A true Christian will know who Jesus is and will work to obey his commandments.
Jesus had gathered all his disciples together for the last supper. If there was ever a time to give them cliff notes, this was it. Read John Chapter 13 and 14 and you'll see that the disciples just didn't understand all that was going on. They acted like small children wanting to be near him, sensing there was a problem, not knowing what to do etc... And then Jesus did a great and noble thing. He washed their feet. He talked quietly and slowly. He was not angry or ill at ease. These were the men he had chosen to carry on his work and now it was time to simply be friends. He knew that Judas had already betrayed him and yet...he was kind with him as well.
Chapter 14 starts out with a wonderful command.
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
Now that we know the whole story it's easy to read that passage and know that Jesus is talking about Heaven. But listen to his last statement. Verse 4 "You know the way to the place where I am going."
Here's comes the children.....Even though they had listened and followed for three years....In the next verse Thomas says..."Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
Jesus probably wanted to give a big sigh at this point and say, "What? What do you mean you don't know the way? Haven't you been listening!"
Instead in verse 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
Please pull out your Bible and read these two chapters, they are wonderful sweet urgings of Jesus. For today and our point today however, let's concentrate on the following verses. Consider this a cliff note straight from Jesus.
In John 14:15 Jesus said:
"If you love me, you will obey what I command.
How can you do that if you haven't studied enough to know what his command is? And notice he didn't say, "Do what the priests have told you." NO, he said do what I command. In other words, get it for yourself!
In John 14: 21-24 Jesus went on to say:
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
He 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.
Okay Friends....now you have it from the horses mouth. We can all close up shop and go home. That's your salvation in a nut shell.
If you say that you love God (Jesus) you will obey his command. If you don't obey then you don't love and you can't call yourself a Christian.
Period. End of statement. Everybody out of the pool!
Do you conveniently avoid certain scriptures? - You are not a Christian.
Do you twist the scriptures you don't like? - You are not a Christian.
Do you avoid church and learning about Jesus? Maybe it's just too boring. Sorry, You are not a Christian.
Do you work and study and cross reference - hoping, pushing and looking for a way to make the scriptures support the wrong you want to do? - You are not a Christian.
We must take the Bible as a whole, understand the writers, the life of Christ, the overall meaning, the cross references, the implied and the unimplied.
We must be doubly and 500% sure that we know who Jesus was and is - what his commandments are and that we are doing everything possible to obey those commandments.
A true Christian will love the study of the Bible because he "wants" and craves knowing who Jesus is and what His commandments are. A true Christian will not care if he's missing out on some fun or something he wants to do. All he will care about is that he loves Jesus and that he is obeying his commands.
Can you say that you know and obey the commandments of Jesus?
God loves you,
Debbie
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