“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. And the word that you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.'”
Devotional Thought For The Day
These words of Jesus were spoken in response to a question from Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss: “Lord, how is it that you will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” How seriously do you take the words of Jesus, what He actually said and asserted? How truthful do you account Him to be when He makes connections? Do you understand Him to be speaking literal truth when He asserts that His words are the Father’s words, and that if anyone knows Jesus he also knows the Father? Do you look at the Holy Scripture, the words “breathed by God” [2 Tim. 3:16], as the very Word of God – what He speaks to YOU, what He wants you to know, so that you may be “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” and “complete, equipped for every good work” [2 Tim. 3:15-17]? Are you really interested in having Jesus “manifest” Himself to you? And do you really trust that He will do so through His Word, as He asserts? How do you look at Holy Scripture, the Bible? As a textbook, an ancient history book filled with stories and accounts, some so supernatural as to strain our credulity? As a book of myths and tales that somehow forms some sort of a basis for Christianity – but of course we are to craft “Christianity” for our own times, and for our own “personal faith”? Or is it the very Word of God, the instrument He has chosen and by which He has promised to reveal Himself to us?
I know what we assert when asked these questions – we know the right answers, at least most of us do. However, relatively few attend Bible classes, and I suspect few consider serious enough study of the Bible that one actual “learns” it – internalizes it and grasps the big picture so that the individual verses can be grasped and properly understood in consistent relationship to the whole [a true knowledge of God] – to be all that important or worth the effort. Yet we assert that the Bible is God’s Word, and properly so – it truthfully is what it asserts to be. If we really understood and believed this no one could keep us away from Bible Class, and we would be demanding more opportunities to study God’s Word each week, and the classes would be packed. Obviously, this is not the usual status of our Bible Classes – and the fault is not with the classes but with our own hearts, our priorities, our decisions based on what is convenient for us or preferred at the moment, and the influence of the devil who has been an ardent and persistent enemy of God’s Word for all of human history. Too many listen to him and not to Jesus when the times and opportunities for Bible study come around.
This is not principally an “intellectual” issue, but as Jesus identifies it, a matter of the heart, a matter of love. Those who genuinely love Jesus “keep” His Word; those who do not love Him do not “keep” His Word. Obviously His Word cannot be kept by those who don’t even grasp it, who don’t know it, who never even read or study it. So, not “keeping” His Word indicates a lack of love for Jesus. His Word itself is the cure for this – for His Word reveals the wondrous and marvelous nature of His love for us: the promises to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, Moses, David, and all people, promises fulfilled in Jesus, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world, promises of eternal life for all who believe the Son. Those who grasp this love are growing in love for Jesus – “we love because He first loved us.” [1 Jn. 4:19] His Word is given to us to reveal His love for us, and thus His Word continuously inspires greater love for Jesus within us, which compels and is expressed in greater love for His Word and greater desire to “keep” His Word – both in faith and in the conduct of our lives, our behavior.
Other promises are attached to this – both Jesus and the Father making their home with us, abiding with us in love for us. Elsewhere Jesus promises that those who keep His Word will “know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” [John 8;32] These are wondrous blessings – that come to us through knowing Jesus, which is knowing the Father. Is this important to us? Or is it that we really don’t trust these things to be so, that we will receive these great blessings through the Word of God? Regardless, even this darkness of our sinful hearts is forgiven and atoned for in the blood of Jesus Christ – so that we may have fellowship with Jesus and our heavenly Father. But why allow the devil, and the darkness of our sinful hearts, to cut us off from the lifeblood of love and new life – which is the Word of God given to us by Jesus Himself? What Jesus asserts is that there is nothing more descriptive and prescriptive of our relationship with God than our relationship with His Word – which is “the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.” [Rom. 1:16] Surely these Words of Jesus should move us to carefully consider our relationship with His Word.
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, we know that we are saved by Your grace alone, through faith, by Your merits, what You accomplished for us on the cross and not by our own works and efforts. However, You make clear that faith which grasps and rejoices in these blessings, and receives Your love which renews our hearts and minds and lives, comes through Your Word. Do not let the evil one confuse us about this – so that we settle for table scraps rather than feasting on and stuffing ourselves with Your Word. Grant that Your love for us first instill within us a greater love for You and for Your Word, that devoted to Your Word we constantly be growing in faith and love, peace and joy. Amen.