If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. - John 15:10
What is the greatest commandment? It’s a question that was asked of Jesus during his time on earth, and it’s a question that has resonated throughout the generations. We have to know the command if we are to ever allow our hearts to truly obey it.
So what is the response? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself? Everything else falls in line with these commands. Our response however, as a people, is not to follow this command but to question this command. Even in the day of Jesus this command was questioned, “the who is my neighbor.” (see Luke 10:25-37).
If others, even in that time, questioned the commands of God, how much more do we question the same command in our hearts, and with our own actions? Our response is such that we want to find a way to compromise, to get around loving some, in order to love only as we choose, or who we choose. We like these people, so they are easy to love, but those people, we don’t like their actions, their attitudes, their religion, their color, we don’t like them, therefore we question whether we have to love them. But God can and does respond even to our questions about his command.
In John 15, Jesus gets very specific with his disciples, “if you keep my commands, you will remain in my love…” It’s that simple we are called to keep Jesus commands no questioned asked. If we desire to remain in the love of God, through there is forgiveness when we do fall short, we must keep God’s commands, and how should we keep them? Just as Jesus did. Jesus who love all, but who took time to be specific about God’s love for individuals, for groups, for nations that were outside of his own context. Jesus love was for all, in general, and in the specifics. Therefore, if we are a people after God’s heart, who desire to be more like Jesus, we are called simply to love. No questions, no excuses, our response is to love.
Let us pray, that we will allow God’s love win in all things.
Grace & Peace,
Sam