Trust & Obey, Week 1: John 3 & John 14, Part 5
Jesus has been attempting to prepare his disciples for a major change, that he will be leaving them. But he says he will send the Spirit to be with them. Clearly, the disciples are unsettled and confused. So Jesus needs to explain further. Here’s what we read in John 14, verses 18-20, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
So now we have the complete Trinitarian picture. Jesus and the Father are one. Jesus sends the Spirit who will live in us, and thus Jesus, who is in the Father, will also be in us. As we are in him.
Notice the union. Here in John 14, Jesus describes what has been called the doctrine of union with Christ. We are in Christ, together with Christ. This is so much more than belief in our minds, more than just intellectual assent about an idea. It is a union with Jesus.
Look at how he describes it further in verse 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.”
We show our union with him, our love for him, when we not only have his commands, but we keep them. Jesus doesn’t want us to be able to win a trivia contest about his commands. He wants us to actually do his commands. Why? Because they are for our best, and for the best of the community around us.
Be sacrificially generous to those in need? Yes. Good for us, so we trust in him rather than trust in ourselves or our money. And good for those in need.
Help those who are hungry, need clothing, housing, healing, and those who are incarcerated, strangers, foreigners? Yes. Good for us, so we focus outwardly rather than get stuck on ourselves, while we live in a culture that constantly tells us we should live in such a way as to please ourselves. And when we are sacrificially helping those in need, it obviously good for them.
Those are just a few examples. When we live the sacrificially generous life, we help people meet Jesus.
In verse 22, Judas (not Judas Iscariot) asks him a question, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
Judas seems a bit confused about what Jesus meant, so Jesus essentially repeats himself. “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone 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.”
God wants to make his home with us! He is so relational. Think about that. God wants you to be his home. Wild, right? You, body, soul, spirit, however you think about who you are, God sees you as his house. God wants to live with you. That’s deep union.
Now, notice the situation that is in place for God to make his home with us. Notice the word “belief” is long gone in this passage. Instead, Jesus has now been reiterating multiple times precisely what he means: loving him means obeying his teaching.
Christians are people who do what Jesus taught, and what Jesus did. First and foremost, that means we show we love him by obeying his commands. And what did he command?
Jump back to chapter 13, verses 33 and 34. Earlier that same night, Jesus gave his disciples a clear teaching, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Love of others can be inconvenient, sometimes messy, is often sacrificial, costing time, money, emotion.
I was talking with a man in my church this week, and he told me how a number of people in our church cared for him before and after a major surgery he had while I was on sabbatical recently. Through tears of joy for the meals, the car rides, the check-ins, and more, he said, “You should be proud of the church.”
That is love in action. That is obeying Jesus’ commands. What a joy for me to hear this testimony of care and loving like Jesus.
Photo by Dominik Lange on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 