ONEFamily Outreach

Copyright Notice

For more information or comments, please write: jerry@onefamilyoutreach.com

Obedient Love: “Keep My Commandments"

John 14:15-21

Easter 6a

May 1, 2005

John 14:15-21

[Jn 14:15] “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

[16] “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; [17] that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

[18] “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. [19] “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. [20] “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. [21] “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

John 14:15

[Jn 14:15] “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

“If you love me, you will keep…”

This command could not be any clearer: To love Jesus and to call him “Lord” is to obey him. The reverse of this statement would then be: “If I don’t keep his commandments—how can I say that I love him?” Of course, none of us could follow him perfectly and for that reason, we have received the gift of grace. However, grace is not an excuse to sin, but a reason to keep trying!

This issue at heart is not living the “perfect life” but living the “perfectly focused” life. The disciples of Jesus were anything but perfect, but (with the exception of Judas) they were forgiven for their actions because their passion was to serve Jesus. Even though they expected to die; they followed Jesus into Jerusalem.

John 11:16

Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

This was certainly not a “faithful” statement on Thomas’ part; however it was a statement of the most committed friendship. Is my “follower-ship” that committed? We often site Peter for his failures, but Peter failed in the courtyard of the High Priest! How many of us would go that far in our following? These followers obeyed Jesus to the maximum point of their ability. They walked their faith into the courtyard of death. That is obedient love.

John 14:16

[16] “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.

Another Helper

Three notes about this passage.

1) Paracletos [NT3875], the name that Jesus gives to the Holy Spirit. The name is alternatively used for comforter, advocate and “someone who walks with you.” Biblical names were not just a way to address someone; they pointed towards a person’s character, so Jesus is telling us not just the name but also the character of the Holy Spirit.

2) The Holy Spirit comforts us in sorrow, loss and fear. He is the advocate for us as we seek justice for the alienated and mercy from God. He walks with us at all times—leading, guiding and supporting us on our journey through eternity. Parakletos can mean a lawyer who pleads your case or a witness who testifies in your behalf. It can refer to a person who gives comfort, counsel, or strength in time of need. The literal meaning is “someone called in;” but it is the reason why the person is called in which makes the term distinct. The Holy Spirit is called in to represent us before the final court; to plea on our behalf and to help us live a life that praises God.

Always a parakletos is someone called in to help when a person is bewildered or in trouble. Parakletos has been translated Advocate, Counselor, Comforter, and Intercessor, but each of those expresses only one facet of parakletos. Another word that has been used for the Holy Spirit is Parakaleo [NT3870], which literally translates into “to call near and comfort.” Kaleo [NT2564] means to “bring forth” or “bring near.” Para [NT3844] means to “call out” or to “cry out for a friend.”

The Holy Spirit hears us when we cry out and calls in the cavalry in our most dire times. When you are weary and alone cry out and call him in.

3) Our forever begins when we do what Jesus commands. The forever we are forging begins in this life. Forever is not a place as much as it is a relationship. A relationship with God and His people that we should to forge now! Apparently, the question is not, “where will I spend eternity.” Instead, it is, “with whom will I spend eternity.”

In scripture, God tell us to know and obey Him first; then, we are to comfort His people and be in the fellowship. Others will be attracted to us because of the way we “love one another [Acts 2].” That love must preferentially be extended to the impoverished, sick and alienated [Matt 28]. We must pray and reach out to those who don’t know the joy of the Spirit and are instead, heading for the judgment of the flesh. We lift them up with passion and dedication asking God to send peace to those souls; but even more, to send us to those souls. It is the Holy Spirit that fills us with fire and moves us to act on God’s behalf.

In Romans 8, Paul tells us that this is precisely what the Holy Spirit does for us.

Romans 8:1-11

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

The Spirit makes his home in us; the Spirit gives us a new mind (attitude); that focuses on Christ instead of the law and the flesh. The Spirit gives us freedom—but not freedom to sin. Instead, the Spirit gives us freedom to abandon our fears in order to love. Look at the story of the Good Samaritan. The Pharisee and the Priest were bound by their laws and were afraid to touch a man who was almost dead. The Samaritan had no such fear; he rushed in where the religious wouldn’t go.

Jesus emphasized a single commandment: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (13:34-35).

The commandment to love is open-ended, in contrast to the law, which is very specific. It is easy to judge whether one is going 55 or 56 in a 55-mile-an-hour zone, but how can one claim to have fulfilled the demands of love? Jesus’ commandments are not simply moral speed limits; they involve a way of living; a way of life in union with him.

The Spirit also helps to present our prayers and requests to God in the right way; with the right attitude:

Romans 8:26-27

26 And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

In the story of Esther, even though she was a queen, she was not allowed to approach the king without the agreement of his team of advisors. The Holy Spirit is the one that takes our requests past the mediators, past the advisors, and straight to God. The Spirit takes our innermost needs and incomplete words and translates them into a language that is proper and right. I may ask for a new truck but the Holy Spirit brings it to God and says: “Jerry wants a truck but what he really needs is to simplify his desires—God, please help him learn to live more simply.”

Some of us may think: “That’s not the spiritual help I need; I need the new truck.” However, it is God who will always call us to greater dependency upon Him, greater humility in this world, and greater compassion for His people. We don’t pray for those things naturally; but the Holy Spirit helps our inner nature change so that we begin to desire the things of God and not the toys of this world.

John 14:17

[17] That is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

The Spirit of truth

The Holy Spirit is also truth or, better said, verifiable truth [NT225 alethiea]. Truth is also another word for testimony; in other words, the Holy Spirit provides testimony to the claims of Jesus. Not one promise of our Lord Jesus was broken; his miracles and signs attested to his claims. Through the Holy Spirit, the testimony of Christ will be verified in our lives as well: His love is evident in our compassion and fellowship, his power is evident in our healing, protection and surpassing peace.

The Church that is filled with Holy Spirit is God’s greatest tool. Love flows within its walls and pours abundantly out into the community; that love and compassion is proof of the Spirit’s presence. People should be able to see the proof of the Holy Spirit flowing out of our doors like we can see the power of the wind (the Holy Spirit) blowing through a ripened field.

Further proof of the Spirit’s presence should be communities filled with people who were once afflicted by such diseases as addictions, depression, suicide, divorce, alcoholism. It should be a community where people who have been used all their lives find freedom from conditional love, “judgmentalism” and prejudice. It should be a community where love gives the benefit of the doubt to all and the bottom line of every relationship is: “I am THE sinner and God is THE Savior.”

God offers to make the church wholly unique: A community where the verifiable truth of His Holy Spirit encircles and enriches the lives of the people who seek and obey His commands. It should be a huddle from which participants break out in love to bring compassion to the farthest reaches of their community. That is the church of Acts that is the church of the Holy Spirit.

John 14:18-20

“I will not leave you as orphans…”

Here are three of the most beautiful promises in the universe.

1. We are never unaided and will never have to face any trial alone—even death—if we walk with Jesus. The tender term Jesus uses with his fragile followers is orphans [NT:3737 orphanos (or-fan-os')] the term also means comfortless or fatherless. He will not leave us as lost children, at risk in a dangerous world.

2. Christ claims us as his family; protected eternally from the Evil One’s grasp. Christ informs his fragile church that he expects to be taken from them and that it is necessary that he goes. Yet, even as he prepares them for his absence—he offers them this wonderful promise: Because of my death and resurrection, you too will be resurrected. “Because I live, you will live also.”

3. We are promised that we will not be onlookers to a love we can never possess. We will never know the hunger of the orphan staring through the windows at families gathered for their holiday celebration. Smelling the good food, hearing the laughter, but ever unable to know the welcome. “Come in,” Christ calls. “Come to the banquet, my family is gathered and your place is reserved.” In Christ, we are in the Father and in the Father, we are home.

A further note needs to be made about Christ’s promises; for each promise comes with a responsibility. In Christ’s time, children without a family were an encumbrance and often sold into slavery. Terrible things would befall them and their lives were nothing but misery and often led to early deaths. Can we say that has changed in our world? Not just in the abominable practices of sexual slavery in places like Thailand; but I know that there are twelve-year-old girls in the counties where I minister that trade sex in order to meet their addictions¹. If this was a predominant concern to Christ; why is it not a predominant concern to the church today? Why are we worried more about theology, ritual and building usage than the abandoned children on our own streets?

He will not leave us orphaned; but in like manner, we cannot leave others orphaned. In fact, the Lord declares that the strength of His arm will be revealed by His compassion for the least of these:

Deut 10:16-22

Circumcise then your heart, and stiffen your neck no more. For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name. He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen.

Do we call ourselves Christians and yet, not offer the same compassion to others that He offered to us in our darkest despair? Our Lord would not allow us to wait for the orphans to come to us, he says: “I will come to you.”

Is that what others say about us? “They are obviously Christians—look at the way they run out to find and care for the orphaned.”

John 14:21

[21] “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

“He who has My commandments and keeps them…”

It is keeping the commandments; not professing them that will lead us to the fullness of Christ. I can profess to have a frozen turkey in the fridge but that doesn’t sustain me. I can cook the frozen turkey and eat it by myself but that only brings a selfish satisfaction of my needs. However, the moment I serve it to family, friends, those who are hungry or alone; that frozen carcass brings sustenance, joy and community.

Is my relationship with Christ frozen in a profession of faith or has it moved to obedience? This is less a question to ask ourselves then to ask of those around me—and that doesn’t mean asking other church members!

Does your intimate circle include those orphaned and abandoned by this world? Do the poor call us good news?

As we obey Christ and share his great news to “all nations,” he, in turn, discloses himself to us. His love manifests itself in tangible and real lives. Lives change around us and we are like the yeast in the bread (unseen but instigating great change).

Living in rural Washington we have a saying about “Cowboy wanna-be’s.” We say they are “all hat and no cows.” Does that symbolize my faith? Am I an obedient Christian or am I all hat and no cows? You have to put Christ’s commands to work in your life to experience his fullness. To Christ, obedience faith is love enacted; do I have obedient faith?

Copyright Notice

“Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1988. Used by permission.”

¹ Women, children being sold as sex slaves, Dekker, M., Daily Sun News, 04/01/2005, http://www.sunnyside.net/ArcStoryPage.asp?Database=Story&StoryID=3972

Click here to sign-up for the weekly Bible Study