven by their love for Christ to be concerned for the poor and the needy among us, and they exercised their love for Christ in practical ways by ministering to fallen humanity.

There was a time in the not too distant past when members of our society believed that the most helpless among us were deserving of life. Today, we exalt the rights of “minorities” at the expense of the rights of individuals. The collective, especially as long as it is not “empowered” by being a majority, has become paramount. Apparently, Terri Schivao was not a member of a sufficiently large “minority” to matter. Apparently, belonging to the right group is more important than is achievement or effort.

Thirty years ago, we believed that life was sacred—from conception to death. In 1973 our society leapt away from that belief. At first, it was only permissible to legally extinguish life during the “first trimester,” when a child could be killed in utero. Today, as long as the head remains in the birth canal, the child can be murdered. Moreover, the majority of our fellow citizens are convinced that we have a right to demand death if we are fearful of facing an uncertain future and no one dare question our hasty decision.

There was a time, again, not that many years past, when as a society we were capable of making moral judgements. We were certain that some behaviour was superior to others, and we were unafraid to announce those convictions. Thrift was superior to extravagance; hard work was better than indolence. Cohabitation was frowned upon, out-of-wedlock pregnancies were family embarrassments, and a man living with another woman while remaining married to another was an adulterer. Today, we are taught to be tolerant of every strange concept except for righteousness.

My concern in detailing these trends is to observe that as Christians we are witnessing—silently witnessing—a rush away from godliness as our culture embraces death. Our silence demonstrates our unwillingness to be inconvenienced, and our efforts to avoid discomfort through keeping our eyes closed reveals that we know little of love for the Saviour. We are each firmly ensconced at the centre of our own little universe, and Christ does not reign. I am not suggesting that we should man the barricades or take up arms, but I am saying that we must assess why we do not live a life of confession.

Love is Accompanied by Change — I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. Even in the physical realm, we are changed by those we love. No woman can change a man into what she wants him to become, despite the persistent thought younger women seem to harbour that they can change a man following marriage. Nevertheless, because a man loves a woman, he will make the effort to change himself and he will change because he loves his wife. The process requires time, but change will come when love is present.

The Spirit of God will be a transforming power in the life of the believer. Through Him, the Christian is steadily changed to conform to the image of Christ Jesus. The child of God is progressively transformed to increasingly resemble the Lord Jesus. We cannot walk with the Saviour without being changed by His presence. One verse of Scripture that allude to this truth teaches that whoever walks with the wise becomes wise [Proverbs 13:20]. Those who merely profess to know Christ, though failing to possess Christ, are exposed through their failure to be transformed into the image of the Son of God. Admittedly, this exposure requires some time, but exposure is nonetheless certain.

The Spirit of God lives in us, and according to the Word, He is jealous for us. He longs for us to be godly, to be Christlike. The Holy Spirit longs for Christ to be revealed through our lives. This is strongly attested in James’ letter addressed to Jewish believers. Do you think it’s without reason the Scripture says that the Spirit He has caused to live in us yearns jealously [James 4:5]?

The Spirit of God has been given, just as Jesus promised, and He now lives among God’s holy people. The Holy Spirit inhabits the church! Moreover, the Spirit of the Living God lives in each individual Christian, transforming that Christian’s body into a holy temple. Consider a teaching recorded in Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth. Remember that the teaching is directed to Christians. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body [1 Corinthians 6:15-20].

Since your body is a holy temple belonging to the True and Living God, what changes would you expect to see in the way you treat your body? Certainly, the Apostle condemned illicit sexual activity in this passage. That includes, but is not restricted to, adultery, premarital sex, recreational sex outside of marriage, and homosexuality. I suggest that it also excludes pornography as normative. Our culture is so confused that we tend to congratulate ourselves that we do not use pornography, and yet we engage in polite pornography as we watch soap operas, watch modern sitcoms, catch the latest movies and videos, and listen to the top forty or dance to the latest hip-hop video.

To this point, I suspect that I have only mild dissent, if any, among listeners. Perhaps a few are willing to defend viewing and/or listening habits, but any protests will be moderated by a degree of embarrassment. Nevertheless, the admonition to glorify God in our body clearly excludes any thought or action that would create concern at how Jesus would view that activity. Glorifying God in the body must assuredly include assuming responsibility for a healthy diet and regular exercise. Certainly, it excludes any activity that deliberately brings harm to our body. Abusing drugs and drinking are clearly addressed, as is smoking.

I am compelled to stress the need for transformation of our lives. If the Spirit of God lives in me, shouldn’t I expect to see the evidence of His presence? Wouldn’t you expect that the Spirit of God living in the individual would serve to make that individual more like Christ with each passing day? That is precisely the argument Paul presents as he appeals to believers in Rome.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed [Romans 12:1, 2a]. This is the corollary to the testimony you made when you accepted baptism as a believer.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness… Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? … Just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification [Romans 6:12, 13, 15, 19].

If a mother’s love transforms a child, wouldn’t you expect the love of Christ to transform His child? Wouldn’t you think that if a child’s love for his mother makes that child a better adult, that a Christian’s love for the Saviour would make that Christian a better person? Love transforms. Never forget this truth.

However, to be transformed in how we live it is necessary that our sprit be made new. That can only result from being born from above and into the Kingdom of God. Christ Jesus died because of our sin, and He rose from the dead for our justification. New life is the result of the new birth, and the new birth is the gift of God when we believe the message of life. This is the call of God to each individual this day.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved… “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [Romans 10:9, 10, 13].

This is our invitation to each individual sharing this service. This is the invitation from each Christian to all who will receive it. Trust in Christ as Saviour of your soul. Believe that He died because of your sin, and believe that He lives and that He will receive you, even now. Do it now. Be transformed by the presence of His Spirit. Amen.

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[2] Richard N. Ostling, U.S. teens involved in their faiths but have major gaps in religious knowledge, survey says, http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/10973086.hrml

[3] Eugene Petersen, The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary English (NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO 1993)

[4] Quoted by Pat Buchanan, The execution of Terri Schiavo, at Townhall.com, http://www.townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/pb20050401.shtml, accessed 1 April, 2005