Proof of love for God

If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. John 14:15-21

The apostle John was known as the “disciple whom Jesus loved” (see John 20:2). The word “love” appeared more often in the Gospel of John compared to the rest of the Scripture. “Love” is “agape” in Greek which literally means “self-sacrificing love.” What is interesting about the word is that it was always related to being obedient to God’s command. This was the point the Lord Jesus Christ was telling His disciples before His arrest. John also mentioned the relationship between loving God and obeying His commands in the epistle. “Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). As the Lord Jesus Christ was about to face sufferings and death on the cross, He promised His disciples that He will not leave them orphan but that the Holy Spirit will be with them. He will indwell those who made a decision to place their trust in Christ for salvation. We do not show the presence of the Spirit living in us by manifesting strange behaviors but on how committed we are in keeping His commands. The Holy Spirit is the one that will keep us in step with God as long as we yield to Him. “Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us” (1 John 3:24). It is only by consecrating ourselves to God through the Holy Spirit we can abide in God and His word. The more we live the life God gave us obeying His teachings, the more God reveals Himself to us. We are not left by ourselves but we have the Spirit of God coming alongside of us.

Blessings,

Noel De Guzman

www.my-wbc.com