If Anyone Loves Me

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

IF ANYONE LOVES ME

John 14:22-27

22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"

23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. 25 "All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

NIV

After Jesus told them he would show himself to them, but the world would not be able to see him, the other Judas asks why? It seems Jesus does not answer his question directly but goes on to tell them and us that if we love him, we will obey his teaching. Now, this begs the question, just what did Jesus teach them and thus us? To answer this question it would seem it could take a book. In fact, it already did. But if we were to try to summarize the teaching of Jesus it would start with some of the “I AM’s”.  “I am the bread of life”, “I am the way the truth and the life”, “I am the resurrection”, “I am the light of the world”, “I am the Good Shepherd”, “I am the door for the sheep”, “I am the true vine”. Although these are considered the seven “I Am” statements or what his teachings to his disciples about himself and the Father, there is one more, which would be the eighth “I AM”. This is also in this Gospel account John wrote. Jesus told them, that before Abraham, “I AM”. He didn’t just say what he was as, He is the light, or truth or door. He said he is the “I AM”. He is God. If we love him we will obey his teachings. Well, he taught who he is. We obey the fact that Jesus is God. Now there are a few other things he mentioned about us, the fact that if we are without sin, we have the right to condemn someone. He taught that in order to get into the kingdom of God, we have to be born again. But the greatest of his teachings for us to obey is to love God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We suppose we could get into making a big long list of things we are supposed to do, all the good works we think we have to do, and a list of all the things we think we are not supposed to do. We also could find other teachings in the other accounts such as all his said in what we call the Sermon on the Mount, like the beatitudes. Those are in fact ways in which we can be blessed if we have those kinds of attitudes. They may not be considered a teaching to obey, but more of one that would benefit our state of mind, and spirit. The point seems to be that Jesus did not make up a list of things we need to obey. He was teaching about the condition of our hearts. If we love him, then we will live accordingly. Our hearts will be bent toward Him rather than toward the world. Our focus will be on the matter of our hearts. Of course, our heart is just a muscle and it does not think, so when we say heart, it means our mind, the central core of our being. We know that as we think, so are we. That is how we think, or what we think about causes how we act or behave. That is why Jesus taught the attitudes of the heart, or our thoughts that he did. How do we think? What do we think about? Here is where the rubber meets the road. Are our thoughts centered on loving Jesus, or on our actions in the world? We can even make being spiritual a worldly matter, or we should say, being worldly a spiritual matter. We can turn our desires of worldly affairs to have spiritual overtones, so we can justify our thoughts of worldly matters. If we love Jesus, we will obey his teachings regarding the condition of our hearts. What is the condition of our hearts? What is the condition of our thoughts? How do we think? Have we brought our thoughts in submission to Jesus? We would if we love him. Does that mean we would never have a stray thought? No, there are plenty of things in the world that strive to grab our attention and cause thoughts that are not subject to Jesus. But what do we do with them? Do we allow them to dwell within, or reject them? If we love him then we know what to do. Does this mean we cannot enjoy some of then things in this world? No, God has blessed us with many physical things, he has provided for our needs. We can even have fun, enjoy play or relaxation, happiness, and joy. The point is our life is always seeing God, not the world, in all things, because we love him.