Love & Revelation

One of the signs that we love Jesus is the fact that we obey His commands. If we love Him, we will also place a high value upon His commands and make adhering to them a priority. The results of this will be for us a growing revelation of Jesus and His purposes.

Placing a high value upon the commands of Jesus doesn’t mean we wear them in a little box between our eyes or have them hanging from our wrists. While that can be very symbolic of what guides us and what we set our hands to, that doesn’t mean that we think they are of value to us.

Having them printed on our shirts, posters, pictures, doors, cars, business cards, signs, etc still doesn’t mean that we value them. Having them underlined in our bibles, memorized, on cards in our pockets, on our key chains, etc still doesn’t mean that we value them.

Their value to us is only shown by how much we let them effect our lives. If they truly are valuable to us we will let them have great effect upon our lives. We will let them determine what is right or wrong, acceptable or not acceptable. We will let them set the course of our thoughts and our lives. We will ‘eat his words’, internalizing them and letting them be life in us, a part of us.

As these commands become part of us, part of our lives, doing them is not a burden, for they are in our hearts and we want to do them. And look at the results of our loving Jesus and obeying His commands. We will receive a broader understanding and experiencing of the love of God.

Along with this Jesus will also begin to reveal more and more of Himself to us. We will experience His love and release it to others as Jesus becomes more and more real to us. The Amplified Bible says in John 14:21

The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.]

Love & Obedience

If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (Jn 14:15-17)

Fear and obedience are tied together. If we fear, we will be motivated by that fear to be obedient. Jn 14:15 shows us that love and obedience are also tied together and this produces a more mature form of obedience, because love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment (1 Jn 4:18). If we love, we will be motivated by that love towards obedience. I have previously written about this in Levels Of Obedience on 8/15/2013.

If we were to take verses 15-16 by themselves and look for understanding in them out of the context of scripture in which they are found, we would end up in trouble at this point. Out of context , they seem to be saying that if we are obedient to what Jesus has commanded we will then receive the Holy Spirit at a later point. However, when we look at them with vs. 17— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you, we can see that the disciples had knowledge of the Holy Spirit and were looking towards an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I believe Jesus was saying to these that obedience to His teachings would bring about an indwelling of the Holy Spirit and a deeper and fuller relationship between Him and these disciples. Verse 16 in the Amplified Bible is worded: And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever--(Note: Another Comforter of the same kind that Jesus is).

This is not the case for those who know Christ today, because if we know Christ, we are already indwelled by the Holy Spirit (Ro 8:9) Therefore we know these scriptures are not saying to us that if we are obedient to Jesus we will receive the Holy Spirit. I do believe, however, that we can safely say that obedience to Christ will bring about for us a more intimate and deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:14 the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. I like the way the Message records this verse: the amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you (emphasis mine).

Love Covers

” … love covers over a multitude of sin”  (1 Pe 4:8, NIV)

 

I was listening to one of my friends the other day and he mentioned that he had hurt his finger some how and there was some skin missing off of it.  He went a few days complaining about it, nursing it, and flinching when he would accidentally hit it against something.  Then he finally put some liquid band-aid on it.  At first he said it really hurt, really burned when he applied the liquid.  He then demonstrated how he could now hit it against something with no pain.  There was a protective coating where the skin was missing, keeping out dirt and bacteria, and cushioning the wound.

 

I was reminded of the above verse.  In reference to it Strong’s Concordance says ‘to hide, veil, to hinder the knowledge of a thing.’  In the Amplified Bible this verse reads: Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others.)  In my bible, beside this verse, in relation to the word ‘covers‘, I have written “to wrap around as bark; skin, plaster, shell, protective coating.”  Love would keep us from rehearsing sin to the guilty party, to others, and to ourselves.  We would neither tell others about it, nor hold it against the guilty party, but would help them to overcome it.  We would protect them and their reputation, while giving them help and hope for the future.

 

I didn’t say this was a natural thing to do because it isn’t.  Only the supernatural love that God puts in us can enable us to walk this out correctly.  The effect of this is the difference between life and death, blessing and cursing.

 

One of Noah’s sons dishonored him,  ridiculed him,  and told others of his nakedness.  The two other sons humbly went in to their father and in honoring him refused to even look upon his nakedness, and put a cover over him so that no one else would be able to look upon his nakedness.  The one son and his offspring were cursed.  The other two sons and their offspring were blessed.

 

The principles taught us in the Word of God, when applied to our lives result in life and blessings for us and others.  Ignoring the same principles brings cursing, lack and death.