Read John 14:15-21. Circle the words that stand out to you. What is the Lord saying to you?
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 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. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Reflections of the Word.
I love weddings. It is especially touching for me to hear the groom and bride pledge their fidelity and love for each other. When I see them standing at the altar, it reminds me when I held my wife’s hand and made that pledge of fidelity and love to her. For those of us who are married, when we made those promises and vows we intended to keep them.
But over time something interferes with our wedding vows. We become busy with life. There’s work, chores, shopping, church events, and family gatherings. If that wasn’t enough, having children makes life even more impossible. There’s no more time left for love. It’s hard enough just to keep things from falling apart.
Jesus says this about having love for Him, “21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” Often, Christians mistakenly think that having his commands and keeping them is just knowing or memorizing the commands of Christ. While knowing the commands of Christ is necessary to have and keep His commands, Jesus does not want us to stop there. To have and to keep the commands of Christ is to fulfill His commands. We need to live them out.
But wait, there isn’t enough time in a day to fulfill Jesus’ commands. I don’t even have time to talk to my spouse for 5 minutes! How can I have time for Jesus every day? Jesus is not asking for a 5–15-minute daily devotion. Jesus is telling us to fulfill His commands every moment of every day.
Is it possible that we mistake of equating of doing the busyness of life with loving Jesus and keeping His commands? Being busy with life does not necessarily equate to loving Jesus and keeping His commands. In view of the demands of our lives, we are to keep in the forefront of our hearts and minds the commands of Jesus. It’s taking that moment to be kind to the grocery clerk, being more patient in letting another car merge ahead of ourselves, sharing and expressing gratitude and thankfulness to our spouse for cooking our meal, cleaning our home, or playing with the kids.
If our focus is on crossing off the items on our list, then perhaps we are just living in the busyness of life. If our focus is on fulfilling Christ’s commands towards people, then we are demonstrating our love for Him. So, let’s ask ourselves, “How am I fulfilling the command of Jesus through my actions today and every day thereafter?” If we truly say that we love Jesus, we will fulfill what he says.
-Kingston