Let's Not Love with Word or Speech, but with Action & Truth
November 6, 2023
John 14:15-31 | 1 John 3:16-24
It’s tough not to read passages like today’s without our modern understandings of love. Try this: let love be defined by the passage as you read it.
The biblical writings attributed to John likely say more about love than any other portions of scripture. The first letter of John is saturated with the fleshing out of love. There are clear demarcation lines both there and in our gospel passage for today. Don’t miss them.
Here in, love isn’t whatever feels good. It is not (only) that which makes me happy. It is not simply that which makes me feel valued. It is relationship. It can almost feel like an exchange or agreement here, but it leans more so toward the natural relationship or happening when these things happen. (“If you love me, you’re keeping my commandments.” /// “If you are keeping my commandments, you are loving me.”)
Don’t miss the promise of the Holy Spirit. And note the deep connection between loving Jesus, keeping commandments, and receiving the company of Jesus’ sent spirit.
John 14:15-31
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion, who will be with you forever. This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be with you.
“I won’t leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
Judas (not Judas Iscariot) asked, “Lord, why are you about to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”
Jesus answered, “Whoever loves me will keep my word. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word that you hear isn’t mine. It is the word of the Father who sent me.
“I have spoken these things to you while I am with you. The Companion, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I told you.
“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid. You have heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away and returning to you.’ If you loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than me. I have told you before it happens so that when it happens you will believe. I won’t say much more to you because this world’s ruler is coming. He has nothing on me. Rather, he comes so that the world will know that I love the Father and do just as the Father has commanded me. Get up. We’re leaving this place.
1 John 3:16-24
This is how we know love: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. But if someone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but refuses to help—how can the love of God dwell in a person like that?
Little children, let’s not love with words or speech but with action and truth. This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts in God’s presence. Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence in relationship to God. We receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love each other as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments dwell in God and God dwells in them. This is how we know that he dwells in us, because of the Spirit he has given us.
Prayer
God,
Help me to love:
You
Others
Myself
Help me to understand the relationship between love and action. Dwell deep within me as I learn that love comes from you in the first place. Keep me from petty words and empty cliches. Most of all, move your love through me such that it comes out in how I choose and what I do.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.