Bible passage: John 14:16-31 (Amp)
21 The person who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who[really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him [I will make Myself real to him].” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) asked Him, “Lord, what has happened that You are going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered, “If anyone [really] loves Me, he will keep My word (teaching); and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling place with him.
This morning, as I was thinking of which bible passage to read, it became heavy on my heart to learn more about the Holy spirit. So I hopped on bible gateway and searched passages on the Holy Spirit (a common way I choose to spend my quiet time). The first passage that came up was John 14:16-31 which I had read several times before but this time, it spoke to me in a completely different way. The first few passages describe the roles of the Holy Spirit as our helper, comforter, representative of Christ …e.t.c which I’m pretty sure a lot of us have come across before. I couldn’t help but notice verses 21 and 23.
It was as though Jesus was stressing to His disciples what it took to really love Him. I doubt that if I asked any Christian if they loved Jesus they would say no but for a very long time I never really felt the need to challenge myself with that question. I just assumed that the fact that I am a Christian and that I couldn’t imagine my life without him was enough proof that I loved Jesus. Jesus clearly stated that the real evidence of your love for Him wasn’t by how highly you spoke of Him or mere feelings but whether you kept His commands or not. In other words whether or not you not only desired to obey His word but actually obeyed them. Now I’m not saying that the moment you ever disobey him you don’t love Him because as humans it’s impossible to never sin. Nevertheless, obeying Him should be our focus and as we begin to make more of an effort to obey Him, disobeying Him will become increasingly harder. As we consistently keep His commands, He will begin to reveal Himself to us and thereby strengthening our relationship with Him. So I’d like to challenge you and myself to ask ourselves daily if we have kept His commands and if not repent and ask God for the grace to do better the next day.
Thank you for this piece Tobi. The message is simple enough and as you rightly stated we need to do a daily check to see if we’ve really acted out the loving Him part by asking how obedient we have been to His Word and asking daily for more wisdom and grace to do better. The Holy Spirit does all you listed and so much more. May God help us to depend upon Him for everything. Amen.