Connecting Love and Obedience

Context: Promises

Greater Works (v. 12) Condition: Belief

Ask Anything (v. 13, 14) Condition: Ask in my name

Another Comforter (v. 16, 17) Condition: Love and Obedience

Interpretive Question: Is Jesus teaching that love and obedience are prerequisites to receiving the Holy Spirit?

One of my first thoughts was that perhaps in the Greek there is not the connection between v. 15 and v. 16 that is implied in the English. However, as far as I could tell, and I am no Greek scholar, there is a connective word between the verses.

Interpretive Answers:

John’s understanding of Love and Obedience

Only those who know Christ can love Christ

Only those who know Christ can obey Christ.

Everyone’s first act of obedience to Christ is believing in Christ. Heb 5:9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

Only those who know Christ will receive the Holy Spirit.

We also must remember that even though the disciples were believers at this point they had not yet recieved the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit had not been sent by the Father and Son.

There is a circular result to what Jesus is teaching.

In order to receive the Spirit we must first respond to Jesus in obedience by believing in Him.

However, to live in obedience we need a source of divine power that is only available through the indwelling and filling ministries of the Holy Spirit.

Summary: There are no requirements for genuine believers to receive the Holy Spirit because they already have the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit immediately and permanently indwells believers at the moment of salvation.

What are the commands of Jesus that we must keep in order to receive the Spirit?

The first and key command is to believe as John has emphasized throughout his Gospel.

The commands that follow beyond that are all those things that Jesus has taught during His ministry and through the rest of Scripture. All the things that God has called us to be and do. However, these are not requirements for receiving the Spirit, but they are connected to loving Jesus.

What is the connection between loving Jesus and keeping His commands?

John 14:15

John 14:21

John 14:23, 24

Defining Love

Loving Others

Always doing what is best for the object of your affection.

Putting their needs ahead of your own.

Having a deep concern for their physical and emotional wellbeing.

Loving God

Loving God is in some ways different from loving others.

God doesn’t need us in the same way we need others. His will is always done and He doesn’t require our participation to accomplish His desires.

The closest picture of how we love God is the parent child relationship. What is one of the best ways a child can show they love their parents? Obedience.

Rebellious children are in a constant state of communicating their chief love is for themselves.

Defining Obedience

Dictionary:

to comply with or follow the commands, restrictions, wishes, or instructions

to respond conformably in action to

to submit or conform in action to

Thus to obey God is to comply, submit or follow His will, desire and plans.

Two Levels of Obedience

Completing the task as assigned

Humbly completing the task not only as assigned but to the best of your ability and for the glory of God.

For most of us our daily obedience falls somewhere on the spectrum of those two levels.

This also can be easily seen in children. 3 Levels

Disobedience (slowbedience is not obedience)

Completing the task assigned because you have to

Completing the task assigned because you want to

Making the Connection

Christians are quick to say “We are no longer under law, but under grace.” Part of what I want us to understand this morning is this true, but also incomplete.

Are Christians under the Law? If, by Law you mean the Law of Moses, then the answer is no. We are not under the Mosaic Law.

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Galatians 2:16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”—

Why does Paul say that the Law of Moses brings a curse? Because all who rely on the Law of Moses for justification fail.

But the good news is that Jesus Christ “redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).

Does the fact that Christians are not under the Mosaic Law give us freedom to live lawlessly?

Christ became the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

There is a belief called antinomianism which is the belief that there are no moral laws God expects Christians to obey.

Does God care how you live?

Does God care if you sin? After all those sins are paid for.

Paul clearly addresses this in Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

The most frequent attack on the doctrine of salvation by grace alone is that it encourages sin. People may wonder, “If I am saved by grace and all my sins are forgiven, why not sin all I want?”

That thinking is not the result of true conversion because true conversion yields a greater desire to obey, not a lesser one.

Since we are clearly no longer under the Mosaic Law is there another Law that we (believers) are under? - Yes, the Bible calls it the Law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.

1 Corinthians 9:20-21 To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.

What is the Law of Christ?

The Law of Moses consisted of over 600 commands that had to be followed to perfection in order to be justified by it and to be rightly related toward God.

In our text Jesus repeatedly refers to “His commandments”

When Jesus was asked which commandment of the O.T. were the most important He didn’t respond by saying that none of them mattered anymore. Rather He reiterated the importance of the two commands that all of the Mosaic Law was based upon. Mark 12:28-31 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ “The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Jesus brought an end to the Mosaic Law not by destroying it but by fulfilling it. In a very real sense Jesus did not destroy the the Mosaic Law rather He transformed it from something that could only condemn into something that can redeem.

But practically speaking what are the rules or commands that we must follow? - We want a rule book!

It begin with what John has been emphasizing this entire time, believe. That is the first act of obedience.

The Law of Christ is different. It is not a list of 600 rules but is rather the example of one Man. The Law of Christ is this, be like Jesus.

So is that our message to the world? Be like Jesus! Did God just swap out one impossible standard for another? I try to be like Jesus but I fail a lot.

How can I possibly keep the Law of Christ?

You, by yourself, cannot.

However, one thing that John 14 proves is that Jesus never expected us to keep His commands on our own.

He and the Father sent us a Comforter, Helper, Advocate and Counselor.

Jesus’ sacrifice not only paid for our sins but imputed Christ’s righteousness to us, making us like Him.

There is much in the Christian life that is a both , and situation

We have been made like Christ through salvation.

We are being made like Christ as we learn to separate ourselves from sin.

Yes, God cares how you live.

He cares about your sexual purity

He cares about how you treat others

But also remember that God has equipped you with everything you need to live for Him, chiefly the Holy Spirit.

Lastly, remember that Jesus is coming again. (v. 18, 19)

I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.

The world will not see me but you will.

Because I live you will live also.

And you will know, not only in an anecdotal way but empirically, that I and the Father are one and that you will abide with me and in me forever.