Live to Love Scripture Encouragement: Recent Episodes
Norm Wakefield
John 18:2 “Now Judas also, who was betraying Him, knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with His disciples.” Yesterday we saw from John 18:1 that Jesus knew where to meet up with the devil in Judas. Today’s verse reveals that Satan in Judas also knew where to find Jesus at that hour of the evening because Judas knew where they usually rested. Some commentators suggest that Jesus and His disciples perhaps slept there when visiting Jerusalem. For whatever reason, the Holy Spirit wants us to know that Judas knew where to find Jesus in order to betray him. What encouragement to live to love with Jesus can we glean from this verse?Jesus had told the disciples that He was going to be betrayed, that those who hated Him would hate them, and that in this world there will be tribulation. As we live with Jesus, we can expect that there will be some people in whom Satan has entered their hearts, or at least have captured them for his use, who will resist and attack us. We must not be afraid of them. In that hour of darkness, when God so wills that we be accosted by those who wish to silence us, let us remember what John learned from Jesus. “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” As long as we purpose to love in that dark time, we won’t be overcome by the darkness. We have Jesus abiding in us, so we can take great encouragement from Jude 24. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” Living to love with Jesus will prepare us for the encounters with our Judases just as Jesus, living to love with His Father, was prepared to meet His Judas.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Jesus and Satan knew exactly where and when they were to meet—in another garden. We learn from Luke 22:39 that Jesus often prayed in this garden on the Mount of Olives. “And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives.” From the upper room to the Mount of Olives where the Garden of Gethsemane was located, one walks through the ravine of the Kidron valley. As we think about this verse today, let’s let this wonderful truth sink in: We are reading about what living to love is all about. God’s love is the light of the world and when empowered by faith, it overcomes the darkness and destroys the work of the devil. May we be an expression of Jesus’ love today in the darkness.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
God’s love for His Son resides in us because He resides in us. This is only possible because of what Jesus told His disciples and then displayed on the cross. He made known God’s name, the name of love, to that small band of followers. So they knew His name by words first, and they believed them. Then, when Jesus said, “I have made your name known to them, and will make it known” He surely was referring to what He was about to do. After these words, Jesus displayed the greatest act of love known to man in the history of the world so they could know God’s love by experience, be filled with both His love and Himself, and make Jesus known to the world. In essence, Jesus was saying, ”I am going now to die for their sins, so they can be forgiven and cleansed. Then when You raise me up, I know You, You are righteous, Father, and You will do the right thing. You will reward my obedience by giving all those whom You have given to me, the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that Your love, with which You have loved Me may be in them and so I may dwell in them. Together, just as I have lived to love with You, they may live to love with Me.” Implied is this wonderful conclusion: In modern vernacular it’s like Jesus was saying to His Father, “Let’s do this!” Let’s die and live to love for the glory of God.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me;”In Hebrews 1:8-9 we read, “But of the Son, He (God) says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above your companions.” Why does the Son love righteousness? Because He knows the Father and knows that He loves righteousness. How did the disciples know God sent Jesus? Because He was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, which is what righteousness looks like in relationships.Let’s tie this verse to the previous verses so we can get the line of reason in Jesus’ mind. He has prayed that the world would know that God sent Him by the unifying power of the love of God dwelling in them as Jesus abides in them. In this verse, He again brings the unknowing, the ignorant world into the Father’s view. In Jesus’ mind is the heart of the Father to display to the world they have created His great love and glory. It all hinges on this small group of men and women whom the Father gave to Him. They know that God sent Jesus into the world. How did they know this? And more personally, do you know that God sent Jesus into the world? Tomorrow, in the last verse of John 17 we will see how they knew and believed in Jesus. If you can’t wait, go on and look at John 17:26. However, if you like suspense. Wait for it! We will rejoice tomorrow in the amazing words of Jesus as He closes His prayer with His Father.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”Can you imagine the Father, God, not giving His Son what He asks for? If an earthly evil father would give his son what he asks for, how much more would the heavenly Father give Jesus what He asks for. Jesus asks the Father for what would be our highest good which would also be the Son’s highest good, which would also be the Father’s highest good. He asks with confidence for the Father’s will to be done because Jesus always asks according to God’s will. Jesus desires for us, who have been given to Him, who believe and receive Jesus’ words as from God, to be with Him in heaven forever. That’s wonderful in and of itself. What a privilege! What an adventure! What a hope we have in Jesus!There’s more! He desires us to be with Him with the Father, so we can see His glory given to Him by the Father. His glory is revealed in the love that existed between them before the world was created. Get ready for it! We are going to see this glory, the love of God, with our own eyes! We will feel it to the depths of our being. It will transform us, fill us, and explode among us.The apostle Paul knew this to be true. He wrote to the Colossians. “Christ in you, the hope of glory!” (Col. 1:27) and “For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete” (2:9-10). All of the history of the world is moving to this one great finale. “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it” (Rom. 8:24-25). So what are we waiting for? We are eagerly waiting for the Father to give Jesus what He desires. His bride with Him before the Father in heaven enjoying the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:23.2 “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”Okay, can it get any more incredible and wonderful that this: That I am loved with the same love with which the Father loves His Son, Jesus? Let’s not miss this great truth. He doesn’t love us based on how we make Him feel. His love isn’t a responsive or reactionary love. God chooses to love. His love is the sustained direction of His will toward the highest good of another no matter what the cost. His is a steadfast love. Unwavering. Unending. Unlimited. Undefiled. He always acted in His Son’s best interest and highest good for His glory. That is the love that the world needs to see expressed in the church—Jesus’ body. The world needs to see that the Father was abiding in the Son and the Son was abiding in the Father. How will they see that unity? They will see it as believers abide in Jesus and He abides in them and His love. That love is the love of the Father for Him and them. It will be seen as that love overcomes every possible threat that living in this world throws at them or between them. Our testimony in this dark world is this: Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, therefore, nothing can separate us from each other. We are living to love with Jesus. He lives! We love!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:23 “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”The world needs to see that God loves us with the same love that He has for His Son. How is that love known? It is known by the life of Jesus dwelling in us and loving through us in the same way that the life of the Father dwelt in and loved through Jesus. Do you realize how glorious this is?! The indwelling life of Jesus, who is the revelation of the love of God, has united all believers perfectly. It’s another way of saying that the love of Jesus is enough to satisfy our souls. Nothing can be added to make us more unified. Our love for each other is our glory. It is the glory of God for the glory of God.This is precisely why we must not allow anything to divide us. If we allow anything to divide us, we take God’s name in vain. We bring shame upon His name. We provide a stumbling block to the world. For whatever that thing is—an opinion, a perspective, a value, a belief, a preference—whatever it is, it makes a mockery of the love of God revealed in Jesus and screams that the love of Jesus is a sham. A professing believer in Jesus Christ, cancelling, rejecting, and refusing to love another professing believer declares to the world that the idea that God sent His Son, who is love, to live in the hearts of men so they can reveal His love is not only a lie, but a gross, malicious deception. It preaches that Jesus was a liar and an imposter.Have you allowed anything to separate you from another believer in Jesus Christ? Have you rejected the perfect bond of unity—the love of God for us all in and through His Son? Have you forgiven others like you have been forgiven by God on the basis of Jesus’ death for you? For God’s glory and Jesus’ name sake, drop whatever it is that you are holding on to, other than Jesus’ name and glory, and give the world a taste and testimony of the love and glory of God. Forgive and love your brother! Open wide your heart to him. Give him a place in your heart like Jesus gives you a place in His heart—a place of peace provided by His love. God wants them to know that He sent Jesus into the world and that He lives.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;”What is the glory that the Father gave the Son that He gave to us so we can be one as they are one? We find the answer two verses later when Jesus said, “so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. The love the Father gave to His Son is the love that the Son gave to us so that we may be one as they are one. In John 15:9 Jesus blessed His disciples saying, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you, abide in my love.” Since we know that Jesus didn’t do anything apart from His Father, we know that it was the Father’s plan and command for Jesus to love us as He is loved by His Father.Living to love with Jesus flows out of the love Jesus has for us, and that love flows out of the Father’s love for His Son and us. This love is the light in a world that has no enduring bond of unity. You can tell those who are His because they love the brethren, wrote John in his first letter in 3:14, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” And in 2:9-10. “The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.”As Jesus loves us and we love others, the glory of God rests upon us. So when we love in Jesus’ name, we are manifesting the glory of God to the world. That is our chief end. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:21.2 ”That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”We don’t want to miss God’s plan in sending His Son. His plan was that the love the Father has for His Son, which unites them would be manifested to and through a select group of followers.These followers were so impacted and transformed as they received and believed the words the Father gave Him to give to them, so that they became channels of His life, love, and the gospel in the world. His use of the word world in this case seems to be the same as was John’s use of it in 1 John 2:2. “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” What is meant is this: In the entire history of the world, God has provided only one way, namely Jesus, for sins to be forgiven and upon whom anyone may believe and be saved. In Jesus’ prayer in John 17:21, Jesus was saying to His Father, that throughout the entire remaining history of the world, the community of believers filled and unified by His love, will be the convincing proof to everyone who believes that God sent Jesus as Lord and Savior.A team of 8 guys on mission in Brazil for Global Challenge Expeditions were cruising the Amazon River. They and other passengers slept in hammocks on deck for over a week. They built a relationship with two men, one was an atheist and another was a new ager who believed that the universe is God. Opportunities arose for them to share their testimonies regarding Jesus and for the other two to also share their “testimonies” of “miracles” they had experienced in life. One shared how certain amazing things had happened “by chance” and the other shared how “the universe” provided for Him. They all testified of peace, hope, and faith they had found in Jesus, the universe, and in humanity. Finally, my friend provided the undeniable evidence that Jesus was God in the flesh sent to save mankind. He said, “You have watched us guys for a week. Have you noticed the love we have for each other? That comes from Jesus.” The other two men replied, “We don’t have that.” It isn’t something humans or the universe can provide. The love that unites believers testifies to the world that God sent Jesus. We live to love with Jesus so the world may believe that God sent Him to be their savior and Lord.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:21 ”That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”From before the foundation of the earth, God determined that by the sacrifice of His Son on our behalf, everything that separates us from God would be removed from us physically as well as positionally. The love of the Father and Son could not be contained in heaven alone. His love, by its nature, had to be revealed, known, and shared with, in, and through undeserving, sin-ridden, hostile, hell-deserving, grace-transformed outcasts. In this verse, we see the awesome, and I do mean awesome, vision of God for us and the means by which it is realized. The vision is that through the intercession of Jesus, God and redeemed mankind would become one to the same degree that the Father and the Son are one. We are indeed saved by His life. He prayed for this glorious end in His prayer in this verse, and then having been resurrected and seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, He has received the authority to give eternal life to all whom the Father gave to Him. He ever lives to intercede for us and save us as it says in Heb. 7:25.God has answered this prayer of Jesus, the Son. He prayed for our union with Him and the Father according to God’s will and name, the name of love. This is the basis of our identity as sons of God and the basis of our purpose for living. We are as united with Jesus as He was with His Father when He was sent into this world to love with His Father for His glory. Let this sink in! May this great truth overpower the darkness, as His light, which is His love, shines in this world through us today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:19-20 “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;”Jesus asked the Father to sanctify His disciples through His Word (17:17), namely, the commandment to believe in Him, who is the truth, and love with Him who is the way (13:34). This was made possible through His unswerving dedication to lay Himself down for them. He did it then, as He willingly, intentionally, went to the cross. The impact of such love was intended to thrust them into the world with the same dedication, intention, and willingness to lay their lives down—living to love with Jesus. Jesus could see that His prayer for His disciples extended also to all who would believe because He sanctified Himself to God’s purpose so that they would be sanctified to God’s purpose, so that we also might be sanctified to God’s glorious, redemptive, purpose. How do we know if Jesus was praying for us? If we have believed in Jesus through the words of Jesus’ first disciples, then we were and still are in the mind and intercession of the Son of God. What does this mean to us? It means, we are united with Christ, set apart to God’s holiness, to His redemptive, loving purpose in this world. This purpose sets us apart from everyone else in the world. The world lives for this world. We have been set apart to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God. I hope this encourages you like it does me. What an incredible and glorious way to live!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:19 “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.”There’s a false narrative floating around in the world that Jesus died because He spoke truth to power, not because He was the Father’s sacrifice of atonement to take away sins. This verse exposes and condemns the lie. The truth, right out of the mouth of the Son of God is this. Unlike priests who sanctified both the temple and the offerings unto God, Jesus as our high priest, sanctified Himself, as the offering unto God. He was not a victim. Nothing happened to Him that was not in His control. He set His body, soul, and spirit apart from the common uses in this world and set Himself apart to His Father’s will and purpose.Jesus was sent into this world by the Father to lay down His life to satisfy divine justice on behalf of those whom the Father gave to Him before the world existed. And this is love: the sustained direction of the will toward their highest good, no matter what the cost. The sustained direction of the will is what it means to sanctify. Jesus determined to love His disciples with the Father, so they could be sanctified in truth and love His own with Him. We are here today because God answered Jesus’ prayer. They were sanctified in truth by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the impact of which has powerfully continued to this day and will continue to the end of this world.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:18 “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”Jesus was sent to be the exact representation of the Father, God. His passion was and is the glory of His Father. He manifested the Father’s name, the name of love. He was not alone. He came to love with His Father. He could do nothing apart from His Father. He received the words the Father gave to Him and faithfully gave them to His disciples. In the same way, Jesus sent His disciples into the world to carry His life in them. Their passion was the glory of God revealed in Christ. They prayed and spoke in Jesus’ name, the name of love. They were not alone. They went into the world to love with Jesus. They could do nothing apart from Him. They received the words of Jesus and faithfully gave them to Jesus’ disciples. All these things were true of those first disciples, and they are also true of all who are His disciples throughout the ages—all the way down to us.Jesus lived in the power of the Holy Spirit because He gave the Father access to all of His humanity. All believers have the same power source dwelling within them. The love of God flows through them as they give Jesus unlimited access to their humanity. Jesus was sent into the world with the life of God dwelling within Him. Jesus has sent us into the world also with the life of God dwelling in us—the life of Jesus Christ, Himself. This is the miracle of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! He came to bring us to God so that the life of God could be revealed in us as we live to love with Jesus. So today let’s remember. We have been sent into the world just as Jesus was sent into the world for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”What is the sanctifying word of truth that Jesus had in mind? I suggest from John 13-16, the context reveals that the word that God gave Jesus to give to His disciples that sets them (and us) apart to God and apart from this world is this word: “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you. Abide in my love.” I summarize that word with the phrase “live to love with Jesus.”Jesus asked the Father to set His disciples apart, sanctify them, through His call to love with Him. It is love, the supernatural sustaining of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, that sets them apart from everyone who is of the world. Yes, it is true that God’s word, in general, has a sanctifying affect. But the context of this passage reveals that Jesus had a specific “word” in mind, not merely the general word of God. He’s thinking of the specific word that the Father had given Him to give to them. The word that manifested the Father’s name that His disciples believed and received. That word was the new commandment to believe Jesus is God and love with Him.Stop and think about how everyone who believes that Jesus is God and believes that God is love is believing the truth about God and about life. If God is love and Jesus is God, then what impact would that word have on those who believe? It would change everything! They would be set apart, sanctified out of this world and sanctified to God. As they lived to love with Jesus, it would reveal the truth that Jesus is God, is alive, and God is love! He has died and risen to life. He lives in them! Father, sanctify us with this truth; Your word is truth.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:16 “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”So we who are following Jesus are in this world, but not of it, even as Jesus was in this world, but not of it. We do not lay in the power of the evil one even as Jesus did not lay in the power of the evil one.Those who are of this world love themselves and this world. They will not lay down their lives in this world. In contrast, just as Jesus laid down His life in this world, knowing He had a better home and was going to His Father from which He came, so also those who are His willingly lay down their lives in this world, knowing they have a better home. They know this world is not their source of identity or life. They are going to their Father’s house in heaven from which they came.Where is your identity? Is it with this world or with our Father in heaven? Jesus is from the Father in heaven and so are we if we live to love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.”This isn’t a new prayer. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, Matthew 6:13 “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Notice again the impact of these words on John as he wrote his first epistle. 1 John 5:19 “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Those who are in and of the world do not believe and receive Jesus’ words and hate us because they lay in the power of the evil one. So as long as we are in this world manifesting the name and love of Jesus, we need to be kept from Satan’s power. And what is his power? It’s the power to steal, kill, and destroy. We can be confident that as long as we are in this world, as long as we are alive and live to love with Jesus, this prayer of Jesus will be answered. We will not be people who steal, kill, and destroy, but people who give generously, give and protect life, and restore, build up, and encourage.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” So when we speak Jesus’ words and love with Him, it reveals that we, like and with Jesus, are not of this world. We are called today to live to love with Jesus because like He is in this world, so also are we. John wrote. 1 John 4:17 “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.”This verse parallels something Jesus told His disciples in John 15:11-12. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” Did you notice the difference? In 15:11, Jesus spoke the things He spoke to them so that Jesus’ joy would be in them and their joy be made full. In this verse, He spoke them so that His joy would be made full in them. When we put them together, both being true, we learn that the words the Father gave to Jesus to give to them were spoken so both Jesus’ and His followers’ joy would be made full in them.Here’s the reasoning we can be encouraged by. We were created to enjoy God forever. When we enjoy God, He enjoys us. He has told us what He enjoys to the fullest, namely, Jesus, the Son, loving through those who are His own. So let us be encouraged by this: we contribute to and participate in God’s joy and glory as we let Him enjoy us as we enjoy Him by living to love with Jesus. Here’s the idea in an equation. Jesus loving +/with you loving = Jesus’ joy = your joy = the Father’s joy. Here’s another equation. You trying to love in your own strength -/without Jesus’ power to love = 0.Let’s remind ourselves of the things Jesus spoke in the world so we may have His joy made full in ourselves. He said: Serve one another as I have served you. Love one another as I have loved you. If you believe in God, believe also in Me. My words and works are the words and work of the Father. I go to the Father to send the Holy Spirit to manifest My presence in the lives of all who are His and mine. The Father is the vinedresser, I am the one true vine, and you are the branches. Apart from Me you can do nothing. You are My friends. You can ask for anything you need to believe and love in My name directly from the Father, and I will do it. In this world, you’ll have tribulation, but I have made a place for you in Myself where you have peace.We could not experience Jesus’ joy nor could His joy be made full if Jesus hadn’t come into this world, accomplished what He was sent to do, which was manifest the name of His Father, the name of love, and then return to His Father with the sacrifice of His life—all for the glory and joy of His Father. Let us rejoice as we live to love with Jesus!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:12b. “I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.”The Psalmist wrote: 109:4. “In return for my love they act as my accusers; but I am in prayer. Thus they have repaid me evil for good and hatred for my love.” Psalms 109:8 “Let his days be few; let another take his office.” Ps. 109:4 was fulfilled as Jesus was in prayer and verse 8 was fulfilled in Judas’ betrayal and death. Judas was not kept in the name of love, even though he had heard all that Jesus taught. The name the Father gave to Jesus to manifest, the name of love, was not manifested to Judas. Judas didn’t believe and receive Jesus’ words. He heard them, but they were stolen by the devil.This Scripture was also fulfilled. Matthew 11:27 “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” Judas perished because Jesus didn’t reveal the Father to him, and the Father didn’t reveal the Son to him. Judas, like the Pharisees, Scribes, Herod, Pontius Pilate, and the Jews and the Romans were sons of perdition, sons of destruction, all serving God’s purposes so that we might know the love of God and be saved. Here’s how the Holy Spirit explained these things to the disciples after Jesus’ resurrection.Acts 4:24-28 “And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, “O Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM, who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said, [now we see the Scriptures fulfilled in Judas not being guarded and kept in His name] ‘WHY DID THE GENTILES RAGE, AND THE PEOPLES DEVISE FUTILE THINGS? THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND, AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.’ For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.”What do we say to these things? What can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Nothing! He loves us. It is His name. We are kept in His name if we walk in love. This verse gives us a sober warning. God will work out His will and purposes in every person ever created in fulfillment of the Scriptures. Matthew 26:24 “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” Jesus fulfilled the Scripture. As He lives and loves in us, He is also fulfilling Scripture.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:11-12 “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.”While Jesus was in this world, He had a job to do, namely, first, to manifest the name of the Father to those the Father gave Him and keep them in His name. This is revealed in vs. 6. Jesus said, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world.” In vs. 12, we see second that Jesus also kept them in His name. He guarded them—that is, all that the Father gave Him.In these two verses, Jesus, knowing that He is leaving this world to go to the Father, has a request of the Father. He asks the Father to keep His disciples in His name so they may be one even as He and the Father are one. I have suggested that the name that Jesus manifested is love. I think this is confirmed when we notice that whatever the name is, it is what unifies the Father and the Son and will also unify the disciples. Love is the perfect bond of unity according to Paul (Col. 3:14). Therefore I conclude that the name that has been manifested and in which we are kept is the love of the Father and the Son for His own. Now let’s connect the dot of the glory of God that the Father and Son had before the foundation of the world. That glory is their love! Listen to what Jesus says only moments after these words. It is recorded in John 17:22-24. “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” What is that glory He wants us to see? The love of the Father for the Son.So today, let us be encouraged by these words. Our Father keeps us in His love, the same love He has for His own Son, Jesus. As we live to love with Jesus today, we do so because of the grace of God bestowed upon us in giving us His Son. Jesus in us loves those He puts in our paths. We simply love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:10 “And all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I am glorified in them.”The Father has glorified His Son, Jesus, by giving Him everything that belongs to Him. It’s the another way of saying that Jesus is the “heir of all things” as stated in Heb. 1:2. If anything belongs to the Father, then it belongs to Jesus, and if anything belongs to Jesus, it belongs to the Father. What a sweeping, glorious declaration.What are the “all things” to which Jesus referred? As I’ve said before, context is king. It governs the meaning of words. If we look back a couple of verses, we read this: “For the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I am glorified in them.”What did Jesus have in mind when He said, “all things”? It seems clear that He was thinking of all of those whom the Father has given to Him who received and believed His words as if they were the Father’s words. Here’s my take away. When we receive and believe the words of God spoken through Jesus and His disciples, we glorify Jesus, just as the disciples did.Dear friend, you can glorify Jesus today as you receive and believe Jesus’ words that He gave in John 13-16. What were those words? Serve one another as Jesus serves us. Love one another as Jesus loves us. If you believe in God, believe also in Jesus. Jesus’ words and works are the words and work of the Father. Jesus has gone to the Father to send the Holy Spirit to manifest the presence of the risen Christ in the lives of all who are His. The Father is the vinedresser, Jesus is the one true vine, and we are the branches. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. We are His friends. We can ask for anything we need to believe and love in Jesus’ name directly from the Father, and Jesus will do it. In this world, we’ll have tribulation, but He has made a place for us in Himself where we have peace. Do you believe and receive His words? In so doing, Jesus is glorified in you, just as He was in His disciples. Jesus is glorified by the grace He gives us to believe and receive.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:9.2 “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world.”Yesterday we rejoiced and were encouraged that we who have received and believed in Jesus through the words and witness of Jesus’ disciples were in God’s view. But what encouragement can we receive from who is not in view? The world has never been in view of this particular, exclusive love.Those who were and are of the world were not to receive the blessing of His particular, exclusive intercession. The set of people known by Jesus as “the world” in this context may be identified as those who were not given to Him by the Father. I can hear some asking, “But what about John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son…” In that context, Jesus speaking to Nicodemus, who thought that God only loved the Jews, needed to know that the Spirit of God was going to move among the Gentile world. So “the world” in John 3:16 referred to the Gentile world. However, in the context of John 17, “the world” Jesus referred to when He spoke with His Father, was those who the Father had not given to Him. Context determines the meaning of the words. How can we know who has not been given to Jesus? They are those who refuse to receive and believe the words and testimony of Jesus’ disciples. They do not believe God sent Jesus as the only way, truth, and life.This truth should encourage us all the more to love those God puts in our paths each day by sharing with them Jesus’ words given to His disciples. And let us pray with Jesus to the Father on behalf of those He’s given to His Son. Those who are of this world will not believe, so don’t take it personally. They can’t believe because of the sin of unbelief. With Jesus, we must lovingly and trustfully leave those who reject Him in the Father’s hands. But we aren’t trying to identify those for whom Jesus didn’t pray. We love and share the words of Jesus given to His disciples, the gospel, to find out those for whom He did pray. They will respond because Jesus has and is interceding for them.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word.” Have you believed in Jesus through the word of His disciples? If so, you have been loved and in the view of the Father and Son from before the foundation of the world! In the following verses we will see what Jesus asked on our behalf. But for today, be encouraged that Jesus prayed for you to be included in His glorious work He was about to do through His death and resurrection.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:8 “for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.”When it comes to the good news which provides hope for mankind, who should we listen to? The gospel preached and taught by Jesus’ disciples get my vote. They received the words Jesus gave them and have faithfully recorded and explained them because they understood that Jesus came forth from God. They believed Jesus was sent by God to bring us to Him.Here’s an example. Peter wrote, 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;”One of the ways we love people is to give an explanation of the hope that we have in Jesus. Those who knew Him best, walked with Him the longest, and were His followers were so convinced that He was God in the flesh that their message and lives became the foundation of the gospel and the church. That gospel foundation has stood the test of time. 1989 years to be exact. The Father, God gave Jesus the words to teach, Jesus spoke them, the disciples received and believed them, and they are still speaking them through the Bible. Listening to them is to listen to God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:7 “Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You;”Everything Jesus said was from God, and His disciples knew it. Jesus’ words changed everything for them. Do we listen to the words, the writings, of His disciples as if they were the words of the living almighty God? Do we believe that everything we have read and studied in this precious gospel of John is from God through Jesus to us?John wrote that the way we know who is from God is that they listen, not to the world, but to him and the other disciples who wrote and testified of Christ. 1 John 4:4-6. “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”The disciples knew that everything Jesus said was from God. It changed their lives. Jesus said He would make a place for them in Himself, and then come dwell in them and they would bear fruit for the glory of God as He loved through them. They believed and kept His word in their hearts and minds. Jesus kept His word, and gave them eternal life in Himself. Those first disciples lived to love with Jesus and started a tsunami of love that pours out down through history until all of those who belong to God are swept up in the deluge of love. Such is the power of God’s word manifested in Jesus Christ. Let’s keep the tsunami rolling!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”The disciples belonged to God, and were given to Jesus, and so are all those who believe in Jesus and keep His word given to the disciples by Jesus.Here’s how John understood Jesus. 1 John 4:6. “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”Here’s how the apostle Paul was taught by Jesus. Ephesians 1:3-6. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”Before the world was, God the Father and the Son, chose a people out of the world to share their glory, for their glory. In His prayer to His Father, Jesus recalls to mind, the original plan, for Him to manifest His Father’s name to those who were given to the Him by the Father. And who are those who belonged to the Father and were given to Jesus? All those who keep Jesus’ word. Hear the word of the Lord. Believe in Jesus and love with Him in His name for His glory. Are you one of those chosen and beloved of God? I hope so.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”In vs. 4 we read that Jesus had accomplished the work God gave Him to do. Now we see how He glorified the Father. He manifested His name, which is another way of saying He manifested the work of God. What was that name or work that He manifested? It was love. He loved His disciples with the Father’s love and thus gave Him a name to define Him. That name is love. John, wrote of it in 1 John 4:7-11. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”Jesus manifested the love of God. Love defines Him like a name defines a person. John, who recorded Jesus’ prayer here in John 17, was saying this. If we are His, His name of love should define us. That’s why we should live to love with Jesus. We are manifesting His name in the world. We lay down our lives for His own as He did. God’s love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost. And their highest good is to glorify God in Christ and enjoy Him forever.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”Before the world was, God, the Father and Jesus, the Son existed in glory together. They were united as one. They shared the glory of heaven before they made the earth and everything in it. Their united glory then was their goal in all creation, but especially mankind. As the Westminster Confession begins, “What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Jesus came to fulfill that chief end of man, which we could not do, sinners that we are. Having accomplished that work in the world, which existed in heaven before it was created, He now prays for the glory of God that predated the world, brought it into existence, and sent Him into it in human form. God and man united as one in glorious love. If Jesus lives in us, that is our future state and hope, for if we are united with Him, we will be united with Him in the glory that the Father and Son enjoyed before the world was. “Christ in you is the hope of glory,” wrote Paul in Col. 1:27. I can’t wait! How about you? We will see that we predated the world in Christ!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:4 “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.”What person has ever accomplished this work of glorifying God every minute of his or her life on earth? No one. Everyone has fallen short of the glory of God, but Jesus. John wrote in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”Jesus defined what it is to glorify God, namely, doing what God sent Him to do. He never did anything on His own initiative or in His own power. Every word and every action was the exact representation of the Father. Hebrews 1:3 “And He (Jesus) is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His (the Father’s) nature.” Such is the heart of Jesus.If Jesus lives in us, His heart will be evident in our lives. He does in us what He was sent to do, namely, glorify His father by loving those given to Him. This is why we live to love with Jesus. He continues the work of glorifying His father as we (Jesus and us) love those He puts in our paths today for His glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”Jesus is the life—the vine. He was sent to be the life-giver. In knowing Jesus, we know the Father—the only true God. To know and have the life of Jesus abiding in our bodies and souls is to have life eternal dwelling in us—a life that will never die. John wrote in 1 John 5:11-13, “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”Do you have the testimony of God in you—the eternal life of Jesus? Living to love with Jesus is the testimony, for God is love. As Jesus said only moments before these words, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” John 15:8.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:1-2 “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.”First, today, let’s give thanks to God! He has glorified His Son Jesus by giving Him authority to give eternal life. If we or anyone has eternal life, then it is a gift from God. Glory to God! Second, if we have eternal life, we were given as a gift to Jesus by the Father. We are not our own. We have belonged to God from before the foundation of the world. That’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? We are Jesus’ inheritance. Be in awe! The Father has glorified His Son by creating a people for Himself in Christ that He might save them from their sins, make a place for them in Himself, that He might bring them to God, and unite them as one even as the Father and Son are united as one in love. That’s why we live to love with Jesus. Glory to God!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Then He turned His focus to His Father in prayer. John 17 records that prayer. It is an amazing, wonderful, awe-inspiring, gift to us. We are treated to what makes Jesus’ heart beat—the glory of God.When we are filled with the Spirit of the Father and Son, we also will pray, “Father in heaven, glorify Your Son in me that the Son may glorify You.” Isn’t this what it means to pray in Jesus’ name? To pray as He would pray? To pray with the same heart beat as He prays? Jesus recognized that the hour had come for Him to lay down His life and reveal the love of God. In a small way, but not an insignificant way, each hour of our lives is our hour to do the same thing—lay down our lives, to love with Jesus, for the glory of God. May we be consumed with the glory of God today as we manifest His love.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
What are “these things” of which Jesus spoke that provided a basis for peace in His disciples, and all those who follow after them? The immediate things He had spoken are these: He knows what is to come and is in total control. They are going to be scattered in the next few minutes, and Jesus and the Father are going to accomplish what He was sent to accomplish. But even in that difficult hour, they may have peace in Jesus Himself. Earlier in the evening, He had told them that He was going to prepare a place in Himself for them so that where He was, they could be with Him. The only place of peace in this world is in Jesus. Why? Because He has overcome the world.Jesus told them He had already overcome the world. He didn’t say to them that He would overcome the world. What did He mean? I think He was referring to the fact that He had lived for 33 years in this world and Satan, the devil, the god of this world, still had nothing in Him by which to snag Him, trip Him up, or cause Him to fail in His mission of redemption. It had already been settled in Him, He was giving Himself up for His friends, and nothing and no one could stop Him or prevent it. Not only could the disciples take courage from that great truth, so can all who trust in Jesus.We can expect tribulation in this world. It hated Jesus, it will hate us. But, that can’t stop us from living to love anymore than it could stop Him from living to love. Nor can it destroy our peace, because our peace doesn’t come from anyone or anything in this world. It comes from Jesus, Himself. His life. His death. His resurrection. His presence. As we go through the tribulation in this world, may our hearts take courage as we follow Paul’s admonition in Colossians 3:15, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:32 “Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”Sometimes, it feels like we are all alone. There’s no one to stand with us. In Jesus’ hour of betrayal, there was no one standing with Him. The apostle Paul faced such an hour. He wrote to Timothy in 2 Tim. 4:16-17, “At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.” Jesus and Paul were left alone, yet, they were not alone. The Father was with Jesus in His hour of trial and Jesus was with Paul in his hour of trial.Whatever trial believers face, regardless of how they feel or regardless of the circumstances, they are not alone. Jesus is with them. He promised to be with His disciples forever when He told them in John 14:16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” The disciples at that moment did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, so moments later, they were scattered. We do have the Holy Spirit, the power and presence of Jesus, dwelling within us. So even though there are times we may feel alone and it appears there is no one with us, we are not alone. He lives to love in and through us.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:31 “Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe?’”The disciples had just declared that they believed that Jesus came from God. Yet, Jesus knew what they were about to face and knew that they nor He could trust their hearts. Our flesh and our hearts may fail, even though we are well-intentioned and think we stand in the moment. Jesus asked this penetrating question, “Do you now believe?” He knew the hour had come for their faith to be tested, and that they would act as if they did not believe that He came from God.There’s a lesson in this for us that is vital if we are to live to love with Jesus. We must not trust in our own hearts or faith. Proverbs 28:26, “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered.” Rather, we must trust 100% in Jesus’ heart and righteousness. Remember what He had said only minutes before this. “I am the vine, you are the branches. Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Asaph, the Psalmist, wrote in Psalms 73:26 “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” He said it well, didn’t he? Even though we believe, we can still have an “evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God” as the writer of Hebrews warned in 3:12. We need daily encouragement to abide in Christ and place our entire confidence in the fact that our lives are hidden with Christ in God. He is our righteousness and our peace in this troubled world. His love abides in us, and He will love through us today. “Do you now believe?” Our answer is, “Lord, You know all things, and my hope is in You, today.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:30-33a “Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God. Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe? Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.’”The disciples took confidence in the fact that they understood Jesus and believed in Him. They said, “We believe that You came from God.” However, I think Jesus’ response to their declaration of faith, surprised and shocked them. Surely they didn’t expect Him to cause them to question their confidence. He had just told them that the Father had sent Him and loved them. Here was further proof of His love. He told them again what was going to happen before it happened. They were going to leave Him alone. Satan was to scatter them and drive them to their own homes— as if all that was said and done was fruitless and wasted. Why did He say these things to them when they were seemingly so confident in their faith? He said them because their confidence was wrongly placed. Their confidence should be firmly lodged in one great truth. Jesus Himself! He was sent to make a place for them in Himself (as He said in 14:1-2) where they could live in peace with God, with themselves, in this world. Peace in this world of tribulation cannot come in any other way, but in Jesus Christ, Himself. He alone is our peace.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:28-29 “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father. His disciples said, ‘Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech.’”Jesus knew where He came from, what He came to do in the world, and where He was going. He told His disciples plainly. “God sent me into this world to accomplish His will, and now I am leaving this world to return to Him with mission accomplished.” There was no figure of speech employed by Jesus, so His disciples understood what what had happened, what was happening, and what was going to happen.If we have the life of Jesus in us, then we should be able to say the same thing—know the same thing. We came forth from the Father (we were created in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world), we have been sent into this world with the same mission as Jesus (namely, to live to love with God), and we will go out of this world to the Father according to His will and timing, having accomplished His mission. No figurative language here. Straight talk. Simple truth.Our testimony should be as clear and plain as Jesus’ testimony. We know whose we are. We know we are sent and we know who sent us. We know what we are here for. We know where we are going. May we speak so plainly as we share our testimonies with those He puts in our paths.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:26-27“In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”What day was Jesus referring to? If we look back a few verses we learn that it is the day they see Jesus risen from the dead. John 16:22 “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” In vs. 23, we see Jesus reference “that day” and in vs. 26 He said it again. This gives us insight into the power and significance of Jesus’ resurrection, namely, that in Jesus’ name, we have personal, individual access to our Father in heaven. Jesus implied that the resurrection gives Jesus’ disciples confidence to ask the Father directly to supply whatever they need to obey Jesus’ commands to believe and love. If we love Jesus and believe He was sent by the Father to express His love for us, we know He loves us. The faith and love that we have testifies to God’s love for us.Why was it important for Jesus to clarify that He will not request on their behalf. I think it is “plain speaking” from Jesus. He wanted them to know without question that God would answer their request because of His love for them, and not just because of His love for His son. Since we can do nothing apart from Jesus, let us have confidence to ask our Father for everything we need to live to love with Jesus—to love those He puts in our paths, today, for His glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father.”What are “these things” about which Jesus had spoken to them of the Father in figurative language? He had used the agricultural illustration of the vinedresser as the Father. It was the figurative language needed at that hour. But Jesus encouraged them that another hour was coming when He would tell them plainly of the Father.The hour of which Jesus spoke was only seconds away because in the next few verses, Jesus spoke plainly to them of the Father. We can be grateful for Jesus’ figurative language regarding His Father. We learned that this is our Fathers world, and He has planted one true vine in the world—His Son—who is the way of life for the branches so they can display the fruit that pleases the Father. We can also look forward with great anticipation to Jesus telling us plainly of the Father.Until tomorrow, let’s live in gratitude by receiving from Jesus all that He has for us to display His love in this world, and look expectantly toward the future when we will have a greater understanding of the Father’s love.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:24 “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”Until “now.” Up to that point in history, no one asked for anything in Jesus’ name. To what does “now” refer. I think Jesus was referring to the time after the cross and the resurrection—after Jesus returned to His Father. Minutes earlier, remember what Jesus had said in 14:12-14. “… because I go to the father. Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.“Having received the commandment to love from Jesus and knowing He went to the Father to give them access to the Father (make a place for you) through Him (who is the way), the disciples then had a reason to ask in Jesus’ name. His name is now the way to love, which is the new and excellent way to live. In speaking of love Paul wrote, “I show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Cor. 12:30)—the way of love.Fullness of joy comes when we ask for the grace to love in Jesus’ name, and Jesus loves through us. May that be our experience today as we live to love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:23 “In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.”Jesus knew that the disciples had many questions regarding all that He had told them about His relationship with His Father and His going to the Father and His sending the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name. They would carry those unanswered questions until they saw Him in His resurrected body. The day they saw the risen Jesus Christ, they knew they had access to God, the Father, through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. His intercession on their and our behalf has opened the door for us to ask the Father directly for anything we need to know to love with Jesus in this world.To ask in Jesus’ name is to approach the Father through Jesus’ work. His work is represented when we call in His name. We can ask our Father for whatever we need to love with Jesus because Jesus commanded us to believe in Him and love as He loves us. We also know that His command came from our Father. So we can have confidence when we say to the Father, “I need help loving in this situation as You commanded me in Your son. How do You want to love through me?”We can be confident when we ask our Father for the grace to love in Jesus’ name, that He will give it to us. Let us rejoice and be glad today. Because Jesus lives, we can ask our Father for whatever we need to love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:22 “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”Let’s imagine the joy of the disciples when they first saw the risen Christ. Unspeakable joy must have filled their hearts. Peter and the rest of the disciples saw Jesus, risen from the dead, on the third day after He spoke these words. Peter spoke of this joy when he wrote about our new birth through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, “and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet. 1:8-9).No one can take away this inexpressible joy any more than they can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. I hope you’ll take a moment and join the disciples in that moment that Jesus appeared to them for the first time after His death. For them and us, it means that our all sin has been removed, death has been conquered, we are never to die, and we know we will forever be with the Lord. We are the beloved of God. May our hearts be filled with His love and joy today so we can love others with Him as a testimony that Jesus lives!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
This month we celebrate our country’s 250th anniversary. Since my word of the year is truth, the basis for our declaration of independence caught my attention. We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.The founders believed it to be a self-evident truth that God created all men equal and gave each one the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. They maintained that since those rights were given by God, they could not be taken away by any government. Therefore, the responsibility for securing those rights falls upon the people when a government fails to honor God and the rights of the people. I intend to springboard off of these self-evident truths and zero in on God’s provision of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in and through Jesus Christ.“In Him was life.”John 1:4: “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’” 1 John 5:11-12: “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.”The idea the Founders had in mind when they used the term life certainly referred to bios or mortal life. If God creates and gives life, it is self-evident that no one has the right to take or destroy that life. The verses above refer to eternal life, one which swallows up mortal life (2 Cor. 5:4). Mortal life is valuable and to be protected, but God has allowed it to be taken away by the devil and his agents, whether they be governments, parents, or enemies. The life that no one can take away is the life of Jesus Christ. If God gives eternal life to someone, that right to life is eternally secure. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John10:27-30). This is a life worth pursuing.Yes, we, the people, should protect the right to life in this world because it is true that God created each individual at conception and gave them bios, mortal life. We have the right and responsibility to elect people to offices of government that promise to secure that right. I hope you will take that responsibility seriously. However, the bios life you have received from God is not eternal. It will be taken from you. David penned in a psalm the temporal nature of life on this earth. “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them” (Ps. 139:16). Earthly life is limited.I hope this July 4th, you’ll consider celebrating this Truth: Jesus is the life, eternal life. Do you have it? If you have Jesus, you have the life we should all pursue and celebrate.
John 16:21 “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.”Jesus chose the example of the anguish and joy of giving birth to a child to give hope to His disciples who were about to go through deep emotional and spiritual pain. Just as the pain is unavoidable in labor, so the pain of the cross and their anguish was unavoidable. There will be no joy in the arrival of the child unless the pain is endured. In the same way, the disciples had to endure great anguish before the resurrection appearance, which signaled the new birth of the children of God. Peter used the birth figure in his first epistle. Let these words be your live to love with Jesus encouragement today.1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,1 Peter 1:4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,1 Peter 1:5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.1 Peter 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,1 Peter 1:7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;Expect various trials each day. We are in labor pains. But we do not labor without hope. There is a resurrection—a revelation of the fruit of the seed of the Holy Spirit—to come to the praise and glory and honor to God. Live with expectation of that future joy.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:19-20 “Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, ’Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, “A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me”’? Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.”When Jesus was put to death, the world rejoiced and Jesus’ followers grieved their loss. The same happens today as we hear of our brothers and sisters in the faith suffering for His name sake. The world rejoices. As Jesus said only moments before this statement, recorded in 16:2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.” In 15:18, He had said, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” Even though we have been given a “heads up” to these things, we still weep, lament, and grieve when the world casts its hatred for Jesus upon His followers. But we are not without hope just as the disciples were not without hope. They had the hope of joy set before them, much like Jesus. The writer of Hebrews wrote about Jesus, “Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).As we know, they did weep, lament, and grieve when Jesus was crucified and laid in the tomb. However, in a very little while He was raised and appeared to them and said, “Peace be with you. And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” And thus, Jesus’ words in this verse were fulfilled.Today, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who has promised us that our weeping, lamenting, and grief will be turned to joy. May the hope of joy fill our hearts in this fallen world as we live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:17-18. “Some of His disciples then said to one another, ‘What is this thing He is telling us, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me”; and, “because I go to the Father”?’ So they were saying, ‘What is this that He says, “A little while”? We do not know what He is talking about.’”Obviously the disciples were confused and puzzled by Jesus’ remarks about being seen, not being seen, then being seen again, and His going to the Father. After the resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit, all that confusion was cleared up. Jesus, the living God, changed everything! We are now in the age of history where Jesus has come and the Holy Spirit has been given. We have the record of the life and ministry of Jesus as well as His disciples. They went from a confused band of followers of Jesus to a world-impacting, history-making, kingdom-consumed, love-empowered strike force. Their ministries in the world still ripple today. Believers of every generation stand on their shoulders and are encouraged by their testimonies and understanding of Jesus Christ.Have you ever been confused about Jesus and what He said? If so, just wait a little while. In time, at just the right time, the Holy Spirit will disclose to you what you need from God to manifest His life and light in your world.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
That’s exactly what happened. Again, Jesus told them of things to come before they happened so that when they occurred, they would believe and trust in Him. Within less than 24 hours, a little while, Jesus was placed in the tomb, out of their sight. However, He was only there “a little while.” On the third day, while gathered in the same room where they had observed Passover, they saw Him again. John 20:19 “So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ And so it was. A little while and they no longer saw Him, and then a little while and they saw Him.These things have been recorded so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the savior of the world. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way for any human being to have access to God, the Father. What’s the main point? Jesus died, was buried, and was raised to give eternal life to all who believe. Those who believe have been called to testify to the risen Jesus by displaying His love, bearing fruit, for the glory of God. It’s why they breathe, eat, sleep, work, exercise, read their Bibles, pray, and serve. May the life of Jesus be the fullness of our lives today, so that the world may see that Jesus lives and saves sinners.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:15 “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”The concept of the Holy Trinity is reflected in this verse. Jesus spoke of His father, Himself, and the Holy Spirit as one, yet distinct. All that belongs to the Father, belong to Jesus, and the Father and the Son both sent the Holy Spirit (14:16; 15:26). Jesus informed His disciples that the things the Holy Spirit discloses are the things of the Father and the Son. Jesus said, those things “are the Fathers” and “are Mine.” What are we? All who belong to the Father and the Son are recipients of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus called “the Spirit of truth.” The apostle Paul referred to the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 3:16), “the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:17), “the Spirit of His Son” (Gal. 4:6), “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:9), “the Spirit of adoption”(Rom. 8:15), “the Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13), and “the Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2). The writer of Hebrews spoke of “the Spirit of grace.”Living to love with Jesus is the same as living to love with the Holy Spirit. This life is not a normal, natural life. His love is supernatural—literally it is a superpower. The worldview, mindset, and attitude of Christ is the way God’s love flows in our lives to everyone He puts in our paths. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the Son, and those in whom He dwells, have received the things freely given us by God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:14 “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”Even as Jesus glorified His father by revealing the Father, so the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by revealing Him. We may glorify God also as we reveal Jesus in the world. The Holy Spirit takes the mind and love of Christ and discloses it to us as He did to His disciples.Listen to the fulfillment of Jesus’ words explained by the apostle Paul to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, 12-13. “But just as it is written, ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.’ For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” 12-13. “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”The only way to live to love with Jesus is to receive that which is of Jesus given to us by the Holy Spirit. In this way, Jesus is glorified. His life is manifested in and through the lives of believers who are filled with the Holy Spirit, and thus they think like Jesus, speak the words of Jesus, and love like Jesus. I hope you are encouraged today to abide in Christ by receiving what He gives you through your relationship with the Holy Spirit. Tune in to the Spirit of truth, your Helper and Guide. What a privilege Jesus’ disciples have to receive from the Holy Spirit the things that belong to our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:13 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”Jesus had just told His disciples that He had more to say, but He had restrained Himself because they were not able to bear it. But that didn’t mean that they would miss out on those things He had to say. They would receive them from Him later, once the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, came to them. We have some hint from this verse about the things on Jesus’ mind—they were things “to come.” The Holy Spirit would guide them when they needed it. The Holy Spirit speaks what He hears from Jesus just like Jesus spoke what He heard from the Father. Again we may be encouraged by the union of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus is the son of truth, and the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. Neither of them spoke on His own initiative. If we walk by the Spirit, then we also should be careful not to speak when we feel like it. Just as love restrained Jesus with His disciples, we can expect love to restrain us as the Holy Spirit guides us. John referred to this wonderful truth of the Holy Spirit’s guidance and teaching when he wrote in 1 John 2:27 “As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.” This is the reason I pray in the Live to Love prayer these words, “Father, anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love the people You put in my path today, for Your glory.” May we abide in the gift of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, as we live to love with Jesus today. Whatever we hear from Him, let us speak in love with confidence.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”Jesus had given them much to bear or carry since they had eaten their last meal together in the upper room. Because Jesus is the incarnation of the love of God, we know it is love for His Father and for His disciples that gave Him freedom to speak to them as He had. At this point, apparently there was an inner restraint in sharing more with them about what was to happen to and in them in the future. Love restrained Him. He knew they were not able to carry more than He had given them.As we live to love with Jesus, we also need to have His sensitivity to the spiritual state and circumstances of those He puts in our paths. We might ask ourselves, “Are they spiritually able to receive the things I want to share with them? Are their circumstances in life such that more information would be overwhelming? Do they have ears to hear? Is it in their highest good for me to share with them? This verse informs us that there are times when we should restrain ourselves from saying things, even if they are words of encouragement, insight, and wisdom, out of love for someone. My guess is that most of us have “many more things to say,” but that doesn’t mean it is best or loving for us to say them. May the Holy Spirit give us discernment and discretion as to when and what to speak to those we love. Remember, apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. If He isn’t speaking, then neither should we.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:11 “and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.”Let’s consider how the presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers convicts the world of judgment. Jesus said He convicts the world of judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged. Who is the ruler of this world to whom Jesus referred? Certainly, it is the devil, aka Satan. Only minutes before, Jesus told His disciples, “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (14:30). We know Satan was at work in those who were his in the world from the betrayal of Jesus by Judas through the burial of His body in the tomb. God gave Jesus, an innocent, righteous man, into the hands of the devil and his world, and judged him as a hater and murder of God. He saw it in him, gave him the occasion to confront Jesus, and God’s judgment was right. Satan killed the righteous Son of God.Now what does the presence of the Holy Spirit have to do with that judgment? The sending of the Holy Spirit testifies to the world that they are just like their father, the devil. As the disciples, and all in whom Jesus dwells, express His life in this world, those in the world hate them and want to kill them. The world wants believers our of their lives! They hate Jesus and murder Him, just like their father. God sees it in them, gives the occasion to confront Jesus in His disciples, and God’s judgment is righteous. They are children of the devil. Their ruler has been judged, and so have they. Jesus loves those who are in the world through us. They will never be able to say that Jesus did not love them. We should not be surprised that they will sabotage His love and twist it, just like their ruler did when Jesus was here on the earth. As we live to love with Jesus, the Holy Spirit is at work. He will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:10 “and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me;”After Jesus’ resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were transformed by the presence of the life of Christ dwelling in them. Even though the disciples no longer could see Jesus with their physical eyes, their testimony was that Jesus was in them. So it is with everyone who lives to love with Jesus. They convict the world of what they lack—the righteousness of God. Unlike the world, who cannot see Him, we practice righteousness (live to love with Him) because He lives in us. We love because He first loved us. His love was seen in His coming to perform a righteousness for us, bearing our sins in His body on the cross, going to the Father, having made a place in Himself for us to live with Him, and then sending the Holy Spirit to us.The presence of His love in us testifies concerning righteousness. Rom. 5:1-5 says it best. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” There is the truth that convicts the world concerning righteousness. Believers have the love of God poured out in them and through them. May Jesus’ love flow through us today for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, “Whatever is not of faith is sin.” Do you believe this? The world doesn’t. Jesus commanded in John 14:1, “If you believe in God, believe also in Me.” To obey Jesus’ command is to believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, and that He is the way, truth, and the life, and is the only way to the Father that God has provided for mankind. Those who believe in Jesus, realize and therefore believe that Jesus is life and the source of all that is life. Everything they do that isn’t connected to Him or doesn’t come through His life in them, they believe to be sin. Why? Because the standard is the glory of God. If the words and work are not from and through Jesus, then God doesn’t get the glory, and their words and works fall short of the glory of God. Falling short of the glory of God is another way to define sin. Paul also wrote to the Romans, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23). Look how convicting this is to the world concerning sin! Jesus said that we can do nothing apart from Him. So we conclude that apart from faith in Jesus, all is sin. Since the world has no connection to Jesus, everything they do is sinful. That’s convicting! We should not be surprised if they hate us as we live to love with Jesus, because holiness exposes sin and unbelief.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;The Holy Spirit’s presence in believers, as their Helper, impacts the world. After telling His disciples that the Helper would be with them forever, He said, “that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him” (14:17). The world’s problem is that they have no understanding of sin, righteousness, and judgment because they can’t see who Jesus is nor do they know Him. But those who do know Jesus, have His life in them. Therein lies the source of the conviction. As long as Jesus was present in this world as a distinct, separate, unique individual, He could be rejected, denied, and accused as an imposter and fraud. But after the resurrection and the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, came to transform sinners into saints, the difference between believers and the world is evident. Their holy lives, characterized by the faith and love of the living Christ, exposes the blindness and ignorance of the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. As we live to love with Jesus, we are participating in the convicting work of the Holy Spirit in the world.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”How important the truth is, indeed! Jesus was going to the Father who had sent Him to make a way so that He could be with us forever! Remember what He had said only minutes before. “I will ask the Father, and He will send you another Helper, that He may be with you forever. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (Jo. 14:16, 18). Compare the two statements. In this verse, Jesus said that He will send the Helper to them. In 14:16, He said that the Father will send the Helper to them. Which is it? As we have learned, it is both the Father and the Son who send the Helper to us. They are distinct, yet one. But more to Jesus’ point, Jesus could not and would not be with us if He had not come to earth to bear our sin and shame and offer Himself as a sacrifice according to the will of His Father. In this we see what love is. Laying down one’s life for His friends and then coming to be with them in order to help them do what the Father commands, namely, to believe in the Son and love as He loves. Thank you, Jesus, for first coming to help us by removing our sins, and then coming to be with us forever for the purpose of loving through us for God’s glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.Had the disciples been tuned in to what was happening with Jesus, they would have asked Him where He was going? Instead, apparently all they could think of was the loss and disappointment they were going to experience. This is natural for us all. It is supernatural for us to be Christ-conscious and ask Him questions like, “Where are You going? What do You think? What do You want to do now? What opportunity lies before Him to glorify His Father in my life?” These are questions we ask when we are living to love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
And the disciples knew this because they did not ask were He was going.Our salvation was willed and designed by our Father because He is love: the sustained direction of His will toward our highest, no matter what the cost. To Him be the glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:4 “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.”We are witnessing an age of apostasy and hostility toward the gospel. Many fall away because they were told that if they accept Jesus they will have a good and happy life. Then when persecution or trials occur, they are not prepared and get offended at God, the church, and believers. In this verse we see the truth. As long as Jesus was with them, the hatred of the world was focused on Him. So it was not the time to tell them of the hatred, trials, and rejection they were going to experience. But now that He was leaving them, they were entering the last days of great tribulation. What should be our response? To trust Him and obey His command to love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:3 “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.”Why can we expect to be rejected, cast out, and possibly killed by others who think they are serving God? We can expect it because they do not know the Father or Jesus, His Son. Again, John applied this truth in his first epistle. “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (1 Jo. 3:1). If they know Jesus, they know the Father. If they know them, they know the children of God. God is love. Jesus revealed the Father’s love. His children live to love with Jesus. The children know one another because they are siblings, having received their life and love from the same Father. Since the world doesn’t know the Son, they cannot know the Father. They are from a different father, and therefore, the children of God are aliens to them. They are strangers and enemies to their family and values in this world. Therefore, since they live their lives to love the world with its lusts and pride, we can expect them to want to cancel or kill us as a service to their god. This was not spoken to discourage us. We should all the more live each day looking for those God puts in our paths to love with His love.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.”What will make the disciples outcasts from the synagogue? Jesus’ words and their love for Him and others made them outcasts in the synagogue. The disciples went into the synagogues preaching Christ crucified and risen and giving His commandment, namely, if you believe in God, believe also in Jesus and love one another as Jesus has loved us. We know this because of John’s letters. He took those two commandments and made them into one. “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us” (1John 3:21-23). Their message testified of a new covenant in His blood, which replaced the old covenant worshipped in the synagogues. The new commandment fulfilled all of the Law. Do you think that was a welcomed message? We know it wasn’t.The book of Acts and Paul’s testimony to the Galatians confirms these words of Jesus to His disciples. When Saul (later known as the apostle Paul) and his companions stoned Stephen because of the gospel, they thought they were serving God. Paul wrote to the Galatians recorded in 1:13-14, “For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.”We may experience the same rejection if we reduce all of the Christian walk down to believe that Jesus is God, and that living to love with Him on a daily basis is God’s call on your life. It seems too simple. But what about all those standards that identify us as Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, Mennonites, etc.? Hm. These words of Jesus are prophetic, but they are still the words that keep us from stumbling. Let us love on with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.”One of the ways we know what Jesus meant is by looking to see how the disciples took what He said. We are able to do that in this case because the author of John commented on it in his first epistle. In 1John 2:10 he wrote, “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” To what is Jesus referring when He said, “these things”? John narrowed it down to the new commandment. The one who loves his brother, (shall I be so bold as to say it in these words?) who lives to love with Jesus, is walking in the light. That light keeps him from stumbling just as walking in the bright daylight keeps you from stumbling over something. You don’t usually stumble over things in the daylight, do you? Why? Because you can see where you are going. You can see what’s in your path. So it is when you live to love with Jesus. You know where you are going. You’re on your way to love the next person God puts in your path. And when they appear, you won’t stumble over them because you are there to love them, rather than be loved by them. When we live for ourselves, there is great cause for stumbling. We live in a fallen world, and everyone who shows up in our path is fallen. More than likely they are not going to think about our highest good no matter what the cost. So what happens to the person who isn’t living to love with Jesus, to the one who is living to get his or her agenda done or to be happy and comfortable, or to gain significance in this world? They will not walk in love, but will stumble and react, usually in hurtful, unloving ways. Knowing they were to love one another through the life of the indwelling Christ, would keep them from stumbling. Whenever you stumble in a relationship, you can be assured, you have forgotten that your purpose in life is to walk in Jesus’ light and live to love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:27 “And you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”God has provided two witnesses to the living, risen Jesus, the Son of God. The Holy Spirit bears witness by producing the life of Jesus in His disciples. Jesus’ first disciples, provide a second witness to the life of Christ as they testify that the Holy Spirit is the same spirit as was present in Jesus when they walked with Him in the flesh. The writer of Hebrews declared this phenomenon when he wrote, “How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will” (Heb. 2:3-4).Remember, Jesus said He was telling them of things that were to happen before they occurred, so they would know that He was God in the flesh. We are so blessed. Here we have Jesus declaring they would be witnesses with the Holy Spirit, and then we have the fulfillment of it described in Hebrews. This gives us a hope both sure and steadfast. It gives us confidence that indeed, this gospel of salvation is the great salvation proclaimed throughout all of history from the promise to Adam and Eve through all the gospel promises in the Scriptures. As we live to love with Jesus, the love of Jesus through us is the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Then we also testify about Him as we present the gospel recorded in the word of God. Amazing! In this way, the kingdom of God is advanced in this world. God has granted authority to these two witnesses in the world: His Spirit and His people.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,”This verse helps us discern the spirit of truth from the spirit of error. It helped John. He wrote in 1 John 4:2, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, testifying that Jesus is God in the flesh. In Jesus’ words recorded in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.” These words were surely spoken so that there would be no confusion between the Holy Spirit and the spirit of the antichrist.The Holy Spirit, sent by the Son, proceeds from the Father for the purpose of testifying, witnessing to, and glorifying the Son of God. The spirit of antichrist, sent by the devil, testifies to and glorifies man without Jesus. It is the spirit of the world contrasted with the Spirit of God. Let’s not miss this incredible reality. The Holy Spirit could not be sent if Jesus were not alive, having conquered death by the resurrection. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, testifies to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to His union with the Father, and to our union with Him. Only minutes before this, Jesus had said, “In that day [the day the Holy Spirit is sent to you] you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:20). His presence in our lives, loving through us, is the testimony to the world that Jesus lives and we are His. Hallelujah!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:25 “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, 'They hated Me without a cause.’”I’m not sure where in the Law Jesus was referring, but in Psalms 69:4 we find these words. “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies.” To say that they “hated without a cause” is to say that the hatred was within them. There wasn’t something that Jesus did that caused them to hate Him. He healed people, which they could’t do, and they hated Him. He spoke with God’s authority. It brought out hatred in them. He spoke the truth, but they hated the truth and therefore hated Him. God doesn’t cause people to hate Him. They hate Him because they have sin within them. Hatred for God is the fruit of sin whereas in contrast, love for God is the fruit of righteousness.That’s why living to love with Jesus gives us confidence in the judgment as John wrote in 1 John 4:17. We know love for God and others isn’t natural. Rather it’s a supernatural work of grace in the heart of a person, which shows that God has loved them with an everlasting, redemptive love. It reveals that the righteousness of God has been given to them and His righteousness flows through the vine into the branches and bears much fruit—the fruit of God’s love. Hatred for God has been replaced with hatred for sin and love for God. If this describes you, then rejoice in the Lord! Give Him praise and thanksgiving for the privilege of living to love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.”It’s miraculous and supernatural for anyone to live to love with Jesus. It takes a work of grace and glory to transform a hater of God into a lover of God. Look what sin has done to mankind. We live to hate God. We don’t know we hate God until He shows up and does what only He can do. He does the works of God—works that no one else has ever done or can do. We all died when Adam sinned. Death is all we know, and we think it is life because our hearts are beating and we are breathing. So it was with that generation at the time of Jesus’ coming. They didn’t know they were dead in their sin until Jesus came and revealed the life of God. They saw His works, heard His words, and hated Him because He did things they could not do. He exposed them. John described the coming of Jesus this way in John 3:19-20. “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”The same will be true of all those who are His and who walk in the Light of Christ. God is light and the light is love. As they love with Jesus, it will expose those who walk in darkness. Their love is a supernatural love just as the works of Jesus were supernatural. Like Jesus, they will be hated because in everyone who has sin ruling their lives, the love and works of Jesus bring out hatred for Jesus and His Father. Father, give us courage and the love we need to walk in Your light today. Accomplish your work for the glory of your name.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also.”Hate is a strong word, isn’t it? In Deut. 5:9, God speaks to us. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.” Hatred for God is judged and revealed when we put anyone or anything in His place. He alone is worthy of our worship and service. This foundational understanding of hatred for God expressed through idolatry seems to relate to these words of Jesus. Another way of stating this truth is this: He who is most delighted and satisfied in Jesus above all else loves Him and loves God, the Father, also. Whoever hates Jesus and His words, also hates God. What great truth underlies this statement? Jesus and God, the Father, are one. Let’s follow the line. Jesus and the Father are one. If you hate one, you hate the other. Believers in Jesus and Jesus are one. If you hate one, you hate the other. The converse is also true. If you love the Son, you love the Father. If you love those who are His, you love Jesus. What a privilege it is to love with Jesus each day. We are expressing our love for Jesus and the Father, for His glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
God has spoken. Man has no excuse for sin.John 15:22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.”Notice the importance of Jesus’ words. They judge sinners. Jesus said this earlier in the day that He said these words recorded in John 15:22. John 12:48 “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.” The same reasoning applies in both instances. Jesus spoke. The only reason one would reject His word is that they have sin in them. His word became the occasion for the revelation of their sin. There is no excuse for the creature who rejects the word of his creator. This reminds us of Romans 1:20. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” The apostle Paul explained how God’s wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. It is revealed in the fact that God has revealed Himself, and they suppress the truth that God has spoken or revealed Himself.God came and spoke to Adam and Eve. In speaking to them, He spoke to all of mankind, to them, and to us. “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Had He not spoken to us, we would not have sin. But that word judged all mankind, even us, for God’s Word also says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Rom. 5:12-13). And so we are without excuse for our sin. For Paul also wrote, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:19-20). Jesus’ words are the words of God. They are like the law to us. They are spiritual. They show where the Spirit of God is working and where He is not working. God has spoken to us in His Son. Are we listening to Him?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”What are “these things” that Jesus referred to? Persecution and rejection of what you say. The reason we will be rejected, ignored, and dishonored will be for Jesus’ name sake. If we live by and keep His words, then we identify with Jesus, His name. Those who know God, know that Jesus was sent by the Father and that His words were His Father’s words. Jesus commanded His followers to love one another because God is love, and He came to live to love with His Father. So those who know God will love. John expounded on this in his first epistle. “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him” (1 Jo. 4:6-9). Today, we live because Jesus lives. We have His life in us, which is the manifestation of God’s love for us. To God be the glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:20 “Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”Earlier in the evening, after Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, He had said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.” It was said in the context of Jesus’ telling them to serve each other as He had served them by washing their feet. In that case, the message was do as I do. In this case, the idea is the similar. It’s you’ll receive the same from others that I receive. Those who persecute Me will do the same to you, and those who honor Me by keeping My word will do the same with you and your words.As we live to love with Jesus, those who reject God’s word will also reject our words. Love won’t make a difference in how they treat us or what they think about us. However, we should not shrink back from speaking God’s word in love. As we do, we can know that those who love God’s word will receive our words as we are faithful to say what He says. They will receive and honor our words because we are repeating Jesus’ words. That’s a vital aspect of living to love with Jesus. Because we love Him, we keep His words and share them with others in His name. As Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” (John 14:24).Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:19b “But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”Jesus reminded them that they did not choose Him but He chose them out of the world. He chose them because their source isn’t the world, rather they are “of” God. The world hates those who go “out from them” to Jesus. It exposes them for who and whose they are. But let’s pause and consider. Those Jesus chose out of the world looked exactly like those of the world. He didn’t choose us, who are His friends, for any other reason than we have a different source. So how do we know who are His friends. Like He said in John 15:14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” We were “of God” and not “of the world”. However, we didn’t know we were of God until He chose us and revealed His love in us. For this reason, the world hates us. As you live to love with Jesus, humbly consider that you are blessed if the world hates you and speaks all manner of evil against you for His name sake.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:19a “If you were of the world, the world would love its own;”The word Jesus used for “love” in this verse has the same root as the word for “friends”. Philos, friends. Phileo, love. So we can understand that Jesus was saying that if the disciples were of the world, the world would be friendly toward them. Friendship with the world reveals that the world is your source. Friendship with Jesus reveals that God is your source. It is clear that John understood this principle because of what he wrote in his first epistle. “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:18-19). Then in 1 John 4:5-6, speaking of the same group who are antichrists and unfriended them, he wrote, “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”Those who are of the world only befriend those who think like them. They have the same lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, and boastful pride of life in this world. They love their lives in this world and so are friends with others who loves their lives in this world. This should speak to our hearts as it did the disciples’ hearts. We should not try to reach the world by being friends with them—showing them that we desire the same things in this world and boast of the same things as they do. If we live to love with Jesus, we can expect no one in the world, who is of the world, will consider us their friends. They won’t listen to the apostles’ writing or teaching, so they won’t listen to us either. Don’t let that discourage you. All who are His friends, will listen and will not reject your witness or love.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Worship in Spirit and TruthWelcome, new subscribers to my monthly Live to Love blog. I’m honored that you would join us here at The Spirit of Elijah Ministries International in turning our hearts to God.John 4:23-24 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”I have chosen truth as my word of the year, therefore each month I aim to encourage us to love and pursue truth. Truth is reality, and reality is what God says, does, hears, and sees. If God says it, it is reality. If He speaks, it happens. If He hears something, it truly occurred. If He sees something, it happened. Truth is reality. John 4:23-24 are from Jesus’ encounter with a woman at Jacob’s well near the city of Sychar. He spoke about the time period that began with His coming and ends when He returns. We are in that era, the time when worship of God, the Father, is in spirit and truth. We learn from these verses that today, God is seeking such worshipers. I pray that He will find you and me among that number. Soul-satisfying, eternal loveSoul-satisfying, eternal love comes from worshiping the Father in spirit and truth. Honest, truth-loving worship in the presence of God satisfies our souls because we were made to worship God. The source of love is not external worship of a material nature. When we realize in our hearts that God is spirit, we know the truth. Our consciences recognize that God is always with us and has seen everything about us. To worship in spirit is to believe Hebrews 4:13. “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Since truth is what He sees, we know that we are known, which makes us honest. Jesus, was God, inviting the woman to worship His Father in spirit and truth as He revealed to her that He knew the truth about her. He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly” (John 4:16-18).When we know that we are known by God (that’s worshiping in spirit) and come to Him as He sees us (that’s in truth), we experience His soul-satisfying eternal love which produces worship—the kind God seeks.
If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” Hatred for Jesus precedes hatred for those who are His. Let’s keep in mind that Jesus told them of these things before they happened, so they would know that He is the Son of God. Up to this point, Jesus had been the target of the unbelieving ones, such as the Pharisees and Scribes. But within days, their bitterness became focused on Jesus’ followers.Nothing has changed since the moment these words passed through Jesus’ lips. The world still hates the vine and therefore hates the branches of the vine. The branches of the vine that do not bear fruit for the glory of God are the world of which Jesus spoke. If branches suck up the blessings of life from the vine, yet fail to produce fruit, their love for their existence in this world is destructive and counter to the purpose of the vine and the branches. Hatred flows through the branches and produces hatred for Jesus and His followers. Why tell this to His disciples? So they would know when it happened to them that Jesus is the Son of God and that they belong to Him. As we live to love with Jesus, we may expect to be hated by those who hate Him. The point is: don’t think that you did something wrong when others hate you. You may or may not have done something to offend them, but they hate you because they hate Jesus. If they loved Jesus, they would gladly forgive your offense(s) because they too have been forgiven of their sins and have believed Jesus’ commandment to love as they have been loved by Him. So do not be discouraged to live to love with Jesus. Even more so, love as you’ve been commanded.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:17 This I command you, that you love one another.This is now the third time Jesus commanded His disciples to love each other since they had finished the evening meal. The Father really wanted His disciples to get the point of their existence and relationship with His Son. I don’t want us to miss the point. We were saved to live for one purpose: to glorify the Father through loving others with His Son. This verse also makes it very clear what fruit Jesus had in mind when He said in the previous verse, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain.” The fruit of love is the fruit of the vine, the life of Jesus. Again Jesus underscored that it is His command. We’ve learned that it is love that makes such a command. God loved His Son and commanded Him to lay down His life, and the Son has loved us in the same way by commanding us to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters in Christ. What a privilege, honor, and adventure with Jesus! On this side of the cross, we know what it means to love. On their side of the cross, God’s love was in the process of being defined and revealed. How can this Scripture encourage us today? What comes to mind are the words of the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 10:24-26. “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” In a sense, we are now assembled, as we listen to this podcast together to be stimulated and encouraged to love. The day is drawing near that Jesus will return. What will matter is if we lived to love with Him. I hope this scripture will encourage and stimulate you to love with Him today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”These words were shared for the purpose of giving His disciples confidence and honor. They were His friends because He wanted to befriend them. Let us remember, Jesus’ enemies intended to shame Him by calling Him a “friend of sinners.” The transforming power of His love was bestowed by grace. He did not call them friends because they initiated the relationship. Rather, they found favor with Him because of God’s grace and an eternal purpose determined by His Father. The apostle Paul commented on this great gospel truth of God’s election when he wrote, “God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2 Tim. 1:9). What is the purpose for which we were chosen by God in Christ Jesus? To love with Him. To go through life with Him, laying down our lives, suffering for the sake of the gospel, displaying the fruit He produces in answer to prayer inspired and encouraged by the knowledge of God’s will for them to be fruitful branches. Do we live with that awareness of His purpose, promise, and honor? He has honored us by choosing, appointing, and empowering us to live to love with Him for the glory of the Father. Be encouraged today in the eternal purpose of God revealed in you as you live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Let’s live in John 15:15 for another day. Jesus said to His disciples, “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”The transformation from slave to friend occurred as He loved them as the Father had loved Him. The Father had given His Son the word that contained the power to set them apart from everyone else in the world. What were those words? To love. “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you” (John 13:34; 15:12). Those were the words that pruned them. They removed the worldly, fruitless purposes that had governed their lives to this point. Without this new commandment, the defilement of worldly pursuits would clog up the life-carrying arteries of the branch. In giving them the command the Father gave Him to give to them, they were set apart to a new purpose or vision for their lives, namely, to live with Jesus to love everyone He loved for the glory of the Father. Through them, the Vine would love His own to the very end of time. As His love sap flowed through them, His friends would show the world that He lives.In the previous two verses, Jesus had told His disciples that the greatest expression of love is laying one’s life down for his friends and that His friends were those who obeyed His command to love as He has loved them. In giving them the word of the Father, to love with Jesus, they had been transformed from slaves to friends for whom He was laying down His life. The word of the Father has been preserved and delivered now to us in this generation, making us His friends if we believe in Him, receive them, and obey. Receive the pruning of the Father. Let all who hear these words, repent of living for selfish, worldly purposes. May we glory in His friendship and live to love with Him for the rest of our lives.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”Earlier in the evening before their last meal together, Jesus had called His disciples slaves. ““If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them” (John 13:14-17). He called them slaves earlier to set the stage for them to receive His new command to live to love with Him. At this point in the evening, He wanted them to know what was about to happen and that He was relating to them, not as slaves, but as His dearly beloved friends. As He spoke and they walked toward the arranged rendezvous with the devil, He was laying down His life for His friends. He wanted them to know what He was doing—sanctifying them, His friends, to Himself—calling them into the place He was going to prepare for them. How do His friends get into this place of union with Jesus? They believe Jesus is God in the flesh, who died to remove all of the sins of His friends, who conquered death for them, has risen to ever live to intercede for them, and to give them His life. All done perfectly, according to the will of His Father, so He can continue loving all His friends through them for His glory. Do you realize what Jesus did for you? Do you believe in Jesus? If so, then you know what He was doing. He was preparing to live to love through us today who are His friends.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
In this month's Live to Love blog, we look at God's Vineyard. You'll learn about the vinedresser (God), the vine (Jesus), the branches (people), the fruit (love of God), and the burn pile (hell). God loves the fruit of His love, so He made the world (the vineyard) for the purpose of enjoying the fruit and glorifying Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ.
This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” In my paraphrase, “My friends are those who live their lives for one purpose: to love with Me those the Father has given Me and therefore bear fruit for the glory and joy of My Father.” To do that, we must lay down living for ourselves, adopt Jesus’ purpose as our own, and live through Him.” Are you a friend of Jesus for whom He laid down His life? I sure hope so!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.After commanding His disciples to love each other as He had loved them, He explained how He had loved them. His entire life from His first breath in this world, was to surrender His life, to lay down His life, to love those His Father commanded Him to love. What did He lay down? He laid down His life with the comforts of heaven and earth. He surrendered His reputation, honor, rights, everything this world had to offer Him. He did not defend, promote, protect, or assert Himself. Everything was laid down that He had a right to hold onto for the sake of one thing: to express the love of the Father for His glory for those the Father wanted Him to love. As He had only minutes before said, “So that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.” What had the Father commanded Him? For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father” (Jo. 10:17-18). The Father loves His Son so commanded Him to lay down His life of His own initiative. If He laid down His life for us out of obedience to His Father, shall we not also be loved by our Father and commanded to lay down our lives for those He loves? This is the great love that lives inside of us—the supernatural, self-sacrificial, love of God for His friends.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.Today’s verse, confirms all that Jesus had said to His disciples. He loved them like the Father has loved Him. To insure that they and all disciples yet to be born may understand that they have been called to a new purpose by the love of God, Jesus repeated the new commandment. It is our highest good to know that this is the love of God, namely, to be commanded to love with Him and then empowered to bear fruit by His life in them. This command, repeated, received, and obeyed is the life, light, and purpose for which church was brought forth out of the Son of Man and given to Him as His bride—to love Jesus by loving each other through the power of intimate union with His life. We will see all of this expressed in Jesus’ prayer in John 17. The love of Jesus is the fruit of the vine which comes from the life of Jesus, and this love is the light of the world for the glory and joy of not only the Father and the Son, but also all who are His. So today, I love you with the love of Jesus, and in His name, command you to live for this one, all-encompassing, life-transforming, joy-producing purpose—to love today with Jesus. We love because He first loved us and commanded us to love like He has loved us. Tomorrow we learn more about how He has loved us and what loving others looks like.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.Here the disciples receive the reason for all that Jesus had said and done that evening, recorded in John 13:4 to now. The glory of God is His love revealed in His Son. And how is that love most glorified and revealed? That the love the Father has for His Son and the Son has for the Father is given so freely and so generously to their offspring that they experience the same fullness of joy that the Godhead enjoys together. What word best describes such revealed love and purpose? The word “Glory” comes to mind. Do we realize the glorious, generous, life-changing, joy-producing love of God revealed in the new commandment given to Jesus by the Father and then lovingly given to the disciples and thus to us, “Love one another as I have loved you.”? Jesus said He gave us the commandment so we might experience His joy. When we see His joy in our obedience, our joy will become full. That is the fruit the vine exists for and the fruit for which the Father planted the vineyard. We exist for the joy of the vinedresser and that joy will explode when the fruit is harvested. What amazing grace, that God has purposed that the branches enter into the joy of the vinedresser and the vine. And all we did was obey the command to live to love with Jesus, ask Him for the life giving power to love, and He did it! He did loved His own for us, so that His joy would be in us and our joy made full. How do you respond to these words?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.In this verse we learn an astounding lesson about the love of the Father for His Son and the Son’s love for us. Love, the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, expressed that love by giving a command to love. How did the Father love Jesus and what did Jesus do to love His disciples that the Father did to love Him? The Father loved His Son by commanding Him to come to earth and love those given to Him with Him, the Father. In just the same love, Jesus commanded His disciples to love those given to Him with Him, the Son. Let this sink in! Meditate on this glorious truth until your soul is filled with wonder and awe and your life takes on His purpose for life: to make disciples who live to love with Jesus. To love them by teaching them Jesus’ command, namely, to love those who are His with Him. Or to put it in the terms of Jesus’ analogy, to bear fruit for the glory and joy of the vinedresser, His Father. It is in the Sons’ highest good to please His Father by obeying His command to love in His name. It is in the disciples’ and our highest good to obey Jesus’ command to love in His name. We’ll see why this is in our highest good tomorrow. Today, the Son has loved us by commanding us to live to love with Him. Can you imagine a branch not obeying? It’s the very nature of the branch to do so. It’s why it was made.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.Love has lost its meaning today. The love of which Jesus spoke may be defined as the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost. Jesus told His disciples that He has loved them just as the Father had loved Him. What did He mean “just as” the Father loved Him. How did the Father love Him? What did Jesus do to love them that the Father did to love Him? The answer is in the next verse. For today, let’s be encouraged by Jesus’ encouragement to abide in His love. I think the best way to understand the word abide is to picture the branches receiving the life from the vine. This isn’t a passive reception of the life of Christ, it is active. Sometimes there are branches that are called “suckers”, usually referring to branches that suck the sap from the vine but produce no fruit. These must be removed. However, a branch that does bear fruit also sucks its life from the vine for the very purpose of bearing fruit. All of the life-giving energy is sucked/received from the vine and then channeled to the fruit by the branch. Can you see yourself like that branch today? You’re not passive, you are abiding, sucking, receiving your life today from Jesus who dwells in you. He promises to love through you.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.Here Jesus reveals His passion, the passion of the vine—namely, the glory of His Father. How vital it is for His disciples to understand that their lives have one holy purpose, that is to bring glory to the vinedresser by bearing much fruit. The fruit, of course, is His love. We must be careful not to be misguided and think that the fruit is decisions for Christ, or changed lives in those whom we love in His name. The fruit is clearly fruit that issues forth from the lives of the disciples. It is the fruit of which the apostle Paul wrote when He described the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in Gal. 5:22-23. We are not fruitful if we see those things in other people. Our fruitfulness looks like the fruit of the life of the vine. It is love. Love is the proof that we are Jesus’ disciples, true branches connected to the vine. This is a repeat of John 13:35. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” May the Spirit of Christ encourage us today, to bear fruit for the glory of the Father, by asking Jesus to love through us and for us. He promises to do it for us.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.Let’s look at this verse from the perspective of a branch united to the vine. What would the branch ask of the vine? Wouldn’t a branch that has the life of the vine running through its veins wish only one thing? To bear fruit? It draws upon the resources of the vine so that more fruit can be produced for the glory of the vine. Jesus told His disciples that His life and His words were the life-giving, fruit-bearing sap of their lives. To Jesus’ point, if Jesus and His word had a home in them, had unhindered access to them, then whatever was needed to love as He loves would be done for them. Don’t miss what He said. He didn’t say they would get what they asked for so they could then do it for Jesus. They would ask for what His word commanded, namely to love as He loves, because that’s their greatest wish as branches, and Jesus would do it for them. It’s Jesus living for them, not them living for Jesus! Thank You, Jesus for living in us and giving us Your word that the purpose and privilege of our lives is to love with You. That’s exactly what we wish for today. Give us the fruit of Your life today, for the glory of Your Father. AmenAcknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.What would you think about a vinedresser that left dead branches on the vine or when removed left an unsightly pile of dried up branches in his vineyard? Would you consider him lazy or sloppy? You certainly wouldn’t think well of him. Would you not consider it to his credit and praise that he remove them and take them to a burn pile? What else does he do with dead, dried up branches?Why did Jesus think it was important to give this information to His disciples? It’s because the Father gave it to Him to give to them because that information is for their highest good. It also is what a responsible vinedresser does, and certainly they knew it. It is highly possible, knowing Jesus, that such a burn pile was in sight.According to Jonathan Edwards, God glorifies Himself even in the destruction of the wicked who do not bear fruit. It is reasonable and it is the branch’s purpose to bear fruit, the fruit of His love. In fruit-bearing both the Father and the Son are glorified. However, a dead, dried up branch brings no glory to the Son, the vine. So there is only one reasonable and expected way that remains for the Father, the vinedresser, to receive glory as far as they are concerned, and that is in the destruction of those who fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). The destruction of the wicked in hell is neither unjust nor unloving. Contrary to popular opinion, it is what love for the Vine and the vineyard looks like. For God, The Vinedresser, to not have a burn pile would be to fall short of the glory of God. Let us bear fruit today by living to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.Jesus is life. Everything that isn’t flowing out of Him is dead. He is the vine. we are nothing more than branches. We don’t do the fruit-bearing, the loving, Jesus does the fruit-bearing and the loving. The branch doesn’t bear much fruit of itself. It’s impossible. God provides the increase, the fruit-bearing through His Son, the vine, in the branches so that all the glory goes to the Father and the Son. The reality of this illustration is amazing. All of mankind exists for God and exists through Jesus Christ. No one who has been made wasn’t made through Him as John wrote in 1:3. “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” Of all of mankind, God has chosen to bear fruit for His glory through some of the branches that issued forth from the vine, His Son. It is obvious which branches have been pruned to bear fruit by the vinedresser. These branches experience a flow of fruit-yielding life as the union between Jesus and them is intentionally chosen by the branches. They live to love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:4. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”Abide is the word Jesus used to describe the dynamic relationship between Himself and fruitful branches. They live or dwell in Him, and He dwells or lives in them. The verb tense of abide describes the resulting action of something that happened in the past, namely, pruning or cleansing by Jesus’ words, which gives rise to the one point in time action that you are commanded to take in the present, which is abide. You now abide in Jesus because He lives in you!!! It’s not so much an imperative of “must”, but an imperative of reality. It’s just the way it is, so you do it. You receive His life like a branch receives life from the vine. The idea is that the branch grew out of the vine with life in it, so the branch naturally abides in the vine and the life of the vine is in the branch so it can bear fruit. It’s the only thing that makes sense. If you have Jesus’ life, then you choose to live the rest of your life in Him to love as He loves. In Peter’s first epistle, He used the same verb tense to explain our loving with Jesus. 1 Peter 1:22 – “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love (same aorist, active imperative) one another earnestly from a pure heart.” The rationale of the verse is clear: The reader who is a Christian has “purified, or been made clean” and this certain reality is made evident by their “obedience to the truth” for the purpose of “brotherly love (fruit-bearing in John 15)” If all of this past work is actually true, the natural result is that you will “love” each other deeply from the heart now. If we have really been converted, been purified and made new, and we have shown a willingness to obey, especially the command to “love the brethren” then naturally we “have to start loving deeply” to prove that what happened in the past is really true. Abiding in Jesus is the foundation of living to love with Jesus. Have you chosen to repent of living life for yourself? Have you chosen to obey Jesus and surrender yourself to live out of His life?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:3. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”In effect, Jesus told His disciples that they were ready to bear fruit for God because of what He had told them. Let’s be encouraged and pruned with those words.1. First, told them everything He was doing was so the Father would be glorified in the Son. 13:31-32.2. Second, He called them to live to love with Him for the glory of God. He gave them a new commandment to love one another as He loved them so the world would know that they were His disciples. 13:34-353. Third, He told them how they were going to be able to love. He was going to the Father to prepare a place for them in Himself so they could do the works of God that He does, namely, love like He loves. 14:2-3, 124. Jesus is the way, truth, and the life of God. 14:65. God, the Father, and Jesus are one. Their oneness is to be in them. 14:106. If they ask in His name for the power to love with Jesus, Jesus would do it. 14:147. When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in them, Jesus will come back to live in them forever. 14:16-188. When you receive the Holy Spirit, you’ll know that Jesus is in the Father, that you are in Christ, and that He is in you. 14:209. Fourth, He encouraged them that He who loves Him, will keep His words and the Father and Son will dwell in them because His words were from the Father. 14:23-2410. The Holy Spirit will be with them forever to help them and teach and remind them of Jesus’ words. 14:26If you know and experience the presence of Christ then hold on to these words like a treasure. They are the Father’s pruning, cleansing, purifying, and sanctifying work preparing you to bear fruit. These truths are contained in the Live to Love prayer. I invite you to pray it with me now and every day so you can bear fruit for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:2-3. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”I want to encourage you today with the words of Jesus that prune us, the words that sanctify or clean us so that we can bear more fruit. If we didn’t stop and look back at those words, we would miss how powerful and encouraging verse 3 is to us. The same Greek word, katharos, is used in vss. 2-3. In vs. 2, Jesus used the verb form and in vs. 3, the adjectival form. Jesus also told them they were “clean” in 13:10. The idea Jesus communicated was the idea of being washed, cleansed, or purified from those things that hinder the flow of His love. There’s so much here! Who does the pruning? The vinedresser, of course, not the vine. However, Jesus said here that His words had cleansed or pruned them. However, He had told them only minutes earlier, that the words that He spoke to them were the words of the Father working. He said, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” So now we can connect the dots. The vinedresser, the Father, gave the words to Jesus, in order to cleanse or prune His disciples. It was and still is the Father working in His Son because they are one. The Father’s words are the life of the vine and the powerful pruning work in our lives. When praying to His Father, Jesus described this incredible reality. John 17:6-8. “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” Then later in His prayer, He asked the Father to prune His disciples through the word that He had given Him to give to them. John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” What truth or words did Jesus give to His disciples that prepared them for effective fruit-bearing for the glory of God? Do you know what they are? Have you received them as the pruning, cleansing, sanctifying words of God that make His branches fruitful? We will be encouraged by His cleansing words tomorrow.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”The vine dresser, the Father, knows what is necessary for His vine to bear fruit for His glory. Branches (people) who do not bear fruit for His glory must be removed. The branches who bear fruit must be pruned so that the life received from the vine may explode in fruit-bearing. Everything that hinders the branch from bearing fruit will be removed. Such is the love and determination of the vinedresser. The vine exists for one purpose: to bear fruit for the vinedresser. The branches are only of value to the degree that they channel the life within the vine into fruit production. What is the fruit of His life? It is the love of Jesus for the Father and for other fruit-bearing branches. Let’s not forget what Jesus has told them. He and the Father are one. They work together. The illustration of the vinedresser and the vine working toward the same end, namely, fruit-bearing, aptly illustrates what Jesus wanted His disciples and us to grasp. They and we are the branches who produce fruit for the glory of God as the Father and Son work in and through us. This is one of the many reasons I hope you’ll grasp the vision of living to love with Jesus, namely, bearing the fruit of the Spirit of God, which is the love of Jesus. Jesus said that if we are to be fruit-bearing branches, we must be pruned so we can bear more fruit. We will continue with that wonderful thought in tomorrow’s live to love scripture encouragement.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.”After telling His disciples the new commandment, to love as He loved them, Jesus explained how they were going to be able to obey. He was going to the Father to prepare a place for them so that He could live and love in them through the Holy Spirit. In chapter 15, Jesus chose the metaphors of a vinedresser and a grape vine to further explain how they were going to bear fruit for the glory of God. God, the Father of Jesus, planted only one true vine in this world, Jesus, His Son. He alone is the source of life to this world. In fact, He is the channel through which everything was created and exists. John introduced Jesus this way in John 1:1-4. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” This is indeed the biblical worldview of all things.The world is the vineyard that belongs to the Father. He planted one true vine in this world, His Son, Jesus Christ. Paul put it this way to the Corinthians in chapter 8, verse 6. “Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” The vineyard is there for the Father to enjoy the fruit from His choice Vine. However, not every branch (person produced by the Vine) bears fruit. As we meditate on John Chapter 15 the next few weeks and consider our lives each day, let us remember this foundational statement made by Jesus. “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” Why do we exist? What are we here to do? Will you recognize that Jesus is the only vine and that you came into being through Him?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.Consider the life and love of the one who lives in those who believe in Jesus. Jesus loves the Father and reveals that love by His obedience. The Father commanded Jesus to lay down His life for those whom the Father gave to Him before the foundation of the earth. So He came to do the Father’s will. As is written in Heb. 10:7. “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’” Jesus knew they had to leave the upper room and go to the place where the ruler of this world would meet Him and attempt to take Him down. The world is to know that what occurred that night were not in the hands of mortal men nor of the ruler of this world. They occurred so that the Son could demonstrate His love for His Father and His obedience to His will. Jesus was completely, 100% submitted to and surrendered to this one great passion stated by Jesus only minutes before. “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.” (John 13:31-32). As we saw and heard Jesus authorize His own betrayal in sending Judas to do the deed, we now see in this verse, Jesus relocated Himself so that He would be in the path of the betrayer, the soldiers, and Satan Himself. He loves the Father by obeying Him! He did exactly as the Father commanded Him. That is the life and love that lives within all who believe. All who are His love the Father and do the Father’s will. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter” (Matt. 7:21). We do His will—live to love with Jesus—because the love of the Father and the Son dwell within us. There is no greater joy than to glorify the Father through His Son who lives and loves in us.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:30 I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me;Jesus told them one more thing before it happened so that they might believe. He told them that Satan was coming to try to get Him, but that Jesus would defeat Satan because there was nothing in Jesus that belonged to him. This is a stunning statement of the divinity of Jesus Christ. Everything in Him was God, and there was nothing in Him that belonged to Satan. There were no thoughts, no lies, no emotions, no doubts, no unbelief, no lusts, no fears, no indecision, no idolatry, no nothing for Satan to appeal to in Jesus that could distract Jesus from doing the will of His Father. He basically told them that Satan will be defeated. We now know that Jesus’ prophetic statement is true. Satan came. He tried to tempt Jesus away from the Father’s will. He failed. There was nothing that belonged to Satan in Jesus, so Jesus stood firm, surrendered Himself to all that was in Him of the Father, and crushed the ruler of this world, the prince of the power of the air, and all of Satan’s works in all of those who belong to Jesus. John wrote in His first epistle in 3:8. “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” And He has! There is nothing in Jesus (in His body—that’s us) that Satan can use to condemn and destroy us. We are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ, who has loved us and given Himself for us. Today, let us be encouraged that Satan has nothing in us to separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ. Let us rejoice and be glad, and give all the glory unto Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:29 Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.Jesus reminded His disciples of what He told them earlier, recorded in 13:19. “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.” At this point, He said, “I have told you before it happens.” He told them 8 things that were to happen to provide a basis for their faith. 1. He was going to the Father and preparing a place in Himself for them. 2. He will leave them, they will not see Him for a while, and then they will see Him, but the world wouldn’t see Him. 3. Because He went to the Father to prepare a place for them, He will come again to them, and they will see Him. 4. Because He went to the Father to prepare a place for them, they will do greater works than He had done as they pray and Jesus works. 5. The Father will send the Holy Spirit, who will bring His presence into their lives forever. 6. The Holy Spirit will guide them into truth, teach them all things, and remind them of what He had said to them. 7. The day they see Him and receive the Holy Spirit, they will know that Jesus in the Father, that they are in Jesus, and that Jesus is in them. 8. He leaves them with His supernatural peace. These things all happened to the disciples as Jesus said they would. They believed. They were written here, so we might also believe and receive the same promises. We have the same basis for faith that the disciples had. Let us rejoice, believe in Jesus, and live to love with Him today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:28 You heard that I said to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.It was clear to Jesus what he had said to them. He was going to leave them, go to the Father, and then return to them. Apparently, there were no signs in the disciples that they understood the significance of His going to the Father and returning to them. They should have rejoiced, but didn’t. Jesus said they didn’t rejoice because they didn’t love Him. The word Jesus used was a form of agape. When they heard Him say that He was leaving and then going to come again, they should’ve rejoiced if they loved Him for they would have known that his greatest desire was to return to the Father having done His will. When you love someone, you know their heart’s desire, and you want their highest good, their greatest joy. But when you don’t love someone, you are concerned with your own happiness, you’re self-occupied. All events are filtered through what makes you happy or unhappy, what pleases you or disappoints you. The disciples didn’t know that it was for their highest good and greatest joy for Jesus to go to the Father on their behalf. They didn’t know how Jesus loved the Father and that His greatest satisfaction was knowing by experience His Father’s love and presence. Our joy should flow out of love for Jesus’ joy. Do we realize that we have Jesus’ life and heart in us? If we love Him, we identify with His life and love. Are we more interested and consumed with being loved as if we are the greatest, or are we interested and consumed with the relationship of the Father and Son that dwells within us? With Jesus, let us love the Father, for He is greater than we are and greater than the Son.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.The disciples were about to enter into the greatest disappointment and test of their faith in their lives up to that point. They were going to watch their Master, Teacher, and hope betrayed, arrested, falsely accused and tried, and then hung on a cross until dead. They needed peace in their souls—not a peace that comes from happy circumstances in this world, nor a peace that comes from all your expectations being met. They needed a supernatural peace—a peace that only God can give. A peace that comes from knowing God’s will is being done. A peace fostered by righteousness, justice, and love being perfectly executed by Almighty God. That peace, the perfect peace of Jesus stood before them so they could make a withdrawal equal to the challenges ahead. They looked into His face, heard His voice, received His words. There was no terror, fear, trouble, or regret detected. He was peaceful, and He knew what was coming, but they didn’t. He was giving them His peace, right then. He was leaving it with them as He was leaving them. As things began to unfold, they were to receive and live out of His peace. For a second time He admonished them not to let their hearts be troubled or be fearful. Love can’t flow when our hearts are troubled and fearful. Love flows from a peaceful heart that trusts in the wisdom and authority of Our Almighty Father.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.It’s almost as if Jesus wanted them to know that the words He had spoken to them in the previous 5-10 minutes or so were spoken so that they would know He and the Holy Spirit were working together. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, sent from the Father upon Jesus’ request will come to them and teach and explain all that Jesus had said. They didn’t have to be worried about remembering everything. It’s also true for us in our time. We have the same Spirit who spoke these words to the disciples while Jesus was with them. Those words were recorded by John when the Holy Spirit brought them back to mind. We are now experiencing the fruit and fulfillment of Jesus’ promise in these verses. That’s amazing and encouraging! We can trust in the Holy Spirit, who is in us in Jesus’ name, to teach us and help us keep His words. Thank You, Father, for giving these wonderful words to Jesus to give to His disciples. And thank You for sending the Holy Spirit to remind them of them so they could write them down and pass them on to every generation after them, even down to us. We receive You and worship You in Jesus’ name as we rely on the Spirit to teach us and guide us as we live to love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.Walking with Jesus is an expression of love for Jesus. The one who loves Jesus, loves and keeps His words. Jesus certainly made that clear in the previous verses. In this verse, we hear the contrast. Those who don’t love Him are those who don’t keep, watch over, and guard His words or commandments. Consequently, they don’t trust in Jesus in troubled times and they don’t love those who do love Jesus and His words. Again, Jesus underscored His union with His Father. “The word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” Only minutes before, Jesus had told them, “He who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” In John 17:7-8, Jesus revealed that these disciples loved Him for He said, “Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” Only those who love Jesus believe that He speaks the words of the Father, and they know, as the disciples did, that love for Jesus is love for the one true God. Let this encourage us who live to love with Jesus. As we trust in Jesus and live to love with Him, we are expressing our love for the Father and the Son.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.This is a repeat of verse 21 so it must be important. How do we know who loves Jesus? It’s those who keep His word. And what is the reward to those who love Him by keeping His word? They become the dwelling place of the Father and the Son. They become the temple of God—the holy place where God and man meet in worship, honor, and celebration of the greatness, mercy, grace, and love of God. If people want to meet the Father and the Son, where can they go? There was a time when they had to go to a physical tabernacle or temple. Now, we, those who love Jesus and keep His commandments to believe in Jesus and love with Him, are the temple where they can meet up with God. Every person God puts in your path today will be standing, sitting, or passing by the place where God dwells. It is His love, that wonderful, fragrant aroma of Christ that will draw them into His presence to find mercy, salvation, and peace. Glory to God in the highest!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Have you ever been afraid that God wasn’t going to do what you thought He was going to do? You question what’s happening because the events aren’t lining up with what you expected. I think that’s what happened to Judas, not Judas Iscariot, but Judas the son of James. If he was thinking that Jesus was going to establish the kingdom in Israel and drive out the Romans, how was He going to do that by revealing Himself to them and not to the world. In Judas’ mind, something must have happened that changed the plan. The natural mind has a worldly perspective, but the spiritual mind envisions God’s kingdom in the hearts of men and women. In reality nothing had happened to change God’s agenda of glorifying Himself in His Son by loving His own and bringing many sons to glory.From our vantage point, something has happened that changed everything and made it possible for Jesus to disclose Himself to us and not to the world. His death, resurrection, and glorification have occurred and as a result, the living, Lord Jesus Christ lives united with all who believe in Him. Who are those people who are united with Him? We will rejoice in the answer in tomorrow’s live to love encouragement.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
In this verse we have a clear statement of what it means to love Jesus and the blessing of loving Him. Those who love Jesus have His commandments and watch over them to keep them. At this point in Jesus’ message to His disciples, He has given them three commandments. 1. John 13:34. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Then in John 14:1, Jesus gave two more commands. So #2, “Don’t let your heart be troubled. And #3. Believe in God, believe in Me. John combined the commands of John 14:1 into one single command: Believe in Jesus. In 1 John 3:23-24 he wrote, “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”My spiritual mentor, Jerry White, Jr. taught me that to be a disciple of Jesus, we have to know that God loves us and that we love Him. If those two things are settled in our lives, then our hearts won’t be troubled in this fallen world—no matter what happens. We know He loves us because He reveals Himself to us. He lets us know that He is with and in us as this verse says by the presence of the Holy Spirit. We know that we love Him because we believe He is the life and that loving with Him is the way we keep His commandments. We don’t keep Jesus’ commandments by accident or happenstance. We keep them, guard them intentionally. If you love Jesus, then be intentional about believing and trusting Jesus to be your life. Expect Him to love whoever He puts in your path today?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.In what day? I can think of two possible answers from the context. 1. The day of which Jesus spoke was the day they saw Him in His resurrected body in the upper room. 2. The day of which Jesus spoke was the day that each of them received the Holy Spirit. In John 20:19-22 we discover that both of these happened on the same day and within perhaps seconds of each other. “So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” We can see why they rejoiced! Then it happened as promised. He gave them the Holy Spirit by breathing on them and simply commanding them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”Which is most important, seeing Jesus alive in His body or receiving the Holy Spirit? This is an important question because we haven’t seen Him physically. We would think that they are blessed more than we. But hear the words of Jesus in John 20:29 spoken to Thomas who didn’t see Him the first time and doubted. Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” He is speaking of us! The best of the two options then is receiving the Holy Spirit. It indicates that Jesus was indeed God, and was in the Father. We also know that we have an eternal abiding place in Jesus. And furthermore, we know that Jesus dwells in us like the Father dwelled in Jesus. What a glorious day it was when you received the Holy Spirit! We have His life in us and therefore are sent to love in this world just as Jesus was sent.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:19 After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.I don’t know if we can imagine the impact of these words on the disciples. He’s told them He’s leaving so that He can return to live in them so they might live forever with Him. Let’s remember why Jesus told them these things. He was telling them what was to happen in the future so that they might believe that He is the Son of God and the life of the Father. John 13:19 “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.” Within days, Jesus died on the cross, three days later was raised, and then they saw Him—alive—in the upper room again fulfilling this promise—“you will see Me.” If we have life, it is because Jesus, who is the life, died, was raised, was glorified, and lives. He has given us life. The apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians in 3:4. “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” for “Christ in you, [is] the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). We are not of this world. We have been loved by God and filled with His life so we can love with Him. We live because He lives, and we love because He is love.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:17-18. that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.So far in John 14, we have seen the foundational truth of the union of the Father and the Son. Now in vss 17-18, we discover another foundational truth. The Holy Spirit is united with the Son. Jesus said, “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father.” Here He said, “When you receive the Holy Spirit, you will have Me as your Father dwelling with and in you.” Notice the verb tenses. You know the Holy Spirit now because He abides with you now in me. You know Him now because He that is with you now will be in you later.In contrast, the world can’t receive the Holy Spirit because the world doesn’t see or know Him. The world who can’t receive the Holy Spirit is the same world for which Jesus doesn’t intercede in His prayer to the Father recorded in John 17:9. “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours.” The presence of the Holy Spirit is the sure sign that you belong to the Father, that you are not orphans, that you are not of this world, but are one of His household of which He spoke in vs. 2. Jesus’ promise to come to them is a repeat of His promise in vs. 3. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself.” This leads us to conclude that the primary truth Jesus has in mind isn’t our being with Him in heaven, but His being with and in His family here on the earth. This is only possible after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and glorification. John explained this in 7:39. “But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”Let this amaze us who have the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwelling with us. Jesus has come to us because He has been glorified by the Father for His work on the cross. This place was prepared for us by our Lord. To God be the glory! That’s why we live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:16.2 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;” This is the first promise to His disciples regarding the Holy Spirit. Again, we come to a third pivot point. The promise of the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives changed everything from the moment these words were uttered. It was a seismic paradigm shift of understanding and world view. Up to this time, the disciples were focused on their own abilities and greatness for God—their performance—their works for God. In these words they hear the glorious news that the Father, God, is going to give them the life of God—the Spirit of the Father and the Son—to be with them forever. Their new lives will be defined by the life and presence of the Spirit of God, not by their own works and performance. Is that how we approach life each day? Do you believe Jesus’ words? Do you trust in Jesus’ intercession for you? Do you believe in the Father’s generosity and joy in sharing His life with you so that you can bring Him glory through His Son? The presence of the Helper, the One who walks beside, the One who comforts us is our confidence as we run the race set before us. Thank You, Father for sending Your Son to help us by taking away our sins which separates us from You. Thank You, Jesus, for interceding for us so we could come to God for help. And thank You, Holy Spirit, for helping us live and love for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;” The context of John 14 helps us get the fullness of what Jesus said in verse 16. It is something like this: “When I go back to My Father, I will ask Him to give you another Helper, who is the same as Me, so that He may always be with you to help you love Me, obey My commandments, love one another in My name, and thus bear fruit for the glory of God.” Can you imagine what a comfort and hope this statement produced in the disciples? Jesus answered the questions that probably all of them were asking in their minds. “How is this going to happen? How are we going to love like He loves? How are we going to believe in Jesus when our hearts are troubled? How are the works of Jesus going to be done in us? How are we going to live in the abiding place Jesus is going to prepare for us? The answer: You will not be left alone to do life in your own strength and knowledge. If Jesus asks the Father to give us a Helper just like Him, then He’s asking in the name of the Father. The Father will do it because it is the Father’s will that the Son bring us to Him. The Son is obeying the commandment of the Father to love us like the Father loves Him. He loves the Father and is keeping His Father’s commandment because the Father’s life is in Him doing the work so that He may be glorified in the Son. Today, let’s take great encouragement that Jesus has and is interceding for us according to the Father’s will. We can expect help today from the Father to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Yesterday I explained what I thought “asking in Jesus’ name” meant. I said, “To ask in His name is to ask according to what Jesus has commanded, namely, to believe in Him and to love as He has loved us so that God may be glorified in His Son. In other words, we ask for the life and love of Jesus to be manifested in our lives. That’s our new purpose for living. That’s why He saved us! Today’s live to love scripture encouragement from John 14:15 confirms this idea of praying in Jesus’ name. Jesus said to His disciples, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” We pray for God to be glorified in His Son as His Son lives in us. We have just learned in John 14 that those who believe in Jesus have a new place, prepared by Jesus, to live or abide—in the life of Jesus. And miracles of miracles, believers have the very life of Christ dwelling in them. Because we love Him, the motive clearly stated by Jesus in this verse, we will keep Jesus’ commandments because Jesus is our life source. The love we have both for God and Jesus comes from Jesus. The faith we have in God and in Jesus, comes from His life of dwelling in us. We live in His name when we believe and love as He commanded us. All we need to do is ask for His faith and love to be manifested in our lives in this world for the glory of God. That is for sure God’s will. It will be done by Jesus. Do we love Jesus? Our prayers and our works testify to our love for Christ. Let us live to love with Jesus today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I’m so excited that you have joined me for today’s live to love scripture encouragement from John 14:13-14. Yesterday we were encouraged by Jesus’ call to a radical, this-changes-everything new purpose: to live to love with and in Jesus as He lives in them. A call to do the works of Christ for the glory of God. This verse confirms everything that Jesus has said from John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you” to this verse. Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Let’s work backwards in this verse. First, all of what Jesus has said is about the glory of God, the Father revealed in the Son. All of the works of the Father, the Son, and believers of which Jesus has spoken is on that wonderful trajectory. Second, Jesus is the one doing the living, the work, in this world through those who believe in Him and are united with Him. Third, prayer—namely, asking in Jesus’ name—unleashes Jesus to work for the glory of the Father. This is a reminder to us that God didn’t call us to live for Jesus. We need Him to live for us. The Father can only be glorified in the Son if the Son does the work. Is asking in Jesus’ name the same as ending our prayers with, “in Jesus’ name I pray” or “I ask this is Jesus’ name”? I emphatically say, “No, it is not.” Ending our prayers with “Jesus’ name” is not what compels or moves God or Jesus to work. To ask in His name is to ask according to what Jesus has commanded, namely, to believe in Him and to love as He has loved us so that God may be glorified in His Son. In other words, we ask for the life and love of Jesus to be manifested in our lives. That’s our new purpose for living. That’s why He saved us! Today, Father, I ask that You glorify Your Son as I abide in Him and He lives to love through me. Do it also in all who pray this prayer with me today. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. These words are stunning, important, and encouraging. Do you remember that I mentioned when we looked at the first few verses of this chapter, that the place Jesus had in mind to prepare for us was not a mansion in heaven when we die? This verse verifies that assertion. Notice that Jesus told them that because He was going to the Father (to prepare a dwelling place for them) they would do the greater works in this world than He has done. That’s why I suggest that Jesus was explaining to them how they were going to love one another even as He had loved them rather than encouraging them that they were going to have a home in heaven when they died. Don’t get me wrong. He did prepare a place for us in heaven when we die, but His going to the Father was primarily about salvation in this world, now, not salvation after we die. He who believes in Jesus as the way, truth, and the life of God has a new purpose in life—to do the works of Jesus like Jesus did the works of the Father. This is pivot point number two! Pivot point number one: Jesus and the Father are one. Pivot point number two: Believers and Jesus are one. Now when we testify about ourselves that Jesus is alive and living in us, we not only have our testimony about ourselves, but we also have the works of Jesus to testify that He lives in us and we in Him. Jesus was calling His disciples to a new purpose in life. They were to no longer live to make a name for themselves (by the way they had just been arguing about who was the greatest only minutes before) or to discover their best life or for self-actualization or even to live for Him. This is a call to a radical, this-changes-everything new purpose: to live to love with and in Jesus as He lives in them. A call to do the works of Christ for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. We should pivot and seek after Jesus because of two witnesses. First, the witness of Jesus’ own testimony. Second, the witness of the works He did while on the earth. If the self-testimony of Christ are denied, the source and authority of the works He did cannot be denied. Again, Jesus identified the pivot point, the seismic faith-building reality: Jesus is in God and God is in Him. They are one in essence. True faith abides or lives in this great and awesome reality. John said it this way in his first letter: 1 John 4:2-3 “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” This is so foundational that John also described this union of God and man as he testified to those who are true believers. This truth is what this verse opens up for us. John wrote in 1 John 4:15-16 “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” Let’s connect a couple of dots. Where is the place that Jesus went to prepare for us to live? That place is in Himself, who is in God! It’s the place He said in verse 3 that made it possible for Him to come to us so we could be where He is. He is our abiding place, our dwelling place so that we can love as He loves.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Here is a fundamental truth to Christianity. We believe that Jesus, the Son is in the Father, God and that the Father, God is in Jesus the Son. Jesus’ point to His disciples was that they have been walking with God in the flesh for 3 years. When Jesus spoke, they heard His Father in heaven at work. The very words Jesus spoke to them had been given to Him by the Father, who abides in the Son. Can you imagine what was happening in the minds and hearts of the disciples when they heard these words? Yes, they thought Jesus had God with Him and that He spoke to them the words of God, but this was more—way more. Jesus didn’t just have God with Him. Jesus was one with God and God was one with Him. The words originated from the Father in the Son and the Son lived in His Father’s words. That mutual abiding relationship revealed the true God. That’s what Jesus meant when He said He was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one could come to the Father except by and through Him. Let’s be encouraged and amazed at this: The union of God and man, revealed in Jesus Christ, makes it possible for us to know, love, and experience God in this world. When we listen to and watch Jesus revealed in the gospels, we are listening to and watching God!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Here they are again being told that they don’t know Jesus or what He came for. Philip, like Thomas, and the rest of the disciples had not come to know Jesus, but in this verse, everything changes. We all hit the pivot point together just as John planned through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Jesus and the Father are one. To see Jesus is the way to see the truth and the life of the Father in real time, in flesh and blood. The entire time the disciples had been with Jesus, they didn’t really know who they were watching. They were watching God, the Father, at work. They were watching His character revealed. They were experiencing the love of the Father, God. This is amazing! They didn’t recognize or understand what Jesus was doing. This should sober us. It is possible to see, but not see; and to hear, but not understand. Ok, let’s pivot right here and go back and read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but this time, when you read about what Jesus said and did, ponder this reality. You are reading about God, the Father. The life in Jesus is the life of the Father. Keep this pattern in mind when it comes to living to love with Jesus because it is another seismic shift of perspective. The life in those who believe in Jesus is the life of Jesus, Himself. That’s why I phrase the Christian life in this way: We are loving and glorifying God by living to love with Jesus. He is our Life. His Life is our Light, and that light is the love of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
There is probably some “Philip” in each of us that feels like Jesus hasn’t given us enough to live by or to live for? Like Philip, we just don’t understand what God has been doing and revealing to us everyday of our lives. Have you been following Jesus, but still feel something is missing? Get ready, Philip. You are about to come to your pivot point where everything changes!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
These are strange words. Do they confuse you? Let’s keep them in context. What Jesus is showing and teaching them is pivotal. It’s like a pivot point where you have been going one direction, but then you see something that catches your attention, and you stop, pivot, and go in the direction of a new objective. Up to that moment, the disciples had not known Jesus. I think He meant that they had not known what He came to do. They thought He came to establish an earthly kingdom free from Roman occupation, so they had missed what was happening before their very eyes. He came to reveal the Father! He said, “From now on”. In other words, what Jesus was saying to them from that moment on would reveal not only who Jesus is, but who the Father is. They would realize for the first time in their lives that they had been fellowshipping with and watching God the Father at work in His Son. This was a seismic shift of perspective and worldview that was to become the foundation of the kingdom of God and His church for the rest of history. Is it possible that many, like the disciples, have not known Jesus or the Father because they have the wrong idea of what Jesus came for? They think He came to give them a better life in this world. They love their lives in this world. They wake up each day with no real understanding of where they are going, so any ole way will do as long as it is happy and comfortable to their personal sensibilities. When Jesus reveals Himself, there is a pivot point, where the things of life in this world are replaced by one great and glorious object—the reality of the Father revealed in Jesus Christ. Their hearts are captured. They plant their lead foot, pivot, and change directions because now they know that Jesus and the Father are life indeed. Have you experienced the great pivot?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you don’t know where you are going, how can you know the way to where you are going? Sensible reasoning and question from Thomas. Jesus made it clear where He was going. He was going to the Father. This isn’t news to us, but it was for the disciples. John told his readers that Jesus was going back to God in 13:3. Jesus knew it before He washed the disciples’ feet. In fact, returning from this world to His Father was the goal of His life from the moment He left His throne in glory, humbled Himself, and entered into this dark, fallen, realm of death and destruction. He came to bring His people to the Father! Listen to the words from the man who just moments before had been told he would deny Jesus three times. “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18). The way to the Father: revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The truth about the Father: revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Life of the Father: revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what sinners like Peter—and like us—preach and place our confidence in. We know where we are going. To God, the Father. And we know the way where we are going. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, given to us from God, the Father, that we might go to where He is—forever. That is love: the sustained will of God toward our highest good, that is union with Him, no matter what it cost Him. Abide in His love today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. What an amazing, incredible encouragement these words must have been to the disciples —and to us. He told them he was going someplace to which they could not go at that time, but He wasn’t going to be apart from them for good. The place He was going to prepare made it possible for Jesus to come be with them again. And in coming to be with them, He would receive them (us) to Himself. Jesus even gave them the purpose for His going away. The place Jesus was going to prepare was going to make it possible for them to be present with Him wherever He was present. This reality is stunning. For the disciples, Jesus was speaking of something to be done and experienced in the future. But for us, this is a present ongoing reality and experience. Jesus has come to be with us! He is the resurrection and the Life. We have been received by Jesus because everything that could separate us from His love and prevent our union with Him was removed at the cross in His substitutionary death. Wherever Jesus wishes to go in this world to love for the glory God, we may go with Him. At any given moment in history, Jesus is loving people with and through each of His own. Jesus has begun to explain to His disciples and to us how it is possible that they can love one another even as He loves them. He comes into us. We become one with Him. We are as He is in this world. Now that’s a great encouragement to believe in Jesus and not let your heart be troubled today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:2 In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. Our Father has planned ahead! There are many places to abide, dwell, or live in our Father’s household. In this verse, we learn where Jesus was going to which His disciples were not ready to go. Back in John 13:1 and 3, John’s readers were told where Jesus was going, but it wasn’t something that was told them at that point. Perhaps it was from this statement that John, with the Spirit’s help, understood what was in Jesus’ mind—it was time for Him to depart out of this world to the Father. He was going back to God to prepare a place for us. It is interesting that Jesus said there are many dwelling places, but He is preparing one place for all of us. Perhaps Jesus was thinking of preparing a place of right standing before God as Paul wrote of in Romans 5:2 “through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. Or maybe it’s the place where God “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenlyplaces in Christ Jesus” as Paul wrote to the Ephesians in chapter 2, verse 6. The point is that Jesus has gone to His Father and made a place with God for us to dwell or live forever. Out of that place, the love of God flows. Although it is true that God has prepared a place for us in heaven when we die, what we want to notice from the rest of the chapter is that the abiding place Jesus went to prepare in heaven becomes the fountain out of which our lives are sustained and supplied while we are on the earth. It makes it possible for Jesus to come again to us. His coming to us is the primary line of reason in this chapter, not our going to Him in heaven when we die. Today, be encouraged that Jesus has made a place for us in the presence of God that makes it possible for Jesus’ presence to be with us while we live today on this earth.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. Today we are encouraged by the second commandment that Jesus gave to His disciples in preparation for His departure. The first commandment was to love one another as He loved them. The second commandment is to believe in Him as they believe in God. Faith in Jesus as God apparently is the antidote, the necessary condition of heart when facing confusion, disappointment, feelings of abandonment, and loss. If you believe in God as the source of your life then believe in Jesus. Faith in Jesus is foundational to living to love with Jesus. If we believe Jesus is God, then we know He is the source of life. That’s exactly where Jesus is going in this discourse with His disciples. To believe in God, is to believe there is a God who is the source and the sustainer of all of life. I take Jesus to mean this: If you look to God as the source of life, then also look to me as the source of life. Today, let’s look to our Father as the source of everything we need, knowing that He supplies what we need through His Son, Jesus Christ.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.Again, Jesus told what was going to happen before it happened so that Peter would ultimately come to believe in, trust in, rely upon, and follow Him unto death. Jesus responded to Peter’s boast that he would lay down his life for Him. Indeed, Peter would have to die to his own self-appraised grandeur before he could follow Jesus anywhere. Upon the rooster’s crow, Peter’s pride in his own self-significance and importance would lie dead in the Judean dust. He would be perhaps the greatest alright—the greatest failure of the disciples. However, as we know. God used Peter’s failure and subsequent restoration as testimony of His love and an incredible source of encouragement. Will we lay down our lives for Jesus’ namesake? I hope so. Let’s be on the alert for any lurking pride, self-significance, and self-importance that would hinder the flow of the love of Jesus Christ into the world we live in.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
In Luke’s gospel account of the last supper, he recorded something John left out. Luke 22:22-24 “For indeed, the Son of Man is goingas it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!” And they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing. And there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest.” It is plausible that the spirit of that discussion has influenced Simon Peter. Deep within the recesses of his soul is the pride of life that thinks he is better than everyone else. With his “I’m great” filter on, he hears Jesus say he’s going someplace others can’t go, and he’s thinking from an earthly perspective. “I’ll follow Him anywhere at any cost.” The disciples had had this discussion only days earlier when they were trying to decide whether they were going to go with Jesus to Jerusalem upon hearing of Lazarus’ death. In John 11:16 we read, “Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.” So I conclude Peter and the rest of the disciples had already considered what they might have to go through if they followed Jesus to Bethany and then on to Jerusalem. Maybe Peter decided in his heart earlier that he was able to endure whatever befell them. Perhaps at this moment, Peter wanted to show how he was indeed the greatest of the disciples, so he began to see if this was the opportunity to prove himself.However, I think Jesus’ response was puzzling to Peter. Basically Jesus told him, “You’re not ready now to follow me where I’m going.” Whether Jesus was thinking of going to the cross or thinking of going to heaven; in both cases, Peter wasn’t ready, but Peter thought he was. Why wasn’t Peter ready for either place? I think it is because Peter thinks he is great without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, apart from the life of Jesus, Peter could do nothing. Nor can we. Is there any pride of life in us that thinks we can live our lives today without being filled with the Holy Spirit? Can we really lay down our lives for the glory of God if it is not the Spirit of the Son working in us? Without Jesus, we are nothing. With Him, we are ready to go anywhere He goes.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Disciples of Jesus are known by their love for one another. Of all the qualities that a man or woman can have, love—the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another no matter what the cost—is the beacon light of the presence of the life of Christ. This kind of supernatural love is the evidence that a person knows God and is a follower of Jesus. It seems highly probable that based on this statement, John wrote this to the “little children” who received his first epistle. 1 John 3:14. “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 1 John 4:7-8. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” If we know God, we know that Jesus is God in the flesh. If we know God is love, then we know Jesus’ life defined God’s love. He made it tangible, relevant, and real so He could continue loving His own to the very end through us. Today, He lives to love in us, His disciples. That love is the proof that we have His life dwelling in us and that we truly know Him—to the praise of His glorious grace and presence.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.Little children, this is the direction that Jesus gave His disciples as He prepared them for His departure. It’s not a suggestion, it’s a commandment. He was sending them just like He was sent by the Father, and thus honoring and glorifying them as the Father had glorified Him. So first, let’s realize that with the command, Jesus is loving us as the Father had loved Him. Second, let’s be encouraged that in receiving the command like a little child receives a command from his father, Jesus has put us in the privileged position to bring Him glory as we obey. Knowing we glorify Him by our obedience is motivational. Third, Jesus knew that with the command, His disciples could be assured of future grace that He will supply for the mission to be fulfilled. Fourth, they (by experience) and we (by His Word and experience) know what He meant when He said love as I have loved you. As their Master and Teacher, Jesus had just emptied Himself and served them like a lowly servant because His Father loved them. Surely they understood they were to do the same to each other out of love for and obedience to Him. Have we received Jesus’ commandment like a little child receives direction and instruction from his parents? Simply receive the work of God in your life today, receive this commandment from Jesus as a commandment from your heavenly Father, and obey with a simple trust His purposes for you. You, we, have been called as little children to live to love with Jesus for the rest of our lives. What a privilege and honor!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I’m so glad you’ve joined me for today’s Live to Love Scripture Encouragement from John 13:33 “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.’”Why does Jesus call His disciples, “Little children” at this point? He hasn’t referred to them as children at all since they met in the upper room. However, obviously in Jesus’ mind it’s necessary and an expression from His Father to them. Jesus had taught them about the quality of abiding that little children have in relationship with their parents. A little child simply receives his life from his parents without question. On two occasions they had heard Jesus say, “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all” (Mark 10:15) and “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). He was telling them something that would be troubling if they didn’t receive it like a little child. Remember at the first of Chapter 13 we were told that all that occurs in this chapter flows out of His knowledge that His hour had come to depart out of this world, that His Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was going to go back to God soon. So now in this verse, He told them what He knew was going to happen before it happened so they would believe in Him. Basically He told them He was leaving them, and He was going somewhere that they could not go to at this time. The only way to receive such news peacefully was for them to remember that they were to receive the Kingdom, the work of God, like a child receives direction from his parents. He was about to give them direction that would become the direction for the body of Christ for the rest of the history of mankind. We’ll take that up tomorrow. For today, be encouraged to receive the kingdom of God, the work of God in your life like a child—with unquestioning trust and reliance upon God’s wisdom and purposes. It’s necessary to living to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Welcome to today’s live to love scripture encouragement from John 13:32. We’ve been diving into the ocean of the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ. After saying, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him,” Jesus said, “If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.”We have been considering that the primary motivation for living to love with Jesus is the glory of God, because that was His primary motivation for loving with His Father. That motivation lives in us if Jesus lives in us! What moved Jesus to tell Judas to go betray Him? It was the deep desire to make much of His Father and to see Him glorified in His words and actions. Why do we live each day to love with Jesus? We do it because the greatest desire of the heart of the Son of God dwelling in us is for God to be glorified in Him. Because pronouns can be confusing, as we are all witnessing in this perverted generation, I want to remove them and put in Jesus’ name. “If God is glorified in Jesus, the Son, God will also glorify Jesus, the Son, in Himself, and will glorify Jesus, the Son, immediately.” This helps us better understand what moves and empowers the love in Jesus. It’s His unity with the Father. This unity is vital for us to understand because it is the driving reality behind the administration and flow of God’s love in the world. When Jesus loved with His Father, He did so by abiding in His Father and His Father abiding in Him. If God is glorified as Jesus began the laying down of His life by telling Judas to betray Him, then God will glorify Jesus in Himself and do it immediately. In other words, from the initial act of the love of God revealed in Jesus, the glory of God immediately occurs. Perhaps what Jesus was referring to is that as all of heaven’s hosts watch the Son of God obey His Father, they see their unity of heart, mission, words, and actions and erupt in glorious praise and honor, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” If Jesus is glorified in us, He will glorify us in Himself and will do it immediately as we love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Today’s live to love scripture encouragement again comes from the last phrase in John 13:31 “Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;’How was God glorified in Jesus when Jesus told Judas to go quickly and betray Him? We’ve considered how Jesus was glorified by the Father in that He was chosen and sent by Him to accomplish the work of redemption by God’s grace. We also saw that Jesus was glorified by the Father for His obedience displayed in laying down His life willingly and intentionally to accomplish our salvation. Now we focus on Jesus’ statement “Now…God is glorified in Him.” When the general achieves a victory on a mission for which he was sent by His Commander in Chief, who ultimately is recognized for the victory? It is not the general, it is the Commander in Chief. Seal Team 6 took out Osama bin Laden. Most people don’t know any of the Seal Team 6 members’ names, but we do know who was President and given credit for the mission: President Barak Obama. Seal Team 6 received glory and honor from President Obama in being chosen and sent. In their being glorified, President Obama was glorified in them. In the same way, because Jesus was operating in the name of God, the Father, it is the Father who ultimately receives the credit, the glory and honor, for every action taken in His name. Let’s let that sink into our minds, hearts, and into the depths of our souls. When Jesus loves through us in the Father’s name, God gets the glory in Him. When we love others in Jesus’ name, Jesus gets the glory in us. The moment we die to ourselves, lay down our lives, and suffer so that others might see the glory of God in Jesus Christ who lives in us, in that moment God is glorified. Today, God will place people in your path for you to love through the life of Jesus dwelling inside you. And every time you die to yourself and love, you are glorifying God. Amazing love!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I would like to encourage you to live to love with Jesus by spending a few moments again in John 13:31. Jesus had just told Satan/aka Judas to quickly do what he was going to do, which was betray Him. We read this yesterday and again today. “Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;’” Yesterday we saw that the Son was glorified by the Father in being sent to accomplish the mission of redemption and then given the grace to successfully execute His command. How else is the Son of Man glorified? Earlier in this day, Jesus had said these words in the temple. John 12:27 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” In John 10:18, the apostle John recorded these words of Jesus that inform us as to the significance of Jesus telling Judas to go betray Him. “No one has taken it (my life) away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” Jesus should and does receive glory from God and from us in that He willingly, intentionally obeyed His Father’s command. Glory be to Jesus, our Savior and Lord! Jesus loved us in obedience to His Father because His greatest desire in life is to glorify the Father and receive His glory. Jesus contrasted Himself with the Pharisees in John 5:44. “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? This is how those who live to love with Jesus are motivated to lay down their lives and love with Him. They live seeking glory from the one and only God. They receive His glory in that they have been chosen and sent on mission to love in His name and they receive glory from God as they obey His commandment to love one another as Jesus loved them. We’ll look at this more carefully in a few days. Until now, let’s seek the glory that comes from the one and only God by loving with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;Let’s visualize what we’ve been reading in John 13. Jesus fed Judas the morsel at the table. Immediately after that, Satan entered into Judas. Then Jesus said to Satan in Judas, “What you do, do quickly.” Immediately Judas left the upper room and Jesus declared upon Judas’ departure the significance of Jesus telling him to go betray Him. “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.” What did Jesus mean by this statement? How is Jesus glorified and God glorified in Jesus in authorizing His own death? Today I want to zero in on one reason Jesus is glorified by authorizing His own death. Jesus was sent by the Father for this very purpose: to lay down His life for those the Father gave to Him before the foundation of the world. To be chosen by the Father to serve His redemptive purpose is to be glorified by the Father. When the Commander in Chief chooses a general to accomplish a mission in a time of war and gives him the resources to be successful, the general is receiving glory from his superior. God glorified His Son by sending Him on this mission of redemption and in this historical account reveals how the Father has glorified His Son by giving Him the grace, the resources to carry out the mission. At the very moment that Jesus said, “What you do, do quickly,” the whole world is seeing God glorify Jesus Christ by giving Him the grace and power to do it. The writer of Hebrews speaks to this salient point about God’s glory, the bestowing of His grace, and Jesus’ death in chapter 2, verse 9. “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” Don’t miss this. God has sent Jesus’ disciples (that’s all of us who have His life in us) into this world to lay down our lives for others in His name and His love. When we live to love with Jesus, the crown of glory and honor rests upon us as it did upon His Son when He lived to love with His Father. It is a privilege and honor to love others in His name.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:30 So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night.Jesus fed Judas the morsel of bread dipped in the bowl. Then Jesus told Judas to go and do quickly what he planned to do. Then Judas went out into the darkness. Never to return to the Daylight.Maybe John wrote this warning in his first letter thinking of Judas. 1 John 2:11 “But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” Walking in darkness blinds a person’s understanding of what they do. John also wrote, 1 John 2:10 “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” Today and forever, may we love others with Jesus as we walk in His light.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:28-29. “Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, ‘Buy the things we have need of for the feast’; or else, that he should give something to the poor.”We learned in John 12:6 that Judas had a greed problem. I’m commenting on Judas’ rebuke of Mary’s extravagant gift to Jesus. “Now he said this, not because he was concerned for the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.” This makes me think greed can hinder the flow of love or make one susceptible to the devil’s suggestions. May we be on the alert to greed for money, attention, significance, or pleasure that would lead us to betray the life of Jesus in us.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Satan had already put the thought in Judas’ heart to betray Jesus before dinner that evening (13:2), and after eating, Judas gave Satan access to his body and soul to accomplish the evil deed. We can perhaps imagine a discussion in the heavenlies just prior to this between the Father and the devil—something similar to their discussion over Job. Gods targets Judas. Satan suggests a course of action that will entrap Judas. Judas will betray the Son of God and think he is doing something good. Then the Father grants the devil permission, and God’s plan flies into motion with neither the devil or Judas knowing that they are instruments in God’s hands to justify and love His own to His glory. With everything in place, Jesus authorized His own death in obedience to His Father’s command to lay down His life for those God had given Him. He sent Judas to work out Satan’s and His Father’s plan with haste. This is not as some call it “cosmic child abuse.” This is love defined. The sustained direction of the will toward the highest good, no matter what the cost. He laid down His life for His friends. So should we.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.Not much time had passed since Jesus told His disciples, “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.” In these verses, we see the fulfillment of that promise. The other gospel accounts tell us that many of the disciples along with Judas asked, “Surely, not I? John’s query at Peter’s encouragement probably occurred then. At that point the betrayer was identified as Jesus dipped the bread into the bowl and gave it to Judas.We know that Jesus never acted on His own initiative. He acted in perfect concert with His Father. Even as He fed Judas, Jesus trusted His Father. Love flows as we trust in Jesus. There is complete surrender to the Father. May we give Jesus unhindered access to our lives today to be His channels of love.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
It makes sense for Peter to ask John to clarify Jesus’ statement. If we know someone is close to Jesus, we assume that they know what is on Jesus’ mind. When we are troubled or in need of counsel, we should be drawn to those who lean on Jesus. It makes sense that as we lean on Jesus and live to love with Him, that others will notice that closeness and ask us to clarify the words of Jesus. I hope that today, we who have been loved by Jesus will lean into Him, take comfort, and listen to His heart so that we can love well and faithfully represent Him to those who want to know Him better.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:23 There was reclining on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.John’s personal testimony about his being loved by Jesus warms my heart. How about you? He reclined on Jesus’ bosom at the dinner table. Obviously he was next to Jesus. That seems strange unless we consider the context. Jesus had just told them that one of them would betray him. Perhaps the thought of losing Jesus so overwhelmed him that he leaned over on Jesus as a show of compassion. Or more likely, he leaned on Jesus for comfort because John knew Jesus loved him. We don’t know the reason why John was in that position, but we read that John knew he was loved. Isn’t it true that when someone loves us, we are concerned for them because they are so special to us? And when we are troubled, do we not lean on Jesus for comfort because we know He loves us? Would we say the same? “I am one of Jesus’ disciples whom He has loved.” We can’t live to love with Jesus if we don’t know that we are loved by Him. When we are confident that He loves us, we draw near to Him when facing troubling times.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:22 The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking.In many cases, it’s not easy to detect a goat amongst the sheep or the tares from the wheat. Apparently Judas fit right in with the rest of the disciples. They had just been told by Jesus that one of them was a betrayer, and they had no idea who it might be. Of course, Judas knew at that moment that he was the one, but do you think he came into the relationship with Jesus with the intent to betray and harm Jesus? I doubt it. This is sobering and humbling. Living to love with Jesus requires watchfulness and humility which Judas lacked. The potential for evil was within Judas, but he didn’t know it. He probably genuinely thought he was one of the bunch. In fact, maybe even greater than most because he was chosen to be responsible for the money box (13:29). The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.” The reason it is so important to live to love with Jesus, is that living with His purpose protects us from being self-deceived and mislead by the devil’s lies.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Jesus told them ahead of time what was to occur, just like He promised. This was to bolster their faith in Him, which was a good thing. However, John noted that Jesus was troubled when He told them. We aren’t told what troubled Jesus except the knowledge that Judas was going to betray Him, which was to reject the one who sent Him, namely His Father. I don’t think this is because Jesus was concerned about His or His Father’s feelings. It is never in the best interest of anyone to reject the Father or His Son. It is troubling in spirit to see anyone spurn the love of God because we know they are in darkness and in grave spiritual danger.If it troubled Jesus when His Father was rejected, we may detect His troubled spirit also when others reject His love through us. Not for our sakes but for theirs. To reject us is to reject Jesus when we are loving in His name. If we are being selfish and they reject us, that’s understandable. When we live to love with Jesus, and that love is not received, let’s take care that we are not troubled by their rejection of us, but by the consequences that will befall the one who rejects Him. Although we don’t know this for sure, but it is most likely that Jesus washed Judas’ feet along with the others. He loved His enemies and was kind to Judas. As we know, He even greeted Judas with a kiss when he brought the soldiers to arrest Jesus. May we love like Jesus loved—and even love those who betray us.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Jesus was sent by God, His Father. When we receive Him as the way, the truth, and the life, we are receiving God. As we live to love with Jesus, we are sent by Jesus to love in His name. The one who receives our love receives Him. It is also encouraging to know that when we receive our fellow believers we are receiving Jesus. It takes humility to love with Jesus and to be loved by Jesus. The salient point is that love for Jesus, for His glory, is why we love and receive our brothers. It’s not determined by how we feel about them. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.Let’s be watching for what Jesus told His disciples was going to happen. Who can foretell events before they happen but God? Surely that’s what He meant when He said, “So…you may believe that I am He.” In a matter of minutes Jesus said it this way. “Do not let your heart be troubled. If you believe in God then believe also in Me” (John 14:1). If we believe Jesus is God, then we who believe in Jesus have the life of God dwelling inside of us! He who knows the end from the beginning and sustains everything by the power of His word lives to love in us! Let’s give Him access to all that we are for His glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:18 I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, 'He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.'Those who try to do these things—that is try to serve without Jesus are not blessed if they do them. He has Judas in mind, of course, when He said, “I do not speak of all of you.” This is a marvelous statement. Judas was chosen, not to live to love with Him, but to fulfill Psalms 41:9. “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” Judas was necessary to the salvation work. There will be other Judases in the church who are necessary to God’s sanctifying work in our lives. Was Jesus deceived when He trusted Judas? No. Was He misled when God lead Him to invite him to eat and walk with Him? No. He entrusted Himself to His Father in whose love He did abide. Like Jesus, we receive the Judases into our midst and trust our loving and wise Father’s administration of our affairs.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.What are “these things” we know to do? That Jesus, our Master and Teacher has given us an example of love for each other: humble service to those who belong to Jesus. That if Jesus humbled Himself to serve us, we ought to follow His example.What is the blessing if we do what we know is right? We are blessed with a clear conscience. We are blessed as we experience Jesus’ love for His own. We are blessed as we experience Jesus’ joy in our obedience. We are blessed when we know Jesus’ body is being cared for. We are blessed because the glory of God rests upon us. Can you think of some other blessings? Please write them in the comments.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Welcome to today’s live to love scripture encouragement from John 13:16. Jesus had just washed His disciples’ feet and in this verse is continuing to explain what they are to deduce from it. “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.”Jesus is our master and teacher. We are His friends who are sent to live to love with Him. If Jesus humbled Himself to serve His body and sent us out to do the same, then so should we humbly serve His body because we are not greater than He. Jesus was saying that He was sent by the Father and therefore it is logically assumed that He is not greater than the Father. In the same way, as we live to love in Jesus’ name we are saying that Jesus sent us and that He is greater than we are. Let’s make Jesus’ name great today as we love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
How had Jesus loved them? He had served a basic physical need by washing their feet. Moms, don’t think it is an insignificant task to change a diaper, wash clothes, or fix a meal in Jesus’ name. Dads, don’t despise filling your wife’s car with gas, fixing your child’s broken bike, or holding the door for someone in Jesus’ name. That’s how Jesus loves His own to the end and taught us to love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:13 You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.Welcome to today’s Live to Love Scripture Encouragement. Today’s verse is John 13:13. “You call Me teacher and Lord; and you are right for so I am.” This verse makes me ask myself four questions. 1. What is Jesus to me? Which leads to 2. What is my relationship to Him? 3. Do I call Jesus Teacher and Lord? 4. Am I His student and servant? I’m thinking that the answers to these questions are related to my living to love with Jesus. Let’s let these questions search us today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Do you know what I have done to you?Do you remember what Jesus knew before He washed their feet? He was conscious of His relationship with His Father. John 13:3 “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God.” What did Jesus do to them? He did what His Father was doing. In a most menial task He was conscious of His Father’s heart, love, and will. This is important! Because in only a few minutes He is going to tell them that He abides in the Father and the Father abides in Him. To see Him is to see the Father. When we live to love with Jesus, that is what we are doing to them. We are showing them the life and love of the resurrected Jesus Christ. How Christ-conscious are we as we serve in His name? I hope today, we will abide in Jesus in the same way Jesus abided in His Father, regardless of how significant or insignificant the tasks are that we have to do for His glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Do you know what I have done to you?Let’s put ourselves in the disciples shoes—well ok. They don’t have their shoes on. They’ve just had their feet washed by their master who asks this question. Do you know what I’ve done to you? Why did he ask the question? Surely He wanted them to consider what just happened. I think He also wanted them to understand it’s significance. Lastly, He wanted them to remember and replicate it. We probably should ask that question about everything God has done in our lives. He wants us to pay attention to Him. Today, when things happen in our lives, let’s pause and ponder what good thing God is doing to us. He is love. We are His. Abide in His love.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
In this verse we learn what Jesus knew when he said, “not all of you are clean”. Judas was not in Christ from all eternity. He was not cleansed by the washing of regeneration as Paul wrote to Titus. Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit”. This reminds us that the reason people are hostile to Christ is that they are not clean—they have not been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. This being said, let’s also remember that we were like them in that we were just as sinful and dirty and we needed to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. It’s not that the rest of the disciples were better than Judas. They weren’t. What was the difference? They have been cleansed by the grace and mercy of God and Judas has not. Oh to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Let’s not miss what Jesus said. He told Peter that he and some of the others were completely clean. He didn’t understand that then, but we do. If anyone is in Christ, then they were perfected by their union with His perfectly clean life and the washing of regeneration. Paul wrote to Timothy about God “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,” (2 Timothy 1:9). From all eternity Peter and all but Judas of the disciples (and us who believe in Him) have been completely clean before God. This is great news! This is why we live to love with Jesus. He has cleansed us for this purpose.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Peter kind of gets it. His feet represent his walk in this world. So his hands represent his actions and his head represent his thought-life. Cleanse it all! Father, may we have a zeal for personal holiness like Peter did in that moment. May we have a part in living to love with You today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
There’s obviously much more to this foot-washing than meets the eye. Peter’s rejection of Jesus’ help at this point is tantamount to being an outcast. “If I do not wash you, you can have no part with me.” I think Jesus meant that Peter could have no part in living to love with Jesus. One can’t live to love with Jesus as a part of His body if he hasn’t experienced Jesus’ cleansing power. How can we serve in His name if we don’t know what His name is or what it means? He will say to them later, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.“So if we don’t have a part with Jesus, we will be apart from Him. Therefore we cannot live to love with Him. May we experience Jesus’ cleansing today of all that defiles us from holiness so we can participate in His loving service to His body.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I’m pretty sure all of us have been clueless about something Jesus has done in our lives. At the time, it didn’t make sense. We didn’t understand what He was saying to us or doing to us. Simon Peter was experiencing something in Jesus’ washing his feet that later he would understand. My guess is that the light didn’t turn on for him until after the resurrection and the Holy Spirit came. Probably within the hour of Jesus’ washing their feet, Jesus told His disciples, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26). At this point, however, Peter should have accepted that this foot washing was necessary, and that it was best that he trust Jesus and know that this foot-washing will make sense one day. Is there anything in your life like that? Is there something we don’t understand right now? It doesn’t make sense to us? If so, I encourage us that God is glorified as we wait upon Him and trust Him. He will give us understanding in time. Right now, like Peter, it is best for us to humbly receive what He is doing. The Holy Spirit will help us if we will wait and trust in Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
We might think that Simon Peter knew better than to question anything Jesus did, but obviously not. Why did John refer to him as Simon Peter? Jesus had given Simon a new name after he confessed that Jesus was the son of God (Matt. 16:16-17). Simon was his flesh identifier, and Peter was his new kingdom identifier. Maybe it’s because in this story, we see both identities surfacing. This response is a “Simon” response—looking at things from a fleshly self-conscious perspective. Is there some Simon in us? Of course there is. Do we think we don’t deserve or need to be served by Jesus? Do we think our feet aren’t dirty from walking in this world today? It not only took humility for Jesus to serve His disciples, it also took humility for them to receive His love. For a reason about which we can only speculate, Simon had a problem with Jesus’ expression of love. Jesus, do You wash my feet? The correct response, it seems, would have been for Peter to say nothing and humbly receive Jesus’ ministry to him. Jesus is still washing His disciples feet today as He lives to love in them. As His disciples, we need to humbly receive His love through our brothers and sisters in Christ and we have the privilege to humbly encourage those who are His on a daily basis. I hope that’s what’s happening this very moment as you listen or read this live to love with Jesus podcast. Jesus, do you wash my feet? Yes, please do!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.Imagine a days worth of dust on each foot. It was a daily task of perhaps the lowest servant in the average home. Apparently this task had been overlooked by the event planner, but it was the will of the Father for His Son to exemplify His love in a way that foreshadowed what He wanted them (and us) to do to one another—serve one another by loving with Him. In the same way their feet got covered with dirt as they walked in this world, so did their souls get dirtied each day by living in this world. The writer of Hebrews wrote, “Encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13). Like Jesus, in humility, lowliness, gentleness, and passion for the glory of God, we can serve each other in love. It’s one way Jesus will love His own to the very end. So put on His towel and be prepared today to serve—that is, encourage, forgive, and pray the blood of Jesus over whoever He puts in your path.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:3-4 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.Love humbled Himself to take the lowly role of a servant. The robe which would later belong to a Roman soldier was now exchanged for a towel. No pride. No vanity. No show. Before them stood the glorious creator and sustainer of the universe, the Lord God most high, the Almighty Father wrapped in a towel. What humility, lowliness, gentleness, and passion! This is Life, the light of men, shining in the darkness. This life and light lives in all who are His. He moves all who live to love with Him in the same way. Have we girded ourselves with His towel today? Humility. Lowliness. Gentleness. And Passion.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,From the previous verses we learned that Jesus knew His time to depart was at hand, He loved His own, and that intense suffering, grief, rejection, and shame was imminent. In this verse we learn that He also knew that all things necessary for Him to do the Father’s will were at His disposal and that in a matter of hours He would behold the joyful, loving, glorious face of His Father in heaven. With these things in mind He wanted His disciples (and us) to see what the humility-born love of His Father looks like in sandals. The same knowledge that Jesus had (listen or read this carefully), we have to motivate us to live to love with Him. Our time is short. We expect to suffer. We have everything we need to do the Father’s will. We will see our Father’s glowing face soon.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,In verse one, we learned that Jesus knew His time was short and was motivated by His enduring love for His own. In this verse we learn the setting: it was during supper and the betrayer, Judas, inspired by Satan, was primed and ready to act. Judas did not belong to Jesus. Can Judas say truthfully that the devil made him do it? No. The devil put the idea in his heart, and he chose to do it. Let’s be careful that we don’t blame others or the devil for our choices. Even so, this is the work of God and it is marvelous in our eyes! Judas was necessary for God’s love to be revealed and known.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.In this verse and the next 2 verses John tells us what Jesus knew that motivated Him to wash His disciples feet. In this verse we learn that Jesus knew His time had come to depart from this world. It is interesting to me that John didn’t write that Jesus knew it was time to die. He is the resurrection and the life. Even though He may die in this world, yet shall He live to God. So Jesus was thinking that He was in His last hours with them. We also learn that He was moved by His enduring love for them. This reminds us that our time with those we love is short and that we have the same love in us that Jesus had. So when we love with Him today we are sustaining His love for His own to the very end of time. What a mission! What purpose! What a privilege! What glory to God!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
The words God commanded Jesus to speak, namely, that He is Life and the Light of the world sent by God to save us from the darkness of thinking that merely breathing in our bodies and pursuing satisfaction in this world is life, are the words of eternal life. They reveal what eternal life is! To know the Father and to know the Son is to know by experience the Life of God. Do you recognize that if you believe in and receive Jesus as the one and only Life—the source of life—then you have eternal life living in you! And you know you have it because God commanded Jesus to give it to you. Jesus prayed to His Father recorded in John 17:1-3. “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Have you believed God’s testimony that Jesus is His Life sent into the world to deliver you from the darkness and death of the natural self-life in this world? It’s actually easy to tell. You live to love with Jesus everyone He puts in your path for His glory. Listen to what John wrote in his first epistle. “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:14-16). Such is the judgment of God revealed in Jesus, whose love is the light of Life.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.”The reasons these words that Jesus spoke will judge all men is that they were given Him by the Father. God commanded Jesus to say and speak these things. Therefore, to reject these words amounts to rejecting Jesus, which is the same thing as rejecting God, Himself. When Jesus said if you love your life in this world, you will lose it, and if you recognize that Jesus is Life and therefore hate your life in this world, your life will be saved from darkness, those words judge all men, because it is obvious what they believe. If they love their lives in this world, that is, think that expressing themselves to gain approval and significance in this world satisfies them, then they are dead and in darkness. If they love Jesus and think that gaining His approval and making Him significant by loving and loving with Him, then the judgment is that they have Life and walk in the Light just as He was in the Light. What is the judgment of these words about our lives? We are meant to ask that question because that was the question Jesus intended this crowd to ask themselves. We are being judged by these words everyday. There is no escape from them. They search us and declare the truth. Living to love with Jesus is the evidence that you believe the words which Jesus spoke on this day to the crowd, that they were from God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:48 “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.”We continue to be amazed at the sayings of Jesus which He cried out in the temple just before His last Passover and His greatest demonstration that He is Life. To reject these sayings—namely that Jesus is the Life and Light of God sent into this world to save us from our darkness—is to reject Jesus. In the next verse, which we’ll take up tomorrow, Jesus explained what He meant when He said someone besides Him judges the world—that is judges those who are in darkness. The words we’ve considered the last few days are powerful to judge everyone. He said that He was Life and that He is the exact expression and representation of God, the Father. His life is the only life in this world. To believe in Jesus is to believe those words and act accordingly, which is to hate your life in this world, your all-consuming self-consciousness, self-importance, self-ambition, and self-approval and to love Him as the only source of Life in this world. Whoever rejects these words of Jesus, will be judged by them. Do we live our lives consumed with a consciousness of self, that is what we love, think, desire, and judge or with a consciousness of what Jesus loves, thinks, desires, and judges? These words are the foundation for living to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:47 “If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.”As we read this, let’s still hear Jesus’ voice raised to emphasize the importance of what He said. It is as if we hear Him almost yelling at us. What I am saying to you, namely, that I am the Life of God sent to be the light of the world so you can be saved from the darkness and death that you mistakenly think is life. He was saying to the rulers and the crowd (and to all men everywhere throughout all of history) that seeking approval and glory from men is living in darkness. To make it relevant, if we think life consists in collecting Facebook and Instagram followers, in having people who look up to us as a source of well-being and validation, in judging who is right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable, toxic and honorable, we remain in darkness. If we heard what Jesus was saying in this discourse, we would recognize how dead and empty all of that is and we would hold on to these words of Jesus that He alone is Life and Light. There is no other. Therefore we would view Facebook and Instagram as only of use if we can highlight Jesus as Life and Light. We would believe in Jesus as Life and love with Him to shine His light. He came to save us from ourselves and from the death that we think is life in this world. How does He save us? By believing and living by the truth of what His Father gave Him to say about Himself. He is Life and His Life is the Light of the world.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:46 “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.”We’ve been considering the powerful words that Jesus cried out in the temple to the crowd just before Passover. He has told them about true saving faith, which focuses on the truth that Jesus is sent by God so we could see and believe that Jesus is the life and glory of God dwelling among us. I believe John wrote the following because of what Jesus declared in the temple on this day. He wrote, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (1:4). “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (1:14). Jesus’ life is the light enabling us to see that He is life and everything else about life in this world is darkness and death. To think that your natural and physical life in this world is life is to remain in the darkness. We think that we have life if we are breathing. In truth, if we are breathing in our bodies, we are dead due to sin. Everything that is not Jesus is death and darkness. And we love it! That is, we love our lives in this world until we see the light—that Jesus is the life of God come into this world so we can see what light is—the Life of God in Jesus. Have you seen that Jesus is Life and that Life is the only light? Have you seen that the love of God revealed in Jesus is the light of Life?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
wrote the author of Hebrews. Saving faith fixes on Jesus and sees that He is the exact representation of God, Himself (Heb. 1:3). One who believes in Jesus believes He is sent by God so that he can see the life of God, and in seeing the Life, is enabled to see that his own life in this world is not to be loved, but hated. Remember what Jesus said only moments before this? John 12:25 “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” Once we are enabled to see that Jesus is the life of God sent into this world by the Father, everything changes.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.”Jesus cried out. I take this to mean that Jesus’ statements before were made as commentary to the crowd in a normal voice. Then He raised His voice so all could hear and for emphasis. The next few days, we’ll consider what Jesus said. It is powerful and absolutely foundational to living to love in this world. To believe in Jesus is to believe in God. It is to believe that Jesus is the life of God in a human body. Jesus is going to put this great truth in the form of a command (John 14:1) along with the command to love one another as He loves them (John 13:34). “Do not let your heart be troubled. If you believe in God, believe also in Me.” Jesus was sent by God into this world to bring His life into this world of darkness and death. He was declaring to the crowd that believing in Him because of the signs wasn’t sufficient. That natural faith is still characteristic of death. Tomorrow we’ll consider what saving faith enables one to see.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:42-43 Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.This commentary by John about the rulers seems to have a contradiction in it. They “believed in Him, but.” John has said this before. There is a natural faith that is not saving faith. Natural faith believes because of what it sees. Like Nicodemus, one of the rulers of the Jews. “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing (John 2:23). “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2). And in John 10:41-42. “Many came to Him and were saying, ‘While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true. Many believed in Him there.’” To say that they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God is to say that they loved their lives in this world. They didn’t want to lose their position in the synagogue. They believed Jesus was a prophet and from God, but they didn’t believe that He was God in the flesh, THE life, and only way to God. There are many today who are in a similar state. They have accepted Christ and are fine with Him if He will give them a better life in this world, but they don’t believe that He alone is life. Consequently, they, like the rulers in Jesus’ day, hold on to their lives in this world rather than lose their lives to find true Life. This should be a reality check for everyone who says they believe in Jesus. The only way to live to love with Jesus is to believe that He is the Life and surrender your life in this world to Him. Have we given Jesus full access to our lives to live His life and love through us?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:41 These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.Jesus said God revealed to Isaiah that all of these events took place for the glory of God revealed din Jesus’ sacrificial death. Maybe He saw the glory of God revealed in us. We live to love with the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Wouldn’t that be amazing?! We would not know what love is: the sustained direction of the will toward our highest good no matter what the cost. Having experienced His love through His resurrected presence, we can love with Him for the glory of God—which Isaiah saw. Incredible! Glory to God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
We believe there is one God from whom are all things, and He is love. Isaiah also recorded this stunning declaration of God to Cyrus 400 years before He was born.Isaiah 45:6-7. “That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these.”As we hear or read Jesus’ reference to Isaiah regarding Israel, we should recognize and acknowledge that there is no other God besides the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. All of this calamity was done in love so we could live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John placed Jesus in the long line of prophets who testified to Israel, yet were not believed. The raising of Lazarus, as well as the healing of the blind and lame men, were displays of the strength (arm) of the Lord, yet there was no revelation given to Israel. Isn’t that amazing? Why not? So that they would do the greater will of the lord by crucifying Him for the fulfillment of prophecy and partner in the greatest display of love in the history of mankind. Check out Acts 4:26-28. “‘The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.’ For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.” May we be in awe of God’s love for us and let’s trust God’s wisdom as He gives revelation to whom He wishes as we live to love with Him.
John 12:37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.Seeing is not believing. The lame walked. The blind saw. The dead were raised. God’s work was displayed repeatedly. They saw, but did not believe. The darkness overtook them that quickly. The same is still true. Our churches can be crowded with unbelieving seers. They come and see God at work in their midst, yet walk out and continue walking in the dark. They live as children of darkness. They love their lives in this world. They live to find satisfaction and significance, to receive honor and glory from men rather than from God. I’ve been there and so have you. Maybe you are still there. In Jesus’ name I call you to turn to the Light, surrender and abandon your life and self-driven way to Jesus. Believe in Him and His love for you, and live for the purpose of loving with Him. You can find out more from my book, Live to Love, at livetolovewithjesus.com. His love is free and so is my book.
These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.With these powerful words Jesus ended this encounter with the crowd. All of a sudden, the Light disappeared. Lest we miss it, let’s remember that the crowd thinks of themselves as sons of the Law and that the Law is the light. They asked about the Law in vs 34. Jesus was calling them to Himself, the true light. John made this point in the intro to his gospel when he wrote in John 1:9-13. “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Have you received the Light? Living to love with Jesus is to believe, receive, and walk in the true Light.
Jesus was to be among them for only a little while longer. He wants them to see where they are going and knows that once the light is gone from them, the darkness will overtake them and they won’t be able to see where they are walking. The reason I say so often, live to love with Jesus is this: to live is to walk. To live to love with Jesus is to walk in the Light of His life. When you live or walk in the light of His love, you know where you are. You are in God’s will, and you know where you are going. You are going to live with Him forever. You either live to love with Jesus or you stumble in the darkness. Can you see where you are going or are you stumbling around in the darkness trying to find your way in this world?
The crowd must have understood that Jesus was identifying as the Christ. The disciples certainly knew it but had been told to tell no one. Matthew 16:20 “Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.” The same crowd that said they heard thunder when God spoke, expressed confusion over how the Christ, the Son of Man, could be crucified. Their understanding was that He was to live forever. The disciples thought the same. So the question was and still is. How does one die, yet live forever? The answer: Jesus is the resurrection and the life. To live to love with Jesus we must be convinced that we must die to (we must hate) our lives in this world in order to experience Jesus’ resurrection life which pours Himself out in love.
But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.It’s like Jesus had been sitting in the secret council chambers of the Pharisees. He knew their plans, but unbeknownst to them, He would accomplish the very thing they were trying to prevent, namely, the whole world going after Him (12:19). They would kill Jesus by crucifying Him, and He would literally draw all—Greeks and Jews alike—to Himself. Remember, this conversation was initiated when the Greeks wanted to see Jesus. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Jesus we worship you and have been drawn to you because you were lifted up for us so we might know and express Your love. Glory be to God.
John 12:31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.Now that God has testified in this world and confirmed that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, God’s judgment upon this world has come. The judgment is that this world hates God because its ruler is a murderer and an imposter. He and this world were judged, exposed, and condemned by Jesus’ presence and God’s word. Jesus prophesied regarding what His suffering would accomplish—the banishment of Satan from the throne of this world. Jesus now reigns as Lord of this world. When we live to love with Him we are testifying to the veracity of Jesus’ statement and the power of His rule in this world.
Was it thunder or the voice of an angel that was heard? Jesus clearly stated what was heard: the voice of God. And He declared that God spoke for the sake of everyone who heard and not for His sake. He didn’t need encouragement. He was resolute. He came to suffer for the glory of God and was confident God would honor His service. The voice of God responding to Jesus’ cry for God to glorify His name was for those who have ears to hear—both then and ever since. Are you consciously, intentionally, sacrificially living for the glory of God? It is the testimony that Jesus has been glorified in you.
Some said they heard thunder, and others said they heard an angel speaking to Him. Probably those who were planning His death tried to explain it away by saying it was thunder—a natural occurrence. In contrast, those who were inclined to believe said they heard a distinguishable voice. The same thing happens. We can expect unbelievers to look for natural explanations for the supernatural testimonies of God. Those in whom God is working are looking for and expecting God to speak and testify to His presence. Have you considered that as you live to love with Jesus that you are a supernatural testimony—the voice of God per se—saying that He has and will glorify His name through the resurrected Jesus in you?
It seems the context implies that the Father glorified His name in the resurrection of Lazarus and will do it again more powerfully in resurrecting Jesus to ultimately testify that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. We can count on the same promise that God will bear fruit “beyond our imaginations” if we serve Jesus with the same resolve and faith—the hope of His glory.
Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour?' But for this purpose I came to this hour.Jesus’ death was in view, the divine grain of wheat must die. He knew the time was upon Him. Even in that moment, He contemplated the impact on those He loved— they too will serve Him by laying down their lives. To follow Him, they will have to despise the natural lust to be honored by men in this world. As He pondered His upcoming suffering, apparently the thought entered His mind that He might ask His Father to deliver Him from it. But No! He came to this hour for the purpose of suffering death in service to His Father and bear much fruit. He would serve His Father. He would follow Him. He would be where His Father is. He would do it to be honored by the Father with abundant fruitfulness. The question for us is this: Will we follow and serve Jesus by laying down our lives with His resolve?
John 12:26 If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.Three truths about the one who serves Jesus. 1). He must follow His lead in all things. 2). He will be present where Jesus is present. 3). He will be honored by the Father. Imagine. The One who deserves all the honor, honors those who deserve no honor. When you live to love with Jesus, you are serving Him. Don’t expect to be honored in this life—that is to love your life in this world. Expect to be honored with Him for eternity. You will be where He is!
John 12:25b He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.Today we consider the second phrase of this verse. Whereas the one who loves his life will lose it, the one who hates his life in this world will keep his life to life eternal. What does he mean by hate in contrast to love? I think He means a person despises his self life, is dissatisfied by his own efforts, knowledge, worldly desires, and religiosity. The one who hates his life in this world does so because he knows Jesus hates his selfishness and worldliness. So his hatred of his worldly life has come because he has seen the deadness of his life and the glory of Jesus’ eternal life. In comparison, he hates his life and love Jesus’ life. This reveals that the life of Jesus has become his life and so he will keep it. One can’t keep something he doesn’t already have. He who hates his old life and loves His life in Jesus is free to live to love with Him. Have you seen that Jesus is the life?
John 12:25 He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.Let’s just focus on the first phrase. Jesus stated it as a fact: he who loves his life loses it. He surely means “loves his life in this world” since he contrasts it with “hates his life in this world”. What does He mean by love? I suggest love in this context means that one identifies with, is attracted to, and draws satisfaction from the things and people in this world. He who loves his life in this fallen world is certainly dead. For Jesus is life, and He hates this fallen world, and it hates Him. Anything that isn’t of Him is dead. Again, Jesus alone is life. To love something that is dead is to reveal the lost state of the heart. When we live to love with Jesus we love what and who He loves. Loving life in this world is not what He loves. He loves His Father and the things above. In the Spirit, Paul wrote, “set your mind on things above and not on the things that are on the earth”. Do you have a love relationship with your life in this world? If so, Jesus said assuredly, you will lose it. There is a Hebrew word used at the end of an important statement in the Psalms. It’s the word “Selah.” It means to pause and ponder what is said. Selah.
John 12:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.How is the Son of Man to be glorified? Jesus stated it plainly so we would all know. And John recorded it faithfully. Jesus is glorified as He gives Himself over to be crucified. In doing so, He will bear much fruit. John is going to quote Jesus again later on in his gospel as He speaks to His disciples. John 15:5, 8. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” Let’s connect some dots. Death, resurrection, life, the glory of God, and fruitfulness. Jesus laid down His life. God raised Him to life. Both God and Christ are glorified. The result is much fruit for His glory. As we live to love with Jesus, we die to ourselves. He raises us to life with Him. He loves through us and bears much fruit for the glory of the Father and the Son. Today, let us die to ourselves and live to Christ.
This is not what I would have expected to hear from Jesus had I been Philip or Andrew. I would have expected something like, “Great! Bring them to me.” or “Where are they? Take me to them, I’d be happy to talk with them.” Does Jesus’ answer surprise you? What is it about some Greeks wanting to see Him that signals that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified? I’ll give my two cents worth. Jesus knew that all things come from His Father and He only did what the Father showed Him. From His worldview, it was the Father who brought the Greeks to see Him. It’s a sign that God loves the world, the non-Jews, just as He does the Jews. It’s the fulfillment of what Jesus told Nicodemus when He told him that the wind (the Spirit) was going to blow where it wishes and that Nicodemus couldn’t know where it was coming from or where it was going. The Son of Man was to be glorified by laying down His life for believers from every tribe, tongue, people, or nation. God gathered representatives from all the nations of the world to witness the righteousness of God placarded for all to see and believe. The Greeks' arrival told Jesus what the Father was doing. The hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus is glorified as we seek Him as our Savior and Lord.
John 12:22 Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus.Philip and Andrew became intercessors for the Greeks. An intercessor is one who negotiates or acts as a link between parties. A go-between if you will. We can be like Philip and Andrew as well when we go tell Jesus about those He has put in our lives to love with Him. There are people in our lives that God is in the process of bringing to Jesus. We have the privilege, since we have access to the Father, through Jesus, to lift them before the Father in prayer. Praying for others, bringing them to Jesus, telling Him about them, is one way of loving with Jesus. He ever lives to intercede for us (Heb. 7:25), so our interceding for others is an expression of His life dwelling within and evidence that our lives are one with Him. I hope you’ll take a moment and tell Jesus about someone that you hope He will save.
How did the Greeks know to talk with Philip? How did they know they could gain access to Him through Philip? I’m not sure how. My guess is that they watched from a distance and could tell who Jesus’ disciples were. There was an observable contrast between those who were there merely for the show and those who were dedicated followers of Jesus. These Greeks had heard of Jesus perhaps or they had just arrived at the temple and were curious about this man who received so much praise and adulation from the people. For whatever reason, they wanted to see Jesus, and they figured Philip was the man to go to for access to Him. If someone had heard about Jesus and wanted to see Him, would they know to come to you or to me? Would it be clear to them as they watched our lives that we could introduce them to Him? I think if we live to love with Jesus, we will have many opportunities to take people to Jesus.
To the Pharisees, it looked like everyone had abandoned them and gone after Jesus. Oh, if that were the case! That same “world” was a fickle crowd, weren’t they? Within a very short time, they had turned on Jesus and were crying out, “Crucify Him.” Not everyone who appears to be following Jesus (that is, says they are a Christian) is a true believer. The greatest protection from being a fickle follower is to live to love with Jesus every day. Keep your eyes on Him. Be devoted to Him, not to a worldly cause, spiritual experience, or personal happiness. As Oswald Chambers wrote in My Utmost for His Highest, “A man with a vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue; he is devoted to God, Himself.” (Reading for May 2). Such a person will not praise one day, then blame another day. If you have had a true vision of God, then you know He is love and living to love with Him is a privilege and anchor.
John 12:18 For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.The raising of Lazarus from the dead would certainly catch my attention. How about yours? John explained why the crowd met Jesus before His entry into Jerusalem. Remember when Jesus told Martha that she would see the glory of God as a result of Lazarus’ death? Surely all of this was in view. The Father’s testimony regarding His Son spread throughout Jerusalem and was the cause of the fulfillment of Scripture regarding His triumphal entry to the city of Zion. I am amazed at how God works. Aren’t you? Today, as we live to love with Jesus and testify about His resurrection power and new life, let’s hope and pray that people will want to go meet Jesus. Every believer is a sign, a miracle of resurrection power and life.
John 12:17 So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him.Even if they killed Jesus and Lazarus, how could they silence all the witnesses? They couldn’t. And so it is today. We are witnesses of the truth that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He lives in us. He loves through us. We once were dead, but now we live to love with Him. What were they testifying about Him? Here are my thoughts. Jesus told Martha that He was the resurrection and the life and that she would see the glory of God. After Lazarus was raised and the crowd saw the miracle, you know Martha had to remember what Jesus had said to her. Surely she was proclaiming something to this effect, “He said He was life. He has authority over death. This has to be the Messiah.” On top of that, the news of Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet at the dinner circulated. The testimony about Jesus continues today through us. As we live to love with Him, we echo the same truths testified to by Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and those who witnessed the miracle. Jesus is life everlasting.
John 12:16 These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.So often this is the case. Things happen in our lives that we don’t understand until we see Jesus glorified in and through them. Jesus mounting a donkey to ride into Jerusalem this one time, of all the times He had entered that city, didn’t strike them as all that incredible. However, it was! Think about it. Because God had spoken it through Zechariah centuries before, the event was God’s undeniable testimony glorifying His Son, Jesus Christ, as the anointed Messiah and promised King. John’s words, “Fear not,” could not be more appropriate and accurate considering the context of Zachariah’s prophecy where he promised to “camp around My house,” and “no oppressor will pass over them anymore,” and the “chariot” and “bow of war will be cut off.” Zechariah penned, “Rejoice greatly.” John wrote, “Fear not.” Are they not both sides of the same coin? Let us fear not and rejoice greatly, for now, we have seen Jesus glorified.
Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zachariah saw Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem approximately 550 years prior to the event. Wow! Isn’t that amazing? One of over 300 prophecies verified in the life of Christ. This one alone should be enough for the world to bow the knee, lay down the palm branches, and proclaim Jesus as Lord and King. What does it speak to your heart? As we live to love with Jesus, we can rest assured that we are a living miracle and testimony of the indwelling King of kings. Hallelujah, King Jesus!
This was a worthy praise and adoration of Jesus. He was and is the King of Israel who came in the name of the Lord. Apparently the crowd got word that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, and they met Him before He entered the city with these praises. We can join them in giving Jesus glory today. “Hosanna! Blessed are You, Jesus, who has come into my heart for the glory of Your name, even my King, Savior, and Lord. Thank you for another day of life to know and love You and to live to love with You. Anoint and fill us with the Holy Spirit, Your presence and power, so we can love and trust You and love all those You put in our paths today for Your glory. Amen.
John 12:10-11 But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.The Pharisees were creating a first century cancel culture—the ultimate cancel culture. Literally cancel the lives of those who threaten the way of life we have created for ourselves. Perhaps the apostle James best explains what lies at the heart of their evil scheme. “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing” (James 3:16). Jealousy and selfish ambition existed in Satan’s heart and Adam and Eve fell prey to the lie against the truth. The Pharisees not only planned to cancel Jesus’ voice, but Lazarus’ as well. We can expect the world to do the same with our testimonies of resurrection life. The more they try to cancel us, let us realize that God is simply setting the stage for a display of His power and love through us as we refuse to revile and hate in return. Instead may we show the wisdom of God as we love with Jesus.
John 12:9 The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead.We died when Jesus died. That’s our first death. We were raised from the dead when He was raised from the dead. What was the difference between Lazarus before he died and Lazarus after he was raised? People wanted to know—a large crowd of people. I wonder if our new resurrection life after our conversion shouldn’t also draw a crowd. Not just for Jesus’ sake, but because they want to know what happened to us. How is it that once we were dead to Jesus and lived to only love ourselves, but now we are alive to Jesus and live to love with Him? What was it like to take off the grave clothes and see Jesus and dine with Him? Can we describe that experience? Well, I was dead and my selfish life stunk. Then I heard Jesus speak, and His life filled my soul and body and I began to live to love with Him.
Living the Truth in 2026“For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him” (John 13:37-38).
Certainly Jesus’ reply to Judas caught them all off-guard. First, He gave clear direction for the use of the remaining perfume, and it wasn’t to be sold to help the poor. Second, His reference to His burial. What? Couldn’t the one who just raised Lazarus from the dead, also rebuke the grim reaper when he came for Jesus? Wasn’t Jesus going to establish the forever kingdom of David? Third, “You do not always have Me.” Puzzling to them, but not to us. I am so glad that we live on this side of the cross and resurrection so we know exactly what Jesus meant. He came to die as our substitute so all our sins would be forgiven so that we might always have Him with us. It is precisely this confidence—His presence with us forever—that encourages us to live to love with Him today and everyday. Thank you, Jesus, for loving us and loving through and with us. We are so privileged and blessed!
John 12:6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.I wonder when John discovered Judas’ hypocrisy and thievery. What strikes me is that it was necessary for Judas to have responsibility for the money box so that God’s judgment would be just. Didn’t Jesus know Judas’ greedy heart when He gave him that job? Of course He did. Then why did He do it? We know why. Because His Father was doing it (John 5:19 “the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner”). God puts us in situations that bring out what He sees in us so that He may be glorified in His righteous judgment (in Judas’ case) and in His love revealed (in Mary’s case). In any situation, whatever we are filled with comes out. May we be filled with love for Jesus and others.
Not only was God’s grace to Mary revealed as she anointed Jesus’ feet, but Judas’ heart was exposed as well. Every situation is an opportunity for sin or love to be expressed by those present. If Judas had been a true disciple, he would have watched his master’s response to Mary and recognized that it pleased Him. He would have remained silent out of love and respect for both Jesus and Mary. When we live to love with Jesus we are less likely to jump to judgment and more careful about what we say that might be hurtful to others. Judas should have left the judgment to Jesus, and so should we. One expression of loving like Jesus is to leave the judgment of others to God and be gracious to those who don’t do what we think they should. You may have an opportunity today to love in this way. Don’t be a Judas.
John 12:3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.As John mentioned the perfume was costly. It was derived from a flower of the honeysuckle family found in the Himalaya mountains of China and India. This was no small display of love and honor to the one who brought such happiness and blessing into their lives thru the resurrection of Lazarus. It was extravagant. Have you ever considered that we all have the same opportunity Mary had to honor Jesus? He has come to abide (sit down and dine) with us. He has called us out of death into life through His resurrection power like He did Lazarus. We are at His footstool—His feet. This has helped me realize that I too can express my love, gratitude, and honor to Jesus. One aspect of living to love with Jesus is showering our love on Him. Let’s do that today.
John 12:2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.Imagine reclining at the table with Jesus, whose voice had called you out of the tomb. Maybe they were listening to Lazarus share his first thoughts upon re-entering his body in the tomb and hearing Jesus cry, “Lazarus, come forth!” Or maybe they were hearing him share about what he experienced while living outside his body. Or maybe they were listening to Jesus explain the significance of the miracle and its relevance to what was about to happen. Whatever it was moved Mary to honor Jesus in an expensive, extravagant, display of love. What about Jesus moves us to love like that?
John 12:1 Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.We don’t know how much time transpired between the miracle and Jesus’ return to Bethany after meeting with His disciples in Ephraim. It was a 14 1/2 mile trek and He timed His arrival to six days before Passover. I can’t help but see this as another expression of love for the family. It makes sense that He wanted to check on them following the exciting event. From what is about to occur, we also can deduce that the Father was setting the stage for another significant display of love and honor toward His Son. So it is with us today as we live to love with Jesus. God is setting the stage for us to love and honor Him.
John 11:57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it so that they might seize Him. The dragnet tightened. Their evil scheme was in motion. They were determined to seize and eliminate Him. We should be amazed at the wisdom and glory of God to allow men to scheme and carry out evil against His anointed as the means by which He overcomes evil, sin, and death. In the end times, it will be the same with His people. Evil men will be allowed to carry out their schemes against His Holy ones, but they will display God’s wisdom and glory as they trust in Him and lay down their lives in love for Christ and others. Jesus will prepare us for this time as He prepared Himself. Abide in Him today.
Imagine the scene. Men straining their necks, searching the crowd for Jesus. They were wondering what He would do. Have you ever wondered what Jesus would do? Jesus did eventually come, but not when they expected it nor how they expected it. That’s often the case in our lives. We look for Him in the natural, reasonable ways, but His ways are not ours. Jesus always moves in a redemptive, God-glorifying path. Look for Him there today.
John 11:55 Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves. John lets us know the historical context surrounding the Passover celebration. Jerusalem’s population swelled with committed worshippers preparing for Passover. John implied that Jesus was expected to show up and that He would be easy to find. But Jesus didn’t need to purify Himself. He was perfectly pure. He was the Spotless Passover lamb. Remember the first Passover in Egypt? A lamb was slain so the death angel would pass over the home of the Hebrews. All who believe in Jesus will never die. His blood was shed that we might live to love with Him. Hallelujah!
John 11:54 Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples. Apparently Jesus knew of their plans and it wasn’t the Father’s timing so He avoided the conflict and spent time with His disciples. We can learn from this that there are times when we should avoid those whom we know cannot tolerate or handle the testimony of God in our lives. Love in this case stayed out of their path. It was best to love those who were yearning to learn and who responded to His love. He was making disciples. Who are we investing in who need to be loved by Him?
John 11:53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. The Pharisees made their evil plans as God established their steps. John wants his readers to understand that God accomplished His purposes through evil men who thought they were in control. God was working toward His greatest display of love and glory in the death and resurrection of His son. In the affairs of men it looked like darkness was prevailing, but in reality and truth, the stage was being set for the greatest revelation of God in all the history of mankind. May this encourage us that every situation is an opportunity to trust God and love with Jesus.
John 11:52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. As the Pharisees are meeting to plot Jesus’ death, God is working to make all of His children throughout all of history into one nation for eternity. We are so limited in our view and judgment of the affairs of men. We know so little. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12). What a glorious day it will be when we see all of God’s wisdom and glory in the affairs of men. This verse should encourage us to love and trust God in everything that happens in our lives.
John 11:51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, God is in control of Caiaphas’ prophetic statement. God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. He is working all things according to the counsel of His own will. This was true in this account as well as today in our lives. This gives us great confidence as we live to love with Jesus. We can rest assured that nothing occurs outside of His will and purpose to glorify Jesus in our lives.
Caiaphas got it but didn’t. He rightly recognized that Jesus’ death could be the means of salvation for the nation, but was totally blind to the salvation God would accomplish. That’s how Satan’s temptations work. Suggest that the evil planned is really good and advantageous. It tripped up Adam and Eve, and it worked with the Pharisees. Be on guard for a spirit that reasons it’s a good thing to harm people for a greater collective good. Also be amazed at the wisdom and knowledge of God who uses Satan’s lies to accomplish eternal redemption, reconciliation, and glorify His son.
People who react to love feel threatened by it. In this case, their concern is their significance and position of authority. Implied perhaps is a jealousy of His success. Contrast that with what we want. We want all men to believe in Him. We want all the glory to go to Him. That’s why we abide in Him so we can love with Him. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.
What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil (Prov. 16:4). Our salvation would not have happened without the chief priests and the Pharisees plotting Jesus’ death. We already know from John 8 that they are doing the work of the devil. Their blindness and hostility to Jesus’ miracles was stunningly, supernaturally evil. We are watching a similar blindness and hostility to truth today on the political stage. Let us remember that God is always at work to glorify His son as we love the truth and those He puts in our paths.
John 11:46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. Stunning darkness! They see God testify with such power and authority and still do not believe. Before we judge them, let’s consider that if God had not given us ears to hear and hearts to believe, we would have done the same thing. How easy it is to give a bad or twisted report of someone we don’t like to another person we want to impress and knew that they also didn’t like them? We can also expect those who oppose the truth today to do to us what they did to Jesus. Let’s not let that stop us from loving and testifying of Christ. It didn’t stop Him. He knew this would happen.
John 11:45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. Many of those who came to comfort Mary saw God’s testimony of glory regarding Jesus and believed. Believers are testimonies of God’s grace and power for His glory. He is still testifying of His son through us as we love people and share the gospel. Be alert. Be ready for those God puts in your path.
Before moving on to vs 45, another thought came to mind. A day is coming, and not too far away, when Jesus will say, “My bride, come forth!” In that moment, all who are His will come forth with Him as one and there will be no more death. Glory to God in the highest! The best way to prepare for that moment is to abide in Him and live to love with Him. Let’s give ourselves to Him with no reservations.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He has all authority over heaven and earth. He commanded Lazarus to come out of the tomb in his body, so Lazarus returned to his body and obeyed. The greater event however was the Father’s testimony glorifying Jesus by raising Lazarus. When Lazarus came forth, the cry heard throughout heaven and earth was, “Jesus is my beloved son sent to give eternal life to all who believe!” He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
So those standing around might believe, Jesus cried out with a loud voice to Lazarus. He wanted everyone there to witness God’s testimony about Him when He speaks and God raises Lazarus. The miracle of a dead man coming back to life is sensational, but that’s not the highlight of this event. The spotlight is on God doing what Jesus commands. HE is the resurrection and the life! God says He is, as He speaks and Lazarus rises and walks out of the tomb. Dear believing friends. We are walking testimonies that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. We once were dead in sin and selfishness, but we have been raised with Christ to love with Him in this world. There was a day in my life when Jesus said, “Norm, come forth.” and I was raised to life with Jesus. The same is true for all who believe. Glory be to God through Jesus Christ, His Son.
Here we have explicitly stated, the aim of the miracle God was about to do. It is to glorify the Son! It wasn’t primarily for Lazarus or Martha or Mary that this miracle occurred. It was for them, but primarily it was so that those who came from Jerusalem to comfort them might believe that Jesus was sent by God. This gives us insight into how we might pray when we don’t know what to do to love someone. We might pray, “Father, I know You hear me because I am asking in Jesus’ name that You would do whatever is necessary for others to believe that You sent Jesus into this world to give us resurrection life.” When we live to love with Jesus, and Jesus loves through us, it shows that God has performed a miracle: we have been raised from death to life by the power of God through Jesus Christ, His Son, whom He sent for that specific, glorious purpose. Jesus said that it is through our union with Him that the world will know that God sent Him (John 17:20).
His response then was, “Your brother will rise again.” It was as if He told her what He had asked for. Jesus knew then, when He prayed, that His Father always hears Him. We have this same confidence because Jesus told us so. He taught His disciples to pray to our Father who is in secret and know that He knows what we need before we ask Him. Heavenly Father, hallowed be Your name. Thank you for hearing us. It’s not that we doubt it, we know you always hear us. We are Your children, and You love us. May You be magnified in our lives today as we live to love with Jesus those You put in our paths.
Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.Upon considering the promise of seeing the glory of God, they believed and removed the stone. They gave Jesus access because they believed they would see the glory of God revealed in Jesus. And as soon as the stone was removed, Jesus continued His intercession for them. My heart takes courage and comfort from this. I hope yours does also. Let us give Jesus access to everything in our lives, knowing that He loves us and will take up our case before the Father.
Do we believe that all things occur so God may glorify Himself through His Son, Jesus? Jesus had told Mary that she would see the glory of God if she believed. We have been told in God’s word that for all of those who are His, He is at work for good and for His glory in this fallen world (Romans 8:20-21 “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God). He loves us, and nothing can separate us from His love. He is for us! Who is against us? Neither death nor life. Tribulation, distress, persecution, nor anything to come can prevent God from glorifying Himself through Jesus in our lives. Let’s not settle for anything less than seeing God glorify Himself in our lives. Let the Lord be magnified!
Are we ever afraid to go to a place where we’ve been hurt or disappointed with Jesus? Have you sealed that event or problem up like this cave was sealed with a stone? We’re afraid to roll back the stone. It protects us from something that we think is dead and stinks. We can’t see any benefit to letting Him have access to it. We’ve buried it and don’t want to suffer more. Jesus could have spoken and moved that stone, and He could do the same with the stone we’ve placed to protect ourselves. But, He tells us to remove the stone just like He told them to remove the stone. To remove the stone is to give Jesus access to the dead thing in our lives that needs to be resurrected for the glory of God. Is Jesus telling us to remove the stone and give Him access to something that has been decaying and stinking in our lives?
John 11:38 So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.The “so Jesus” indicates that Jesus responded to the accusation that He could have prevented Lazarus’ death. His delay was misunderstood. The work of God was to glorify His Son through Lazarus’ death. They couldn’t see that. Perhaps when we have the same misunderstanding and wrong judgment, Jesus is deeply troubled. Is there anything in our lives that we look back on and say, “God, You could have prevented it from happening, but You didn’t.” Is it possible that in our unbelief and pain, we judged wrongly and misunderstood God’s purpose for the event? We should be deeply troubled when we don’t trust God’s love, wait upon Him, and look for how Jesus can be made much of. Take Jesus to that place. Show Him the “stone” that lies in the way. Then wait upon Him there in worship.
Hm. Maybe Martha and Mary got the notion that if Jesus had been there, Lazarus would not have died from the Jews who came to mourn with them. However, that doesn’t seem very consoling, does it? The tone of this seems accusative. John shows us again the division that existed among the crowd with regard to Jesus. Some think the best of Him—He loves well. Others think the worst of Him—He could have prevented this. We will find this to be the case in life. Regardless of what you do and how you authentically express Jesus’ love, there will be some who can see it and others who can’t. Maybe this is what troubled Jesus so deeply to the point of tears. Which is more troubling? That a man dies or that a man is walking death? What do you think?
The Jews interpreted Jesus’ tears as an expression of love for Lazarus. I’m sure Jesus did love Lazarus. But I wonder if His tears were out of love for Mary. She was the one in His path. She was the one crying. She was the one in anguish. I’ve experienced Jesus’ empathetic tears before for someone who is suffering. When it has happened, it has come from deep within and often because I am overwhelmed with their helplessness as well as my own. Love is merciful and compassionate. Jesus’ love was obvious. As we live to love with Jesus, may His love expressed through us also be obvious—for His glory.
Jesus wept.“Weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). We see a loving expression of empathy in Jesus. Although He knew Lazarus was only “sleeping” and that God was going to raise him for His glory, He still wept. John seems to imply that Jesus’ tears were motivated by a movement of God deep within His spirit which was troubling. What do you think was troubling? Was it that he saw familiar faces—Jews who caused trouble the last time He was in Jerusalem? I wonder if He always felt that way when He saw death—it was always troubling to see the affects of sin on His creation, wasn’t it? It’s what He came to conquer. For whatever the reason, Jesus was ready to look death in the face in the power of the Holy Spirit with His Father. But still He wept. Filled with the hope of glory, Jesus wept. Isn’t God’s love amazing? Lord, I worship You.
We observe Mary’s great love and reverence for Jesus as she fell at His feet. It’s interesting to me that Martha didn’t fall at Jesus’ feet when she came to Him. At least, it’s not reported. There’s an attitude of surrender and humility that convicts me. Not many people respond to God this way when going through difficulties. That’s what makes me think that Mary isn’t blaming Jesus when she says what she says. Obviously Martha and Mary were both of the opinion that if Jesus had been there, Lazarus would still be alive. But they aren’t blaming Him. They can’t see anything but their loss, but in their loss, they still have confidence in Jesus. In her pain and loss, she presented herself humbly to the Lord Jesus. May we also walk in such humility and love.
John 11:30-31 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.God gathered the crowd to display His glory in His Son by having Mary not follow Martha in the beginning but stay with the friends who came to console her. When Mary finally heard that Jesus was on the way and called for her, they followed her. God is always at work providentially moving people into place to accomplish His will. This will happen today in our lives as God places people in our paths to love with Him. He loves them and wishes to do it through us for His glory even as He loved Mary, Martha, and those who mourned Lazarus’ death. Let’s be alert to everyone we see today. God planted them there.
John 11:29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him.When Jesus calls us, how quick do we respond? Mary was probably surrounded by people. We read two verses later that she was being consoled by the Jews who came from Jerusalem. I think John wants his readers to see another example of Mary’s love for and devotion to Jesus. We are disciples of Jesus as was Mary. Today, He may call for us to come at a time that is most inopportune. May we be like Mary, and get up quickly to express our love and bear our hearts to Jesus.
What did Martha believe about Jesus? She believed He is the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world to save us from eternal death, which we deserve. This declaration ranks right up there with Peter’s, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). Will we join Martha’s voice in worship of Jesus Christ? I hope so. Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of God, who comes into the world to save us from our sins. We worship You.
Never dies! Faith in Jesus is the difference between eternal life and eternal death. Martha was asked if she believed in Him. Jesus might as well be asking the question of everyone who reads these words. Is He asking if we believe Jesus existed? Is He asking if we believe He was the best man that ever walked on earth? Do you believe that without Him, you don’t live? According to Jesus, if you don’t believe in Him, you are the walking dead. Everything done has the curse and stench of death on it. But if you believe in Jesus, everything done in Him has the blessing and aroma of life everlasting. Who do you believe Jesus is?
I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,These are not the words of a crazy man, a lunatic, or a religious fanatic cult leader. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Lord, we worship You as the resurrection and the life. Everything and everyone around us who is not in You is in a state of perpetual death. There is no life but in You. This is what makes living to love with Jesus so exciting and hopeful. Think about it. If Jesus loves through us, then that deed lives forever for the glory of God. Every other deed is lifeless and dead. Therefore, everyone who believes in Jesus, that is, trusts in His life within as the fountain and source of his life, always lives even if he stops breathing—he’s united to eternal life! What a statement about Lazarus. Even if he no longer breaths in his body, Lazarus still lives. What a comfort to Martha—and to us!
Again, Martha’s faith and confidence shines. She believes that death does not have the final say in the lives of believers. It’s why we celebrate when a loved one who knows Jesus leaves the body at the last breath. This is pretty amazing since this event is a pre-resurrection occurrence. Anyone with such faith should not be afraid of death. We know that all who are in Christ will be raised on the last day that this fallen, cursed world breathes its last breath. What a day that will be! Rejoice today in this wonderful hope of joining all the loved ones who have gone before you in the presence of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
This is stunning! Wonderful! Amazing! It seems reasonable that Jesus is telling her what He asked of God. He asked that Lazarus would be raised from the dead, and He is confident that His Father has heard and will give it. In Romans 8:26-28, Paul gives us the same confidence in Jesus’ intercession. We may not know how to pray, but that’s not our confidence. Our confidence is in God always doing His will with regard to us, and that is to work everything that happens for our greatest good and His greatest glory through the intercession of the Holy Spirit and our Lord Jesus Christ. We also know what our highest good is and what brings Him the greatest glory, namely, that everything is being used to conform us to the image of Christ. Another way of saying this is that God is working everything so that we become vessels of Jesus’ love for His glory. Lazarus’ death was so that God’s love and glory could be revealed as Jesus took authority over death. Whatever assails us is just the setting for God to reveal His love and glory in Jesus as He takes authority over it. Settle for nothing less than resurrection power revealed in love.
Are we like Martha in this regard? She expressed a trust in Jesus’ intercession “even now” with Lazarus being dead 4 days. What was He to ask of God? Her words “whatever you ask” remind me of the words of Jesus to His disciples found in John 14:13. “Whatever you ask in My name that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” and 15:7-8 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” Jesus told them they could ask whatever they needed to obey His command to love with Him, and it would be given, so the Father could receive glory. Isn’t this the same case? She knows Jesus loves Lazarus and them, so she knows He could ask the Father for whatever is needed to love them for God’s glory. Therein lies our confidence in Jesus’ intercession. We know He loves us. We know He asks for whatever is needed to most glorify God. Then we trust Him. We can’t live to love with Jesus if we don’t trust that His will and intercession are motivated by His love and glory.
Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.We are all like Martha. If from our perspective, something bad happens, we conclude it happened because God doesn’t love us or wasn’t there. We naturally have the “If only…” syndrome. If we think God should orchestrate the affairs of our lives according to our desires, we forget that God’s ways are higher than our ways. His goal is not our comfort and convenience in this world, but to glorify Jesus in this world. The Fall and its resulting pain, sorrow, suffering and death are His stage upon which He displays His love, comfort, mercy, forgiveness, preeminence, power, authority, and glory (just to name a few). Lazarus’ untimely death, from Martha’s perspective, is actually perfect timing for God’s purposes. Had He been there, and Lazarus not died, none of what we know and see about Jesus in this narrative would have occurred. You can almost hear Jesus say in response to Martha, “Exactly! I need Him to be dead.” As you look upon all of the events of your life and are tempted to think, “If only…” remember that everything has occurred exactly like God planned to glorify His Son. We can’t see it yet because of our self-centered perspective. We only need to wait for it.
John 11:20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house.Someone went before Jesus and alerted Martha that Jesus was coming. As soon as she heard, off she went to meet Him. As we know from other accounts of Martha, she’s a woman of action, and she’s not afraid of speaking her mind to Jesus. In contrast, Mary is the focused one. She’s not easily distracted and prone to busyness, so she stayed in the house with her guests. Now, let’s look at God at work. As we will see, it was necessary for Martha to meet Jesus away from the house and for Mary to stay in the house in order to get the crowd in place for God to glorify His Son. Always keep your eyes on Jesus, not people. The ultimate, glorious will of God is being done on earth as it is in heaven—always. Trust in God today. He loves you. He’s at work in all things and in all people—for His glory.
John 11:18-19 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off; and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.As Jesus delayed, the crowd of Jews, perhaps many who had previously conspired to stone Jesus, was gathering in Bethany at Martha’s and Mary’s house. Did God know this? Not only did He know it, He was orchestrating it. He is preparing to glorify His Son in their midst. For some, it would be sufficient for them to believe in Jesus. For others, it would be further reason to get rid of Him. In both cases, God accomplished His purpose with the ultimate outcome in both of their responses, the Son of God being glorified. The works of God always test and reveal what God is and isn’t doing in the affairs of men. His works and words always expose the condition of the hearts of those who observe or hear them. The same is true today. We are not responsible for what people do with what we say or do. We are responsible to love, obey, and speak His word faithfully while trusting God to accomplish His purposes in everyone He puts in our paths. So today, let’s love with Jesus and trust Him.
John 11:17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days.Jesus waited two days before beginning the trip to Bethany (vs. 6), and apparently it took two days to travel to Bethany. For Lazarus to be in the tomb 4 days means that he died the day Jesus heard that he was sick. Mary and Martha must have sent word two days before he died because we assume it also took them two days of travel. That’s six days of waiting for Mary and Martha to hear from Jesus. How long have we waited to hear from Jesus when we’ve been desperate for His presence and comfort in our storm? The six days of waiting for Mary and Martha and the four days in the tomb were necessary for the glory of God to be seen. Let’s remember that is always the case with our storms. He loves us. He purposes to glorify His name in our situation. Whatever delay we are experiencing is necessary for His glory to be revealed. Trust and pray as we wait.
Doesn’t Thomas give us hope? Sometimes we are like Thomas, the ever-doubting, pessimistic Thomas. But I wonder if there’s something more admirable revealed here. I don’t know if he was being facetious or not. “Yep, let’s all just go with Him. We’re all gonna die anyway.” Or if he seriously thought, “If he goes to Judea, they’re gonna kill Him, and we might as well die with Him as live without Him.” Have you come to the point that you would rather die with Jesus than live without Him? How often have you been faced with the fact that if you have to love a certain person, it’ll kill you? So rather than go with Jesus and die with Him, you decided to preserve your life and live without Him. Interesting thoughts, Yes? What do you think? Apparently the rest of the disciples thought about it, and decided it was better to die with Him than live without Him. What do we have to die to to live to love with Jesus?
Not only did love for Mary and Martha lead Jesus to delay His response, but love for His disciples also. God orchestrates the affairs of life in order that we may believe in Jesus—that our faith might be displayed as wrought by God. The more helpless and desperate the situation, the greater the potential for God’s glory to be manifested as He gives us the faith of the living Jesus Christ. They needed to see that they could trust God in the face of death or any kind of suffering, for that matter. It is faith that overcomes in those times. This is true for us as well. We may learn with the disciples through this story. This didn’t just happen for their sakes, it happened for our sakes too. Watch what happens to your faith as we continue on in John 11 and go to Lazarus with Jesus.
Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover. Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep.We can’t see what Jesus sees in any situation any more than the disciples could understand what Jesus understood about Lazarus’ situation. Their limitations were understandable as are ours. This should teach us to trust Him and not lean on our own understanding. Let’s remember, from their perspective, going back to Judea wasn’t a good idea. Death awaited them. So when Jesus spoke of awakening Lazarus from sleep, they still thought, then there’s no need to go. If sleep was the problem, then the recovery can happen without Jesus. From Jesus’ perspective, death was mocking Him, and God had put this in His path. It was time to reveal His authority over death. If sin and death is the problem, then the waiting, going, and the power of Jesus were indispensable—He had to go, regardless of the dangers. Jesus showed us that even as death stared Him in the face, He was not afraid to look death in the face. Let’s remember today that God’s love conquers all our fears.
The love of God that is the Light of the world, knew Lazarus had not died the death that occurs because of sin, but had “fallen asleep.” Love was going to awaken him. This must have excited Jesus! Jesus wasn’t concerned about any danger to His life, as the disciples were. His eyes were on what the Father was doing—displaying His glory in His son. God had given Him authority over life and death, and it had been revealed to Him that this sickness of Lazarus and the despair of the sisters was the perfect setting for this hope-inspiring expression of love. Blindness is a great darkness, but death in the grave is a greater darkness to conquer. Jesus expects to see His Father work through Him. As we live to love with Jesus, we also can expect Jesus to work through us for His glory. We have hope because we know that Jesus can awaken those who are spiritually dead and in darkness. Don’t let someone’s spiritual state discourage or disillusion you. All He has to do is speak and the dead will hear.
How do we know how to make decisions if we want to live to love with Jesus? Jesus explained His decision to go to Judea where His life had been threatened. His explanation is that He follows the light of God given to Him. If you remember what John wrote about Jesus in John 8-10, you remember that He testified that He was the Light of Life and the Light of the world. He opened a blind man’s eyes to see the Light of the world while the Pharisees and Jews stumbled around blindly in the dark. They couldn’t see Jesus because there was no light in them. Jesus made this decision to go to Judea because the Father had given Him love for Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, and that was The Light. Where God’s love is directed, there is daylight. The night has no love in it. John wrote the same in his first epistle. 1 John 2:10-11 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. How do we make decisions? Live to love with Jesus and you’ll walk in the light.
Remember that twice the Jews had picked up stones to kill Jesus. If left up to the disciples, the decision to return to Judea would have been made based upon natural reasoning, outward circumstances, and history. They were concerned for His welfare and probably their own as well. They would have missed God’s will and seeing God’s glory. How many times have we done the same? We chose the path of least resistance or the road which offered what looked like a happier and more comfortable outcome. To The Spirit’s point through John: that’s not how we make decisions as we live to love with Jesus. If we don’t make decisions based on our natural reason, outward circumstances and history, then how do we know what to do? Tune in tomorrow to find out.
This is all about timing. Jesus knew to wait upon His Father. It was the only way to glorify Him. He always abided in the Father. He said, “Let’s go,” because His Father said, “Let’s go.” The only way we can glorify Jesus is by abiding in Him and living to love with Him. We should go because He goes. We should love as He loves. We are in this world as He is in this world, wrote John (1 John 4:17)—for the glory of God. Waiting for believers shouldn’t be difficult because we have surrendered our lives to Him and want His glory. Therefore we don’t want to move or speak without Him. May we learn that when He bids us wait, He is loving us. How important it is to learn this lesson early in our lives.
John 11:5-6 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.Now Jesus loved…so He delayed. Wait! How do we respond when the love of God delays to act and bring healing and relief? John clearly wants us to know and believe that it was love for the sisters and Lazarus that motivated His delay. We may conclude from this that when He delays to relieve our suffering or answer our prayers, it is because He loves us and knows our greater need and highest good is to see His glory revealed in Jesus through the suffering. This lesson is life-changing, and only Jesus’ disciples have this understanding and apply in their lives. Something glorious happens when we wait on the Lord. God is at work when we wait upon Him in the faith and trust of Jesus who lives in us. Jesus was waiting on the Father, and so the sisters were waiting on Jesus. Their faith and love were being purified from self-focus to the glory of God focus. Where is He doing that in our lives so we may glorify Jesus by trusting His timing and love?
This verse deserves more meditation. Yesterday, I commented that God’s purpose for all things in the lives of those He loves is to glorify Jesus in them. This is a distinctively Christian foundational truth to be applied often, everyday of our lives. This means we know God is working all things together for good—His glory (Rom. 8:28) — and that every situation is an opportunity for the faith of Jesus to be revealed in us as we trust Him. The temptation to manipulate people and circumstances to get what we want or think is best faces all of us just like it did Mary and Martha. Contrary to natural fallen thinking, our best is not our comfort and happiness in this world. It’s seeing God make much of Jesus in our situations and suffering. This changes everything. Let God be magnified (Psalm 70:4)!
Lazarus’s sickness (which is a result of the Fall) has a greater end than the death he deserves—the glory of God. God’s purpose for the sickness was to glorify (bear testimony to) His Son. Is this a unique situation? I think not. It’s what Jesus believed about all of life and every difficulty the Father placed in His path. He believes the same about every storm God wills that we face. Jesus in essence said, “Don’t look at Lazarus’s condition, trust in God’s purposes and power in Me.” He is saying the same to us today about whatever troubles, afflicts, or assails us. God’s purpose for all things in the lives of those He loves is to glorify Jesus in them. This is a distinctively Christian foundational truth to be applied often, everyday of our lives.
Mary and Martha knew Jesus loved Lazarus and would want to know of his illness, so they sent word to Him. Makes me wonder if others can see Jesus’ love for someone through me. I don’t think Jesus’ concern was to be seen to love. His love was as steady, constant, and genuine as His Father’s. He lived to love and it was obvious to the sisters. So they thought Jesus would want to know that Lazarus was sick. May God’s love be obvious in us today.
John 11:2 It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.This event isn’t covered by John until the next chapter, but it indicates how impressed John was with her extravagant love for Jesus. He wants us to be impressed as well with her reverence for Him. Maybe it’s to show us something about Jesus’ love for His Father as it relates to His love for Mary. We are often faced with pressure to please someone who is special to us more than pleasing Jesus. If we are going to live to love with Jesus, we need the lesson the Holy Spirit through John is to teach us about Jesus. Stay tuned.
John 11:1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.As I think about Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, I’m reminded of dear friends that God has given to us as gifts of His love. The Father gave them to Jesus so He and Jesus could love them. Who has God put in your life as special, dear friends that He wants to love with you? The idea comes to write a note of appreciation to them for being special friends. Love them with Jesus today.
John 10:33 The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”If it had been anyone else, they would have been right in their assessment. Even today, there are blasphemers who make themselves out to be God. By the way, be on the alert for the lie that suggests that we are all one with God because we are part of His creation. Jesus wasn’t making Himself out to be God, He is God. For Jesus to say that He was one with the Father and that His works are the works of the Father, distinguished Him from everyone else. I wonder what people think when we say that we are one with God and the works that we do are the works of Jesus. Let’s be clear in our testimony that we are not saying we are gods or are equal with God. However, we can say with humility and amazement, “We are united with Jesus and He lives, works, and loves through us for His glory.
John 10:32 Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?”Jesus showed them the works of the Father. Works of healing on the Sabbath. The Jews couldn’t accept that the works of Jesus were the works of God, His Father, so they considered Him a sinner and an imposter. Does anyone see the disconnect? The disconnect was that they didn’t know God. If they had known God, they would have recognized the merciful and gracious works of Christ as the works of God. In the Law, Exodus 34:6, God proclaimed His name, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” Look how patient and kind Jesus was to direct their attention to His good works. That’s probably a good thing for us to do also. As we love with Jesus, let’s do His works (love) and give Him glory as Jesus gave His Father glory.
John 10:31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.Did you notice the word “again.” After Jesus had said that He was the Light of the world and the Light of life, He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” In John 8:59, it says they picked up stones to throw at Him, but He hid Himself. Twice Jesus spoke plainly that He was the Son of God and was God in the flesh, and twice they took up stones to kill Him. It was the same evil spirit that rose up in Cain, a spirit of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. When bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are at work, a person is ready and willing to do harm to others. They wanted to kill Jesus because they didn’t like His truth. If His truth was truth, then “their truth” was a lie. My friends, we are watching the same spirit at work today. For those who think life is about being happy, significant, and being your best “you”, anyone living to love with Jesus is a threat to their living to love themselves. They will pick up stones to kill you. They are doing the work of their father who hates the work of God, the Father, revealed in His Son in us. But let’s not let that stop us from living to love with Jesus. Let’s love them with His love for His glory.
…snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” Jesus told them plainly that He was the Christ—just like they asked Him in vs. 24. Jesus wasn’t a good man showing all mankind how to be your best you. He wasn’t a mere mortal who for a time had the spirit of the Christ upon him. He was the Christ in flesh. He was God the Father’s hand in this world. He was perfectly united with His Father. To see Jesus was to see the Father (John 14:9). To know the Father, and the one whom He sent, Jesus Christ, is to know and have eternal life. For the Jews, He was saying the truth. “When you look at Me, you are looking at God, the Father.” Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will, toward those with whom He is well-pleased. Jesus is Immanuel.
Jesus’ sheep are given to Him by His Father. He is greater—more powerful—than any one who would like to snatch His sheep out of His hand. His sheep can’t be snatched out of His hand because not only are the sheep in Jesus’ hand, they are in the almighty, all-powerful Father’s hand. Our security isn’t based on what we do or don’t do. Our salvation isn’t based upon our good works. We are saved and have eternal life because of the Father’s sustained will toward our highest good, even if it cost the Shepherd’s life. He created us in Christ and gave us to Him forever. That’s security! However, those who are not His don’t need to be snatched out. They aren’t in the Father’s hand. They do not believe because they are not His sheep. They refuse to listen to His voice because they do not know His voice. We are living through a time in history where it appears that the devil is snatching sheep out of the midst of Jesus’ flock. He doesn’t have to snatch them, he can just call them. Progressive “Christianity”, which isn’t Christian at all, is calling his sheep out from His flock. The apostasy has begun. God is separating the world’s sheep from His sheep before He brings them into the fold.
John 10:28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.Don’t you love this verse?! Jesus is the giver of eternal life and every single sheep will be safely drawn into the fold—not one will be lost. What a comfort it is to be in the hand of Jesus Christ! How do we know if we are in His hand? We hear His voice and follow Him. We do not follow the voice of another shepherd. There are some sheep who are not of Jesus’ flock, who for a time, mix and mingle amongst the sheep of His flock while they are out in pasture. But they will never get into His fold because they are not His. Living to love with Jesus is the primary characteristic of Jesus’ sheep. It is God’s way of keeping His sheep in Jesus’ hand. Living to love with Jesus is the heartbeat of all sheep who have eternal life. They will never perish.
John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;Living to love with Jesus is like being an impersonator who sounds like another. We want to be sure our “voice” is the same as our Shepherd. He will speak through us if we speak with His words and His Spirit in love and care for His sheep. We can trust God to give His sheep ears to hear His voice as He puts them in our paths. May we speak of Him and His love. His sheep are waiting to hear His voice, and they will follow Him to the praise of His glory.
What more needed to be said. She knows she’s in right relationship with Jesus. She believes. Apparently her answer was affirmed by Jesus. He sent her to get Mary. Look at Martha’s love for Mary. She knows her time with Jesus will be filled with emotion, so secretly informs her of His arrival. I think this is atypical to Martha’s personality. Remember, she’s the one that interrupts Jesus and without sensitivity to either Mary or Jesus, suggests He ought to make Mary help out in with meal preparations. However, in this instance, Martha shows a loving sensitivity. This a good example to us of living to love with Jesus—think about Jesus and think about others. How do we best facilitate one’s relationship with Jesus?
John 10:26 “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.Those who don’t believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, the Door, the good Shepherd, the Light of Life, the one who lays down His life for us, don’t believe because they are not His sheep. They follow another shepherd, the shepherd of the world. They recognize the voice of their shepherd, Worldly-wiseman, and they believe he is the door to significance, security, acceptance, and self-glory. Unbelief in God and in Christ characterizes all who are not His. You could tell them about Jesus all day long, and they will not have ears to hear. However, we can’t tell who are His sheep or who are not His sheep until we love and speak in Jesus’ name.
Jesus taught this in John 14:12-14. Let's think about this today: Are all of my works bringing glory to the name of Jesus? Do they accurately testify of who He is, and who I am as His disciple?
Then if there's an opportunity, tell them plainly. Now that's a live to love with Jesus adventure.
John 10:22-23. At that time, the feast of the dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was Winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple and the Portico of Solomon. In 165 BC, when Judah Maccabee recaptured the temple, after it had been desecrated by a Syrian king, he ordered it to be cleansed, a new alter to be built and new holy vessels to be made. After these steps, the temple was rededicated to the Lord. However, unadulterated, undefiled, pure olive oil from the seal of the high priest was needed for the menorah, or the lamp stand, in the temple, which was required to burn throughout the night, every night. Unfortunately, only one flask was found with only enough oil to burn for one day.Yet when the Jews poured in the oil, and lit the menorah, it burned for eight days. Well, of course, eight days is the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of kosher oil for the menorah. It is this miracle that is commemorated during the feast of dedication. It's also called the festival of lights or Hanukkah.Jesus went to the temple to celebrate this wonderful work of God. That's what love for God does. Plus He is the light of the world. Jesus has recaptured our temple that has been defiled and desecrated by the world. Let's celebrate the work of God today that restored His temple so that it could be a holy place of worship to God. We celebrate that by living to love with Jesus.
Although many are afraid of Jesus, there are others who cannot deny what Jesus has done and who He is in spite of what we don't understand about Him, we believe and follow Him. Don't let what we don't know or understand hinder us from responding to what we do see, know, and understand. Jesus is the light of the world, and that light is His love.
Live to Love Scripture Encouragement, John 10.20. John 10:20 Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?”Hm. Why did people listen to Jesus? Let’s see. In the last 24 hrs, God testified about Him by healing a lame man and a blind man. He claimed that God was His Father and that He is the Light of life, the door to safety and peace, and the good shepherd. No one ever spoke with authority like Jesus. This being said, there are many people today who will think we are insane to listen to Jesus and love with Him. Let’s not be distracted or discouraged. Love on with Him!
Welcome to today's Live to Love Scripture Encouragement. John 10:19 A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words.The words of Jesus often cause division. They bring out what’s in the hearts of people. If there’s a good heart, humility gives Jesus access to their lives. If pride, His words are toxic to them and they find ways to dismiss, change, or censor them. Sometimes, when we love people, we must speak the truth, the words of Jesus (there are times when it’s loving to remain silent). But when we speak the truth, we should expect divisions to occur among those who think they know better than Jesus. The divisions are necessary to that we might demonstrate the love of Jesus through patience, forgiveness, empathy, or whatever expression of love He wishes to show for His glory.
John 10:18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”On the front side of the cross, you can see why the Pharisees were constantly scratching their heads as they listened to Jesus. However, from our post-cross perspective, our heads explode with wonder and awe. We know exactly what He was saying. The Father commanded Him to lay down His life and take it up again. So if the Father commanded it, then He has authority to do it. His death won’t be because He is a victim of men’s hatred and plotting. He put Himself into their hands (probably the very hands of the Pharisees to whom He was talking) to be killed of His own initiative in obedience to His Father. He knew they were trying to kill Him (Jo. 7:19; 8:37, 40). He wanted them to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He and the Father were in complete control.As we live to love with Jesus, let’s remember that we are never victims. We are in the hands of our Father, who loves us through our good Shepherd, who is with us. We lay our lives down by confronting sin, speaking the truth, forgiving, and loving those who who hate us and wish us harm.
John 10:17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.”Isn’t this an amazing revelation? Jesus told the Pharisees why the Father continuously loves Him. It’s because He continuously lays down His life (implied for the sheep). “So that” is a purpose clause indicating that He gets His authority to take up His life again because He willingly, obediently, and continuously lays down His life. Resurrection follows death, not only in Jesus’ life, but also in ours. Living to love with Jesus is a continuous laying down of our lives willingly and obediently, knowing that God will raise us up with Christ. What humility, surrender, love, and glory are displayed in the life of Jesus, our Savior. Let’s remember and be amazed that His humility, surrender, love, and glory live in us.
John 10:16 “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”Can you see, “What does He mean?” displayed over the faces of the Pharisees? I can’t help but think He was referring to the Gentiles—that’s all of us who were not born of Jewish descent. We have become one flock with all of the Jews who also heard His voice and followed Him. This “must bring them also” is the only reason Jesus hasn’t returned yet. Peter explained Jesus’ delay in returning based upon this great truth recorded in 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you (the beloved sheep), not wishing for any (of the beloved sheep) to perish but for all (of the beloved sheep) to come to repentance—and be brought into the fold. There is one sheep that will be the last one who He knows like the Father knows Him, and when that one has been brought into the fold, Jesus will return in glory to gather His flock into the fold. What a day that will be!
John 10:15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.”We are known and loved by Jesus as Jesus is known and loved by the Father. We know and love Jesus as Jesus knows and loves the Father. Don’t miss this. Jesus is going to unpack this relationship more in John 14. The Father and Son relationship is the pattern and source of the relationship between Jesus and His sheep/disciples/followers. Attitudes of trust and surrender permeate both relationships. This begs the question: Would God see these attitudes of trust and surrender permeating our lives and our relationship with Him? Love flows where trust grows, and it looks like surrender (laying down our lives). Jesus knows us like the Father knows Him. Out of that love relationship (of trust and surrender) between the Father and Son, flows our salvation and our lives, for our lives are hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).
John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,”Jesus repeated His claim to be the good shepherd. He certainly didn’t want them to miss what He is. How comforting it is to know that He knows His own. He knows everything about us individually as well as collectively. And we each know Him. We know His voice. We know when He is near. We know that He loves us and will not let the wolf (sin) get us. This highlights two characteristics of both Jesus and His own. Of Jesus: He longs to know us and to be known by us. Of us: We know we are His and we know who He is (God’s Son), what He is to us (our Door and Shepherd), and what He does for us (saves us from sin). The man who had received sight was the subject in view. He no longer was blindly following the Pharisees who were also blind, hired hands, and thieves and robbers, but he knew He belonged to Jesus, knew His voice, and was following Him. We praise and thank You, Jesus, for knowing us and enabling us to know You.
John 10:13 “He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.”The hired hand is only concerned about his or her pay and personal safety, not the sheep. He or she cares only about the sheep to the degree that it results in reward, whether money or significance. Just like Jesus is the door and the shepherd, the Pharisees were the thieves and robbers and the hired hands. As we live to love with Jesus, let’s continually search our hearts and sanctify ourselves by dying to a desire to get a reward for loving others. As good shepherds, let’s lay our lives down willingly and lovingly for the sake of His sheep.
John 10:12 “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.”A new character enters the story. The hired hand. He’s not the thief or the robber. He has no ownership of the sheep and therefore won’t lay down his life for the sheep. When the wolf comes, he runs, which leaves the wolf free to snatch at will and scatter the sheep. So it is in churches where there are no shepherds, but the leaders are in it for themselves. They are afraid to love the sheep and confront the wolf. Who is the hired hand? The leader for hire. Who is the wolf? The devil and sin. Jesus came to face the wolf head on and lay down His life in order to save the sheep. That’s what love looks like. Have you put yourself into the hands of a hired hand (someone on earth that you pay with money or praise as your counselor/guide/shepherd) or have you given yourself to the good Shepherd? Be careful, there are many hired hands on the internet and social media.
John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”Jesus is the Door and the good Shepherd in Jesus’ parable. He’s a good shepherd because He will do whatever it costs to save His sheep—even to laying down His life. He is prophesying what He will do to save us and give us abundant life. God’s love: the sustained direction of the will (He lays) toward the highest good (salvation) of others (the sheep) no matter what the cost (His life). What a good shepherd we have! We are His sheep. We are saved! We are loved! Jesus, You are good indeed!
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” If the voice isn’t that of Jesus, then loss, death, and destruction come upon those who follow the thief. Jesus came so the sheep may have abundant life. Why didn’t Jesus just say, “Hey, guys, follow Me and leave everything else behind”? I think it’s because He was jealous for the work of the Spirit. He simply and clearly stated who He is, who He came for, and why He came. Then He trusted the Father to work through the Spirit and open their ears and eyes to see and follow. That’s love for God and love for men being expressed. This helps us know what to do as we love those God puts in our paths who don’t know Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is the Door to God’s house. Who did He come for? He came for anyone who will hear, believe, and enter. Why did He come? He came t0o save us by leading us out of death into abundant life. Thank you, Jesus!
John 10:9 “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” Jesus spoke lovingly and clearly. He is the door through whom anyone may be saved and find satisfaction for the hunger of the soul. Such a simple gospel! When I read this, I leave this world behind and run into Jesus. He is my door, my salvation, my pasture. My soul runs to You, Jesus. I want to be in You, rest in You, and be satisfied in You so that You may be glorified. Thank You for enduring with me until my deaf ears were opened and my blind eyes received sight. I love You, enjoy You, am filled with You. Amen.
John 10:8 “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.” The sheep had been waiting for a long time for the voice of their shepherd. As He delayed in coming there were apparently many voices, voices of the thieves and robbers, calling out to them. Jesus explained to them why some people, like the man who received sight, followed Him instead of them. They finally heard the voice of their shepherd and could see to follow Him. The thieves and robbers are wolves in shepherds’ clothing. The entertainment, social media, academic, and religious world is filled with thieves and robbers. They try to get people to follow them instead of Jesus. We are not seeking to testify of ourselves, draw attention to ourselves, or make disciples for ourselves. That voice is distinctly different from Jesus’ voice. The sheep can tell the difference. Who one listens to and follows reveals something about one’s identity. Let’s help people distinguish between the voices.
John 10:7 So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. Look at the incredible patience of Jesus. They don’t understand, but He endured with them. If we live to love with Jesus, we will endure with those who don’t understand who Jesus is or who we are. Watch in this and the following verses how Jesus is clear and concise. In the figure of speech he used, He is the door. He is the way into God’s fold through whom God’s sheep may enter into a place of safety and warmth. To use a similar figure of speech, Jesus is the door to the ark. Jesus is our way into peace and security in a world with prey who are out to devour us. Stay outside the Door and be afraid. Enter through the Door and rest in peace. Thank you, Jesus!
John 10:6 This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.Mark 4:11-12 gives us insight into God’s love for us. “And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.” God’s love for us is revealed in that He gives us ears to hear, love, and understand His word. As we love people, we will find some will understand and receive our love as from Him whereas others will not, just like the Pharisees to whom Jesus gave the figure of speech regarding Himself and the shepherd. Do we get what He said to them? If so, we are inside His fold. Rejoice and give thanks today! If not, ask Him to teach you.
John 10:5 “A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” The Pharisees were strangers to the now-seeing-man. He was fleeing from them because his heart had been taught to recognize Jesus for who He is. The voices of the Pharisees were now foreign to him. He could no more follow them than a sheep would follow a stranger out of the fold. The fact that he would not follow them said something about who they were—they were thieves and robbers—wolves in sheep clothing. The voice of the world has no appeal to God’s sheep. They will flee. Does that describe you? It begs the question: Who do we listen to? Who we listen to reveals whose we are. If we live to love with Jesus, we listen to Him and run from the voice of the world.
John 10:4 “When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. Jesus takes the lead in the same way that a shepherd goes before the lead of the flock. He sings, they follow. He speaks, they follow because they know His voice. I say we live to love with Jesus because the shepherd is always with His sheep. He guides by His word, we follow and we love all those He leads us to as we go through our day. Jesus was, of course, describing His ministry to those who are His, like the blind man who was healed and could now see and know His voice. The blind man was following Jesus now instead of the Pharisees. That was obvious to them, and it bugged them. They considered Jesus an impostor, the thief and robber, of whom Jesus spoke. Quite the contrary. The now-seeing-man followed Jesus because he had become one of His sheep and he recognized Jesus as his shepherd. The message seems clear enough for us today. If we are His sheep, we will follow Him because we know His voice.
John 10:3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” In this statement, Jesus reflects on the shepherd and sheep leaving the fold. His focus however, is still on the doorkeeper and the sheep recognizing the shepherd. Who is the doorkeeper? It is God who lets both the shepherd and the sheep in and out. God recognizes Jesus as the one who has authority to bring the sheep in and out. The sheep also hear His voice. The sheep know they are His, by name, and will follow Him out. I love this picture, don’t you? We have a refuge, a haven of rest, that Jesus leads us into for safety. Each day, we follow Him out into the world, trusting that He cares for us and will be with us. We are living to love with Him. Imagine yourself today tuned in to His voice and following His lead into the paths of righteousness, having times of rest by quiet waters, and enjoying the restoring power of His love.
John 10:2 “But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.” Here, Jesus reflects on the entrance to the fold. The shepherd has access to the sheep fold. Jesus was saying that He has access to God. It’s another way of saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6). The Pharisees considered themselves shepherds, the leaders of the people. Yet, here they were unable to see the way into God’s fold. Instead they were trying “some other way.” This serves as a warning to us that we have discernment about who we listen to. Are we listening to the Good Shepherd or to someone who thinks he/she has progressed in their understanding to the point that they have found another way, a better way, to live life than to submit to Jesus Christ and God’s Word which reveals Him? Really? Has the door changed? Is there another door? Jesus is the God/Man who enters by the door to the Holy of Holies.
John 10:1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.” Jesus was still talking to the Pharisees who asked if they were blind. Jesus had told them that because they say they see, they were blind and that their sins remained. Notice how Jesus answered their question with a parable about the sheep and the door into the safe-haven of the fold. Speaking in parables reveals where God is working and giving sight to the blind. Or where He is blinding those who think they see. Basically, Jesus was telling the Pharisees that they were thieves and robbers who had entered God’s house to steal God’s sheep. Those thieves and robbers are evident in the church today as well. Those who deny that Jesus’ atoning sacrifice is the only door to right standing with God are robbers. Anyone who cannot see that Jesus was God in the flesh, sent to be our substitute so that our sins could be laid upon Him and then removed by His death, has come to cause destruction. There is only one door and one shepherd—Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, 'We see,' your sin remains. The Pharisees thought that they saw the world accurately, but they couldn’t see that Jesus was the Light of the world. They were blinded by their sin, so obviously they were still in their sins. The blind man, and those like him, who could see that Jesus was the Light of the world, were not in their sins. How is that? If one sees who Jesus is, one sees because God has given them sight. If God has given them sight, then it is because He has placed their sins upon His Son and they are justified in Him. They are His sheep. His sheep see and hear the shepherd. If they aren’t His sheep, they are blind and deaf to the presence and voice of Jesus. And that’s a lesson for another day. Stay tuned tomorrow.
When Jesus visits us, God’s judgment is revealed. He is just to give sight to the blind because of His work on their behalf in Jesus Christ. He is also just to not give sight to those who are proud and think they see—who are not justified in Christ. Those who know they are blind see, and those who think they see, become blind. The presence of Jesus in this world makes God’s judgment evident. As we live to love with Jesus, God’s judgment is also revealed. Some will be blind to His love and others will see and understand His love. It is not our place to judge. Our place is to love. God judges them by putting them in our paths and into the presence of Jesus. He judges us also by putting them in our paths. Do we love them with Jesus? If so, then we see and know Jesus.
And he worshiped Him. Notice the power of revelation. It produced faith, and faith was expressed through worship. Faith isn’t something we can generate. It’s a gift that comes through the power of faith which comes from hearing. The hearing comes by the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). It’s supernatural, which gives us confidence that He loves us and wants a relationship with us. Faith then works through love. That love, generated by the revelation of Christ, then produces worship. It’s like seeing something absolutely beautiful beyond words. Your soul has to express the wonder of what is seen and experienced. When we read God’s word, hear with our hearts, and see the beauty of Christ, our faith grows and our worship is fueled.
Revelation! Revelation is the currency of relationship. It’s not that the man went looking for Jesus. Jesus went looking for him to reveal Himself so there could be a relationship. When Jesus reveals Himself, divine power operates. Eyes are opened. Darkness becomes light. One receives ears to hear. Knowledge and understanding grow. The Father brought this man to Jesus, and then Jesus pursued the heart. Do we recognize the presence of Christ and do we know who is talking to us through the relationships and circumstances in our lives? Look at your circumstances and see if you can see Jesus at work. Stay focused there until you hear His voice. God is at work to grow your relationship with Him. He loves you.
Who is the Son of Man? Imagine the change in his life. Blind from birth and now in the first hours of life with sight. Let’s remember, the last time Jesus saw him, he didn’t see Jesus. Jesus sent him off with mud in his eyes to go and wash them. So even though now he could actually see Jesus, he didn’t know he was the one who opened his eyes. Did he recognize Jesus’ voice from before? I doubt it. He was too caught up with the encounter and the miracle. Wouldn’t you be? Did he know he was speaking with the man who healed him? I don’t know. However, it is clear that this man wanted to know and believe, as are all who have had an encounter with Jesus and had their eyes opened. He wanted to know who had opened his eyes. What’s his name? Perhaps there are people in our lives that also have the same question. Let’s be ready to give an answer.
Isn’t it amazing how Jesus gets right to the heart of relationship with Him? He didn’t try to help him process how he had been rejected or how he felt about what had just happened to him. The only thing that mattered was faith in Jesus. This reminds us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus rather than on how we’ve been mistreated by others. We can expect suffering and rejection if we believe in and follow Jesus. He doesn’t promise us a “good life” now. He opens our eyes to see and believe in Him, so that we can testify to a blind, dark and hostile world of His power and love. We may expect some to see and believe and some to be offended and reject. We can leave that in our Father’s hands. Today, let’s love with Jesus and keep our eyes fixed on Him.
So they put him out. Rather than grapple with the truth of who Jesus is and the reality of the miracle of a blind man now seeing, they react in pride by attacking the messenger. As they are entirely in their sins, they accuse him of their own condition and censor him. From their perspective he is toxic to their agenda and feelings of superiority. The truth is always toxic to a selfish agenda and narrative. This is convicting to me. Do I have a similar attitude toward people that God puts in my life that don’t respect me? How natural and easy it is to find fault with them instead of love and encourage them with what God is doing in their lives—if we have the opportunity. I hope this helps us forgive and love those who don’t like us and want to put us out of their lives.
True. And the same is true for us. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. If the love of God flows at all through us, then we are from God. It is the proof that we are His and that Jesus is from God. For Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” And “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and love them, even as You have loved Me” (John 13:35; 17:23). We are from God, so we can do something. We can live to love with Jesus.
John 9:32 Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. That’s true! And Jesus healed more than one blind man. “And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them” (Matt. 21:14). What love! What compassion! What a powerful testimony the Father gave to validate His Son so that we might believe in Him. The Pharisees and Jews were without excuse as are all who know someone who has been transferred out of darkness into His marvelous light. Before this man’s time, no one had ever heard of blind eyes being opened. Now, 2000+ years later, there are millions of testimonies attesting to the power of God to open blind eyes to see who Jesus is. Those of us who live to love with Jesus are the light shining in the darkness, the evidence that Jesus is God in the flesh.
John 9:31 We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.God doesn’t hear sinners. Yet, God hears His people when they pray. How can God hear them, since they still sin? There can only be one explanation. “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Col. 1:21-22). Because of God’s grace to us through Jesus Christ, we are God-fearing and do His will—we believe in Jesus and live to love with Him—and God hears us when we pray like He heard His Son.
Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. This is an amazing thing, indeed! Millions of people have been healed of spiritual blindness and testify to have had their eyes opened by Jesus. Nevertheless, their testimonies are denied and censored because they are a threat to their autonomy. They want to be the light of their world rather than Jesus. They say, “We see.” Yet they are blind and in darkness. Such a condition should illicit compassion, mercy, and love from us, not criticism and blame. Remember, we used to be there. Father, forgive them as you have forgiven us when we were amazingly blind. Let us love the blind as you loved the blind man and healed him.
Jesus had told the Pharisees and Jews that God had spoken to Him. “But I speak these things as the Father taught Me” (John 8:28). He had also told them where He was from. “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23). There were some who knew where Jesus was from, but were still confused. Nicodemus had said, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with Him” (John 3:2). There are some, like Nicodemus, who even though they know where Jesus is from, remain in the dark. The contrast is stark, like light compared to darkness. Those who know where Jesus is from, know that He is the Light, and therefore walk with Him in the light of His love.
You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. The Pharisees thought they were disciples of Moses, however, they weren’t. Jesus said that the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms spoke of Him (Luke 24:44), and had they really been disciples of Moses, they would have recognized Him. Everyone is a disciple of someone. The Pharisees received glory from one another, and they sought their own glory, which means they were disciples of the one who gave them the most glory. We live to love with Jesus for His glory. May all the glory go to Him as He disciples us to love.
Why didn’t the Pharisees listen the first time? My guess is that they didn’t want to listen because they knew they would have to give up everything they knew and had to follow Jesus. It appears that was the man’s conclusion was well. When our eyes are opened to see Jesus, we know everything is going to change. Did you give up everything to follow Jesus or did you continue in the same path with the same lifestyle and values? Jesus came to call us to be His disciples—followers who live to love with Him. That changes everything.
Again, there’s no compassion or love with the Pharisees toward the man. They were only concerned about proving that Jesus was a sinner and an impostor. Because we are all sinners, we must also be on guard against the blinding power of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. The apostle James wrote that wherever those two evils exist, there is no wisdom and disorder and every evil thing exists. When we live to love with Jesus, our hearts are in tune with Him. We have wisdom from above lighting our path and giving us vision to see how to love with Him. Light from above led Jesus to the blind man, and His light conquered the blind man’s darkness. When we love, we are walking in the light with the Light of the gospel.
The healed blind man stated the obvious, which implied that the Pharisees’ were blind. He was blind, but now was healed and seeing the world around him. However, he also had spiritual sight that the Pharisees lacked. He had experienced Jesus’ mercy, compassion, and love. His eyes weren’t opened just because Jesus had the power to heal. When we love with Jesus, we experience His mercy, compassion, and love flowing through us to others. It’s His superpower that opens the eyes of those who have been blinded to who Jesus is. Never underestimate the power of Jesus’ love as you love with Him.
They gave the “seer” a second chance to agree with their blindness. In essence, they were pressuring him, “Ignore the science and agree with what we say.” However, someone who has once been blind, but has come to see Light and the Truth, cannot ignore reality and defend the lie any longer. Even if the whole world were arrayed against them, they SEE. Suffer what they may, they have no desire to return to the darkness in which they were imprisoned and tormented. Did this man surrender to their control? (Find out tomorrow). Will we surrender to those who want to control what we think and deny what we have experienced with Jesus? Jesus came to set us free from that darkness.
He is of age; ask him.” It’s amazing how powerful the threat of rejection is by those we want to impress or whose approval we think we need. Have you ever experienced that fear? Fear that if you didn’t say what was politically correct, that you might be cast out of the “in” group, or censored or lose your place of honor? Have you ever felt pressure to go along with the popular narrative even when you knew it was wrong? If you have, then you can relate to the blind man’s parents. Believing and loving Jesus will cost us “right” standing with the world. In their eyes, if we stand for Jesus, we are enemies, trouble-makers, and the scum of the earth. Be encouraged by Jesus’ words, “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.” (Matt. 5:11). May we not be afraid to testify of Jesus today as we live to love with Him.
Maybe the parents could get them out of the dilemma by testifying that this was their son and that he was never blind. Then it could all be declared a fraud. Or maybe they had another explanation that would allow them to deny the miracle and expose Jesus as a charlatan. As we will see, they have already decided what is true. They had a narrative regarding Jesus. They would not accept the truth because it would undo what they wanted to believe about themselves. Therein lies the heart and truth of the matter. They were the sinners. They were blind. They were condemned and guilty of murder in their hearts. Do you remember when you saw that truth about yourselves? That painful truth is what enabled us to see Jesus and surrender our lives to Him. How do we now see? We have been loved by Jesus.
John 9:18 The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sightings , This narrative shows us how difficult it is for people to believe in Jesus who don’t want to give up their lives. The Jews were still looking for a way to escape the reality that Jesus is Lord. It’s not possible to believe unless God opens their eyes to see Him, and in this case, He only opened the eyes of one—the blind man. Many are being called, but very few are chosen. This underscores what Jesus taught back in John 6:44-45. “No one can come to Me unless the Father, who sent me, draws them. They shall all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.” If your eyes have been opened to see and believe in Jesus, take a moment and give Him thanksgiving and praise. And if you come up short on words, look a the last post and declare who He is.
What do we say about Him who opened our eyes? He is a prophet? The prophet, yes, but isn’t He much more? He is the Son of God. He is the Lamb of God. He is the one who saved my soul from eternal darkness and torment. He is the one who forgave my sins and made me whole. He is my Light, the Light of the world. He is my life—eternal life. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the lover of my soul. He is God with me. He is my hope of glory. He is my righteousness. He is my greatest treasure. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He knows me, loves me, and I am His.
John 8:59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. The devil had heard Jesus’ prophecy earlier, and it seems he tried to short circuit God’s plan by rousing the crowd at this point to stone Jesus to death. There are no details as to how Jesus hid Himself, but this we know: it wasn’t God’s time or way for Him to die. He had more to do before love had completed its course in Him. It had already been determined that He would be crucified, lifted up for all to see. His life wouldn’t be taken from Him. He was to lay it down of His own accord in obedience to His Father. So it is with us. God has given us another day to live to love with Jesus. Until that ministry is completed, God hides us in His hands and puts people in our paths that He wants to love. May we stay in the flow of His love today. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:56-58, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."Jesus implied that if they were Abraham’s children, they would see that Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise Abe looked forward to. Here’s what Abe saw and rejoiced in. Hebrews 11:10, 13 “For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God…All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” The question for us is this: Have we seen Jesus’ day and rejoiced in it? If so, we also consider ourselves strangers and aliens on the earth as we wait expectantly for the city God has built for us. The Jew’s response was their way of saying, "There is no way you could know that about Abraham!" They had no idea who they were talking with. If they had known Jesus was God, they would have hung on to every word He spoke. So it is with everyone who believes Jesus is God, the light, the life, and the source of living water. May all who read these words hang on to everything He has said. Jesus left no doubt as to who He is. He is the eternal, coexisting, almighty Son of God who took on flesh. If Jesus isn’t God in the flesh, this statement makes Him appear deluded or, to the Jews, it makes Him a blasphemous imposter worthy of death. What is our takeaway from His declaration? Jesus’ life is eternal life, so the life we have in us is eternal. We who believe in Him will never die. He came in the flesh so that His death would become our death, and His eternal life become ours—a life whose nature is love.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:53-55 Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be? "Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, 'He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. It is our sinful nature to make ourselves out to be something we’re not. That was the sin of Adam and Eve—thinking that if they ate of the forbidden fruit, they might make themselves to be like God. The people thought Jesus was discontent, like they were—and projected their insecurity onto Him. It’s tempting to project what we are guilty of on others we don’t understand. But Jesus wasn’t "making Himself” out to be something He wasn’t. He is who and what God is. John 8:54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’” May we give up making ourselves and receive what God gives us with contentment and security. That is love for God and comes from knowing He loves us. This comment is Jesus’ response to the Jews asking who Jesus was making himself out to be. His point is that He isn’t making Himself out to be anything. He doesn’t need to. Let’s not miss this. If any man glorifies himself, that glory is nothing. Remember what Paul said to the Romans. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (3:23). The only glory that can be called glory is that which is bestowed by the Father, God. What is the glory that God, the Father, bestows on His Son? "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world" (Jo. 4:24). It is His love! And Jesus wants us to see it, so we will! The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves us as the Father has loved Him, and we love one another with Him. So when we live to love with Jesus, we are receiving glory from the Father and the Son as we glorify God. According to Jesus, to say we have God, and yet not know Him, is to live a lie. According to John, to know God, who is love, and not live to love with Him is also a lie. "The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:8). Surely he learned that from Jesus. The Spirit of Christ in us knows God and keeps His word. Let us listen to and live to love with Him for God’s glory, not our own.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:52 The Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, 'If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’They couldn’t believe their ears. They had never heard of such a thing as someone never tasting death. I’m so glad we live on this side of the cross. Never tasting death is a thing because Jesus tasted death for us. Listen to Heb. 2:9. “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” Jesus’ death was a substitutionary death. If we let the Scripture above inform us as to who the “everyone” is in Heb. 2:9, we know He tasted death for those who would keep His word. Those who believe in Jesus as the resurrection and the life will never die. Jesus said this to Martha when she came to Jesus after Lazarus, her brother, had died. “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this’ ” (John 11:25-26)? Martha did believe it, but when Jesus spoke of it to the Jews, they couldn’t believe it. They didn’t believe it because they did not receive His word. How about you? Have you believed in Jesus Christ and kept His word? To keep His word is to believe it to the end of your life. It’s to surrender your life to Him so that He lives His life in you for the glory of the Father. We know that if we live with Him now, we will live with Him forever—and never taste of death. We have eternal life, and that life is a life of love. Father, glorify Your name through Your Son. Thank you for giving Him to taste death for us. Thank you for giving Him the grace to suffer for us so that we might never taste death. Give us also the grace to die to ourselves so that He might live through us today. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death." This is the 5th reference in John 7-8 to "my word". What word did Jesus speak that if one keeps it, they won’t see death? I think it is both of these. John 7:37-38. Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" ANDJohn 8:12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."If you never want to die? Hold fast to both words. Believe in Him for living water and follow Him as the Light of the world.These verses in Hebrews came to mind as I thought about never dying. Hebrews 2:14-15. “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” Those who believe and trust in Jesus do not need to be afraid of death. It’s not happening to them. Death is separation from God, and Jesus said He is the life. Yes, our bodies (our temporary tents) wear out and can be destroyed because of sin, but we transition into a permanent new body with Jesus. Those who fear death can be enslaved by Satan and evil people who use that fear to control them for personal gain. We are watching it happen on a global scale. Perfect love casts out this fear and sets us free to live and love with Jesus! Hallelujah!!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:48-50, The Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges.” We see that Satan’s tactics haven’t changed. When truth and reality are not on your side, attack the messenger with false accusations. They did it in Jesus’ day and still do it today. Censor the truth by demonizing the ones who speak it in hopes people will ignore what’s being said and buy into the lie. Beware those who attack the character of people and refuse to seek the truth. The sure way to walk in the truth is to live to love with Jesus. They say He has a demon because He honors His Father and speaks the truth. They totally misunderstood Jesus because He wasn’t what or who they were expecting. What can we learn? May we honor all those who honor the Father. That is the spirit of Christ. We honor the Father by loving with Jesus. Jesus honors the Father by loving with Him. Jesus did not seek His own glory after healing people. The Father glorified His Son by healing when Jesus spoke in His name. That’s why He said previously that He honored His Father. We follow this pattern as we love in Jesus’ name, trusting Him to glorify His name. We don’t love so people will give us glory. We should love for His glory and namesake. The Father seeks those who worship Him in Spirit and truth, and He’s the One who judges if Jesus’ life is the genesis of everyone’s worship. We give Jesus the worship He deserves as we love with Him today.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:46-47 Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." Jesus asked, “Which one of you convicts me of sin?” The answer: no one. We trust and place our hope in a sinless man. There has only been one—Jesus. Hear and believe the word of the Lord. Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Those who are of God (born of God—created and loved in Christ before the foundation of the world) have ears to hear the words of God. Hearing and believing is evidence of those who belong to Christ and were given to Him by His Father. It is the gospel, the words of God, that are the revealer of truth. The reason someone can’t hear isn’t because he or she is stubborn, ignorant, mentally disabled, underprivileged, or hard of hearing. The reason the gospel falls on deaf ears is because they are of their father, the devil. Thus says the Son of God who knows and speaks the truth from His Father. To discover those who are of God, speak God’s word and the gospel. Then watch their response. Those who are of God will respond in faith and obedience. Jesus is the perfect, sinless, spotless lamb of God, sent into this world to take away the sins of all who believe in Him. With grateful hearts, we praise Your name, O Lord, our redeemer and friend. We love you and humble ourselves in your presence. We have received Your word, and ask that You fill us so we can love out of Your fullness for Your glory.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:43-45, Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. One of the signs of the devil’s children is that they hear but don’t hear. In Matthew 13:13 Jesus said, “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” One of the most dangerous places to be is in a spiritual and Bible-rich environment. One may think they are one of God’s children merely because they have heard and know Scriptures all of their lives. But if the word they heard didn’t find a place in them, and they submit themselves to it and obey it, then they didn’t really hear or understand it. We cannot hear Jesus’ words until God overpowers the effects of sin and gives us hearts/ears to hear them. The devil blinds the mind and dulls the hearing. But hearing comes from the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). Our salvation is all grace. Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. If you have heard the word of truth, the gospel, and have believed, then you are, by God’s doing, in Christ Jesus. Rejoice! Give thanks! Live to love with Him. It is the nature of the devil to murder and lie. It is the nature of God to love and speak truth. Father, deliver us from the evil one and his influence, and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Love through us today for your glory. Where would we be if we didn’t believe Jesus and the words of truth He spoke? We would be in darkness and living a lie. We would base our lives on our own "truth," which would be a lie. What is the truth? We were all born children of the devil with hostility toward God, unable to subject ourselves to God’s law. Jesus alone is true, good, and righteous. He is God’s son and our only hope for salvation and deliverance from sin’s power and curse. When He saves us, we see the truth about our sin and the hope of the gospel revealed in Christ, so we repent of believing the lie that we are good, and we believe in, trust in, and submit to Jesus. To God be the glory!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:41-42, Jesus said to them, “You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God." Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.” How could they be so deceived? They were born into religious families. Have and know the Scriptures. Try not to break God’s laws. Think of themselves as better than worldly people. Pray daily. Offer sacrifices. Pay tithes. Zealous to expose hypocrites and false teachers. They think God is their father, yet they have no place in their hearts for Jesus’ words and want to kill Him. They don’t love Him. That’s sobering and convicting. How could they be so deceived? Easily. And so can anyone who has such a pedigree, thinks they know better than Jesus and can live without Him. These people were living for God. They weren’t living with Him. Our churches are filled with people living for God, but who don’t love Him or love with Him. Hopefully that’s not true of you. May we be stunned and humbled by God’s grace and love that keeps our hearts dependent on Him. The Father loves the Son, so everyone born of the Father loves the Son. In fact, it also makes sense that they also love everyone else born of the Father. It’s the way they honor their Father in heaven—love their fellow brothers and sisters. If the Father loves them, we love them with Him. If Jesus loves them, we love them with Him. If someone separates from/rejects one who is born of God, he dishonors the Father and might as well kill Jesus. What Jesus said about Himself is also true of us who believe in Him. We are in this world because God sent us to live to love in His name. We did not choose Him, (did not come on our own initiative) but He chose us. Faith came to us as evidence that we have proceeded forth from God—born of God. As John wrote in his letter, "as He is, so also are we in this world" (1 John 4:17). Jesus came into this world to glorify His Father by loving with Him. We are in this world to glorify the Father by living to love with Jesus.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:39-40, They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.” When Abraham heard the truth from God, he believed and obeyed. He had a place in His heart for God’s word, which showed God was at work. When the devil is at work, people reject God’s word and the truth, and seek a way to silence the messenger. Hold fast to the word of God and stir afresh your love for Jesus. Beware of anyone who has gone down the path of cancelling parts of the word of God.We are encouraged by these verses to love the truth. If we love the truth, we love the words of Jesus. The Pharisees and rulers of the Jews didn’t love the truth. The apostle Paul speaks of those who don’t love the truth in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12. He spoke of……the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.The Pharisees were obviously in accord with the activity of Satan. They were entangled in the deception of wickedness because they didn’t love the truth. Therefore, God sent a deluding influence so that they would believe the lies of the devil. Loving the truth protects us from going down this road to destruction. I trust that you love the truth, because you probably wouldn’t be listening to this podcast if you didn’t. My aim is to lift up Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life, who is the only way to the Father. Jesus has promised to be with all who believe forever. His life lived in us for the glory of His Father. What a privilege it is for us today to live for the purpose of loving with Jesus because we love the truth.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:37-38, “I know that you are Abraham's descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father." Look around you and marvel at all the people in the media, entertainment, educational, and political world who have no place for God’s word to abide. They would kill Jesus if He were here and rid the world of everyone who has an open, hungry heart for Jesus. The lines were drawn in Jesus’ day, and they are clearly drawn today. Jesus and His words have and will always be the focus of our faith and love and the reason for the world’s hatred, cancellation, and murder.We speak and do according to our spiritual root or source—our father. We are identified by our spiritual father. He defines us. In the big scheme of things, there are only two fathers—God and the devil. When we are born of a human father the devil’s seed of sin is in us (Psalms 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me”). When we are born again by God, the Father, His seed of the Holy Spirit is planted in us, creating a place for Jesus and His word. Their father, the devil, is a murderer (that’s why they wanted to kill Him). God is love. Is there a place in you for the word of the Lord? Is God’s word advancing in your life? That’s what the word translated place infers. If not, you may be deluded into thinking you aren’t of the devil because you have heard it and know it. If God’s word is taking up more space in your life and transforming the way you live, do you realize that is a merciful, gracious, miraculous work of the Father? The evidence of having a new Father is that we believe in Jesus and have His love in our lives. Jesus’ word to love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34) has a place in us. That’s why we live to love with Jesus today. We will do the things we hear from our Lord Jesus because we are from His Father. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:33-36 They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." Jesus’ statement about being a slave of sin is sobering, isn't it? Every human being, but Jesus, has been a slave of sin. We were born enslaved to sin, and thus live for ourselves without Jesus. We practice sinning (that’s the idea behind the two words, “commits sin”). Sin reigns in all who are not united with Christ through faith. If someone thinks they are free without Jesus, they are enslaved to sin. To continue to reject Jesus as God’s only acceptable sacrifice and savior is to continue in sin. That’s what slaves of sin do—they live in their own strength and foolishness. One of the dangers of growing up with a spiritual legacy is to think one is right with God because they grew up in church and have heard the gospel and know the Scriptures. One of the signs of a self-deceived person is that they place their hope in the faith of their descendants, their heritage, their pedigree. Jesus told them that everyone who believes in Him may be free from sin’s dominion.What good news! Everyone who knows they are slaves of sin wants to be free. These Jews thought they were free when in reality they were slaves, so Jesus’ invitation was viewed as a condemnation. They were blinded by their self-deception.Paul wrote to the Galatians, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery" (Gal. 5:1). May we stand firm in the freedom of Christ. The old selfish, angry, bitter, ambitious, proud man died at the cross. The new man, the life of Jesus, frees us to love. Jesus lives to love and do God’s will in those who believe in Him. He makes us slaves of righteousness, which is the essence of freedom from sin. The apostle Paul stated this clearly in Romans 6:16-18.Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. To be a slave of righteousness is to be a slave of love. May glorifying God by loving with Jesus be our passion. Thank you, Jesus, for this amazing grace!!! We are free to love with You. Hallelujah! Jesus is the Son of God and heir of all things. So He has authority over all things, and if He declares you are free from sin’s slavery, then you are free indeed—forever!!!!!!! Free from sins dominion. Free from sin’s curse (death). Free to obey Him. Free to live and love with Jesus. To God be the glory.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:30-32 As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." The first step of true faith is to become Jesus’ disciple, which means we have an insatiable appetite for His word. We continue in it. It’s our true meat and drink that satisfies our souls like nothing else. The word from the world loses its appeal, and we repent of following the voices of the culture, religious and secular. That was an impossible choice for those who heard Him then. Only the Spirit of God can make a disciple of Christ. May we continue in His word today and forever. Living to love with Jesus (abiding in Him and His word) is walking in the truth that makes us free. It frees us from sin and selfishness, shame, condemnation, and fear. As we continue in His word, we learn this truth: apart from Him, we can do nothing. He is the light and love of our lives. Thank you, Jesus, for teaching us that you are the way, the truth, and the life. Love through us today.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:29 And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." Thank you, Jesus, for always pleasing our Father and giving us the gift of your righteousness. We are so loved! Knowing that in You, we are pleasing to God, fills our hearts with hope and joy. To know with confidence that You are with us as we live to love with You gives us assurance as we face this day. You have sent us so we know You are with us. Make Your name glorious and stir our love afresh today. Amen.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:28 So Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. Jesus couldn’t do anything apart from His Father. He didn’t start things and then ask His Father to bless them. If Jesus didn’t do anything on His own initiative, then that means His entire life was a life of receiving, like a child receives from his parents. Jesus punctuated this point when some parents brought their children for Jesus to bless them, and His disciples tried to prevent them from interrupting their conversation on marriage. It’s in Mark 10:14-15. “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” Apparently, the attitude necessary for entering the kingdom of God is a humble, do-nothing-on-my-own-initiative attitude, knowing our Father in heaven loves us and gives us everything we need to glorify Him in and through Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus spoke what the Father taught Him, we speak what the Father teaches us through His Son. In this instance, Jesus prophesied that the Pharisees and rulers would crucify Him. That’s what is meant by “lift up the Son of Man.” What will they know? They will see Jesus receive being crucified as from the Father in heaven. He will not resist. He will not act on His own initiative to get out of what the Father wills. When they see Him abiding in His Father’s work, they will know that He is the Son of God and the Messiah. God has not called us to die for the sins of the world, so when difficult and dangerous situations arise, we don’t naively ignore opportunities God provides to escape from them. However, when there is no avenue of escape, then we can expect God to give grace to suffer and love for those who cause it.Living to love with Jesus occurs as we abide in Him, doing nothing of our own initiative. Like Jesus, we are to receive all of life from the Father, with its circumstances and relationships, whether comforting and encouraging, or painful and grievous. We trust that He will give us the ideas, inclinations, motivations, and wisdom that each situation requires as we look to Him for grace. We glorify the Father through being most satisfied in His will and love as we receive what comes from our Father. Jesus said that apart from Him, we can do nothing (Jo. 15:5). The heart of Jesus is in us, so may we humble ourselves and wait on Him to initiate our words and actions. As we live abiding in Christ, others will know that we are children of God and disciples of Jesus Christ.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:26-27 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world. They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. When we read the words of Jesus, we are reading the words of God, His Father! His words are true. We can believe them and rely on them. They are life-giving and fruit-producing. To receive and heed His words is to love the Father and the Son. Receiving the words of Christ is also vital to living to love with Him. Jesus left His disciples with these words, recorded in John 15:7-11. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit [the fruit is faith and love], and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.God has called all of the followers of His Son to life in and with Christ. Jesus came to love with His Father as He abided in Him and His words. We love with Jesus as we abide in Him and His words. These words, spoken in the world, are the words of the Father and they are true. This begs a question. Are we more interested in reading and digesting the words of the world than we are the words of our God and creator? If so, may we repent and renew our minds with the words of God. May we stir our love for Jesus afresh by meditating on His words and not be afraid to speak them to the world.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:25 So they were saying to Him, "Who are You?" Jesus said to them, "What have I been saying to you from the beginning?In John’s first epistle, he wrote what they heard from the beginning. 1 John 1:1, 5-7.What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life —This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. Jesus is the Word of Life and revealed that God is Light by walking in the light of His Father’s word. We have the light of Life in us, and that light is the love of God. We are sent into this world just as Jesus was sent. As we live to love with Jesus we bring His light into the world. This is an issue of identity. They asked Jesus, “Who are You?” He had told them that He was the Light of the world. We live to love because of who Jesus is and who we are. We are His children within whom the Light of Life, the Light of the world, dwells. His light shines through us as we love with Him. Every small act of love from the life of Jesus in you is a flash of light in the darkness. Don’t think that only the big things matter or that love can only be shown on a large stage in front of many people. A glass of water given in love to your child is evidence of the Light of the world. A kind word of encouragement to the grocery clerk can bring glory to God if it’s through Christ. May we live your lives in such a way that others will ask the question, “Who are you?” Let’s be ready to share with others who we are and the hope we have in Jesus.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:21-24 Then He said again to them, "I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come." So the Jews were saying, "Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, 'Where I am going, you cannot come’?" And He was saying to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." Nothing could be more tragic than to die in your sin—to breathe your last breath united to sin. Jesus was raised to heaven, and no one can go there if they are still united with sin—the weight of which sinks one into hell forever. In stark contrast, how beautiful and humbling it is to breathe one’s last breath united to Jesus Christ! His death removed the curse and weight of sin, and His resurrection raised us up to be seated with Christ in heaven. Rejoice, if you are united with Christ! How do sinners get free from their sin? Only by believing and trusting in the testimony of God—that Jesus is His son, sent to be united with our sins and give His life to break the power of sin and death by His righteousness. To repent and believe, we break off from our love for self and trust in our own righteousness, and surrender our lives completely to Him, trusting in His sacrifice, righteousness, and love. The Pharisees would not do that because they did not believe the Father’s testimony about His son—Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. We live to love with Jesus because we have been united with Him by God’s doing. It is important to note that the topic is death and note who is in on the discussion: Jesus, the Pharisees, and the Jews. Jesus addressed both groups, and their thinking is recorded. The setting is the temple, and it’s a week of feasting and rejoicing in God’s deliverance and provision in the wilderness. The Jews were looking for Jesus (7:11). Jesus taught and identified Himself with the water God provided in the wilderness. He is the actual satisfying water of life (7:37-38). Many of the Jews believed Jesus (7:31). Others wanted to seize Him but didn’t (7:30). Feel the conflict among the crowd and between Jesus and the unbelieving Jews. There stood Jesus, the Light, and those in darkness could not see the glory of God in the face of Christ. Today we can celebrate again God giving us the Light. We are from below and are of this world. He is not of this world, which is why He can save us. No man from this world would say, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” I hope to encourage all who hear my voice to believe that Jesus is the Light of the world and the Light of Life (8:12) come from above to save us from our sins and from this world of darkness. Believe that Jesus is the Light of the world so that you won’t die in your sins.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:19-20, So they were saying to Him, "Where is Your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also. These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come. What is meant by “His hour”? I think “hour” could be synonymous to “time”. “His”—a possessive pronoun. Whatever “hour” is, it belongs to Him. Is it His hour of testing? Hour of temptation? Hour of suffering? Hour of power? Hour of prayer? Hour of glory? All are true. But notice that His hour is the same as the Father’s hour. The Father determined it and orchestrated it, and the Son authorized it. The hour began when Judas left the upper room at Jesus’ command. John 13:31-32 “Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, 'Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.’” God’s love controls every “hour” of our lives. He gives them to us so we might glorify Him. May we glorify our Father in heaven in every hour as we live to love with Jesus.To know Jesus is to know His Father—God Himself. If you know what Jesus loves, you know what God loves. Of Jesus, the Father says, “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions.” (Hebrews 1:9). Do we love righteousness and hate lawlessness? Let’s give Him freshly stirred love for righteousness today. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:17-18 Even in your law, it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me."The testimony of the Father about Jesus is the same as Jesus’ testimony about Himself. The Father’s miraculous work through Jesus testified that Jesus was His Son. The unity of their testimony gives us confidence to recognize Jesus’ lordship, entrust our lives to Him, and trust Him for our salvation. The Father’s testimony through His Son is that God is love, and He is still testifying through us that He is love as we live to love with Jesus. Our testimonies are not what we do for God, but what He does for and through us. The Father testified about Jesus by working through and with Him. Be in awe at the corollary: Jesus testifies that He is with us, and we are His by loving through and with us. So we can testify about ourselves that we are His if we say the same things Jesus does and love like He loves. If Jesus sent us into this world to be the revelation of His love, He will testify about us by filling us with love for Him and love for others. What glory to God, and what a privilege and joy for Jesus and us.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:15-16, You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone. But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me. Amazing! In this case, Jesus was not judging anyone because the Father wasn’t judging. That’s what love looked like in that instance. How often do we judge according to the flesh when we should not be judging at all—as an act of love with Jesus? It seems, if anyone deserved judgment in this case, it was the Pharisees. If He isn’t judging them because He’s entrusting them to the Father, shouldn’t we do the same with those who seem like our adversaries? Otherwise, we are "judging according to the flesh." The next time we feel compelled to judge someone, it might be wise to check to see if we are reacting in the flesh as the Pharisees were. It will free us to love with Jesus. What is truth? It is what God does, sees, judges, and testifies to with His Son. Individuality is the flesh and is what the world praises and worships. Union with God reveals the truth. Living to love with Jesus reveals not individual goodness or righteousness, but the truth that a person is no longer an individual, but is a life united with God. May we be filled with thanksgiving and praise for the miracle of new life in Christ, revealed as we love with Him.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:13-14, So the Pharisees said to Him, "You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true." Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going." The Pharisees didn’t know, but now it is known. Jesus came from the Father in Heaven, and He went back to the Father in Heaven. He came to take away all our sins—everything that separates us from Him. He went back to the Father to intercede for us, so the Father would send us His Spirit to be with us forever and empower us with His presence to live and love with Him. His love in us is His testimony, and it is true. The Pharisees demanded more than one’s own testimony about himself. They were looking for more proof of where Jesus was from before they would believe Him. Jesus’ proof of where He was from was the work of the Father. Earlier in John 5:36-37, Jesus had told them, “But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish — the very works that I do — testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me.”In the same way, Jesus testifies about us that we are His disciples by the works He does in us. In John 13:34-35, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 15:7-8 repeats this truth. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” Did you notice Jesus said, “It will be done for you?” Jesus loving in us is His testimony that we are from Him, just as the Father loving in Jesus is His testimony about where Jesus was from. That’s why I have concluded that God saved us to glorify Himself through His Son loving in, through, and with us. In short, we glorify God by living to love with Jesus. Where are we from? We are from God. Where are we going? We are going to God in heaven.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."It’s hard to tell whether Jesus immediately spoke to the crowd that remained after the woman’s accusers left the scene, or if this occurred at another time. It is believed that John 8:1-11 was a later addition to the gospel, however, it certainly flows in a line of reason from the events of chapter 7 and those of this chapter. It makes sense that Jesus would make this comment after the differences of darkness and light were so obviously displayed. We are encouraged in our living to love with Jesus, to believe what Jesus believes and follow with Him in His purpose for life. That’s what it means to follow Him. He is the Light of the world and His Life is the Light. So we are encouraged that the ones who follow Him will display the Light of His Life. I suggest that the love of God is the light of His life. God is love. Jesus is God. His love is the light of the world. There’s obviously more to God than just love. For instance, God is holy, which means that His love is holy. There is no other love like His love, and we could say that about all of His attributes. I want to keep it simple for us today, by encouraging us to embrace Jesus’ purpose, which is to glorify His Father by loving with Him. Jesus said in this verse, that if we follow Him, we will not walk in darkness. John reiterated Jesus’ words in 1 John 1:7. “If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Then in 2:9-11 and 3:23-24 we see the relationship between walking in the Light and love. The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes (2:9-11).This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us (3:23-24).Living to love with Jesus is God’s call to us today. That’s what having the light of Life looks like. May we follow Jesus as the Light of the world by being filled with the Spirit whom He has given us. The fruit of the Spirit is love. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:9-11 When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on, sin no more." Let’s first get some clarity. The woman did commit adultery. That was implied in Jesus’ remarks to her. Jesus didn’t say she wasn’t guilty. He said that He didn’t condemn her. In John 3:17, it’s difficult to know whether it is Jesus speaking or John commenting, but either way, the truth remains. Jesus came into the world to save sinners, not judge them. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” Jesus’ judgment of the world occurs after His second coming. So the way Jesus responded to this woman is consistent with His purpose in coming. The apostle Paul understood this reality. He wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4:3-5.But to me, it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.Do you get it? It is not our jurisdiction to condemn people. We are to leave it to the Lord when He returns. That’s what Jesus was doing with the woman. He was waiting to condemn her until the time appointed by the Father. Psalms 34:21-22 comes to mind. It says, “Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.” Perhaps Jesus could tell this woman was seeking refuge in Him, and He therefore fulfilled the Scripture when He said, “I do not condemn you, either.” In Luke’s account of the sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned” (Luke 6:37). That would be enough for me to turn and walk away. How about you?Let’s check our hearts, friends. Is there anyone you are judging and condemning? These verses encourage us to have the same trust in God to make all things right and to judge all sins, as Jesus had in His Father. Jesus did what was in this woman’s highest good. He didn’t condemn her, yet He didn’t overlook her sin. He told her to go and sin no more. What is your takeaway from Jesus’ example and treatment of the woman caught in adultery? Will you refrain from judging others? Will you love them and encourage them not to sin anymore? We have good news to share. Everyone who takes refuge in Jesus will not be condemned, even if they are guilty. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 8:6b-8 But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.We have no idea what Jesus wrote on the ground. Speculations abound, but what Jesus did do was apply what He taught in the sermon on the mount in Matt. 7:1-5Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.When we are cognizant of our own sin, we realize that we are not better than anyone else, and that we are worthy of death. The wages of sin is death. We all deserve to be stoned. We are all sinners. We may catch another sinner red-handed so to speak in a sin, but the fact that we haven’t been so exposed doesn’t mean we are not in need of mercy and repentance. We live among sinners who are just like us. It can be tempting to judge others whose sins are so blatant and public. However, we can learn from Jesus that we should look at our own sins before judging others, then treat them as we want to be treated. Notice in Matthew 7:12 that Jesus considered this to be affirmed by the Law and the Prophets.“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Isn’t this good advice for us as we live to love with Jesus? We can be encouraged from these verses in the attitude we are to have as we love others with Him in a fallen world.
John 8:3-6 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?" They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.Having failed the previous day to arrest Jesus, they hatched another plan to publicly shame Jesus and catch Him breaking the Law of Moses. Appealing to His obvious heart of mercy and penchant for forgiving sinners, while He was teaching in the temple, they placed before Him a woman caught in the act of adultery. The cultural pressure to condemn, shame, and stone this woman would have been intense. The scribes and Pharisees knew the crowd. The only honorable thing to do in this case would be to execute her on the spot. If Jesus did what they thought He would do, exercise mercy and forgiveness, He would not only violate the Law of Moses by excusing and forgiving her but also run counter to the sentiments of the crowd. They could then condemn Jesus publicly for honoring the guilty woman and breaking both societal standards and the Law of Moses. They would have the crowd’s support for condemning and executing Him. Those were the grounds of their accusations.Jesus knew what was happening, but He had one purpose in life—to glorify the Father by loving with Him. Gaining the crowd’s approval or escaping the trap laid for Him by the scribes and Pharisees wasn’t on His radar screen. He wasn’t afraid of their accusations, rather His aim was to remain blameless in His Father’s eyes. My encouragement today to live to love with Jesus is that we also would have one ambition, to be pleasing to God. We would be in good company. Not only do we see this in Jesus’ life, but listen to what the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5:9. "Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him." There is a real possibility that we might face the pressure to go with the flow of the culture or even religious traditions rather than do the loving thing in some situation at work or church. I’m not suggesting that we should take an accommodating position on adultery or any sin as defined by the Scriptures. As we will see, Jesus didn’t excuse the woman or make light of her sin. My aim today is to encourage us to have as our ambition to be pleasing to the Lord in all that we do. We do that by embracing His purpose in life, to live to love with His Father for the glory and pleasure of the Father. I hope you’ll set your heart on making God smile as He lives in you today.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Today, we are focusing on John 8:1-3. However, the chapter divide seems strange because it separates a sentence with a contrasting conjunction. So I’m going to read the last verses of chapter 7 and ignore the chapter break so we can get the line of reason. Let’s remember that the day before, during the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus called the thirsty to come to Him and drink. He promised them that rivers of living water would flow from them. He caused quite an uproar and a great division developed about who Jesus is.Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them) said to them, “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?” They answered him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.” Everyone went to his home. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them.Jesus spent the night on the Mount of Olives, whereas the Pharisees went to their homes. Early the next morning, Jesus was back in the temple area, teaching those who came to Him. These are the thirsty souls responding to His invitation to come and drink. Notice how He made Himself available to them. This is a good reminder to us about how we might love with Jesus. We make ourselves available to people who are thirsty and hungry. We offer others an invitation to be with us and drink from the life of Jesus within. Then, when they respond, we make ourselves available to them. How available are you to those you want to love and serve? It is possible to be so occupied with our activities that we don’t make time for others. Being available means we’ll have to go where they are. We may need to slow down our roll and wait on them to sit down with us to talk. Jesus wanted to be with the people. This means we don’t rush out of church and go on our way, but we hang out to see who the Lord puts in our paths. I hope this encourages us to look for opportunities to be with people for the purpose of loving with Jesus.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:50-53 Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them) said to them, “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?” They answered him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.” Everyone went to his home.This was pretty bold of Nicodemus, wasn’t it? Perhaps John wanted to show that, yes, there was a ruler or Pharisee who believed in Jesus. Remember John’s account of Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus, recorded in John 3? There was no indication that Nicodemus became a believer then, but here he kinda stood up for Jesus. It wasn’t a declaration of faith from Nicodemus, but it was an appeal to give Jesus a hearing. They responded in ignorance. They wrongly thought Jesus was born in Galilee. The point was that they had not even cared enough to do research on where Jesus was really from. It would have been easy to discover. In fact, Nicodemus’ suggestion was simply to ask Him. The point I want to zero in on is Nick’s apparent courage to buck the peer pressure. He could tell they were determined to have a mock trial and a quick murder. Maybe he was merely testing them to see if there was any sober thinking. There was none but he. Sometimes, that will be the case with us. There will be none who will side with us or want to hear from us. We need the courage of Nicodemus to speak up in defense of Jesus. Nick did the loving thing. He spoke for their highest good. He entreated them to settle down, think more clearly, and not rush headlong into injustice and evil. I encourage us today to be ready to resist the temptation to remain silent when the loving thing to do is to speak up and be the one who speaks with wisdom, reason, peace, and love. May we have courage under fire like Nicodemus to buck the pressure to go along with the crazed, self-glorifying, greedy mainstream. Let’s pray that we will be filled with the Holy Spirit so we can testify unashamedly about Jesus and love unconditionally for the glory of God. Father, through your son Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, give us courage today to be bold and to reveal Jesus Christ and His love. Amen.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:47-49 The Pharisees then answered them, “You have not also been led astray, have you? No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he? But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed.”All of us have at some time had to deal with peer pressure. It can be somewhat jarring and scary to think that we are not in the mainstream. We’ve noticed how often propagandists use the phrase “not in the mainstream” to put down a particular idea or philosophy. The Pharisees used that tactic on the temple officials. In essence, they said, “None of us have sided with Jesus. Don’t you want our approval? If you have been convinced to believe in Jesus, you also have been cursed like this crowd.”It is possible that today we will feel that same pressure the temple officials felt when it comes to Jesus. If we speak out about Jesus, people will think we are some super spiritual weirdo. If we don’t laugh at the dirty jokes and use profanity like everyone else in the office, we will be rejected. What do the pastors and the elders think about watching R-rated and PG-13 movies? Or if you are a pastor or elder, what will the people to whom I’m trying to relate think if I can’t converse with them about the latest movie? Without realizing it, peer pressure, or fear of man, may shape our lives more than the fear of God, or our relationship with Jesus. These verses encourage us to put Jesus first place in our lives. As we live to love with Jesus, we will want to make our decisions based on what gains His approval and glory. Three Scriptures come to mind that encourage us to not cave to the pressure of the crowd. First, Colossians 1:18, “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” Second, John 5:30, “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Third, John 5:44, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?”It is obvious that the Pharisees want to put the pressure on the officials to seek their glory rather than the glory of God. As we renew our minds to think like Jesus, we put Him first in all things, and we seek His will and glory rather than the glory of men. Out of such a mindset, the love of God flows. I encourage you today to have the same attitude in yourself that Jesus had—seeking to please the Father by doing His will for His glory.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:45-46 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?” The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.”We learn in these verses that the temple officers had been sent by the chief priests and Pharisees to seize Jesus and bring Him in for examination. They came back empty-handed. We learned in the previous verses that the temple officials and the hostile crowd didn’t lay a hand on Him. We also learn why they didn’t arrest Him—He spoke with authority and love. I assume that is what they meant by saying, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.” After Jesus, with a word, healed the paralytic whose friends had dropped him through the roof, it was said, “But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (Matt 9:8). When Jesus spoke the truth, it came with authority and love. Such authority left people awestruck. In this case, the temple officers were awestruck to the point that they couldn’t bring themselves to arrest Him. They were more afraid of interrupting Him and taking Him into custody that they were upsetting the chief priests and Pharisees. In other words, there was more fear of God than there was fear of man. That’s the power of the Holy Spirit attending Jesus’ words and impacting even Jesus’ enemies. We also know from previous verses that the officials didn’t arrest Jesus because it wasn’t God’s time. In John 7:30 we read, “So they were seeking to seize Him; and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.” So again, we see God’s providence at work as the Father protected His Son until His work was done on the earth. I encourage you today with two things. One, when we speak the truth of God in love, we also have authority. When Jesus loves through us and gives us His words to say to others, they will recognize that we are not normal. They may not know what it is, but like the officers, they will notice we don’t speak from the same perspective as most people. Let’s be encouraged to boldly speak God’s word and truth as we share with others. Two, we may also have confidence that God’s providence will protect us as we live to love with Jesus. He has work to do through us, and our days are numbered. We may speak God’s word and truth without fear. Let’s be encouraged to fear God more than we fear man. May we love with boldness and speak with authority and love.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:43-44 So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him. Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.Jesus said of Himself, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). We see the truth of His statement in John 7:43-44. Some were supportive of Jesus, and others wanted to seize Him and kill Him. There was not a spirit of peace about the temple during this feast. There was a division and conflict. Throughout the centuries, this division regarding Jesus has existed. If we start talking about Jesus in a secular setting, we can expect differences of opinions about Jesus. Some will be favorable, others apathetic, and then there will be some who are offended even at the mention of His name. Regardless of the potential divisions and offenses, our call is to love whoever God puts in our paths. We aren’t called to love for Jesus, but to love with Jesus. He loves them, and we have the privilege and joy to express His love to them. That may be nothing more than a listening ear. Other times, it will be an act of service or mercy that Jesus moves us to do. Many times, He loves them as we share about our own relationship with Jesus. Let’s be prepared to represent Him faithfully today. The key to that is our being filled with the Holy Spirit and abiding in Jesus by embracing His purpose (to glorify God by living to love with His Father) and His worldview. I summarize Jesus’ worldview in 3 foundational truths. 1. There is one God from whom are all things, and He is love. 2. Jesus’ love is enough. His love and will satisfy my soul above all things. 3. God’s purpose in all things is to reveal Jesus lives and prepare me for eternity. Thinking as Jesus thinks will equip us to respond in love to those who respond negatively to Jesus.To abide in Christ, we must pursue His purpose and renew our minds to think like He thinks. As Jesus’ worldview is applied, circumstance by circumstance, we abide in Him and His life and love will be revealed. If you would like to learn more about how to live to love with Jesus, please check out the free resources at livetolovewithjesus.com. There’s no greater purpose for your life than living to love with Jesus and thereby glorifying .I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:40-42 Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, “This certainly is the Prophet.” Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”Jesus is the prophet, the Christ, and yes, He is a descendent of David, born in Bethlehem. As the prophet, He speaks to us from God. He is the living Word of God. As we abide in His word and live accordingly, Jesus produces His fruit in our lives. Living to love with Jesus happens as we believe Jesus is not just a prophet, but the prophet of God.Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, God’s servant sent to deliver His people from their bondage to sin. Of course, the people of Jesus’ day expected the Christ to deliver Israel from the Roman oppression and occupation. Jesus humbled Himself, came to serve, not to be served, and to offer Himself as a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28). We could not live to love with Him had He not set us free from our sin and selfishness. We must carry about in our bodies the humility of Jesus, the death of Jesus, in order for His life to be manifested in our bodies, as the apostle Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 4:10. We do that as we willingly carry the weight of the sins and fleshliness of others so that they might see Christ in us and be drawn to Him through His love.The apostle Paul began his letter to the Romans declaring Jesus as the promised son of David. Rom. 1:3-4, speaking of the gospel of God……concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.The title, the Son of David, identified the Christ as the promised one. It was God keeping His promise to David when He said through Jeremiah, “For thus says the LORD, ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.” Jesus is our king forever. We have been called to advance His kingdom in the power of His love. We are His ambassadors in this world proclaiming that He lives and reigns forever.Jesus, our prophet, the Christ, and king. May His love empower us today as we live to love with Him for the glory of God.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. What an encouraging verse and wonderful reality. We have here the promise of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who was to be given to believers, thirsty people who come to Jesus and drink of His life. Jesus became the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles—God’s provision of deliverance from sin, the bread of life, and the eternal supply of living water. At this time, Jesus was foretelling two things that were to come. One depended on the other. The Holy Spirit would not be given until Jesus was glorified. So this raises a couple of questions. What did He mean by glorified? What are the rivers of living water? The birth of the church was signified by the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. So we know that whatever Jesus had in mind, had occurred, or the Holy Spirit would not have been given. So what had occurred? He had, according to the Scriptures, both died for sins and had been raised from the dead for the justification of the church. He had ascended into heaven and taken His rightful place at the right hand of the Father. In John 14:20, Jesus told His disciples that when the Holy Spirit came, they would know that three things were true. “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” The gift of the Holy Spirit was the Father’s testimony that He had glorified His Son. Jesus was in the Father, that the church had been raised up and seated with Jesus, and that Jesus was now coming to reside in His church as its glorious head. Maybe you remember how Jesus began His prayer to His Father in Gethsemane before going to the cross. “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You. Even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”God has glorified the Son by raising Him up and giving Him authority to give eternal life. Eternal life is given with the giving of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of Life” (Rom. 8:2). He manifests the presence and power of Jesus in our lives, as He loves us, fills us and flows through us, producing rivers of living water. We live to love with Jesus, being filled and sustained by the rivers of living water through the Holy Spirit. May you experience Jesus’ fullness and the overflow of His love today.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God, and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:37-38 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”Thirsty? Come! Drink! Believe! Be overflowing.The great day of the feast was the high point of the celebration. The priests brought water from the pool of Siloam and poured it out on the altar. The Feast of Tabernacles was a remembrance of God giving the Israelites water and manna in the desert after He delivered them from the Egyptians. It was a celebration of joy. The stage was set. Perhaps you can imagine being there and your thirst being triggered by the water being poured out. It was probably at that moment that Jesus made the declaration, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” He was appealing not to a physical thirst, but to a spiritual thirst. Jesus gave clear directions. If you are thirsty for eternal life, come and drink. What did He mean? He made that clear. To come and drink is to believe in Him as God’s provision of living water and bread from heaven. It is to believe in Him as our hope of deliverance from the bondage of sin and death. Jesus made a wonderful promise—the promise of transformation. Instead of looking for satisfaction from things and people of this world, believers find satisfaction flowing from within, making them a source of living water to the thirsty people of the world. I hope you can see this reality embodied in the three foundation worldview truths that I’ve repeated throughout this podcast.There is one God from whom are all things, and He is love.Jesus’ love is enough. His love and will satisfy my soul.God’s purpose in all things is to reveal Jesus Christ in me.Those who believe in Jesus and abide in Him, think like Him. They believe what He believes, and the result is an overflow of His life into this world of thirsty people. Every day that we live in that reality, we are celebrating and experiencing what the Feast of Tabernacles commemorated. We should be filled with joy, as Jesus said after calling His disciples to believe and love with Him. It’s recorded in John 15:11-13. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.Thirsty? Come! Drink! Believe! Be overflowing. Rejoice!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:35-36 The Jews then said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find Him? He is not intending to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks, is He? What is this statement that He said, ‘You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”Obviously, the Jews didn’t understand what Jesus said. They could only think in earthly terms. Remember, they were seeking to kill Him. Not being able to find Him was troublesome to them. Furthermore, maybe they thought if He were going to the Greeks—good riddance. The point John made here is that they were puzzled by Jesus and His words. They didn’t believe in Him in a saving way. The stage was set for one of Jesus’ most public gospel proclamations of His ministry, which we will enjoy tomorrow. Our Father is always setting the stage to reveal His Son in our lives. He orchestrates circumstances and maneuvers people into our paths, creating a sense of neediness that only He can meet. He comes to us as our deliverer and provider so that we may experience His fullness and be satisfied in Him more than in things or people on the earth. The words of the apostle Paul written to the Corinthians comes to mind. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.I invite you to pause for a moment of meditation on the stage God has set in your life for Him to reveal His grace. Look at the need God has created in your life through circumstances and relationships, and give Him thanks for the opportunities they provide for you to trust in Him and love with Him. Thank Him for the weaknesses in yourself that they reveal and glory in His presence, strength, and grace He offers. He is worthy of the glory, trust, and praise. He alone is our life. In Him, we have everything we need for life and godliness. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:33-34 Therefore Jesus said, “For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”Jesus knew He was going to His Father soon—a few months. This feast of Tabernacles was a fall festival to be followed in the spring with Passover. He also knew this crowd would play a significant part in His return to heaven to be with His Father who sent Him. They would crucify Him. Let’s follow this last sentence very carefully. He said, “You will seek me, and will not find me; and where I am (I would’ve expected him to say, ‘and where I am going’) you cannot come.” Or to stay consistent with the tense He might have said, “Where I am, you aren’t” one commentator explained it this way.“You will not find Me, and where I am [i.e., will ‘be’ at that future time] you are not able to come [i.e., then].” We would probably not be very likely to say it like this in English. We would be more likely to say, as you rightly suspect: "... and where I will[then] be, you will not be able to come." In the next verse, it is clear the audience took Him to mean a future event, for they questioned, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find Him?” Two things strike me about what Jesus said. First, is the sad reality that there are many who cannot come to where Jesus is—at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Those who refuse to believe in the historical Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and the only way to the Father, cannot come to heaven. By choosing to pursue their own wills, they cannot enter into eternal life. Second, I’m struck by the incredible privilege and grace God has given to me that I have entered into the place where Jesus is—in the bosom of the Father in heaven, where I have and experience eternal life. It is out of that place that the love of God flows into my being and through my life. That’s why I call it living to love with Jesus. I’m with Him where He is, and therefore my purpose in life is in Him. Have you come to where Jesus is? I hope so, but if you haven’t, you may. Jesus said that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that He is the only way to the Father. I invite you to surrender your will to Him. Be willing to do His will, which is to believe in Jesus as God and to trust in His righteousness rather than your own. According to the Scriptures, He came to die for the sins committed against Him and was raised to live for those who believe and trust in Him. I hope you won’t wait to come to where He is. Receive His life. Surrender yourself to Him now, as soon as this podcast is over. Heavenly Father, give eternal life to all who come to you now through Your Son, Jesus. Give them the heart and words to say to You in repentance for living for themselves and trusting in their own works. May they give You glory as they give their lives to You and trust in Jesus. Lord Jesus, You have authority to give eternal life to all who trust in You. Give it according to Your promise to all who hear my voice and trust in You. Bring them into the joy of living to love with You for the rest of their lives. Thank you. AmenI invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:31-32 But many of the crowd believed in Him; and they were saying, “When the Christ comes, He will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will He?” The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize Him.John described what the Pharisees heard from the people as grumbling or muttering. It’s the same word used in verse 12, “There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, ‘He is a good man’; others were saying, ‘No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.’” The fact that there were many thinking favorably about Jesus was threat enough for them to take action. So they sent some temple officers to bring Him in. Again, the crowd was said to believe in Him because of signs. Although this event is at the Feast of Tabernacles, John 2:23-25 wrote of similar crowd response at the Feast of Passover, “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”The signs Jesus performed, which caused many to believe in Him, were acts of mercy. From this reality, I draw today’s live to love encouragement. As Jesus lives His life through us, we may expect that He would continue to express His mercy to reveal His presence and love. Let’s be on the alert for people who need to see and experience mercy. Perhaps Jesus’ comfort or kindness or healing may encourage them to believe in Him. We may rely on the Holy Spirit to open their hearts and give them faith in Jesus. It is not our responsibility to discern whether the kind of belief of which John spoke regarding the many in the crowd was flesh-born or Spirit-born. True conversion will become evident as faith expresses itself in love for God and others. Our responsibility is to love in His name and give Him the glory. “Father, glorify Your name by loving through us today, and draw many to Your Son through us. Amen.” I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:30 So they were seeking to seize Him; and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.We see God’s providence at work in this verse. The rulers wanted to take Him into custody with the intent to kill Him, but they didn’t because God’s time for that to occur had not come. There was more work to be done, more truth to be spoken, more love revealed to those who were His. So no man could touch Him with evil intent. We also have the same confidence that God’s providence will keep us until His time for our lives arrives. The apostle Paul, speaking to the Athenians about God, said, “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.” God’s providence rules over our lives from the time and place we were born until the time and place we fall asleep in Jesus.As long as Jesus has work to do, truth to be spoken, and love to be revealed in you, you have purpose in this world. Your hour won’t come until God is done, receiving the glory He planned from your life. He has good reason to watch over your life as you live to love with Jesus, so do not be afraid. Move through your day with confidence and peace, relying on your Father in heaven to watch over you and use you for His glory. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:28-29 Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know Me and know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. I know Him, because I am from Him, and He sent Me.”Jesus reiterated what He had said previously in John 7:18 “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” Authority doesn’t come from ourselves, it comes from the one who sends. Jesus was sent from God. He came into the world from Him. The crowd had no frame of reference for someone who didn’t come from an earthly authority. Jesus made it clear that He didn’t demand to be listened to because of Himself, but that they should listen to Him because the One who sent Him is God, and He came from Him who is true. To say that God is true is important. It’s another way of saying that God is real. He is the reality they are reckoning with as they respond to Jesus. How they receive Jesus reveals their relationship with God, the Father, who sent Him. This is true today with us as well. How is our relationship with our creator, God? It is the same as our relationship with Jesus, His Son, through whom we have been created. We bring God glory as we receive His Son as the giver of life eternal. God sent Him to give eternal life to those the Father gave Him. In John 17:1-2, Jesus stated it plainly in His prayer. “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.’”One of the primary reasons I think we ought to live to love with Jesus, is that He came from God, and was sent, so the life of God could be revealed in us, for the glory of the Father. There’s no higher purpose. Jesus came to live to love with His Father by giving eternal life to His children. His children then are called to live to love with Him. I don’t want it to sound like we have to do this, we get to do this. It is our highest calling that supersedes everything we do. We have the joy of loving with Him in our homes, at work, at church, and wherever we go. So I encourage you from these verses to receive Jesus as your life, and joyfully obey His commands to believe in Him (John 14:1) and love as He loves (John 13:34). You will certainly be glad you did!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:27 is a continuation of the comments of the people of Jerusalem about Jesus. They had wondered, “The rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they?” In a sense, they were asking, “Do the rulers know something we don’t know?” Then they reasoned that He can’t be the Christ. “However, we know where this man is from; but whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where He is from.”Apparently it was common knowledge that Jesus was from Nazareth, and so in their minds He couldn’t be the Christ. But Jesus didn’t say that He came from Nazareth. He had proclaimed to the crowd in Capernaum that He came down from heaven. John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” The people of Jerusalem weren’t there when Jesus said that, but it is probable that the word had gotten back to the rulers in Jerusalem. That’s why they wanted to kill Him. The point is that a man from the earth is a normal man, but a man who is from heaven is not. Jesus is not a normal man. He is a man, but He was sent from God, which Jesus will assert once again in the following verses. For today, I ask us this question. Do we know where Jesus is from? Do we live like Jesus is the Christ, the one sent from God? The Scriptures teach that the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. Micah 5:2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” Jesus is the king of Israel come to rule in the midst of His people.We are His people, and He is our lord and king.We live in God’s kingdom, with Jesus as our ruler. It is a kingdom of love and peace. May we be filled with His love and peace as we go through our day, trusting in Him to give us everything we need to glorify His name and advance His kingdom in this world. We know that Jesus is from heaven, and our citizenship is in heaven, from which we await His coming in glory according to Philippians 3:20. When He comes, “He will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself” (verse 21). What a hope we have in Jesus!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:25-26 So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? Look, He is speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to Him. The rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they?Apparently, Jesus’ reproof of the crowd for not judging righteously hit its mark. The Jewish leaders fell silent, and it didn’t go unnoticed. We note that Jesus wasn’t the only one who knew they wanted to kill Him. The word had spread through the community. In fact, it might even have been one of the reasons for the crowd. They were there to see the fireworks. When the rulers didn’t confront Jesus after He spoke, there were some who wondered if they too had become convinced by the lame man’s healing and Jesus’ words that He was indeed the long-expected Christ. To the religious rulers, Jesus was a threat, a cancer that needed to be removed. To the crowd who followed Him, He was an enigma, a mystery, and a source of entertainment. To the people of Jerusalem, Jesus was a news item, a front page story. To Jesus’ disciples, He was their rabbi, but also the expectant deliverer from Roman oppression. To us, He is the savior of the world.I am hoping that there may be some listening to this podcast that could relate to each of those groups when it comes to Jesus. I’m so glad you’ve found this podcast. I want to encourage you to rethink your life and your judgment of Jesus. Consider: how would you expect a world who wants to be god and lord of their own lives to react if they met the one true God who created them and deserves to be worshiped and obeyed? How are you reacting to Him?I pray that even as I speak, the Holy Spirit of God would convince you that Jesus is the Christ—God in the flesh, God with us—so that you might experience His forgiveness and love. From the time that the Gospels were written and circulated, Jesus has been speaking publicly. He still speaks now through His Word and His disciples, people like me, so that you might hear and believe. He died to take away sins, and He lives to love in those who will receive Him and submit to Him. I invite you to surrender yourself to Him, and to do it now, as I pray. Will you humble your heart now with me?Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life. I ask you to give Your Son and eternal life to all who hear my voice and at this moment surrender their lives to You. By the power of Your Spirit, give them hearts to repent—to turn from trusting in themselves. May they abandon their own desires to be god of their lives. Then give them faith that Jesus is Your Son and the only way that they might have peace with You. You have said that everyone who believes in Him will not be disappointed and will have eternal life. I trust You to keep Your word to them as they pray now and humble themselves in Your sight. May you be glorified. Amen.If you prayed with me, I hope you’ll contact me at norm@livetolovewithjesus.com. Put “trusting in Jesus” in the subject line. I hope you’ll visit livetolovewithjesus.com and join the Live to Love with Jesus prayer challenge. Become a part of a world-wide movement of the love of God through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
John 7:21-24 Jesus answered them, “I did one deed, and you all marvel. For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath, you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”Jesus knew why this crowd was offended. Remember? He healed the lame man on the Sabbath at the pool of Bethesda. His explanation for the healing was that His Father was working, so He worked. He lived to love with His Father, and when His Father put the lame man in His path, He saw that the purpose was to reveal He and the Father’s united love for him. It was an act of God revealing that He was the Son of God. That one deed caused them to marvel, but it also made them angry with Him. Jesus admonished them not to judge according to appearances, but to judge righteously. Jesus’ reasoning went something like this. In order to keep the Law of Moses, a deed is done on the Sabbath, a procedure upon a small part of the body. That deed is celebrated because it is a small, hidden sign of God’s blessing. In contrast, Jesus performed one marvelous public deed on the Sabbath that resulted in the healing of an entire man as a testimony or sign of the blessing of God. That deed entirely changed his life, and you condemn it and Me because it was on the Sabbath day. Obviously, that is not a righteous judgment, because righteousness is primarily about doing good deeds for people that makes them whole.As we live to love with Jesus, I hope to encourage you to look for ways to do good deeds for others that makes them whole. Let’s not love just for appearance’ sake, but love for righteousness’ sake. We have the privilege of showing the blessing of God in our lives for God’s glory. What a marvelous way to live!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?”Some of the most challenging people to love are those who are deceived as this crowd. They sought to kill or delete Jesus from their lives because they thought He was from the devil, which is a stunning, and unthinkable judgment of Him. They are the ones that are under the influence of demons, but don’t recognize it. My heart goes out to these people. They are deceived and don’t know it. Satan has blinded their minds so that they cannot see the glory of God in the face of Christ, or see Him in anyone else, for that matter. Without God’s mercy, they perish. As we live to love with Jesus, God will put people like this in our paths. They may be strangers, work associates, or hopefully not, but possibly family members. Loving them won’t be easy, but I’m sure we will discover that Jesus loves them. He was drawn to those who were spiritually blind and helpless. He loved them by speaking the truth to them, confronting their deception with good questions which could help them see where they are in relationship to Him. That’s what Jesus was doing with the crowd mentioned in chapter 7 of John. If someone were to accuse you of having a demon, how would you react? How would you love that person? I want to encourage you to not take their accusations personally. That person’s conflict is with God. Until they are reconciled to God, they are going to have trouble with anyone who loves them in His name. They will react to the truth because they don’t want to do His will and have desires that run counter to walking in the truth and in love. Let’s be encouraged by Jesus’ love for people such as those in this crowd, of which we read in this chapter. May we be ready to humble ourselves, not take personal offense, pray for them, and when possible do them good.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:19 “Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?”In the Law which Moses gave them, law number six commands, “You shall not murder.” Jesus asked the Jewish leaders why they were seeking to kill Him. He knew they wanted to kill Him, which means they have no intention of carrying out the Law. In fact, let’s connect this to what Jesus had just said. Verse 17: “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.” In this context, He was saying, “If anyone is willing to do the Law, they would know His teaching was from God.” But they were already committed to killing Him, so there was no way they would listen to Him or believe in Him. Let’s notice that Jesus spoke the truth to them in love. He gave them an opportunity to rethink what they were doing by appealing to their authority, Moses and the Law. He was correct in saying that none of them carried out the Law. The truth is that there is no one but Christ who carries out the Law. The point of Jesus’ questions to the men who were accusing Him of breaking the Law of Moses was this: Can you not see that in seeking to kill Me, you are breaking the Law of Moses? No, they could not, and that is what we can expect from those who have been blinded by their self-ambition and bitter jealousy. Their hearts are hardened and are so convinced that they are right in their judgment that as they persecute Jesus in you, they think they are doing right. The apostle Paul summarized the Law in his letter to the Galatians when he wrote, “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (5:14). Of course, the one word in the statement is the word, love. As we live to love with Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are fulfilling what James called the royal law, the law of love, by which we are all bound (James 2:8). Again, the only way we can fulfill the law of God is through Jesus Christ. He alone bears fruit for the glory of God, and He brings pleasure to His Father by loving through His people. We have the high calling and singular privilege today to fulfill the law of God by loving with Jesus. I hope you are encouraged by recognizing the blessing you have in having the life of Jesus dwelling within you. Let me wrap up today’s live to love scripture encouragement with the words of the apostle Paul from his second letter to the Corinthians. He said, we are “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (2 Cor. 4:10). Jesus died for us, and He lives for us. Daily we are putting off the old man who died in Christ and putting on the new man, Jesus Christ, who lives in us. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.This verse informs us of what was and is going on in Jesus’ heart. He doesn’t seek His own glory. He seeks the glory of His Father, which makes Him true and righteous. Is there anyone like this other than Jesus? Only those who are abiding in Jesus.If we are going to live to love with Jesus, we can’t have the attitude of the world. In this world, everyone speaks for himself and seeks his own glory. We know this is true because we have all been like that. It never crossed our minds to seek the glory of God who created us. That’s the old man we are to put off.Our minds must be renewed if we are going to live and walk with Jesus. What He says, sees, and does is the truth. Everything He does is righteous, which is another way to describe what love for people looks like. This is our aim: to live for the glory of God, who sent Jesus into this world. For His glory, God gave Jesus to live for and in us. Then, having regenerated us, send us into this world. We are not to speak from ourselves, but to speak from Christ. To speak from Christ, we have to renew our minds to think and believe as He thinks and believes. The apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians (4:22-24) that they were to put off the old man and put on the new man, which is Christ.That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.This verse tells us what to put on as we put on Christ each day. We are seeking the glory of God revealed in the life of Jesus Christ, so we don’t speak from ourselves, but from Him who lives in us and has been sent as the savior of the world. This encourages us to memorize and apply Jesus’ line of thinking—His worldview, which I’ve condensed to three foundational truths for love.There is one God from whom are all things, and He is love.Jesus love is enough. His love and will satisfy my soul.God’s purpose in all things is to reveal His Son in me and to prepare me for eternity.These three truths are the truth and reveal righteousness. They are from God. No natural man thinks this way or believes these things. As we practice applying these three truths to every situation and relationship, we learn that they are from God and are the truth. I hope you’ll write these down. Memorize them, and every morning remind yourself of them so you can put on Christ and live to love with Him for the glory of God.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:17 If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.We learn in this verse that there’s a prerequisite to knowing and recognizing truth: a surrendered, obedient heart to God. One must be willing to do God’s will. Where does such a heart come from? It comes from God. Having ears to hear is a gift from God. It’s what makes them learners, disciples, and ultimately is the evidence that one is a child of God. If someone isn’t willing to do God’s will, then they won’t be able to recognize truth when they hear it. The reality is that if self-ambition rules in the heart, then they won’t even consider a teaching that doesn’t enable or sanction their selfish desires. I’ve noticed this to be true after teaching for over 50 years. I ask myself, “Why can’t this person get the truth or hear what I’m saying?” This explains why. They want to do something that, if they accepted the truth, they couldn’t do. The desire or lust for whatever is so strong that they can’t tell that what is being taught is from God. In verse 7, Jesus echoed the point, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” When Jesus taught, those who didn’t want to do God’s will, but rather wanted to do their own will, were exposed. The same dynamics occur today. When the truth is presented in words or in example, revelation takes place. For the person who is determined to do what they want, it reveals that one’s deeds are evil and the lack of the presence of God’s Spirit in their lives. Instead of a recognition of the truth and the goodness of God, out comes hatred toward the truth and those who speak it. Or it reveals one has a willingness to do God’s will. They recognize the truth because they are seeking to do God’s will. They want to please Him above pleasing themselves.Those who are willing to do God’s will are able to receive the message of living to love with Jesus as their purpose in life. Why? Because they are willing to do it. As they do it, they know it is from God because the Spirit of God testifies to them by giving the grace to do it and the joy that accompanies loving with Him. We can thank God that we are willing to do His will. It is because He has loved us in Christ and given us ears to hear and given us hearts that are willing to obey what we learn to be His will. That’s the power of a surrendered, obedient heart.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:16 So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.”This was Jesus’ response to the Jews’ question, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?” Jesus received His learning from His Father. He wasn’t speaking on His own initiative, but passing on the teaching of the One who sent Him. So His authority is clear. It isn’t self-derived.Years ago, I double-booked on a weekend. It’s the only time I’ve ever done it, and I’m still not sure how I missed it up until a month before the event. So I was faced with telling the host of the homeschool conference that I had made the mistake. I believe there is only one God from whom all things come, so I reasoned that this was from God for the good of everyone. When I asked for wisdom in what to do, the thought came to me to send someone in my place to give the agreed upon messages from their having experienced it in my life. So, I asked if they would consider letting my son, who was, I think, twenty years old at the time, and my daughter and her husband make the presentations. They agreed. So I sent my son to speak in my name with my message. His authority to speak came from His relationship to me, and He couldn’t come up with His own message. His message was my message. He had learned from me, and was there in my name. We both had to trust God, empty ourselves, and receive whatever the Father had for us. It was quite an experience for both Micah and me.That experience helped us to see the relationship between the Father and the Son, of which Jesus spoke in this verse. Dear friends, we are God’s sons and daughters sent into this world to give His message. We love, serve, and teach in His name. Representing Jesus is no small responsibility. There is powerful potential.I’ve never had any homeschool organizer collect and send me individual reviews on each message presented, but that’s what this organization did. They had attendees to the session fill out their review of each session and offer comments. One comment stood out above the others. It read, “It was more powerful to see and hear the son than the father.” It was followed by a comment that it gave more authority to the message than if the Father had presented it. Our living to love with Jesus has authority as we express His love and His message. We are sent by the Father and the Son to love and minister in the power of the Spirit. As my son went in my name as my son to convey my spirit, his message and ministry had authority and power. It was a shadow of the gospel. We are living the gospel today. May we do it full of grace and glory. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:14-15 But when it was now the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. The Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?”The Jews recognized that Jesus was well-educated, knowledgeable about the Law and the things of God. His learning began early. Do you remember what He told His mother at the age of 12? In Luke 2:29, Jesus told them He had to be about His Father’s things; His Father’s business is how some versions read. He was taught by His Father. We’ll talk more about that tomorrow. Today, let me ask you a question. Would others ask the same question about you? Do they see in you a life of study in the word of God? Do they recognize that you are learned in the things of God? I’m not saying we need to be seminary trained to be effective in ministry. It may help, but very little that I teach came from what I learned at seminary. The courses stimulated me academically, but nothing can substitute for studying God’s word habitually, daily, for decades. When explaining who comes to Him and believes, Jesus said that they are those who have been taught of God and learn from the Father (6:45). I want to encourage you to set your heart on learning everything you can about glorifying God and expressing His love. Determine to become an expert on how the Spirit of God works and on loving with Jesus. Ask our Father to teach you and give you understanding for His glory. I land the plane on this subject with a quick note. Jesus didn’t learn so that others would notice how educated He was. He didn’t seek the glory of man. Nor should we. His love for His Father was the source of His learning. He sought the glory of God. May that be our aim today as we live to love with Jesus. Father, glorify Your name in us as You give us circumstances and relationships. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:13 Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.Apparently the Jews, the Jewish leaders, were a very intimidating group of men. So much so that no one openly talked about Jesus at the feast of Booths. Those who thought He was a good man (vs. 12) must have made sure they only gave their opinion to people with whom they felt safe. Have you ever been intimidated into silence? Have you experienced the fear that comes from censorship and rejection?There are going to be times in our lives when we know we have to speak the truth in love in an atmosphere that is hostile to Christ. Usually that hostility has grown there because of the intimidation of important people in that community or social circle. There are certain circles where spiritual discussions are frowned upon or forbidden. It takes a lot of courage and love to speak up about Jesus in those circles. We need the discernment and discretion of Jesus to know when to speak and when not to. Even Jesus hesitated to go too, because He knew they were hostile to Him and wanted to kill Him. But I think we can be sure that His reluctance wasn’t fear-based. It had more to do with God’s timing, because He did go later. When He went, we’ve learned that He didn’t keep silent. He went to the temple and began teaching. As He taught, the responses were guarded to non-existent. I think we can assume that the way the Jewish leaders intimidated the crowd was by their asking where He got His ideas. Essentially, they were saying that Jesus wasn’t teaching what the reputable rabbis were teaching. They asserted that He wasn’t educated by anyone with any authority or notoriety, therefore should be rejected and censored. Fear was stifling the crowd from talking about Him or His teaching.As we go through our day, let’s not let intimidation hinder our speaking about Jesus or loving people God puts in our paths. We can trust God to use every situation and encounter for His glory as we wait on the Holy Spirit for ways to love them. Father, help us overcome fear of rejection and censorship. Give us discernment and discretion, as well as love and courage to speak out regardless of the environment. Make us bright lights in the darkness.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:11-12 So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, “Where is He?” There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.”We learn from these verses about the diverse opinions about Jesus and the settled hostility of some of the Jews, referring to the Jewish leaders who sought Him with malicious intent. His attendance was expected, so they were on the lookout. I would like to put these verses into our context to some degree. As we live to love with Jesus, we may expect the same range of opinions about us. There will be some who think we are good, and there will be others that think we are imposters, toxic, and should be cancelled. It’s hard to imagine how someone who is God, who performed miracles of healing and deliverance, and who taught with such authority could be considered an enemy and a false prophet. But there is an explanation for it proposed by James, Jesus’ brother, in his letter. James 3:14-16.But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.The Jews’ view of Jesus was not an unbiased appraisal. He was a threat to their ambitions. They were jealous of His humility, popularity, power, and ministry. We know that Jesus exposed that their deeds were evil (vs. 7). We should not be surprised if our good deeds, our acts of love, are misunderstood and mischaracterized by people who want people to think they are good, but are not. The encouragement I get from these verses in their context is that Jesus didn’t let the opinions of the crowd sway Him one way or another. He sought only to do His Father’s will for His glory. Jesus made it clear in chapter 5 that it’s impossible to believe in Jesus as long as one seeks the glory of man, which is self-ambition. So let’s take great care to put away our self-ambitions and, in humility, receive whatever God has for us, both good and bad. May we be faithful in doing good, abiding in Christ, and surrendered to His will and plan for our lives.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:8-10 Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come. Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee. But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret.”Jesus encouraged His brothers to attend the Feast of Booths, but told them He wasn’t going to the feast because His time wasn’t completed. We recall from yesterday that Jesus’ time that He referenced was His death. Jesus implied that He wasn’t going to go up publicly as His brothers suggested in verse 4 because the Jews were planning to kill Him. However, after waiting for a while, perhaps a couple of days or so, Jesus did go, but secretly, which I assume means that He didn’t travel with anyone. There’s no mention of the disciples, so we may also conclude He likewise had encouraged them to attend the feast. When something is unclear, one of the basic rules of interpretation is to let Scripture interpret Scripture. In other words, we bring in information given in other passages that we know to be true to bring clarity. In this case, since we know Jesus never did anything on His own initiative, and always did the will of His Father, we know Jesus wasn’t lying when He said He wasn’t going up to the feast. He is in tune with the Father, and the Father wasn’t going to the feast at the same time as His brothers. Jesus was living to love with His Father, so He constantly was abiding in the Father and trusting His will and timing in all things.It is also true that the Father abided in Jesus. Once the Son of God came into the world, Jesus’ body became God’s temple—the place where God dwelled and made His name known. He wasn’t in the temple in Jerusalem. With Jesus’ arrival, that temple and all of its ceremonies became obsolete and was about to disappear as it says in Hebrews 8:13, “When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” The people went to the temple for the feasts, but now Jesus is the feast of Booths, the Passover, the priest, and the sacrifices and everything else about the temple. He could fully celebrate the Feast of Booths, and the celebration of God’s deliverance, provision, and joy without going to Jerusalem. Think on that.Today, you are the temple of God. You have God dwelling in you if you believe in Jesus and have received His life. You don’t have to go somewhere to worship Him or to celebrate His deliverance, provision, and joy. You carry the celebration everywhere you go, and can eat and drink, feast on Christ constantly. That’s what living to love with Jesus is—it’s living in the joy of His presence and manifesting it. May we be filled with understanding and realize the miracle of miracles—Christ in us, the fullness of God, the hope of glory. Let His love and joy flow like a river today as you fix your eyes on Jesus.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:6-7 So Jesus said to them (that is, His brothers who had encouraged Him to go to the feast in Jerusalem to make Himself known publicly), “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.”What did Jesus mean by “My time?” He meant the time of His death. I conclude that first because in verse 1 we learned that Jesus knew the Jews were planning to kill Him and therefore stayed in Galilee. Second, the Jews’ hatred for Him was obviously on top of mind with Him. The Father was arranging the timing and circumstances in Jerusalem for Jesus to give His flesh to become the bread of life. As for His brothers’ times of death, it could happen anytime. Their death wasn’t contingent on being hated by the world, or anything, for that matter. They weren’t intentionally, knowingly, making decisions leading to their deaths. God could use any opportune situation to end their lives. Not so with Jesus.For Jesus, His time was the Father’s time. Everything in His life was determined by His Father. Later in John 8:28, Jesus explained His decision-making. “So Jesus said, “‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative.’” Jesus’ time for everything in His life was determined by the Father, or by the Spirit of the Father, the Holy Spirit. They moved as one. Nothing has changed for Jesus as He lives in us. He moves as the Spirit moves. He lives to the the will of His Father. If our goal is to live to love with Jesus, we must abide in Him. That means our time for everything in life is also determined by God, the Father. He orchestrates circumstances, moves people, and us so that He can glorify His name through His Son in us. At the beginning of every day, if we intend to abide in Him, our “time,” not meaning the time of our death, but the timing of the events of our days, must be surrendered to Him. In another sense, we are intentionally, knowingly walking into our deaths. We died when Jesus died to our own agendas—our own lives in this world. When Jesus was raised from the dead, we were raised to walk or live our lives in Him, with Him—He abiding in us and we in Him. So today every situation or relationship is an opportunity for me to die to myself, die to my flesh attempts at living for God, and to abide in Christ and live to love with Him. In that sense, our time to die is opportune.The love of God flows out of Jesus’ timely death, through my timely death, and out of His initiating love as we move together through the day. Our times are in His hands. That’s why James wrote in 4:14-15. “Yet, you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’” So the encouragement to live to love with Jesus today is to live with the same sense of dependency upon the Father as Jesus does. Trust His timing for everything in your life, as well as with the timing of your death. Live surrendered to the will of God, as Jesus lives surrendered to the Father. Then you will have confidence that God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven in your life. Your life and death are in His hands. Out of that understanding and that kind of trust, the love of Christ will flow through your life.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:5 For not even His brothers were believing in Him.Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters. In this verse, we learn that at the time of these events, none of the brothers believed that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah. In Luke 8:21, when Jesus was told that his mother and brothers had arrived, Jesus said, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” They eventually became believers and doers of the word of God.Those special to Jesus are those who take God’s word and apply it to their lives. Those who live to love with Jesus are His brothers and sisters. They are doing what Jesus commanded when He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). He later said in John 15:5 that this can only be done as we abide in Him. I want to encourage you today that Jesus considers you His brother or sister if you are living to love with Him. Unlike Jesus’ brothers at the time, you are expressing faith as you love others with Him. Let us rejoice today in being members of Jesus’ family, His brothers and sisters who trust Him and do the word of God.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:2-4 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. Therefore, His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.”As we consider these verses, I want to bring something Jesus said into view that shows an important, stark contrast between Jesus and most everyone else. John 5:30 “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” John 5:41 “I do not receive glory from men; John 5:44 “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?Jesus wasn’t seeking to be known publicly, but His brothers assumed that was Jesus’ ambition. Jesus had one ambition: to reveal and glorify His Father by doing His will on a moment by moment basis. May I encourage you to have the same ambition as Jesus today? Our purpose is essentially the same as His: to glorify God by revealing that Jesus still lives to glorify His Father. We do this by loving with Him. We aren’t trying to be good Christians so we will have a good reputation with the public. We’re not trying to be publicly known. I was struck by a quote from Nikolai Ludwig von Zinzindorf in Living Life Backwards by David Gibson. “Preach the gospel. Die. Be forgotten.” There’s no self-ambition or self-significance driving those words. May our ambition today be to glorify God, to live for His pleasure, by loving with Jesus, preaching the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 7:1 After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.What an interesting way to describe what Jesus was doing. He was walking in Galilee and not Judea. He wasn’t sitting or working in Galilee; He was walking. The idea was that Jesus conducted His daily affairs in Galilee. Galilee was His home region, so He continued His ministry there. We’re told He did so because He was unwilling to go to Judea because He knew His life was in danger there. The Jews were out to get Him.This was a fairly normal and reasonable decision. Don’t go where you’re not wanted. We know later on that Jesus did go to Jerusalem to observe the feast in spite of the dangers. But today I want to encourage you to stay in the flow of where God is working. Jesus taught this to His disciples on the occasion of their being unwanted in a village. He told them “Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them” (Mark 6:11). So as we are “walking” in this world wherever the Lord has us, let’s be in tune with what God is doing and work with Him where there is receptivity. My guess is that most of us are not concerned about being killed by anyone that we may minister to. We are living for the glory of God, so we want to live and love where the Spirit guides us. We may trust that our Father will guide our steps and direct us to those He wants to love. I’m aware that every person who crosses my path is part of a divine plan. There are no random meetings. I’ve seen the Lord deeply touch people just by my telling them that our meeting isn’t random. I’ll share about praying for them that morning and then ask how I can specifically pray for them, and usually there’s a reason for the encounter that makes it clear the Lord has put us together. May the Holy Spirit give us discernment and sensitivity to Him and to those around us today.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:70-71 Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.The encouragement we may draw from these verses is that our Father is always working for our good, and therefore we can entrust ourselves to Him. Can you see that in what Jesus said? Jesus’ statement was made to fortify the statement made in verse 65, “No one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” Even if the Son chooses someone, it doesn’t mean the Father has chosen Him. Jesus chose Judas Iscariot knowing he was going to betray Him. He knew the Father was not teaching Him. He knew Judas was following Him for the wrong reasons, just like the crowd was. Eventually, Judas and the crowd would bring charges against Jesus with hostile intent. That’s the idea in the root word for devil, diabolos. It means to accuse or slander falsely with malicious intent. The devil is the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10). I’m encouraged by a couple of things about Jesus that help me understand the faith that is necessary if I’m to live to love with Him. He completely entrusted Himself to His Father. When He chose Judas to be one of the twelve, we know He did so at the Father’s direction. He came to do the Father’s will (John 6:38). We learn here that Jesus knew Judas would betray Him. That tells me that Jesus, even knowing that Judas would play an integral part in His death, still entrusted Himself to His Father. 1 Peter 2:23 testifies of Jesus’ reliance on His Father. “And while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.” That kind of faith and trust lives in me and all those who live to love with Jesus. That encourages us to entrust ourselves completely to our Father and His will for us.Jesus’ unwavering obedience to His Father also encourages me. He obeyed His Father in choosing Judas, knowing it was going to bring suffering. By the way, that was an act of love for His Father and for us. The Father commanded Him to lay down His life for us, and in choosing Judas, He began the process. As we live to love with Jesus, we have been commanded to love like Jesus loves, to love with Him. We are commanded to lay down our lives for the well-being of others. There will be times when we know that if we do something nice, loving, or kind to someone, they are going to be devilish. They are going to turn it around and twist it, falsely accuse us. Our loving them makes them feel guilty because they don’t love us. There is hostility in their hearts toward us, and it makes them angry when we love them. So rather than receive the love, they sabotage our efforts to love them and accuse us of being proud or manipulative. I’m encouraged by Jesus’ example of obedience to not refrain from loving those who are my enemies and entrust myself to God’s care. We can trust God will work everything for good and for His glory, just as Jesus did.I hope you’ll be encouraged also from these verses to entrust yourself to your heavenly Father and obey Him by loving others as Jesus loves. This is only possible in the power of the Holy Spirit. May we be filled with the spirit of Christ today as we walk in love with Him.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:66-69 As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”Simon Peter spoke up for the twelve and expressed what all believe who have been born again by the Spirit. We believe Jesus has the words of eternal life. As Jesus said only a minute or two previously, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Those who are the true branches in the Vine abide in Him, and His words abide in them. In John 14:23 Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” Believing Jesus has the words of eternal life, we keep them. No one else has the words of life. Simon Peter and the rest of the twelve, with the exception of Judas, knew from the words Jesus had spoken that He was the Holy One of God, the Messiah, the Christ. That was enough for them.When others were walking away, the twelve stayed with Jesus. Even though they probably didn’t understand all that Jesus said, they heard enough to know that He was the One sent from God so they might have eternal life. Could you also make the same confession as Simon Peter? I hope so. Where else could we turn to find and experience the love of God through a person other than Jesus? They thought there were other teachers who were more understandable and who presented more palatable ideas than cannibalism. They decided it wasn’t worth their time to hang out and listen until they understood what He meant. Who we listen to tells a lot about us. According to the apostle John in his first epistle, who we listen to reveals where we are from. 1 John 4:1. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Then in verses 5-6, he made the connection between origin and who we listen to. “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” That’s what Jesus basically said in this encounter in Capernaum’s synagogue. He told them they were not from His Father, because if they were, they would listen to Him and believe. The fact that they didn’t have ears to hear Him revealed that the Father had not brought them to Him. The encouragement we draw from these verses is that Jesus’ disciples who live to love with Him are the antithesis of the so-called disciples who walked away. We are like Simon Peter. We stay with Jesus even when we are faced with difficult truth because we know He has the words of life. As we meet those God puts in our paths, we wait for the Holy Spirit to give us the words that will bring life to them. That’s one of the many ways we love them. We trust in the power of God and the life-giving words of Christ. Maybe it’s a great question to ask people as we share with them about Jesus. Do you know anyone else who has the words of eternal life?I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:64-65, “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”This is the second time Jesus told the crowd that there were some who did not believe. In John 6:36 He said, “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.” We learn in these verses that one of those Jesus knew didn’t believe in Him was Judas Iscariot. We also discover a profound truth. The reason Judas didn’t believe was because the Father hadn’t granted it to him. This reminds me of something else Jesus said while explaining the parable of the soils, recorded in Mark 4:11-12. “And He was saying to them, ‘To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.’” Jesus loved Judas, but the Father didn’t grant that he would hear and believe. Earlier we read in John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” Jesus surrendered Himself to do the Father’s will and to be satisfied with it. For us to live to love with Jesus, we must have the same attitude of trust.Maybe I should say it this way. If we believe in Jesus, then we do have the same attitude of trust dwelling in us because Jesus lives in us. We have His Spirit, and His Spirit is our life. Jesus was jealous for the Spirit to get the glory He deserves in doing the work that only He can do. He would not do what the Spirit was given to do. He only did what the Father gave Him to do. He received what the Father gave Him and was a faithful Son. That attitude of trust is foundational to loving with Jesus. As we love the people God puts in our paths each day, we do so trusting the Father to draw them to Jesus and trusting the Holy Spirit to give life. Remember, Jesus said in verse 63, “It is the Spirit who gives life.” Our responsibility is to love with Jesus, that is the fruit of the Vine in us, the branches. Our hope and prayer is that the will and work of God will be done in the hearts and lives of those who are His. There is freedom with this kind of faith. It frees us from discouragement, guilt, and feelings of inadequacy if we don’t see results. We can leave the results to God, just as Jesus did. Also, let’s draw encouragement from this wonderful truth. If we believe, it is because the Father has granted it. He created us for His Son and gave us to Him. Therefore, we come to Him, believe in Him, and receive life in Him. To God be the glory! Let us be filled with gratitude and joy for God’s great wisdom and grace revealed to us in Christ. Thank you, Father, for giving us to Your Son, Jesus. We are forever blessed and grateful.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:61-63 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”Somehow, Jesus knew His disciples were grumbling about His statement about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. At least, I think that is the troubling statement about which they were grumbling. He asked if it caused them to stumble or to be offended, or if they thought it was scandalous. That’s the Greek word used here, from which we get the word scandalous—skandalizo. The second question follows logically. Let’s remember they have just seen an impossible to forget miracle in the multiplication of fish and bread to feed over 15,000 people and have leftovers. Remember, He had told them quite specifically that He was from heaven. He asked them, if they were to see Him go back into heaven, would it be enough for them to believe and trust Him? By the way, some of them were going to see Him ascend to heaven. The question had a purpose and stressed the point He wanted to make. If they were trying to understand Jesus’ words only from their fleshly perspective, even seeing Jesus ascend to heaven wouldn’t be enough for them to believe and not grumble. The point: the flesh wants signs in the physical world before trusting. The problem with the flesh is that if one sign can talk them into trusting, a sign that causes them to stumble can talk them out of trusting. The truth that brings us encouragement is clearly stated in verse 63. Only the Holy Spirit can give life. If the Holy Spirit gives understanding and faith to trust in Jesus’ words, then there’s long-lasting benefit and fruit. Jesus words were spirit and life. I think He means that they are the signs from God, from heaven, that bring forth fruit in the spiritual realm. Flesh is bound to the physical realm, therefore the flesh profits nothing in the spiritual realm. Jesus’ words don’t come from this world, they come from heaven, and therefore are spirit and life. We may be encouraged that as we speak the words of Scripture to others, we are loving with Jesus. We are speaking words that are spirit and life. We can trust that the Holy Spirit will make the words come alive in the hearts of those who have been given by God to Christ. We’ll know the ones given to Christ by their response to those life-giving words. The Spirit will overcome their fleshly limitations and give them faith to believe. He will open the ears of their hearts to hear and understand. Jesus would often say, “He who has ears to hear, let Him hear.” It was His way of calling forth the work of the Father and the Spirit. As we live to love with Jesus, we may expect the Father to draw, and the Holy Spirit to teach as we speak the words of Christ. Let’s remember, always, that the flesh profits nothing—cannot bear fruit for God’s glory. Only the Spirit of God can give life to the words we speak.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:59-60 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore, many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?”Today, we learn that the teaching about the bread of life took place in the synagogue of Capernaum. We also learn that it wasn’t just the crowd that balked at His teaching. Many of His disciples had a hard time with the statement Jesus made. I think the difficult statement was in verse 56. “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” Who can listen to it? Or we might say in the context of eating, “Who can stomach the idea of eating His flesh or drinking His blood?” Something to note about Jesus’ love for God and for these people: He wanted His Father to get all the glory. He didn’t try to be relevant or present His message in such a way that His listeners could understand what He said from a natural mindset. Rather, He spoke the truth of the gospel with 100% trust in the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts. I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t try to communicate God’s word as clearly as we can, but ultimately, only the Holy Spirit can open the heart to understand and effectually believe. Like Jesus, we want to love them by speaking the truth as clearly as we can, but trusting God to do His work of drawing them to Jesus. There are many difficult or puzzling statements made by Jesus that are recorded in the gospels. If we focus on them, we may find ourselves plagued with many doubts. However, we aren’t responsible to do something with what we don’t understand. We are responsible to respond to what we do understand. Deuteronomy 29:29 attests to this fact. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” The context is different, but the truth is timeless. Let’s not stumble or grumble about the things we don’t understand or that are difficult statements. Instead, let’s be amazed at the truth about Jesus that we do understand, apply it to our lives, and share it with others. The encouragement I draw from these verses is that in living to love with Jesus, there will be times I don’t understand what’s happening, but I can trust Him, nonetheless. In the following verses, we’ll see that is the attitude of some of the disciples. Bottom line is this: Love flows out of trust. May we trust in Jesus no matter what happens in our lives. He is worthy of our trust and worthy of the glory it brings Him when we do so.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:57-58 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." It is obvious in Jesus’ conversation with the crowd who sought Him because He had miraculously fed them that the message was that He was the true life-giving bread sent from God. In these verses, Jesus repeats the theme that began with the miracle. Jesus is the living bread sent from God. Notice Jesus emphasized the quality of life four times: the living Father, I live, the one who eats Me will live, and live forever. Would you celebrate life in Christ with me today? Look at what Jesus said. He lives because the Father lives, and the one who eats or abides in Jesus lives because He lives. Let’s connect it and rejoice. We live because Jesus lives, and Jesus lives because the Father lives. Believing that Jesus was sent by the Father unites us with both the Father and the Son, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, who the Apostle Paul called, the Spirit of Life in Christ (Rom. 8:2). The Spirit of Life in Christ sets us free from the law of sin and of death. Listen to how Paul echoes Jesus’ declaration that the one who eats His flesh has life forever. Romans 8:9-14.However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.Let me state the highlights I want to spotlight. The spirit is alive. Give life to your mortal bodies. Not live according to the flesh. Putting to death the deeds of the fleshly body, you will live. These are the sons of God! Do you get it? The bread that the fathers ate and died was the bread of the flesh. It was earthly. Our flesh is sinful. His flesh was righteous. The bread that came down from heaven, Jesus Christ, is the bread of life, and those who eat of His flesh live forever. The sons and daughters of God live by the Spirit, out of the life of Jesus, whom God sent to not only die for us, but to live for us. To live to love with Jesus happens as we abide in Him, which is to eat of His flesh. That’s living life to the fullest for the glory of God. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.Foundational to living to love with Jesus is abiding in Jesus. For God to receive glory from our lives, our love must flow from Jesus, the Vine. As branches, fruit-bearing occurs as we abide in the vine. In this verse, Jesus told the crowd how they may receive the bread of life, not die, and live forever. The one who eats His flesh and drinks His blood abides, which is a continual action, in Jesus and Jesus abides in him. The Father gave this bread of life for His glory. He gets all the praise and honor from our lives as we abide in Jesus, filling ourselves with the life of Christ. The love that flows from Jesus in us is the fruit that glorifies the Father. This gives us great encouragement to know that we are pleasing to the Father and fulfilling our purpose in Christ. What a great honor it is to be branches of the Vine, displaying the fruit that brings joy to both the Father and the Son, and also to us. This occurs as we continuously abide in Jesus and He in us, as we continuously eat of Him. May we be filled with the joy of the Lord as we live to love with Jesus today.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:54-55, He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.Every day, we abide in Jesus so we can live with Him. The only way we can abide in Jesus is through His finished work on the cross, where He gave His flesh as a sacrifice for our sins. Without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22). Without forgiveness of sins, there’s no way we can have access to God or have fellowship with Him. We can’t be His fruit bearing disciples if we are not cleansed, washed by His blood. We have His life in us, and that is only possible if our sins have been removed, and we have been made holy, one with Him at the cross. The apostle Paul wrote in Titus 3:5, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” So, there’s not a day that we don’t eat His flesh and drink His blood. Living to love with Jesus each day is based on the diet of true food and drink revealed in the gospel. We eat His flesh and drink His blood because we have eternal life.We are encouraged by these two verses to eat and drink the true food and drink provided through His substitutionary death. He died for us so He might bring us to God, present us holy, blameless, and beyond reproach. Then the Father sends His Son from heaven to be the bread of life and our true drink. Out of the fellowship and union we have with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can rise to our calling to glorify God each day and on the last day. The way we glorify God is through Jesus Christ, as we abide in Him and He in us. Then the Vine can produce the fruit of faith and love in the branches. By this is the Father glorified as we bear or display much fruit.Every circumstance and relationship is God orchestrated so He might be glorified in us as we trust and love with Jesus. Out of Jesus’ life abiding in us, we trust God and love others. The sustenance for that kind of living is the true food and drink, of which we continually partake every day until we die. Let’s eat, drink, and be merry in Christ!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:52-53 Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.”I’m so glad we live on this side of the cross and the resurrection. The consternation of the crowd seems understandable to me, since they didn’t know that He was going to give His body to be broken under the weight of the sins of the world. They didn’t know that He would shed His lifeblood for purification of sins and to reconcile the world to God. The apostle Paul explained it this way in Colossians 1:19-20. “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” We live in the light of the cross and resurrection. We know what it means to eat His flesh and drink His blood. It is to abide in Christ! We know the great love God has revealed in Christ, so we aren’t standing in the dark like the crowd who grumbled at Jesus words.We should be very encouraged by the reality we have experienced in Jesus. We have life in us because we have believed to the point of trusting Jesus with our lives. May I ask you personally if you have a deep desire to continuously abide in Jesus? Do you realize that apart from Him, you cannot bear fruit? Are you eating and drinking from the life of Jesus? I hope and pray that your answer is a resounding, “Yes.” Abiding in Christ is like having a power tool plugged into an outlet and the “on” button is engaged. You’re ready to go into this day with a superpower pulsing in your soul. Every person whom the Lord places in your path will be blessed as you receive the life sap from the vine and then give to them what you receive. Enjoy your day with Jesus!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:48-51, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.Let’s be encouraged today by what Jesus says about Himself in these verses. First, He is the Bread of Life. Second, He came down so that the one who eats of Him will not die. Third, the one who eats of Jesus, the Living Bread, will live forever. The bread which Jesus gives is His flesh. How can we be encouraged to live to love with Jesus from these verses? Jesus is the life of the world, and the one who has Jesus has the life (1 John 5:12). To eat the bread of life, is to abide in Jesus. It is to receive who He is, embracing His purpose of glorifying God by loving with His Father, doing His will. As we abide in Jesus, He loves through us. We will be doing this forever!Just reading those words that the one who eats of the bread of life will “not die… He will live forever,” produces such hope, joy, and love for the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. His love poured out in our hearts becomes the fountain from which all love flows. To use the metaphor used in these verses, it’s like we are the baskets that have the extra bread to be shared with the world. Doesn’t that encourage you to live for the purpose of sharing the bread of life with others? Doesn’t His love move you to express His love to others? I hope so. Let’s also notice the extent to which Jesus went in order to give us the bread of life. He gave His body to be broken so we might have eternal life. God’s love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. That’s the kind of love and the extent to which we must also go to love in His name and to love with Him. We should not be surprised if He asks us to lay down our lives, expend all our energy, suffer great hardship, persecution, and rejection. That’s how we will know to a greater depth the love of Jesus for us. We’ll know first hand, to a small degree, what Jesus meant when He said the bread which He gives is His flesh. We may expect God to give us the grace we need to live to love with Jesus.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:46-47 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.Jesus had just told the crowd that all who are taught by the Father and learn from the Father come to Him. In these verses, He clarifies that the Father has only been seen by the Son, the One who is from God. The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God already has eternal life. In other words, faith in Jesus is the witness of God that the Father has taught them, and they have learned from Him that Jesus is the One sent by the Father into this world to give life. Do you remember this question: Which comes first, the chicken or the hen? We are faced with a similar question with a similar answer: Which comes first, eternal life or faith? It depends on your perspective. In these verses, we would have to say that eternal life comes first. If we back up a few verses to verse 40, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” From this perspective, we would have to say, faith comes first. Okay, which is it?First, we know that Jesus can’t be confused when He said both of these statements. They are both true. Although we may not be able to understand completely, we can conclude this. God gives a person eternal life. The evidence of that life is faith in Christ. Once one believes in Jesus as the Son of God, the giver of life, he will have eternal life in the future because the life He has received is eternal. If it could pass away, it wouldn’t be eternal life. Does that make sense to you? I hope so. At the end of the day, God gets all the glory, so everything must originate with His will. We live to love with Jesus because we have eternal life and know He is working with the Father to do His will. It is a privilege to walk with Jesus in love. May we rejoice in God’s great love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us, and the Father has testified that we are justified and loved by giving us faith in Christ. We will have eternal life in the future because we have it now! What good news we have to share with those God puts in our paths today. Eternal life begets eternal life.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:43-45, Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to Me, unless the Father, who sent Me, draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.”Look at the trust and confidence the Son of God has in His Father. This is our Live to Love scripture encouragement today. We have the life of the Son in us, and therefore we have His trust and confidence in the Father as we abide in Him. Jesus wasn’t striving to get this crowd to believe in Him. He was resting in His Father’s work, the work of teaching His listeners about Him, and then drawing them to Him. We have that same confidence as we love people with Jesus. We don’t need to feel pressure to get results or to get people to make a decision for Christ. That will rob them of their assurance. Their assurance comes from the experience of listening to and learning from the Father. The Father does His teaching and drawing ministry through His Word, the circumstances of life, and His providence as we love, share God’s Word, and trust Him. Do you remember how the Father taught you and drew you to Christ? That’s why you came to Jesus.We can depend on the power of God to draw people to Christ as we love with Him. This frees us from unbelief because we aren’t looking at ourselves or the people we serve. We are focused on the power of God from the beginning of the encounters with people until the end. We are encouraged in these verses that if the Father teaches and draws them, then Jesus will raise them up on the final day. That’s security, and therefore the source of our assurance and confidence. So today, let us love boldly and share with confidence in the power of God to accomplish His will for His glory.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:41-42 Therefore, the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”The Jews thought they knew Jesus’ earthly father, so there was no way they could accept Jesus’ confession that He was the bread that came down out of heaven. They questioned how He could say that. In their minds, they probably thought He was delusional, so they grumbled about Him. Such is the hardness of heart caused by unbelief.Unbelief fixes the mind on the circumstances on the earth, whereas faith fixes the mind on Jesus and the word of God. The spokesmen for the crowd couldn’t hear Jesus’ words because of unbelief. We abide in Jesus because we believe His Word, and He therefore is able to love through us. That’s how faith works—through love. Jesus told His disciples in John 15:7-8, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” As we abide in Him, we embrace Jesus’ purpose, worldview, and mindset. We believe what He believes and says. Can you see that the Jews couldn’t believe what Jesus said because they were focused on their own perception of circumstances as they were on the earth? We are encouraged by these verses not to let the circumstances distract us from who Jesus is (the Son of God), what Jesus is (our high priest), what He has done (made purification of sins), where Jesus is (sitting at the right hand of the Father), what Jesus is doing at the right hand (running all things and interceding for us), and what He has promised (to preserve us through all circumstances in life by His mercy and grace). As we draw near to Jesus at the throne of grace, we receive the grace we need to love whoever God puts in our paths. I encourage you today, therefore, to overcome unbelief by keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus and what He says. In these verses, He is our daily sustenance, our daily bread from heaven. Father, give us this day, our daily bread.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”We have another encouragement today about the Father’s will, which is another way of saying what pleases the Father. The Father desires to have a people for Himself, raised up on the last day of the history of the world. He isn’t raising every single person who has existed in history. There are two distinctive characteristics about them: When they gaze upon Jesus, they believe in Him. These and these alone will have eternal life. How do we gaze upon Jesus today? We behold the Son in the Scriptures. This is the aim in the Live to Love Scripture Encouragement podcasts. When we read God’s Word, we look at Christ and meditate on His person, His union with the Father, His purpose in coming into the world, His character, and His ministry. Meditation upon what we read in the Scriptures is a means of more grace, giving deeper understanding of who Jesus is, what He is doing, and the glorious hope of His promises. We may ask the Holy Spirit to teach us and reveal Christ to us so that we may know Him more intimately.As we behold Jesus in the Scriptures, those who have been given to Jesus hear and believe in Him. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). When we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, we entrust our lives entirely to Him. We have the hope of eternal life and being raised up with Christ on the last day when “He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed” (2 Thessalonians 1:10).So all who believe in Christ are encouraged today that their hope is secure. God has willed that Jesus, Himself, raise us up with Him. Since nothing can separate us from His love, let us live with Him and walk in love for the glory of God on the last day.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:38-39 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.These two verses give us some very important, encouraging information by answering five questions. Where did Jesus come from? What did He come to do? What is the will of the Father for Jesus? What is the will of God for those given to Jesus? What hope do those who are given to Jesus have?Where did Jesus come from? He came down from heaven. He isn’t from this world. He is separate from His creation and therefore isn’t tainted and corrupted by this fallen world. What did Jesus come to do? He came to do the will of His Father, who sent Him. What is the will of the Father for Jesus? It is the Father’s will that Jesus not lose anything or anyone the Father has given Him, and that He present all that He was given back to the Father in a redeemed state on the last day of the history of the world. And the last question: What hope do those have who are given to Jesus ? On the last day of the history of the world, they will be presented by Jesus to the Father, not in a fallen state, but raised up into a redeemed state. Look at the security we have in Christ! None will be lost. The life which Jesus gives is eternal life. Once it is given, it cannot be lost, otherwise it wouldn’t be eternal life. These verses fortify Jesus’ previous comments that all the Father gives to Him will come to Him, and He will not cast them out. He won’t cast them out because they were given to Him by the Father for the purpose of raising them up, out of their fallen state. My, how we have been loved. We were loved before the foundation of the world and given to Jesus. Why do we believe? Why do we come to Christ and surrender our lives? Because we were given to Him by the Father, and it is the Father’s will to save us in Christ. That’s the love of God: the sustained direction of the will toward our highest good, no matter what the cost, for His glory. Our highest good is to be raised up for the glory of God. Our confidence is that God’s will won’t change, and Jesus is faithful over His house to do His will, whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end (Heb. 2:6).It is out of this confidence and sealed in God’s love that we live our lives with Jesus. He lives in us to raise us up. We are being raised up daily by the power of His love and presence into His image, filled with His life, and displaying His fruit—the same kind of love. So we have much to praise God for, as we are encouraged by John 6:38-39. We praise Him for His gracious will toward us, for sending His Son to raise us up, and let us boast of the hope we have in Him. May our praise and thanks be expressed as we love with Jesus today.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:36-37, But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me, I will certainly not cast out.We don’t have the account where Jesus told this crowd that they have seen Him and yet don’t believe. John recorded in John 5:44 that Jesus told the Jews, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” In these verses, He was essentially telling them that the Father had not given them to Him. If He had, they would come to Him in faith, and He would receive them. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:34-35 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”The spokesman or men speaking for the crowd when Jesus said the Father gives bread from heaven that gives life to the world said, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Then He couldn’t have made it more clear. “I am the bread of life.” So our first encouragement today is to eat the bread of life given by the Father. He is our daily bread. Our daily sustenance. Jesus, Himself, is our bread. Do you love bread? Do you love Jesus like you love bread? Those who love bread want to eat it every day. Lord, always give us Yourself. Always. Every minute, every hour, every day, every year until we are glorified with You.We are also encouraged in this verse with what it means to partake of Jesus, the bread of life. We are to come to Him, which is synonymous with believing in Him. To believe in Jesus is to come to Him, believing He is the source of my life from the point of my coming until my time in this world is over. The promise to the one who comes because He believes in Jesus is that His hunger and thirst will be forever quenched. He will never hunger or thirst for life again. How is that possible? Because once one is given life, there’s not anything or anyone else to compare to the satisfaction, peace, fullness, and hope experienced on this earth. It is out of that satisfaction and fullness that the love of God flows. Remember when Jesus broke the bread and fed them, they were full and there were leftovers. The love of Jesus fills our hearts and souls to overflowing, and that is living to love with Jesus. What a wonderfully, meaningful, satisfying way to live life in this world. As recipients of His life, we can say, “Thank You, Lord, for answering our prayer to always give us this bread of life.” May our hearts enjoy Him more than we enjoy our favorite bread.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:32-33 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” In these verses we have Jesus’ explanation of the true bread out of heaven. It is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. Of course, Jesus was referring to Himself. The spokesmen for the crowd mistakenly thought Moses gave the Hebrew fathers the manna. You’ll notice Jesus spoke in the present tense. It’s the Father who gives the true bread out of heaven. Jesus has come down out of heaven to give life to the world, meaning, He is the only source of life for the whole world. There are no other sources of life, but the Son of God. In John 5:21, Jesus declared that He had the authority to give life to whom He wishes. In John 14:6 Jesus calls Himself the life. John 11:25, John records Jesus saying to Martha that He is the resurrection and the life. In John’s first epistle, 1 John 5:12, he wrote, “He who has the son, has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” I hope you have discovered that Jesus is life and have received Him as your life. Love only flows out of His life. It doesn’t come from earthly, fleshly life. The kind of love the flesh has is a worldly love. God has called us to live out of the life of Christ which He has given to us. When He gives us His Son, we believe in Jesus, and have a passion for the glory of God. Would you join me in praying what I call the live to love prayer? Let’s pray. “Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to live to know and love You and to love with Jesus. Please anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love those You put in my path today, for Your glory.”I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:30-31 So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’”What a shameful testimony of unbelief we have in these verses! They had just experienced one of the most incredible signs of Jesus’ ministry. He multiplied 5 loaves of bread and two fish to feed a crowd of probably over 15,000. What more proof did they need to believe Jesus was sent from God? They brought up the comparison of Moses, who gave their fathers manna to eat for forty years, to which Jesus will respond in the following verses.Today, let’s ask ourselves if there is this kind of unbelief present in our own hearts. How many times has God shown Himself to be faithful to us in our lives? Countless. Haven’t we been tested many times, and God has brought us through every time? Consider when God has given us grace to love people that have been difficult or even hostile. Hasn’t God proved Himself over and over, enough so that we should never need another sign before we trust Him with our lives? Shouldn’t we believe everything Jesus says as the words of God?That was the question facing this crowd. Do we have good reason to believe what Jesus says about Himself and about the work of God? The answer for them was, “No.” What about us? Although in the previous paragraph I asked about God’s faithfulness to us in our lives, the fact is, we have the word of God recorded in our Bibles. That should be enough for us to believe Jesus is the Son of God and the giver of eternal life. Truly, truly, that’s why John wrote his gospel. He recorded sign after sign as an eyewitness and recorded Jesus’ words so that we might not be doubtful or unbelieving. We have the foundation of faith of Jesus, given to us from God, when He gave us eternal life in Christ. The faith of Jesus has become our faith! His life is our life! We have His life so that we might trust Him with everything in our lives. Regardless of the circumstances or the difficulty of relationships, we look to Jesus, revealed as the Son of God in the word of God. His love is the source of our love, which means we are living to love with Jesus for the glory of God.Today, may we be grateful for the undeniable proof we have that Jesus lives in us. We have the Holy Spirit doing the work of God in and through our lives. To God be the glory. Great things He has done. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:28-29 “Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”In the previous verse, Jesus told the crowd to work for the food that endures to eternal life. Their response shows they missed the point Jesus was making about Himself being the giver of the food. Their natural frame of reference was work they had to do to get eternal life. We want to be careful not to make the same mistake. Notice, Jesus didn’t say, “This is the work you have to do; believe in Him whom He sent.” Jesus didn’t answer their question directly. Instead, He told them the work that God is interested in. It isn’t the work of man, but the work of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus told them the work God does, namely, believing in Him. We are going to learn later in this chapter that, indeed, it is God who does the work in the hearts of those who believe in Jesus (44-45). In effect, in this verse, He told them to do something they cannot do. They cannot do the work of God. Only God can do the work that results in eternal life. This is why it is misleading to tell people to put their faith in Jesus, which by the way, isn’t in the NASB. When I typed in “put your faith in” in the search box of my Bible app, the app replied, “There are no verses in the current range of the NASB which fit the current search entry.” To tell people they must put their faith in Jesus to be saved is dangerous and destructive in two ways. First, it implies that God gives eternal life on the basis of something they do. It puts the power of salvation in their hands, so to speak. That’s exactly what the crowd was looking for. “What shall we do?” Second, it robs the person of assurance. Faith is the assurance we receive as a witness from God that we have eternal life in Christ. This is clearly taught in Hebrews 11. As Jesus said in this verse, faith is the work of God. It is a witness to us and to the church that we belong to Christ. Peter testified to this reality after the Gentiles believed in Christ in Acts 15:8-9. “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.” Furthermore, later in this conversation Jesus confirms this truth by saying no one can come to Him unless they are brought and taught by God. It is God’s work that they believe in His Son. Jesus spoke the truth in love to this crowd, and we should as well when people ask what they can do to be saved. We should say what Jesus said. It is God’s work that you believe in Jesus. Share the gospel. God sent Jesus to die for the unjust, to do what they cannot do—namely, pay the price for their sinful, self-glorifying lives, putting an end to their attempts to justify themselves by anything they do (1 Pet. 3:18). Then three days later, God raised Jesus from the dead to declare that the sacrifice of His life is acceptable and pleasing to Him. God raised Jesus from the dead because He is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to the Father (John 14:6). Jesus has been authorized by the Father to give eternal life to those the Father gave to Him (John 17:2-3). Jesus was raised to live for them and produce fruit in their lives for the glory of God (John 15:7-8). He therefore calls all men to repent and believe in Jesus, which entails turning from reliance on their own efforts to live for God. Dying to their own life in this world, and turning from seeking to please God in their own strength and good deeds. Rejecting the desire to receive glory and significance from men rather than from God.
John 6:27 “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”We have a wonderful, sure, assurance that we have eternal life if we believe in Jesus. Let’s navigate through this verse, one truth at a time.First, we will learn in the following verses that Jesus is the food that endures to eternal life. He’s the bread of life. The crowd pursued Jesus because of the earthly food, the multiplied fish and bread they had received. They were working for an earthly kingdom and for food that perishes. If the purpose of our lives is rooted in something temporal, then we are working for food that perishes. That’s why I believe our highest purpose as human beings is to work to glorify God by living to love with Jesus. That purpose never perishes, can’t be taken from us, and will sustain us forever.Second, pursuing glorifying God by living to love with Jesus endures to eternal life. In fact, it is eternal life. Knowing the Father and the Son is eternal life (John 17:3). Loving with Jesus is how we know Him. The only way we can love with Him is to abide in Him, be discipled by Him, live out of His fullness. That’s eating the True Bread. He gives us eternal life, Himself, who is ours forever.Third, Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, His favorite title for Himself. The title communicated that He was the Messiah. The One sent from God to be the Savior of the world. Our confidence in Jesus as the Son of God, the Son of Man, is the Father’s validation or seal that He set upon Jesus. Although the works of God that Jesus did were the Father’s witness to Jesus’ Sonship, there were three times recorded in the gospels where God “set His seal” on Him.Matthew 3:17 “and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.’”Matthew 17:5 “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!’”John 12:28 “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” If you have not believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the authorized giver of eternal life, then please consider what Jesus said in this verse. You’re wasting your life working for food that perishes. He said He is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to the Father in John 14:6, which echoes this same truth here in John 6:27. You need eternal life! Temporal earthly life is just that—temporal. You’ll lose it someday. The crowd following Jesus didn’t get who He was and what He had to give. Do you? I hope you’ll tune in regularly to the Live to Love Scripture Encouragement podcast the next several days as we draw eternal life encouragements from John 6. I’m inviting you to rethink your purpose in life. You were made to glorify God and the only way for God to receive glory through your life is by living to love with Jesus instead of living for yourself, for your own glory. Jesus said that it’s impossible to believe in Jesus if you seek glory for yourself from men. Their setting their seal of approval on you, means nothing. You receive it, and it is gone. It perishes. But if you live out of the life of Christ, God will set His eternal seal of approval to your work because it is united with Him, upon whom He has already set His seal. That confidence is assuring, encouraging, and enduring. Won’t you surrender your life to Him today and work for the food that does not perish?
John 6:22-26 “The next day, the crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there, except one, and that Jesus had not entered with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples had gone away alone. There came other small boats from Tiberias, near to the place where they ate the bread, after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.”A few days ago, we mentioned the discernment that is necessary as we live to love with Jesus. There may be people who expect others to do what they want. They will use those who love because of the benefit they gain. We are reminded from these verses today that we need Jesus’ discernment. He knew they intended to make Him king by force (vs. 15), and He revealed their motives for their benefit. As we love people, we must be careful that we don’t serve people because we want to please them and want their good opinion of us or their friendship. Our one motive in life is to glorify God, to seek His good opinion or pleasure. The way we glorify God is by abiding in Christ and loving with Him. Jesus said that explicitly in John 15:7-8. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” We don’t produce the fruit, Jesus does. He’s the vine, and we are the branches. We display His fruit, which is love, the fruit of the Spirit. By this is our Father glorified through His Son. Abiding in the Father, Jesus confronted the crowd who wished to make Him king. We can draw another important lesson from these verses. We need to check our own motives in our relationship with Jesus. Do we seek Him for the benefits we enjoy? Are we seeking the blessing rather than the blesser? This is easy to do because we receive grace upon grace from Him. He fills us with His goodness, grace, and love. We have the joy of meaningful relationships in the body of Christ. If we are focused on God being glorified in Christ, we will be protected from selfish motives. Living to love with Jesus for the glory of God keeps us in God’s will and blessing. Enjoy this day, recognizing Jesus is your king, your life, and your way to glorifying the Father with your life. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:20-21, “But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.Once the disciples knew it was Jesus, and heard Him say, “Don’t be afraid,” they overcame their fear and welcomed Him into the boat. Although He didn’t say, “I’m here with you,” that was the effect of His words. When we are being tossed to and fro by the storm winds of life, feel the terror of being out of control and imagining things we can’t explain and that make no sense, and are enveloped in darkness, Jesus’ words of comfort are, “I am with you; don’t be afraid.” This is our confidence as we live to love with Jesus in all circumstances.I’m reminded of many times when God’s people were in dire straits and God spoke these words of comfort and encouragement.Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” Jeremiah 1:8 “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the LORD.Matthew 17:7 And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” Hebrews 13:5-6 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,” so that we confidently say, “THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?”In the moment that they knew it was Jesus with them, their fear turned to comfort and their long, arduous night of rowing in the storm ended. Once He got in the boat, John said they were immediately at the shore in Capernaum. Our confidence as we walk through each day to love whoever God puts in our paths in whatever circumstances He orchestrates is that He is with us to help us. He’s in our boat, we are brought through the storm, and that’s what mattered. It’s interesting that John didn’t record any conversation between the disciples and Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I would like to know what Jesus had to say to them. However, apparently what John wanted to communicate was that once Jesus was with them, the storm had served its purpose and so had His midnight hike on the sea. We are meant to be encouraged by this one great reality: Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God who gives life to all who believe. Those who have Him in their boat don’t need to be afraid, and can be assured that they will arrive at their final destination safely. So be it!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:16-19 Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened.What an interesting and memorable scene. Matthew, Mark, and John all record events of this night on the Sea of Galilee. The boat was large enough for 13 people. It was between 3 and 6 a.m. and dark, so their visibility was limited. The sea was choppy due to a strong wind. The disciples had strained at the oars for hours. Jesus walked on the water toward the boat. Certainly unexpected. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know the comments of the disciples once one of them saw Jesus? Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts inform us that they were frightened, terrified, when they saw a form walking on the sea. They didn’t immediately recognize who it was. Both accounts said the disciples exclaimed, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear.”Matthew records that once Peter heard Jesus, he asked Jesus to command him to come to him on the water, which Jesus did. It seems the distraction of the waves occurred once Peter got to Jesus. When he started to sink and called out to Jesus to save him, Jesus took hold of him, and they walked to the boat together. Yes, Jesus rebuked Peter for having little faith, but hey, he did walk on water to Jesus and then with Him back to the boat. I’m impressed, aren’t you?So here are my questions. Why did the Father do this? Why have His Son walk the 3 or 4 miles on choppy waters in the middle of the night when He needed to be resting up for another day of ministry? Jesus certainly could have gotten a good night’s sleep and waited until morning, when He could have made the trip in another boat or have walked in daylight along the shoreline. In Mark 6:48, Mark wrote that Jesus intended to walk past them. Why didn’t Jesus do that? Why did He go near the boat at all if He intended to meet them in Capernaum? That would have been easy to do. How far could they see on a dark, windy night? Maybe 10 or 15 yards? So what’s with going on a four-mile walk on the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the night? Furthermore, why did John leave out Peter’s walk on the water with Jesus?The reason for all of it was clearly stated by John in 20:31. It’s so we might read this and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that we might have life in His name. For John’s purpose, what mattered wasn’t if Peter walked on the water, but that Jesus loved them so much that He provided undeniable proof that He is the Son of God. In fact, in Matthew’s account, those who were in the boat worshiped Him saying, “You are certainly God’s Son” (Matt. 14:33). That was the conclusion drawn by the experience on the sea of Galilee that night. But I don’t want us to miss Peter’s encounter with Jesus on the sea.I have a couple of questions for you. First, are you convinced that Jesus is the Son of God? It’s impossible to love with God’s love without believing Jesus is God’s Son. To believe He is the Son is to believe the whole of creation belongs to Him and that He is the sovereign Lord of all things and everybody.
John 6:15 So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.There are some liabilities that come with loving with Jesus. One of them is that of being used by others who want what you can do for them. Like some in this crowd of Jesus-followers, they may be forceful in their attempts to control and get what they want. Jesus’ response was not to acquiesce to their demands, but rather to distance Himself from them. Perceiving that they intended to forcefully make Him king, He went further up the mountain and away from their influence.My guess is that all of us have been deceived and manipulated by someone who interpreted our love, kindness, and generosity as a weakness to be exploited. If the love, kindness, and generosity is indeed from Jesus, then they will be disappointed when they can’t get what they want. However, the danger we face is when we are confused or deceived ourselves and misinterpret the need for approval from men, which can motivate kindness and generosity, as love. When we seek the glory and approval of men, we are not loving God or others. It’s a kind of self-love, which can be manipulated by others. Because Jesus sought the glory of God and not men, He knew to avoid people who were self-motivated. As we abide in Christ and love with Him, there may be times when we also discern that we need to avoid such people.Jesus has been tempted in every way that we have, and has not sinned. As we abide in Christ, we can be encouraged that He will give us the discernment we need as we relate to people that God puts in our paths. Everyone God puts in our paths is to be loved, but that doesn’t mean we live to please them. They may be placed in our paths as tests so we may glorify the Father by seeking only His will. The encouragement today is to be discerning. May we walk today with Jesus, abiding in Him, seeking the glory of God, filled with His discernment and love. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:14 Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”So far in John, Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, and now the crowd in Galilee recognize Jesus is sent from God into the world as a prophet because of the signs He performed or the authority with which He spoke. We will see this repeated in later verses. But when I read this verse, I was struck by Jesus’ greatest sign to Israel that He is THE prophet who is come into the world and has authority over life and death. The sign Jesus performed for the world to see that should absolutely give us unshakable courage and confidence as we live to love with Jesus is prophesied in John 2:18-22.The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Romans, and the Jews were gathered together against Jesus as the Scripture says in Acts 4:28, “to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.” Jesus prophesied the sign. Then God performed the first phase of the sign as Pilate condemned Him and His body was destroyed in a few hours by whip and crucifixion. Then three days later, Jesus raised that body to life. Notice, Jesus said, “I will raise it up.” The one who can create bread for 15,000 can create life in His own dead body. That sign is the first in a series of signs where He creates His own life in our dead bodies. Our living to love with Jesus is a sign to the world that Jesus is the Prophet of God sent for the salvation of the world. We embody His greatest prophetic sign because when He died, we died to our lives in this world. When He was raised, we were raised with Him to live with Him forever. In this world, we live with Him to reveal His love and the power of His presence. The reason for this podcast is to plant that seed in the hearts of God’s people so that it will grow into a movement of His love in this world. The world is looking for signs that give their lives meaning and purpose. Most don’t even know they are longing for a savior, but do know they are longing for love. Our purpose is to help them identify their longing for love and connect it to Jesus, their savior. Did you get it? That occurs as we live to love with Jesus. Love is the sign God has given us to perform in this world.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:12-13 When they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.” So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.They were filled. They ate until they could eat no more or were satisfied. That’s usually what we mean after eating, and we say, “I’m full.” The point I want to drive home today is that when Jesus spiritually feeds His people, He feeds them until they are filled with His love and grace. John wrote in chapter 1:16, “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” In Ephesians 5:18, Paul wrote, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” To say it in the terms of these verses in John 6, “Eat and drink of the Spirit until you are full.” You don’t need to be afraid that He’ll run out of food or drink. There will be some left over for you to give to others.Jesus gave His disciples confidence to ask to be filled three times in His last instructions. John 14:12-14, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 16:23, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.” There are many other verses of Scripture to which we could turn for us to be encouraged to ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit.I ask for the anointing and filling of the Holy Spirit in my daily morning live to love with Jesus prayer. “Father, anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I can love and trust You and love those You put in my path today, for Your glory.” We can only love with Jesus out of His fullness. May we abide in Jesus until we are full and don’t feel like we can take anymore! When the disciples gathered the leftovers, each came back with a basket of bread. Jesus was intent on nothing being lost, so we may suppose that the leftover bread was given away to others. When we abide in Jesus until we can’t take more, that’s when we’ll find there are leftovers to give away to others. When we are filled with the grace of God, it will spill over to others. That’s how He’s glorified. God is glorified in the fullness. Had the people still gone home hungry, the glory of God would be diminished. He is glorified in the overflow, the leftovers, so to speak. So today, let’s be encouraged to not be satisfied with a little of Jesus. Let us eat of His fullness until we are filled to overflow with His love and grace. Out of His abundance, we will then have what we need to feed others for the glory of the Father through Jesus Christ, His Son—our daily bread.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:10-11 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted.What an amazing act of hospitality and generosity to feed approximately 15,000 people as much as they wanted. It is also a fitting picture of the incredible generosity and fullness Jesus offers to us. He is going to tell them that He is the living bread, of which the material bread is a type. We’ll talk more about that in the days to come, but today, let’s be encouraged that God offers us in Christ as much as we want of Him. He gives Himself, totally, fully. In living to love with Jesus, we have everything we need to love for the glory of God. Jesus told His disciples they could ask with confidence for the grace to love and be fruitful for God’s glory. It’s recorded in John 14 and 15. Because Jesus had just commanded His disciples to love as He loves and believe He is God, I take the following verses to pray to be encouragements to pray for that grace to love and do what He commands. John 14:13-14. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Then again in John 15:7-8. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” He offers us as much of Himself as we want in order for us to be fruitful for God’s glory. We may have the same expectancy the crowd had on that day as they sat down to eat from His hand. They ate as much as they wanted, and so may we. So, today, I encourage you not to just taste of Jesus. Don’t just nibble on the food at the table. Eat your fill! Our Father is generous with His Son, and if He’s given us His Son, will He withhold anything from us? I close with Romans 8:32. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” We live to love with Jesus out of His fullness. Thank you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for your generosity to us and the promise we have of grace when we need it.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:7-9 Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.” One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”John chose to record this miracle because it was a public, impossible to deny, pivotal event in Jesus’ ministry. The Jews in Jerusalem had rejected Jesus, but the Jews in Galilee wanted to make Him king, but for the wrong reason: material comfort and gain. This lesson is important for us for many reasons. First, the magnificence of the miracle was the Father’s testimony regarding His Son. This was an unparalleled act of love for the crowd. When Jesus asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” Everyone knows the answer to that question. There’s no place that has that much bread (assuming 5000 men with one wife and child accompanying them, with each eating 1/3 of a loaf, that’s 5000 loaves of bread or about 1 and 1/2 semi-tractor trailer loads). And if there were a place that had that much bread, it was unaffordable. It would take around 6–8 months of normal wages to pay for it all. Perhaps 200 denarii was what they had, but Philip said that was insufficient. So feeding 15,000 people was quite a generous expression of God’s love and provision. This encourages us to be generous in our hospitality, looking to God for His supply.Second, we can be encouraged by Andrew’s faith. Would you offer as an answer to this problem a boy’s lunch of 5 loaves of bread and two fish? That seems incredulous unless you figure in faith. We aren’t told why Andrew mentioned the boy’s lunch, but it is possible that Andrew believed Jesus could do something big with such a little thing. And if that’s the case, I pray, “Lord, make us more like Andrew!” We are encouraged that Jesus can take whatever we have to give to Him, and He will use it for the glory of God. That’s exactly the attitude we should have as we live to love with Jesus. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:3-6 Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. Therefore, Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do.Jesus and His disciples went up on the mountain just north of the hometown of Andrew, Peter, and Philip. He may have chosen that location because He was thinking of where 15,000 people could sit and listen. He knew they were following Him, and knew why—they were seeking Him as a material, political savior and provider. The timing of this event was significant, it was during a time of preparation for the Passover, which was preceded by 30 days of solemn consideration of the significance of the event. Perhaps that’s why Jesus and His disciples were retreating, but unsuccessfully, as the horde of Galileans ascended the hill. Jesus received the crowd as if the Father had sent them to His house. He was obligated to provide refreshment. It was the hospitable thing to do in their middle eastern culture, so He passed the responsibility over to Philip, as a test of his faith. Jesus knew He was going to do a miracle of provision for them. This is where we draw our live to love encouragement for today.Jesus always knows what He intends to do in and through our lives in every situation that is given to Him by the Father. In this case, the Father put around 15,000 hungry, expectant people in Jesus’ path. In our cases, we may find ourselves facing impossible situations where there are no apparent, sufficient resources. It’s a test! The situation given to Jesus in us will become a test for us. Will we respond to the situation from a secular, natural worldview or from Jesus’ position of trust? Remember, Jesus is our life!If we have adopted God’s purpose for us, which is to glorify Him by living to love with Jesus, we will pause and filter the situation through Jesus’ three foundational worldview truths. 1). There’s only one God from whom are all things, and He is love. 2). Our souls are satisfied with God’s love and will, revealed in Jesus’ love with and in us. 3). God’s purpose for this situation is to reveal the life of Christ in us and prepare us for glory. That’s how Jesus viewed the situation on the mountain, and He passed the test on to Philip. He did so with a question, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” We will see Philip’s answer in the next verse, but for now, we know that the situation is impossible from a natural perspective. Have you ever been in such a predicament, an impossible situation with inadequate resources or abilities? I’m sure you have been in, may presently be in, or will be in such a situation. I encourage you to memorize these three worldview perspectives, and apply them to your situation. You are not alone. You have Jesus dwelling with and in you. Expect God to glorify His Son in you as you trust in Him to reveal His life and power in your life.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 6:1-2 After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick.As we continue our study in the book of John and enter into chapter 6, we notice there’s a change of context, but let’s not miss John’s overall purpose in writing this gospel account. He wrote these things, so his readers might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing they might have life in His name (John 20:31). There is a change of location for Jesus in this chapter, but it’s not a long distance, perhaps less than five miles. Bethsaida is located on the northeast of the Sea of Galilee, home to Peter, Andrew, and Phillip. The area was a grassy area and apparently a good place for Jesus and His disciples to “get away.” However, they were unsuccessful. A large crowd from Capernaum walked the four or five miles to find Him because of the signs which they had seen Him do.I’m encouraged by this from these verses. The Father led Jesus to this place to set the stage for another display of His glory, the miraculous feeding of 15,000 people, counting women and children. We can be encouraged by this great reality. Our Father is always going before us, setting the stage for Jesus to display His glory. As we live to love with Jesus, we have confidence that nothing is random. Where we go today is necessary for what God wants to do through His Son in our lives. Who we meet is also arranged by the Father. Why they are in our paths may depend on a thousand small acts of God, both passive and active. Let’s thank God, our Father, for going ahead of us today. “Father, thank You for guiding our paths and for orchestrating the circumstances and encounters we have today with people. Prepare us for loving with Jesus by keeping us abiding in Him and being filled with the Holy Spirit. Give us faith to trust You as things happen today, and keep us mindful that You are at work and desire to bear fruit in our lives through Your Son, Jesus. We love you, and consider it a privilege to be called and empowered to live to love with You and Him. Magnify Your name in us today. Amen.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 5:45-47 Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”When did Moses write about Jesus? Everything about the tabernacle spoke about Jesus. He is the substance underlying the shadows of the tabernacle, the table of show bread, the lamp stand, the incense, the offerings, the priests, and the Sabbath festivals. We could go on and on. Jesus said the Jews did not believe Moses and therefore can not believe Him. Jesus’ point was that Moses, the one in whom they set their hope, will accuse them for not believing Jesus’ words. Implied is that one who believes Moses is on the right path to believing Jesus. However, we don’t believe Jesus because of the witness of man. As He said earlier, He did not need man to witness for Him. He had the witness of the Father. We who have set our hope in Jesus may receive great encouragement from these verses. There may have been a time when we set our hope in keeping the Law, but we discovered there was no hope in keeping the Law of Moses. The Law could not effectually deal with our sin and make us righteous. We have believed Jesus’ words that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and God’s provision to bring us to God. So Moses will not condemn us, nor will Jesus. We have set our hope in Jesus.Let me remind you of Jesus’ words that we believe. We believe Jesus when He commanded us to love one another with His love (John 13:34) and believe that He is the Son of God (John 14:1). We believe He is the resurrection and the life, and whoever believes in Him will never die (John 11:25). We believe His promise to give us the Holy Spirit, who is a witness to us from God that Jesus is in the Father, we are in Jesus, and He is in us. (John 14:20). We believe He will return and establish a new heaven and earth, where we will dwell with Him in righteousness (Rev. 21:1-5). Everyone and everything will be lovely! As we live to love with Jesus for the glory of God, we live with a wonderful hope. Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:31-32 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."In verses 31-38, John let us in on the conversation he and the rest of the disciples had with Jesus while those from the city were on their way to the well. The disciples had returned from the city with the food they went to purchase (vs. 8). Apparently, they were just ahead of the men whom the woman had told about Jesus. They were concerned that Jesus get sustenance for the rest of the journey. Although it isn’t mentioned in the text that Jesus either drank or ate, more than likely, He did. But physical water and food wasn’t foremost in Jesus’ mind; His relationship with His Father was, and John picked up on that for sure.It’s always interesting to me to look at Jesus’ words and actions through the lens of His relationship with His Father. We know from John 14:9-10 that Jesus is the revelation of the Father. We know that His worldview is that everything that happens comes from His Father with the purpose of making the Father known. So when the disciples say, “Rabbi, eat.” We are to view Jesus’ response with what the Father gave Him. Just like with the woman, Jesus redirected their worldly focus, in this case food, to the spiritual focus of being satisfied in doing the Father’s will. We are watching what worshiping the Father in spirit and truth looks like. We are seeing Jesus abide in the Father as He lives to love with His Father.We can be encouraged in our living to love with Jesus by following His example. First, receive everything that happens as from the Father. Second, seek your deepest satisfaction in Jesus’ love and doing His will. Third, realize that God’s purpose in everything that happens in your life is to reveal the living, Lord Jesus Christ, for the glory of God through the Son. The disciples didn’t know of this food at the time of this encounter at the well, but we do know that Jesus’ food was to do the Father’s will, which we will see in the next two verses. I hope you’ll be encouraged in your living to love with Jesus by remembering these three foundational worldview truths that guided His life. He lives in you. He still has the same purpose of revealing the Father, for His glory, in and through your life. If Jesus is your life, and His food is to do the will of the Father, then you also will be sustained and strengthened as you do the will of the Father, which is to make Jesus first place in your life (Col. 1:18). Your purpose is to reveal Jesus as you live to love with Him. No one can take that food away from you. You can live in the fullness of Christ as you think like He thinks and abide in Him for the glory of God. Living to love with Jesus is our true food.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 5:18 For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.The Jews understood exactly what Jesus was saying. His Father is God, and He is equal with God. But they didn’t believe it. It angered them and fueled their murderous hearts. It was bad enough that He broke the Sabbath, but it was blasphemous to make Himself equal with God. Jesus knew who He is. He is God. Jesus is the only human being of which this is true in the history of the world. He is like no other. The writer of Hebrews described Jesus as “the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.”However, we are not to think that Jesus is the Father. He is God’s only-begotten, or unique, son, as John recorded in John 3:16. Jesus said in Matthew 11:27, “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” This shows clearly that the Father and Son are both God, and yet they are separate beings, working together. For our encouragement today, let’s connect some dots, so to speak. Jesus is God, and God is love. Because we have all of God dwelling in us, we have the fullness of God from which His love flows. Living to love with Jesus is how I describe those who have the God of love dwelling inside them. Through the new birth by the Holy Spirit, the presence of Jesus Christ comes to abide in those who love Jesus. Because they love Jesus, the Father also abides in them. Jesus promised this in His last words to His disciples before going to His Father by way of the cross. John 14:23. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”Why do the Father, Son, and Spirit live within us? To glorify God by revealing His presence and power as we live to love with Him. We reveal that Jesus lives and that He is both Lord and Christ. What a privilege it is to be His ambassadors of love, His representatives on the earth. May God fill us with His grace today as we walk with Him, abiding in Him, and He in us. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Here we have Jesus’ answer to the Jews who were persecuting Him for healing on the Sabbath. John 5:17 But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”Later in John 14:10-11, John recorded very similar words from Jesus explaining His union with His Father and His Father’s working. “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.” Jesus lived to work with the Father. If His Father was healing on the Sabbath, then Jesus spoke the words. Did you notice in John 14:10 that when Jesus spoke, the Father worked? That’s how the lame man was healed. Jesus spoke, not from His own initiative, but from His Father’s, “Get up. Take up your pallet and walk.” Then God did His work and healed the man. Jesus constantly abided in the Father, meaning, He lived for the same purpose the Father did, which was to love for the glory of the Father, and He thought and spoke as the Father thought and spoke. This is the live to love with Jesus encouragement from this verse. We should be able to say the very same thing. We have Jesus abiding in us, and as we abide in Him, meaning, as we live with His purpose and think and say what He says, then Jesus does His works. If Jesus is speaking or working in any given moment, then we receive what He gives us and express His presence and power through our words and actions. We trust He will do the work as we receive and give. That’s what it means to live to love with Jesus. Just as Jesus received from the Father and then gave what He received, we receive what the Father gives us through Christ in us and then give what we receive.Another important encouragement from this verse is implied. Jesus lived for the glory of God and not man. Even though Jesus knew He would not receive the glory from men if He healed the man on the Sabbath, He was most satisfied in glorifying His Father by doing His will. This encourages us to not seek the glory of men as we live each day, rather we seek the glory of God, and the way to glorify God is to live to love with Jesus. When Jesus is loving, we are loving. When we are loving, Jesus is loving. We are one with Him for the glory of God.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 5:14-16 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.The lame man probably had not participated in a feast for 38 years. He could not have entered the temple in his condition, but now that he was healed, he headed for the temple to join the celebration. That’s where Jesus found him. Let’s notice Jesus’ love for the man and the man’s betrayal of Jesus. Jesus loved the man enough to go looking for him. Jesus found him in the temple, which implies He went looking for him. He had a message for him that provided an opportunity for the man to engage with Jesus regarding his deeper need for healing—the salvation of his soul. The opportunity was provided by telling him his responsibility before God—do not sin anymore. Let’s not miss this. He told him to do the impossible from a natural human perspective. The love of God was revealed by Jesus’ admonition to not sin anymore. If the Spirit of God was at work, the man would have responded with a confession of sin and a brokenness that comes from an awareness of helplessness. Faith in Jesus can only come when a person realizes they must repent of trusting in themselves. In a real sense, Jesus knocked on his door, to see if the Holy Spirit would answer. This, by the way, is the love of God. The Law is meant to reveal the power of sin and our helpless condition so that we might repent of trusting in ourselves, humble ourselves, and call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. That’s how the Law is. It is spiritual (Rom. 7:15) and has the power to reveal whether the flesh or the Spirit is at work. That’s the message of Romans 7.Unfortunately for this man, the Spirit was not at work. Instead, this time having learned Jesus’ name, he went away to tell the Jews who had healed him and broken the Sabbath. He betrayed Jesus to the Jews. He returned evil for good, which demonstrated an amazing hardness of heart. It was clear that the Father wasn’t saving the man at that time. Let’s not miss this example of God’s love being poured out to His enemies. Jesus healed the man, not because the man was one that the Father had given Him to save, but one the Father had given Him to love. Jesus lived to love with His Father, and the Father loved even if it resulted in suffering. There are times when Jesus avoided these conflicts, but this is one time when He didn’t. We will be faced with the same situations. We must abide in Jesus, so we can have the wisdom to know when to draw back and when to engage. Both can be acts of love when guided by the Holy Spirit. Our encouragement today is to love with Jesus, even when doing so may bring suffering and persecution. When we love like that, it is for the glory of God. God is glorified through His Son, as He loves His enemies through us. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 5:12-13 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.I ask myself how on earth did that man not know who healed him? If I apply the information I have in these verses, I can imagine a scenario where the man never got Jesus’ name. There were no words of introduction. The portico around the pool was packed with people because of the feast (5:1). Jesus saw the man and asked if he wanted to be healed. The man gave his excuse for not being able to get to the pool, and then Jesus said, “Get up. Pick up your pallet and walk.” The man got up and started walking, and as soon as the man walked away from Jesus, He slipped away through the crowd. I see the man turn back in amazement to thank Jesus, but He’s already gone. Why did Jesus slip away so quickly that the man couldn’t even thank Him or get His name? Was that loving? I think the explanation lies in why John told this story. In John 20:31, we learn that these things were written so that those who read it might believe in Jesus and be saved. If we go back to John 3:14-21, we get the introduction to the encounters of the Samaritan woman, the men of Sychar, the royal official and the healing of his son, and now the lame man’s healing. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.These are examples of God’s love for the Gentile world as well as Israel. Each encounter revealed God’s judgment, which is shown by their responses. Jesus is the Light. His deeds and words revealed where God was at work to save and to judge. The unbelieving Jews played an important part in Jesus being lifted up, so we would have a savior. The healing on the Sabbath, the willful blindness of the Jews, and the hardness of the healed lame man are necessary to the gospel story and exemplify what John said about Jesus. They show us that God had given all things into Jesus’ hand so we might believe in Him.One thing for sure was that Jesus didn’t need or want notoriety or glory from man. He wasn’t doing these things for a show. So let’s be encouraged today as we love with Jesus to make as little of ourselves as possible, and as much as we can of Jesus. That’s what Jesus did. He made much of His Father by entrusting what He did to His Father, and made little of Himself. He humbled Himself as a servant of His Father. May we be filled with the humility of Jesus and make much of Him and little of ourselves.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 5:9-11 Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day. So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’”Jesus, knowing the laws of the Sabbath, told the man to pick up his pallet and walk. Upon hearing those words, the man was healed. The miracle itself revealed that God is merciful and has the power to heal. More than likely the man knew the Sabbath laws also, but as soon as his legs were strengthened, he obeyed Jesus. The man concluded that if Jesus could heal him with a word, then He also had authority over the Sabbath. In fact, we see that he used that argument with the Jewish Sabbath police. There is no record that Jesus called him to repent or revealed anything to him about God, other than that God is merciful and speaks with authority. Curing the man after 38 years of suffering was definitely a great kindness. I’m reminded of Romans 2:4. “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” It appears that the man thought lightly of Jesus’ kindness. There’s no record of gratitude. He didn’t even get Jesus’ name because Jesus slipped away so quickly. Both are indications of extreme self-centeredness. I draw three encouragements from these verses. The first one is that living to love with Jesus is often expressed in deeds of mercy and kindness rather than through words. Kindness is one expression of love mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 as the fruit of the Spirit. God can use our kindness to lead people to repentance. It doesn’t always happen, but we know from God’s word that it is how He works. So let’s look for ways to express kindness to all God puts in our paths.Second, as we love people, we do it for the glory of God and not for our own significance. Jesus wasn’t trying to be noticed, although, how could He not be? Certainly, this miracle was noticed and talked about all over Jerusalem, and during a feast time, at that, when the city was teeming with worshipers. We don’t love so that we will be thought well of or thanked. We love for the glory of God, and leave the results up to Him. Third, as we live to love, God is working out His will on earth as it is in heaven. The fact that it was a Sabbath upon which Jesus healed the man was used by God to further alienate the Jewish leaders from Jesus. It added another reason for them to plot for His murder, which was necessary for the redemption of God’s people. Jesus was commanded by God to lay down His life for God’s children, and this miracle on the Sabbath was one act of obedience in laying down His life. Sometimes, we are going to be faced with situations where to love or be kind is going to annoy or anger someone who doesn’t love us. Our kindness will make them feel guilty because they don’t want to love us. In those cases, we can expect them to twist the truth, sabotage our efforts to love, and use it against us. Jesus told his disciples later that if people hate Him, they will hate those who follow Him. But we should not let that discourage us from loving our enemies. We are to love everyone God puts in our paths, even if they don’t like it. So let us remember to look for ways to show God’s mercy and kindness for the glory of God, and trust Him to accomplish His will on earth as it is in heaven. We love with Jesus, no matter what.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus.
John 5:7-8 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”We have recorded here the sick man’s reply to Jesus’ question, “Do you wish to get well?” His answer? He wanted to be healed, but someone else always beat him to the pool because of his disability. This shows us that the man didn’t think there was any other way to be healed than to be the first one into the pool when it was stirred by the angel of the Lord. That was about to change.I notice that there was no indication that the man believed in Jesus, and as we will see in the following verses, there’s no indication that he ever did. In fact, even after being warned by Jesus not to sin, he sided with the Pharisees and ratted on Jesus. So what was the purpose of God in this healing?First, we see God’s mercy, even toward His enemies. Matthew 5:43-48 reveals the love of the Father for His enemies. This is a passage in the Sermon on the Mount. You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. God was merciful to this man who was in desperate need of healing. His suffering had been long-term, and agonizing. This encourages us that we too may show mercy to those who are undeserving as an expression of God’s love and as a testimony of His glorious grace.A second purpose for healing the sick man was to fuel the fire of the Pharisees’ hatred of Jesus. In John’s gospel, he shows the development of this hatred, which increased with every miracle Jesus did, especially when performed on the Sabbath, like this one. This was God’s plan according to Acts 4:27-28. “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.” This miracle was necessary in the grand scheme of redemption.A third purpose then behind this miracle is a judgment against the sick man and the Pharisees. You would think the sick man would respond with great gratefulness and allegiance to Christ. In fact, you would think anyone seeing the healing would rejoice and marvel at it. Shouldn’t it cause the healed man and the Pharisees to believe in Jesus? No, it does not, which reveals the hardness of heart and animosity toward God. They are judged by the miracle. What can we learn from these verses? If God puts an enemy in our paths or someone who has endured long-term suffering, let’s be in tune with how Jesus wants us to love them. We are not to base the expression of love and mercy upon how we think they might respond. God is glorified in the act of mercy, whether there is a positive or grateful response or not. Also, when people do not respond to the love of Christ through us, pray for them. They have been judged by God, and their need for forgiveness and mercy has become obvious. God intends for us to understand their need better, so we might intercede for them more.
John 5:1-6 After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.] A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, "Do you wish to get well?"This seems like a strange question to ask someone who has been afflicted for 38 years, if he wishes to get well. However, there are some significant issues at stake. He has probably made his living by begging, if he is healed, then his means of income will change. He will have to find a job and go to work. If before he was afflicted he had no marketable skills, then if healed, he will have to start at the bottom and work his way up. It is possible that he might have to take a cut in his income if healed. Furthermore, he would have to break into an entirely new social circle. That wouldn’t be comfortable or easy. So perhaps the question is relevant after all. In Hebrew, Bethesda, means "house of mercy." Jesus is going to perform an incredible act of mercy for this man. Jesus knew he had been there a long time. He probably had seen him several times before, when He had been in Jerusalem for other feasts. We may assume that Jesus was led by the Father to walk through the Bethesda porticos. Why did He pick this man? He knew the man had been there a long time. John tells us it was because of mercy.D. Martin Lloyd-Jones differentiated grace from mercy. "Grace is especially associated with men in their sins; mercy is especially associated with men in their misery. While grace looks down upon sin as a whole, mercy looks, especially, upon the miserable consequences of sin. Mercy really means a sense of pity, plus a desire to relieve the suffering. That is the essential meaning of being merciful; it is pity plus action." Here’s a helpful definition of pity: sympathetic or kindly sorrow evoked by the suffering, distress, or misfortune of another leading one to give relief or aid or to show mercy. As we live to love with Jesus, there will be times when we see the suffering of people and will be led to give relief or aid. Perhaps today, someone like that will cross our paths. Let’s not be surprised if Jesus brings them to our attention, and may we not be afraid to engage them in conversation. One of the best ways to engage them is with questions so we can learn how we may express the love and mercy of Christ. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:51-54 As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. So, he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, “Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.” So, the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives”; and he himself believed, and his whole household. This is, again, a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.On the way home, some of the royal official’s slaves met him, to give the good news that his son had survived the illness and was out of the woods, so to speak. Of course, the official was curious about the timing of the turn around. When they told him that it was at 1 p.m., the same time Jesus had said, “Your son lives,” it’s not hard to imagine the impact. We don’t know what happened on the rest of the journey home, but once he got home and shared what happened, not only did the official believe in Jesus, but so did the whole household—family and slaves.The encouragement these verses have for us today is that when we love one person in Jesus’ name, we are probably introducing an entire network to Him. As we love and share Christ with a serviceman who comes to repair an AC unit, the ripple effect may extend to family, friends, and work associates. For example, as I spoke briefly to our waitress at a restaurant and asked how I could pray for her, she immediately told me about her mom who had just been diagnosed with cancer. She also told us she was going to be moving to go to a university in the state. As I’m thinking about her, I realize Jesus could put hundreds of people in her path in the next year, and if God causes the seeds planted to bear fruit, there’s no telling what the impact of a few minutes of loving with Jesus can have. Think for a moment about your own network and Jesus’ influence in their lives through you. Jesus loves everyone in your life that you love when you live with Him. We ask for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives, so the kingdom can advance in this world. That’s how our Father works. He touches one life with a view toward glorifying His name in many others. So let’s be encouraged by the ripple effect of the love of God.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:49-50 The royal official said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.The faith expressed by the official satisfied Jesus that His Father was working, and word of Christ satisfied the official. He needed no proof, in direct contrast to those Jesus rebuked for needing signs to believe. This man believed with no sign. He only needed the word of Christ.Let’s notice that the faith the man had to return home with no sign or proof of his son’s healing was generated by the word of Christ. At this point, there’s no indication that the man believed Jesus was Lord or the Christ. He believed his son lived. However, we will discover in the next few verses that the official was on his way to a life-changing faith. Hebrews 12:3 describes Jesus as the author and perfecter of faith. This man fixed his eyes, his hope on Jesus, and when Jesus said the son lives, he took Jesus at His word. That’s exactly what Paul said about faith in Romans 10:17. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” As in this case, God often uses storms in life and crises to initiate movement toward His Son. Knowing this encourages us to be alert to those God puts in our paths who are hurting, hungry, thirsty, and in desperate need. To love them well, we point them to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith. We want to lead them into an encounter with Him that will be life-changing. The best way to lead someone to a life-changing encounter with Jesus is to share with them the word of Christ—the promises of God given to us through His Son. John 14:6 comes to mind. Jesus said that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that He alone is the way to the Father. John 11:25-26 is another good one. Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” In times of trouble, Hebrews 4:14-16 is one of my favorite. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.Do you have some favorite verses in your mind ready to share when God puts someone like this official in your path who is desperately in need of help? I hope you’ll collect a few and be prepared to love them with Jesus by sharing His word. You never know how God is working until you give the word of Christ to someone. Paul said the gospel is the power of God for salvation in Romans 1:16. May the Spirit of God prepare us and work through us today as we live to love with Jesus. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.”This is a very interesting reply by Jesus. The “you-people-see” is a third-person singular form, meaning, Jesus isn’t referring to Himself or to the official. He’s referring to someone not in the immediate audience. Then Jesus used the second-person plural when He said, “you will not believe”, referring to the official and those associated with him. Jesus’ reply is a rebuke that we probably all need to hear and consider.In this verse, we see an example of Jesus’ insight regarding man. Jesus knew the hearts of men. John 2:24-25. “But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.” In this case, Jesus exposed what was apparently a common “show me” attitude detected in the official and the Gentiles of Galilee. Here’s a somewhat more contemporary version of this. Missouri is called the “Show Me State” primarily due to a statement made by Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver in 1899, emphasizing the need for proof or evidence. He applied it generally to people in Missouri. That’s what Jesus did when He said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders.” He rebuked the man with a general comment.Now let’s be encouraged not to have this attitude. Have you ever asked God for a sign before you really trusted Him? You know, “God, if you will do this, I will trust You and give my life to You.” or “If you’ll have my husband or wife be more loving, I’ll love him or her with You.” That’s what Jesus picked up in this man’s heart. In contrast, our trust in Jesus should be based on His character and His word. He says, “I will never desert you nor will I ever forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). He promised the Holy Spirit would be with us forever (John 14:16). So as we live to love with Jesus, we step out to love people based on His word to be with us. We should not demand that He prove that He is with us before we obey Him. Our obedience to God reveals that we believe in Him. We seek His help for His glory and trust Him to do what is best for us. There are no strings attached before we believe and trust in Him. We will still trust Him even if He doesn’t do what we so deeply desire or feel that we need to have from Him. With no intent to rebuke my friends in Missouri, let us not tolerate a “show me” attitude in our hearts toward God. May we step out to love God and others in obedience to His word with a confidence in His presence and His promises to us. He will be faithful to love everyone the Father places in our paths. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:46-47 Therefore He came again to Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.Let’s begin today with a few facts. The journey to Cana from Sychar was about 40 miles, or probably 2–3 days. The royal official was probably a Gentile, an official in Herod Antipas’ administration, who was the Tetrarch of Galilee. The distance from Cana to Capernaum was about 20 miles over hill country, a long day’s journey by foot. These facts help us keep things in perspective. Nothing is going to happen fast if everything goes at the normal pace. The situation given by the Father to Jesus was dire. The official’s son was probably at the point of death before the father left for Cana to meet Jesus, so you can imagine the urgency of the official once they met. Having heard that Jesus was in Cana, he believed Jesus was the boy’s only hope of healing. He believed it enough to undertake a 40-mile round trip. Under the circumstances, I think he would have taken the fastest means possible, which would have been horseback. That’s simply conjecture. The apostle John didn’t give us that information.There are a few encouragements I get from these verses. First, God may allow sickness in order to reveal His glory through His Son. The condition of the official’s son was totally in God’s hands. For this story to be in the Bible, the son had to be sick to the point of death. In fact, that had to be true of everyone Jesus healed. So, my takeaway is that regardless of how dire the circumstances are, don’t panic, the situation is necessary for the glory of God. Since my purpose is to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God, it seems wise and faithful to ask, “How does God want to glorify Himself through His Son in this situation that He has given to Him and to me? Then pray, listen, receive, and release into the situation what I’m given. A second encouragement is that God reveals His will by giving faith where He plans to work. Jesus knew where the Father was working by the attitudes and responses of the people God put in His path. I think of 2 Chronicles 16:9 “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.” Where Jesus saw faith at work, He knew His Father was working, so then He worked with His Father. He was living to love with His Father. In this case, the official demonstrated faith. He heard Jesus was in Cana. His son was desperately ill, and there was no other hope. He knew Jesus was a healer and miracle worker. He made the trip to find Jesus to beg Him to come and heal his son because he believed Jesus was capable of healing his son. As we walk with Jesus, there will be times when we face dire circumstances and people with an urgent need. May we be so filled with the Spirit of Christ that we can discern where the Father is working and trust in Him to give us what we need to glorify His name at that time. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:45 So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast.In light of yesterday’s contrast between the Samaritan’s receiving Jesus and the Galilean’s prior rejection of Him, we learn from today’s verse that the Galileans received Him. However, let’s notice why. They had attended the feast in Jerusalem and witnessed the same signs Nicodemus had witnessed. They, too, couldn’t deny that God was with Him, so they received Him. We’re not to think that they believed in Him with saving faith as a result of the signs. We will see in the next chapter that the miracles He performed got Him into more trouble with the Jews, but that didn’t stop Him from loving people God put in His path.I realize there may be many of you listening who work in a hostile environment or have family who consider your values and faith toxic. You’ve found it difficult to navigate those relationships. They receive you into their midst, but they don’t like you or what you stand for. You know you aren’t just imagining their disgust or disdain for you. You see it on their faces, or notice conversation stops when you come near, or you are the constant butt of jokes and snide remarks. My guess is that Jesus experienced the same and expected it, however, His purpose never changed: He lived to love with His Father. He stayed tuned in to His Father as things happened and people crossed His path. Knowing this about Jesus, encourages us to stay tuned in to Him each day in every situation. We want Jesus to be glorified in us, just like Paul wanted Jesus to be glorified in the believers in Thessalonica. He prayed for them and I pray for you, “To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:11-12). Therefore, today, should God lead you into difficult circles, be ready to glorify Jesus by loving with Him those He puts in your paths.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:43-44 After the two days, He went forth from there into Galilee. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.These verses are meant to show us the contrast between how Jesus was received in Samaria and how He was received in Galilee. He was received in Sychar, a city of Gentiles, as a prophet. Remember what the woman said after Jesus revealed that He knew she had five husbands and was living with a guy? “Sir, I perceive that You are a Prophet.” Jesus performed no miracles in Sychar that we know of, and the people wanted Him to stay. He was honored, and in an honor/shame culture, that’s a big deal. They believed Him to be the Savior of the world because of His words. Jesus experienced for a brief time, only two days, the joys of sowing and reaping with His Father. What a blessed and rewarding two days!In contrast, Jesus not only was not honored in Galilee, His own country, but was shamed and cast out. He had lived a perfect life in Galilee for more than 20 years of His life. The manner in which He lived His life, His attitudes, His conduct, His words must have stood out to those who knew Him, but they couldn’t see His glory. When He healed a man with a withered hand, preached the good news in the synagogue, and prophesied, they cast Him out of the city and attempted to kill Him by throwing Him off a cliff. In the next verse we will see how He was received, but for today, let’s learn a couple of important lessons in walking with Jesus.First, there are good times and difficult times in ministry. We must not determine to whom and where we minister on the basis of hoped for results. We are to be faithful wherever He leads us and receive what He gives us with contentment and gratitude. If God gives us a season of sowing and reaping, we are to receive it with great joy, but be ready to move on in obedience to the leading of the Spirit of God. Second, we must not pre-judge people or assume we know how we are going to be received. We learn from this account, that the ones we think might be most receptive to our love will not be, and the ones we think might be the most resistant may not be. Familiarity may breed contempt, or at least blind people from recognizing that they have one sent from God in their midst. It is not always the case, but it still may happen. One may find a much warmer reception in a foreign field than he finds at home in his own family or church. That’s how it was with Jesus, so we should not be surprised. We are to trust the reception of our love and ministry to God and His will. Our responsibility is to be faithful and to trust God for the results. So let this verse encourage us to live to love with Jesus in both good and bad times, content with whatever results or fruit the Lord wills. Let’s simply be faithful, enjoy the blessings of loving with Him, and be thankful for the privilege and honor it is to work in God’s field with Him.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:39-42 From that city, many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”What a wonderful encouragement and truth is revealed in these verses. We see two kinds of faith. There’s the faith that comes from hearing someone’s testimony about Jesus. Then there’s the faith that comes from hearing Jesus, Himself. In chapters 3 and 4, John gave us examples of this truth. The first kind of faith isn’t saving faith. It’s a natural faith, like that of Nicodemus, who came because of the signs Jesus did. The signs are undeniable, so Nicodemus believed He was from God. Likewise, these Samaritans believed in Jesus because they couldn’t deny the testimony of the woman. Paul wrote of the contrast between hearing someone testify about Jesus and one hearing Jesus, Himself, when he wrote to the Romans in chapter ten, verses 16-17. He pointed out that Isaiah, who had been sent by God as a prophet to testify of the good news of the Messiah, wrote that just hearing about the Messiah isn’t enough. Paul wrote, “However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed our report?’” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” That is John’s point in these verses. The faith that comes from hearing the word of Christ by the power of the Spirit is a saving faith. John said, “Many more believed because of His word.” That has been my experience as well. I heard about Jesus from the time I was a little boy. I came to a point at the age of twelve that I could not deny the testimony about Jesus, so I invited Him into my heart. However, there was no change because it wasn’t an encounter with Jesus that happened. It was an encounter with others who testified of Him. I based my initial coming on the testimony of others. But, when at the age of 29, I heard the word of Christ as He told me I was full of pride and revealed the sin that He had seen in me, and then spoke peace to my heart as He revealed that He knew me at the cross, a saving faith came. I no longer believed because of what others said about Jesus, I believed because I had an encounter with the living Jesus Christ, and He revealed Himself and gave Himself to me. So, I totally get what these guys were saying to the woman. Do you?This encourages us that we are not responsible to produce saving faith or to get someone to believe in Jesus. That’s God’s work. We enter into His work, as the disciples did, as we live to love with Jesus, and lead them to an encounter with Him. That’s what the woman did. She said, “Come and see.” or “Go see for yourself.” We are encouraged that God is able to produce fruit for His glory through the power of the word of His Son. We can share our testimonies with confidence that Jesus can speak when we speak. We lead them to Jesus, encouraging them to talk with Him because He knows them and loves them.
John 4:37-38 For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.The food the disciples brought was the fruit of someone else’s labor. Jesus pointed out that fact, so He wanted them to notice that they were entering or coming into their labor. The same thing was about to happen. Arriving at the same time as the crowd from the city was also arriving, they were coming into the labors of Jesus and the woman. His food, doing the will of His Father, was going to become their food. They would reap where they had not labored.As we live to love with Jesus, we will often enter into the work of others who have gone before us. Jesus has already been working in the hearts of people, and He brings them into our paths. They are ripe for the picking, so to speak. They have heard about Jesus. They are looking for someone to tell them more about Him and how they may be saved. God sends us to harvest the fruit for which we have not labored. We simply enter into it, by the grace and sovereign will of God. What a joy that is when that happens! That’s what happened to the disciples that afternoon at the well. More than likely, the disciples baptized them. I get that from 4:1-2. “Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were)…” They now, ever since they began to follow Him, were living to love with Jesus. They lived to enter into His work. That’s what we do every day, as we live to love with Jesus. We live to enter into His work. I love the way Paul put it to the Ephesians. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” As we go through our days, we are coming into His work, being brought into them by the Father, and we work through His life dwelling within us. What a joy it is to enter into the work of God. Sometimes we sow or water or reap. Whatever we do, we do it by the grace of God that He gives us. That’s how the Father glorifies the Son in our lives. We reap the fruit of His labor as we live to love with Him.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:35-36 Do you not say, “There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest”? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already, he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.Jesus continued talking about spiritual agriculture. The food He had been eating had already been harvested by the reapers, and He was enjoying the harvest. To bring the spiritual analogy front and center, He probably pointed to the crowd of men walking from the city, through the fields which were still four months from being ready to harvest. Most would have been dressed in white. The fields, indeed, were white for harvest. Jesus had planted the seeds of eternal life in the woman, who then went and planted the same seeds in the men of the city. Now, God had caused the seeds to take root and bear fruit. The time for fruit gathering had arrived, and that’s when both the sowers and the reapers rejoice together. This is a great description of the experiences of those living to love with Jesus. As God places people in our paths, Jesus loves them through us. Depending on God’s working in the field, we can be both sowers and reapers. Most of the time, I realize I’m planting seeds. Usually, I only have a minute or two with someone who is serving me in a restaurant or place of business. I want to be thoughtful of their time. Since I pray each morning for those whom the Lord is going to put in my path, I can say that I prayed for them, but didn’t know who they were going to be. With them standing in front of me, now I know. So I will then say, that when I prayed, God knew it was going to be them. Then I’ll say, it must be important to you, that you know today, that God knows you and loves you. Depending on how the Lord has them answer, I’ll either plant the seed of knowing God and His love or water seeds that have already been planted. The encouragement today is that it is a joy to both sow and reap. It is God that causes the growth, so there’s no pressure to have to make something happen. We simply can go with the flow that the Father has established for our day, as He establishes the steps of His creatures. Let’s notice, to have that moment of rejoicing, we must participate in the sowing and reaping. When we live to love with Jesus, we will be used of God for His glory and joy. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:33-34 So the disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.The disciples’ response to Jesus about the food He said He had to eat was so similar to Nicodemus and the woman at the well. They didn’t understand and tried to make sense out of what Jesus said from the physical world—normal birth, water, and food. Our first encouragement today might be that when there are things that Jesus says that don’t make sense to us, at least we’re not the only ones. The truth that we are dealing with is that spiritual things cannot be understood by the natural mind, as Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 2:14: “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” To live to love with Jesus, we should know that the mindset and thoughts behind living with Jesus are not going to be natural thoughts. They are not going to make sense to us if we are thinking with our culture or even from our own self-centered perspective about life and relationships. Jesus viewed all of his circumstances and relationships through the eyes of His Father. We must view all of our circumstances and relationships through Jesus’ eyes. It’s the only way we can live with Him. The disciples were still learning this lesson. They were thinking physical food, and Jesus was thinking spiritual food.A second encouragement we can take away from this verse is that if Jesus lives in us and hasn’t changed, then His food is still to do the will of the Father. He is still living to love with His Father. The only change is the means by which He’s doing it. He accomplishes the Father’s work in and through His people. Before His resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit, He worked in His one and only physical body. Ever since then, He has a new body in which to work, and today, He’s eating the food the Father gives Him as He lives to love in us. So, today, let’s eat up! Let’s dine and feast with Jesus and the Father as we do His will—love those the Father brings to us with Jesus. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.In John 3:35 we read, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.” In John 3:27, John the Baptist said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.” In this verse, we should be encouraged of the Father’s love for His Son. The Father used the woman’s testimony to draw a group of men to Jesus. In the previous two verses, we learned that she went into Sychar and shared with the men. These men came out to see if Jesus was the Christ, as she had said.The point I want to make is that these men were given to Jesus by the Father. He received them from His Father in heaven. When Jesus saw them coming, He experienced the love of His Father because He believed this great foundational truth: There is only one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and He is love. The Father was at work.The same is true in our lives if we are living to love with Jesus. Every person who crosses our paths is being given by our Father to Jesus, who lives in us. The Father is still loving His Son like He did that day at the well. Consider how the scope of His love has expanded since He sent His Son to live in the hearts of His people. As we share the love of Christ, the Father draws millions to His Son. It’s happening all over the world simultaneously. Today, the Father will probably give His Son in you, some people to love. As we relate to them, we are entering into the work of the Father and the Son. More than likely, it will first be people with whom we are most familiar, our family members, then probably people at work and in the communities in which we live. This verse encourages us to be alert and ready to love the Father and them with Jesus. Here they come!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:28-29 So the woman left her water pot, and went into the city and said to the men, "Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?"The Samaritan woman came to the well to fill her water pot, but left with her soul filled with living water. Once she had heard that Jesus was the Christ, filling the water pot was irrelevant. She left it. Have we left our water pots?The water pot represented the means by which the woman collected something she thought she needed from the world. She needed water, and the water pot allowed her to have temporary access to what she needed but would never fully satisfy. The pot had to be filled repeatedly. We all have had our water pots. The woman used men like she used water pots. Men can use women in the same way. We have electronic devices which store up information and provide access to temporary satisfaction from the well of the world. We go to the well of the world, download what we think will satisfy our desires, and drink until we need or want more. We use our cars and trucks to carry our groceries which last us for a while, then we have to return for another supply. There’s nothing wrong with the water pots. What is important is that we not think that life consists of what the world has to offer us. I’ve found that only Jesus can cause one to leave his or her water pot. Once our souls are transformed into a water pot containing living water, our earthly water pots can be left.I suggest it’s a matter of love. Love for the things of this world can only be overcome by a greater love—the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus. Jesus spoke of this reality in Matthew 6:24. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” The spirit of idolatry masquerades as love. Anything that takes Jesus’ place is an idol, a substitute, an object of love that cannot satisfy. It might taste good and refreshing for the moment, but the power is in the repeated drinking that becomes habitual. Before long, you think you can’t live without it, and you’re hooked. How you get access to it is your water pot. You love something in this world more than you do Jesus. It’s a matter of love for the substance the water pot contains. What’s your water pot? What is it filled with? Has it taken the place of Christ in your life? The woman probably never looked at her water pot the same way as she had before. Certainly, when she returned, she filled the pot with water and used it daily. However, every time she came to the well, don’t you think she thanked God for the living water she received on that day? The trip back to the well probably became a daily reminder of the new life and love she received from Christ.We live to love with Jesus because we have experienced the fullness of His love. Our souls are satisfied with the living water that never runs dry. We overcome idolatry with a higher and greater love. Being filled with His love, we are able to leave our water pots and go tell the world about the One who alone fills the empty souls of men. We are members of the “Come and See” community. “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why do You speak with her?"At this point, the Father determined that the woman had enough information upon which to respond. The conversation ended with the arrival of the disciples. And for a reason that we can only attribute to the work of God’s Spirit, the disciples don’t question Jesus as to why He spoke with her. That would have hijacked the encounter. The Spirit wanted the woman to be consumed with this giant reality. The Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ spoke to her. We may assume Jesus talked with her again since He stayed in the area for two more days, but those encounters were not recorded.Let’s notice God’s timing in this story. The Father had Jesus send His disciples into the village to get food. That was necessary for Jesus to have a one-on-one conversation with the Samaritan woman. For that conversation to happen, the Father, whether through decreed or passive power, directed the woman’s steps at just the right time to go get water. Had either of those two things happened differently, either Jesus and the woman would have missed each other, or the disciples would have been in the way. Their return was perfect timing. Jesus had just given the woman all she needed for God to draw a crowd from the village to His Son. “I who speak to you am He.” The Father and the Son show the disciples that the kingdom of God and eternal life is to cross over racial, ethnic, and social barriers.We have in this story the fulfillment of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus where He told him that the Spirit was going to blow to the Gentile world and give new birth. God loves the Gentile world as He loves the Jews as mentioned in John 3:16. This encourages us to take the gospel to the nations, to everyone God puts in our paths. Another encouragement I draw from this verse is how we may trust in God’s sovereign and perfect administration of our lives. John wanted his readers to see the wisdom and love revealed in the Father as He administrated every aspect of this story. Like Jesus, we can trust that God establishes our steps every day and the steps of everyone we meet. They are not random, chance encounters. God has been in control of ten thousands things in everyone’s lives for His children to cross paths with someone who needs living water and needs to know that Jesus is the savior of the world, the Christ. God writes our stories like He wrote this one.With that confidence and encouragement from this verse, I hope you’ll join me in praying what I call the Live to Love prayer. “Father, thank You for another day of life to know and love You and to live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You, and love those You put in my path today, for Your glory. Amen.”I invite you to make that prayer a part of your daily devotion to God. Please go to the website and take the Live to Love prayer challenge to pray it each morning for two months. I hope also that you’ll become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:25-26 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”How do you think the woman at the well understood what Jesus said about God? This verse reveals that she didn’t understand it at all. She again changed the subject, but at least hovered around the salvation issue. She at least knew that God was going to send the Messiah, and that when He came, He would declare all things. I’m not sure what the woman understood what “all things” the Messiah would declare, but Jesus had already declared some amazing things. He had declared that He could give her living water that springs up to eternal life. He had declared that He knew about her life—remember, He knew of her 5 husbands and that she was living with a guy. He had explained the characteristics of true worship and that God is spirit. We find in this verse the greatest declaration of everything He had said to the woman. “I who speak to you am He.” He is the Christ, the Messiah, the One for whom she, her people, and all of Israel were waiting. Here is today’s encouragement for us. The good news for her is also good news for us if we too are in need of salvation, which of course, we are! Everyone needs a savior. Everyone needs eternal life. Everyone needs a never-ending spring of living water gushing forth from within. God had placed this woman in the path of the Christ, whom she so badly needed. If we have become believers and disciples of Christ, then we know what amazing, overwhelming joy, and gratitude this woman experienced. These verses remind us of our first love for Christ that arose when we realized who Jesus was and what He has done for us. It confirms our faith in Him, and should assure us that we have not trusted in Jesus in vain. We believe Jesus is who He said He is. He is the Christ, our savior, and source of living water that springs up to eternal life. I hope you’ll pause, remember your first love for Jesus, and if you’ve drifted away from it or have taken it for granted, return to your first love for Jesus. Be amazed at who He is and that you have His life in you. Worship God in spirit and truth. Drink deeply and satisfyingly from His presence so that you can live to love for His glory today. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:23-24 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.Do you think it is encouraging to know who the Father is seeking to be His worshipers? Psalms 53:2 puts this in God’s perspective. “God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there is anyone who understands, who seeks after God. Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” So question: Why is God seeking worshipers who worship Him in spirit and truth if there are none? Answer: Because only the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, can create such a worshiper. Apart from the gracious work of Jesus, there would be no true worshipers. That’s why Jesus said, “But an hour is coming, and now is.” We can be encouraged from this story about the woman at the well that Jesus creates worshipers with whom the Father is well-pleased. Do you remember that Jesus told His disciples that apart from Him, they could do nothing to please the Father (John 15:5-8)? Let’s notice how Jesus made this woman into a worshiper in God.He told her some things about herself that reveals that she has always been in the presence of God. He sees and knows her because God is spirit. Jesus is God. Although He is in a material body, He is one with the Father, who is spirit. To say that God is spirit is to contrast the woman’s idea that God can only be worshiped in one place. The author of Hebrews wrote of the spiritual nature of God when he wrote in Heb. 4:13, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” To say God is spirit is to say that we can’t get away from His all-seeing eye.Because God is spirit, He is always present in His creation and working His will. What He is doing is the truth. What He sees happen is the truth because He’s ultimately the great, first cause of all that happens in His creation. Furthermore, and to the point of this encounter, the Father glorifies Himself through His Son. He does His work through His Son. Do you remember how I defined truth? Truth is what Jesus does, says, and sees. 1 Corinthians 8:6 expresses these concepts perfectly. “Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”Do you get it? To worship God in spirit and truth can only happen if Jesus creates such worshipers. That’s what He came to do! He came to bring us to God, and that’s exactly what He was doing with the woman at the well. One can’t be a true worshiper without believing 1 Corinthians 8:6. That’s the only kind of worshiper the Father seeks and the Son creates. This kind of worshiper glorifies God because he knows his worship is God-wrought and that everything he does is in His presence for His glory. I suggest that glorifying God is the ultimate reason behind living to love with Jesus. He loves His Father and loves people, and that is His worship of the Father at work in all who believe. Their faith in God, who is spirit and truth, is the first work of grace that makes them the kind of worshiper the Father seeks—one who worships in spirit and truth. Believing that God is spirit is the foundation of living to love with Jesus. Is that your foundation?I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.Jesus told her that the time had come for true worshipers to worship the Father in spirit and truth. The term true worshipers created a contrast between true and false worshipers. False worshipers focus on the physical realm, tradition, and appearances. The woman had spoken of this kind of worshiper when she said, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus didn’t suggest that those who worshiped God in Jerusalem were true worshipers in contrast to the Samaritans. Jesus’ coming changed everything when it came to worship. First, let’s notice the worship is not of Jehovah, the covenant keeper. The worship is of the Father. Jesus came to reveal that the covenant-keeping God is primarily a father. Three times Jesus calls God, the Father. Everyone in the world needs the Father. Jesus came to show us the love of His Father by bringing us to Him through His substitutionary death and His righteousness given. The new time that came with Jesus and now is, is a new worship of the Father.Second, the new worship isn’t a matter of where, but of how. Two characteristics of this new worship are mentioned. The first is that it is in spirit as opposed to in the physical realm, which broadens the scope of where this worship takes place. Before, worshipers had to physically come to the temple in Jerusalem. Now, since worship is in spirit, anyone, anyplace, at any time may worship the Father. For the Samaritan woman it meant that she could worship the Father at any moment there at the well. For us, it means we have 24/7/365 access to the Father’s Holy of Holies, so our entire lives become our service of worship as Paul wrote in Romans 12:1. “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”Third, the second characteristic of the new worship is truth. Jesus is the truth (John 14:6). Truth is therefore what Jesus does, says, and sees. Whatever He does in us is worship of the Father. When we do what Jesus says, believe what He believes, let His words abide in us, we bear much fruit, proving that we are His worshipers (John 15:8-9). We are worshiping with Jesus as we live to love with Him. If He’s loving through us, that is worshiping in spirit and truth. That’s what God sees, and it is pleasing in His sight. The time has come and now is for true worship of the Father—worship that is in spirit and truth. Living to love with Jesus is how we present our bodies, a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to the Father. As we renew our minds with His purpose—to glorify God by living to love with Him, His worldview—there’s only one God from whom all things come whose love is enough to satisfy our souls so we can reveal Christ in this world, and truth—what Jesus does and says is revealed in us, we prove that God’s will is that Jesus be first place in all things—in our thinking, in our living, and in our worship. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.The issue with everyone we meet is salvation, not what denomination they belong to or what eschatology they espouse or their ethnicity. Jesus’ reference to salvation being from the Jews is the same as saying that the Messiah or Savior is from the Jews. Simeon in Luke 2:29-30, John the Baptist in Luke 3:6 both used the term salvation to refer to Jesus as the Savior and Messiah. When Simeon saw Jesus, he declared, “For my eyes have seen Your salvation.” In effect, He made it clear that what they believed was wrong and that the Jews were right. Since the Savior comes from Israel, then the Jews were worshiping according to the truth. Putting that debate to rest, Jesus got to the ultimate need of this woman. She needed salvation from her sins and ignorance about the savior. Salvation can only come by the knowledge of God, revealed in Jesus Christ through the work of the Spirit of God.May we be encouraged today to remember that is every person’s need. If God puts them in our path, then we know they need to be saved if they are not already. We know the one we worship, Jesus Christ, is the Savior, and if they do not worship Jesus, then they need to know Him. The first thing we can do to show them that Jesus lives is to love them with Him by caring for them, being kind, and praying for them. I’ve learned to engage them by asking about them, listening to see how the Lord has them respond, then respond to them with what the Holy Spirit gives me. I’m learning to trust that He’s already ahead of me, knows them perfectly, and will give me what they need for that moment. We worship what we know if we are born again. We have His life dwelling within us, and know that He is not only our Savior, but the well-spring of eternal life. We have the Son, so we know we have the life of God. May we live out of His fullness today and be ready to love those He puts in our paths, for His glory.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.”After Jesus had revealed that He knew she had been married five times and was living with another man, the woman surmised that Jesus was a prophet and posed the debate between the Samaritans and the Jews as to where God was to be worshiped. It’s interesting that Jesus didn’t comment on either. He didn’t let her distract Him or hijack the conversation. However, He took her response as the Father’s prompting as to where to take the conversation. Remember, Jesus is living to love with His Father. He received this woman’s presence as the Father’s will. He also received her response as from the Father. He knew Proverbs 16:1. “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” So Jesus had clear direction from her response in the way to direct the conversation—in the direction of true worship of the Father. I am learning the same lesson from Jesus as I live to love with Him. As I meet people, I know God has put them there. He has given them to Jesus in me, who will love them. To love with Jesus, I must abide in Him, which means to think like Jesus thinks. I am renewing my mind. I know Jesus believes there is only one God, His Father, from whom are all things. He knows His Father is always working, and He trusts in Him. He is satisfied in His Father’s love and loves to do His will. He believes therefore that the Father has a purpose in everything that happens, namely, to reveal Himself, His presence and power. To live to love with Jesus, we must believe and apply what Jesus believes and lives by. It’s His worldview.As I meet people, I listen to what the Father has them say, as Jesus did with this woman. Then I listen for Jesus’ response. The Holy Spirit gives us the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:10-14) so we reveal that Jesus lives and is present to love. When I do this, I’ve experienced the Holy Spirit’s guidance to Scriptures that are helpful or encouraging to the individual. Sometimes, I’ve received His compassion or sympathy if the person is suffering. When nothing comes in response, then I’m at peace to say nothing or confess what I don’t know. I want to encourage you that we can learn much from this verse if we understand what’s going on between the Father and the Son. To see Jesus is to see the Father (John 14:9-11). As we read this passage, we are watching the Father guide His Son to love this woman. Jesus took her words, and responded to them. He knew His purpose was to glorify the Father by revealing the truth: what God is doing, seeing, and saying. We can see from the beginning of the engagement with the woman where Jesus was going—to the Father as the source of eternal life—true worship. As we live to love with Jesus, we are displaying that very truth. The Father glorifies Himself through His Son as the source of all life. There is one God, from whom are all things. He is the true source of life. May the Holy Spirit open our hearts to understand how to abide in Jesus and live to love with Him. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:19-20 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."Jesus had just said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have correctly said, 'I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”Have you ever been in such a conversation with God? Perhaps you were reading a passage of Scripture and became convicted, but instead of responding to God, you read on, or you turned to another more encouraging passage. You knew if you really dealt with the truth, what God sees about you, then you knew you would have to change—but you didn’t want to change. If so, then you understand the awkwardness of this moment between Jesus and the woman at the well. Both are asking, “Where do I go from here?” The woman didn’t want to discuss her past with its shame, and who can blame her? So she moved the spotlight to Jesus and where God is to be worshiped. We are encouraged by these verses not to be like this woman as we live to love with Jesus. God is going to deal with our past. Because He loves us, He is committed to sanctifying us. There were times in our past when we didn’t know God or trust in Him. Therefore, we didn’t receive the grace needed to handle the situation, resulting in our carrying the baggage and shame of our unbelief. More than likely when similar events occur, we are triggered by them. They remind us of previous hurts, disappointments, and failures. Jesus must sanctify those events in our lives for our lives to bring Him glory. He must take us where we don’t want to go. He must reveal our unbelief and bring us to the point where we can see who He is and how we should have worshiped Him in those moments. When we face the truth that we didn’t know Him, trust Him, or go to Him for grace, then we are set free from the baggage, are healed, and can see how God can use it for His glory and our good. We are able to help others, which is what living to love with Jesus is all about. So the next time you find yourself in a convicting conversation with Jesus or facing an uncomfortable truth about yourself, don’t change the subject, but let the truth search you and sanctify you for His glory and your good. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:16-18 He said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have correctly said, 'I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly."At first glance, it appears that Jesus was shaming the woman. If He knew she had five husbands before telling her to call her husband, then why did He do it? In an honor/shame culture, this would have been extremely embarrassing and shameful for the woman to admit. However, if we dive in a little deeper, perhaps we can see the love behind Jesus’ exposure. Let’s remember that love seeks the highest good of someone, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. Love was revealed in three ways. First, giving the woman an opportunity to speak the truth, to agree with what God sees, is in her highest good. Second, security and safety is revealed when someone knows the shameful truth about another, yet still leans into the relationship. Usually, when darkness is exposed, people reject and run away. Jesus knew the pain and the cause of the pain in her life, and she would have been drawn to His compassion and mercy displayed to her. Third, the stage is set for this woman to despise the shame, that is make light of it, press through it to find this living water that Jesus offered. If one is ever to find satisfaction in Christ, he or she must despise the shame that the truth reveals, embrace it, and put themselves completely at the disposal of Jesus. In so doing, forgiveness, healing, restoration, and a new life may be experienced—in a sense, resurrection after death. That’s how Jesus overcame sin, death, the world, and the devil. He despised the shame of our shameful sins, endured the cross, and was raised to sit down at the right hand of the Father. He surrendered all to His Father, and was raised so that He could become a well of eternal life to all who will despise their shame and surrender to Him. That describes God’s love for us and our love for Him. The highest good of another person is not to tolerate or avoid the shame of sin, but to help them embrace it by speaking the truth, showing them that their sin and shame won’t drive you away, and then lean into the relationship with acceptance and love. God used Jesus’ love to draw this woman to His Son. You may have the opportunity today to love someone like that, hopefully with the same result. These verses encourage us in how to love like Jesus. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw."The idea of never thirsting and not having to make the long walk to the well or carry the heavy load of water each day must have been extremely appealing. But Jesus wasn’t offering the woman an easier, more convenient life. That’s not what He meant by the offer of living water, but that’s the natural desire of almost everyone. As we share with others the call of the gospel, we want to be sure that we are not appealing to this natural desire for a happy, convenient life. Telling people to follow Jesus because He promises to make them happy is false advertising. It’s misleading. They will have to give up their pursuit of happiness in terms of this world.Most people love their lives in this world. They are looking for anything that will make their lives better. Here in the U.S., the pursuit of the American Dream and personal peace and affluence isn’t questioned. We think personal happiness in this world is a constitutional right. It is assumed to be an honorable purpose in life. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard people say, “God wants you to be happy”, which is true, but in the same way Jesus offered the woman living water. Happiness or living water isn’t to be understood in a natural, material way. Let’s be reminded from this verse that our pursuit of happiness isn’t temporal. What God offers us is fullness of joy that comes from loving in the power of the Holy Spirit. His joy comes as we drink from His well of living water. Allow me to change the imagery, to the vine and branch analogy. Jesus, the vine, gives His life to us, the branches. The vine offers an eternal supply of fruit-producing sap to us. As Jesus’ life pours through us, we display His love, fruit for both the Father and a hungry world to enjoy. As we live to love with Jesus, we experience His joy which is a source of happiness that is out of this world. As I wrap up today’s live to love encouragement, let’s listen to Jesus’ words about this.I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.The happiness Jesus offers and that we have to offer isn’t the offer of an easier, more convenient life, but the offer of an eternal supply of life-giving, joy-producing, soul-satisfying fruitfulness to be experienced in this life and forever. Hallelujah! For this one cries to Jesus, “Sir, give me this water!” As for us, we say, “Father, thank You for giving us this living water through Your son, Jesus Christ. We are blessed in abundance by Your generosity and amazing grace.”I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:13-14 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."Everything in the natural physical world has limitations. Let’s think about what Jesus said. The one who drinks of the water from Jacob’s well will thirst again, not because there’s something wrong with the water. The physical body needs water to survive. We have to drink daily. In contrast, the spiritual man also has thirst, but the water Jesus offers not only satisfies the thirst, but the living water becomes a well of more water producing eternal life. Our encouragement today is that as God’s children, we have a never-ending, all-satisfying, eternal life-producing fountain dwelling in our souls. As we will learn, it is spiritual. In any circumstance or relationship, we may drink from the life of Christ, and He will fill us with what we need to express His life in this world. As we read this account, we see how living water was pouring forth from Him to the Samaritan woman. Although He was physically thirsty, He ministered to her out of fullness. Such is the life we have as we live to love with Jesus. We may have many people cross our paths today who are like the woman from Samaria. They are thirsting for eternal life, but don’t know it. May the love we show them prepare the way for conversations about living water that springs up to eternal life. May we live out of the fullness of Jesus’ life. You begin with a statement of faith. “Jesus, You are my life. You are the source of everything I need today.” Then follow with a request of faith. “Lord, make me a spring of living water to those around me. Pour out Your love to everyone who crosses my path today.” We close with gratitude. “Thank You for giving me eternal life. Amen.”I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:11-12 She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?"Is it possible to get the supernatural from the natural? Jesus spoke of the supernatural, living water that would satisfy this woman’s thirst forever, and she could only think in the realm of the natural. This is always the focus of unbelief. We saw the same unbelief in Nicodemus back in chapter 3. Jesus spoke of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth, and Nicodemus, at the time, could only think in natural terms. The Samaritan woman and Nicodemus lived by what they could see, taste, and experience in the natural realm. How about you? How much of your life is consumed with the natural instead of the supernatural?The apostle Paul encouraged the Colossians to focus on the supernatural instead of the natural when he wrote, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died (that is, died to your life in this world) and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:1-3). Can you see that Paul and Jesus were speaking of the same thing—supernatural eternal life in Christ? Unbelief, focusing on things as they are on the earth, is the greatest hindrance to living to love with Jesus. The love of God through our lives doesn’t come from a natural well. We can’t draw love out of our natural thinking, feeling, and fleshly efforts. It comes from the well-spring of living water residing within us that issues forth from where Christ is seated above in the heavenlies. So many people try to love their spouses, children, and others by looking at the natural realm. If you focus on the person, with all of their inadequacies, fleshly flaws, and offenses toward you, you’ll find it impossible to love them. You aren’t loving them with Jesus, you’re being hindered by unbelief. Faith focuses on Jesus, His victory over the flesh, sin, and death, His fullness, and His love, which is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. Faith is what God has provided as the means to draw from the well of His life and love. So when you feel weary and thirsty, look to Jesus. Draw from His life within, and then pour out what you receive to those around you who are weary and thirsty. That’s drinking the living water, of which Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman. When you turn from unbelief and live out of the living water of Christ, you are living to love with Jesus.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”We see Jesus’ reason for demanding a drink from the Samaritan woman. His command to give Him a drink revealed the intensity of His need. I don’t want us to miss what I think is an important insight. This is the second time Jesus used the imperative verb form. Jesus didn’t ask. He commanded her to give Him a drink. He didn’t say, “Would you please give me a drink?” or “I’m thirsty, would you please help me?” Jesus wanted this woman to become aware of her deep and intense need for living water, so He understood the desperate need He had for a drink as the Father’s way of informing Him of her need. He came to the well, weary and aware of His desperate need for what she could give Him. She came to the well, weary and unaware of her desperate need for what He could give her. If she were in touch with the spiritual thirst, she would have engaged Him and asked for what He could give her. We will see that He leans into this later in the conversation by revealing that her spiritual need, her thirst, had led her to drink from the wrong source—men.Jesus revealed three things she didn’t know. She didn’t know what He could give her. She didn’t know who He was, and she didn’t recognize her spiritual thirst. We can take great encouragement from this verse in several ways. One, we know the gift of God—eternal life—and we have it! We have experienced the love of God in Christ, so we should be motivated to tell others of His great gift. And lets’ not miss this. It is a gift! One doesn’t have to earn it or pay for it. It is given freely by the Father. Two, we know who Jesus is. He is Almighty God appearing in flesh. Jesus is the Son of God, the exact representation of the Father, the out flashing of His glory. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to the Father. We are blessed beyond words. Three, if we have realized our own desperate need of living water, then we have asked Him to give us that living water. We live out of the satisfaction of a never-ending flow of life in Christ. So, when we are weary, we know who to go to, and we know what to ask for—living water. Jesus, dwelling in us, is a source of constant fullness, a well that never runs dry. May we live out of His fullness and invite others to drink from Him.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)Obviously Jesus surprised her by His asking her for a drink. It wasn’t normal for a Jew to cross the social and religious divide between Jews and Samaritans. It shouldn’t surprise us, however, because we know that’s what the love of God does—no divide is too great for His love to overcome. First, I remind you of my favorite definition of the God’s love. It is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. Now, let’s think about the power of the love of God revealed in Christ. He chooses to cross whatever barrier is in the way in order to love someone. Love doesn’t let race, gender, ethnicity, intellectual, economic, cultural, or religious differences hinder its expression. We might ask a similar question when we think about God reaching out to us. How can You, being infinite God, ask me for help when I am a finite sinner? Or, how can You who is perfect in righteousness have anything to do with me who is so imperfect and unrighteous? We will consider Jesus’ answer tomorrow, but today, let’s be encouraged to not let anything hinder our expressing the love of God to others. Would you join me in praying with me what I call the Live to Love with Jesus prayer? Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to know and love You and to live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill us with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that we can love and trust You, and love those You put in our paths today, for Your glory. Amen.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:7-8 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.Yesterday we were encouraged that God has divine appointments for us. The woman from Samaria had no idea at the first that she was having an encounter with God, but of course, Jesus did. Being weary and thirsty, it’s easy to imagine what was going on in Jesus’ mind as He watched her walking toward Him with her water pot. She could get Him a drink, which He needed for refreshment. Maybe they greeted each other cordially, or maybe not. It’s not recorded. If these were the first words Jesus spoke to her, then it probably caught her off guard. Jesus didn’t ask her to give Him a drink, He commanded her to do it. The reason given for Jesus’ demand was that His disciples were not with Him. It implies that had they been with Him, one of them would have had the means to draw water for Him. But since He was alone, He needed her help.Let’s notice what love did in this situation. First, let me remind us of God’s kind of love. It is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. So Jesus’ demand for water wasn’t selfish, it was an act of love. He was relating to her for her highest good, which was to serve God by drawing water for Him. Jesus also glorified His Father by receiving His need for water as a need arranged by His Father. He also looked to His Father for the supply of His need. No doubt, He viewed the woman coming to the well as His Father’s supply. Therefore, He concluded, that the Father’s way of loving this woman was to use the circumstances to reveal the Father to her. He had a need, and she could help. Jesus often drew people into an encounter with God by asking them for help or using what they had at their disposal for God’s work. A young virgin’s womb, a young boy’s lunch of fish and bread, hospitality from a tax collector, a man’s donkey, or a friend’s guest room are examples of the Father’s provision for His Son. In each case, the Son had a need, and the Father glorified Himself in and through those who had what Jesus needed. The need was necessary, so God could be revealed.This raises a question. How often are we in need of help, but don’t ask for it because we don’t want to inconvenience anyone? Are we really loving them by not asking for help? This story encourages us that one aspect of loving with Jesus is to ask others for help when we have a need. As they respond, we then have the opportunity to receive their service in Jesus’ name and point them to Him. If God brought them to us at just the right time, then we know it’s a divine appointment—an opportunity to love with Jesus. This is what it means to abide in Jesus—to receive our circumstances from the Father as well as His guidance in response to the circumstances. The result will always be for the glory of God as we live to love with Jesus.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 4:5-6 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.It was noon, and Jesus was tired. The well apparently was located outside the city of Sychar and more than likely beside the road upon which Jesus was traveling. It was like a Buc-ee’s here in Texas or a rest area on the interstate—well, not exactly, but it was a place to rest and get refreshment. Our encouragement today comes from what we learn about Jesus from John’s account. He was wearied from His journey. When we are doing God’s will, it doesn’t mean that it will necessarily be easy. We should not be discouraged if we have to make long, tiring trips, work hard, and need to pause for some R and R. It’s okay and expected that we would experience weariness because we are in bodies of flesh.Because we are living to love with Jesus, we, like Jesus, also know we are on our way to love someone God wants to love through us. Jesus was waiting because He knew someone would eventually come and be able to give Him some water to drink. As He waited, He probably was receiving ideas about how He was going to introduce Himself and direct the conversation to a relationship with His Father. Be on the alert to the Spirit of God as you go places. Consider the setting, the possibilities of interactions with people, and ask the Holy Spirit to prepare you for them.Sometimes we may use the term “divine appointment” to describe an encounter with someone. When we live with Jesus’ worldview, namely, there’s only one God from whom are all things, and He is love, we view every encounter with someone as a divine appointment. Jesus knew any encounter He had with someone was a divine appointment. The Father arranged it, and Jesus expected His Father would reveal Himself through Him. We may have that same confidence as we go through each day. So, let’s be ready for the appointments God has prepared for us today.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.We find several encouragements in this last verse of the third chapter of John’s gospel. First, we are encouraged by the grace of God. Faith is evidence of eternal life. John didn’t say that the one who believes will have eternal life. They have eternal life. As the writer of Hebrews wrote in chapter 11, verse 1. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It’s the same with love. Love is the evidence of sins forgiven and eternal life. Remember the woman who washed Jesus’ feet in the house of Simon?Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” Do you see it? Her love was an expression of faith, which was evidence of an awareness that her sins had been forgiven. She didn’t love so that her sins would be forgiven, she loved because her sins were forgiven. So we can first be encouraged that if we believe in and love with the Son, God has been gracious to us and given us eternal life. Second, we are encouraged about the character of the faith God gives those who have eternal life. They obey Jesus. “Faith without works is dead,” wrote James in 2:26, in the same way “as the body without the spirit is dead.” The reason we live to love with Jesus is that we have faith in Him and therefore obey Him. He commands us to believe and love one another. Faith and love work together. Third, this verse encourages us to share the gospel and call people to believe and obey Jesus. Each person is responsible to believe and obey Jesus. If they do not obey, they will not see life. It is implied that if they do obey, they will see life. Sharing the gospel and calling for faith in and obedience to Jesus reveals the state of the person with whom we share. Notice there are two states of relationship with God. One has eternal life, and the other has the wrath of God abiding on him. Their responses to the gospel reveal their condition before God. The only way to discover those who have eternal life and those on whom the wrath of God remains is to share the gospel with them...
John 3:35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.What John the Baptist said about Jesus was ultimately the revelation of the Father, God’s love for Jesus, His Son. The Father loves the Son, so the Father tells and shows Jesus all things that He is doing. That’s why Jesus can testify of what He has seen and heard (vs. 32). It is the Father’s love for His Son that He has given all things on the earth into His hands, including those Jesus and His disciples were baptizing (vs. 26). Not only did God create everything that exists through His Son (John 1:3), but He gave the entire salvation project of mankind into His hands. Those who are to be saved throughout the entire history of the world were given by the Father to the Son because He loves the Son. Listen to the first words of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:1-3.Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.What does this mean to us? If we have eternal life in Jesus, it is because God loves His Son and gave us to Him. We are not the center focus of God’s love. Jesus is. He loves us because He loves His Son. If we were not given to Jesus, we would not know God or love with Him—at all. God gave all things to Him so that He would be first place in all things. The apostle Paul stated clearly all that I have said in Colossians 1:18-20.He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.So there is great encouragement to live to love with Jesus in this verse. Our salvation was generated by God’s love for His Son, who gives the Spirit of love without measure to dwell in us. We are a love gift to Jesus. Therefore, we have been loved by the Son as He has been loved by His Father. Out of His fullness, we love others with Him. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:32-34. “What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.I read these three verses together this morning because the apostle John taught about truth using John the Baptist’s testimony regarding Jesus. Yesterday, I defined truth as what God does, says, and sees. I hope you can see how I came to that definition from these verses. Jesus is truly God, for He is the truth. He says what He hears and sees. If He hears it, it is the truth. If He sees it, it is the truth. If He does it, it is the truth. It is enlightening that John the Baptist connected Jesus’ speaking the words of God and His giving of the Holy Spirit. What is the connection? In chapter 1, verses 33-34, John the Baptist said of Jesus, “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” To baptize in the Holy Spirit is to give the Spirit without measure. So let’s connect truth: what God does, says, and sees, of which Jesus testifies, and Jesus giving the Holy Spirit without measure. When Jesus speaks, the Father and the Son are giving the Spirit of truth. Jesus called the Holy Spirit in John 14:16-17, the Spirit of truth. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth.” To give the Holy Spirit to be with us forever is to give the Spirit without a standard of measure or limits. What Jesus sees the Father saying, doing, He also says and does. When God works, He works through His Word and His Spirit. Hopefully, now you can see the connection John saw between the word of Christ and the giving of the Spirit. They are united and inseparable. Now let me connect this reality to living to love with Jesus. The words Jesus hears and the act of giving the Holy Spirit come from God, who is love. 1 John 4:7-8. “ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” How is one born of God? According to Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, one is born from above by the word of God and the Spirit of God. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water [which is a reference to the Word of God] and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” When we receive the living word of God, Jesus Christ, we receive the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. The fruit of receiving the word and Spirit of God is love. I hope you can see that living to love with Jesus in the power of the Spirit comes from the reality of the connection of Jesus speaking the words of God and giving the Spirit without measure. So, God is true, and God is love. If we are practicing the truth, we live to love with Jesus, who is God, in the power of the Spirit. That’s our purpose for living. It is why a God of love sent His Son into this world.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:33 He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true.Have you set your seal, given your stamp of approval, to the reality that Jesus is the Son of God, sent by the Father, God? Jesus’ testified that He was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one can go to the Father except by Him (John 14:6). His life was the testimony of God, for Jesus said that the Father abides in Him and He abides in the Father, and that when He speaks, His Father works (John 14:10). When the Father works in the hearts of people, He prepares them to carry the fruit of the Son, the love of God (John 15:3). “You are already clean (pruned, prepared for displaying the fruit of the Vine) because of the word which I have spoken to you.” The lives of believers validate the reality of God when they receive the testimony of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave a new commandment to His disciples that they should love one another as He loved them (John 13:34). The only way they could love like Jesus was if they received Jesus’ testimony about Himself and believed that He was God (John 14:1). Jesus told His disciples that the day the Holy Spirit came to them, they would believe and know that Jesus was in the Father, that they were in Jesus, and that He was in them (John 14:20). They would know the truth that Jesus is God, and therefore that God is real. It has helped me to understand truth this way. Truth is what Jesus does, says, and sees. Let me remind you of what John said only a few verses earlier in verse 21. “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” The work of God in our hearts, which produces the life of Jesus in us, is the truth of God. It is what God does in us, therefore, we practice or live the truth. That’s what it means to set our seal to the truth that Jesus is God and therefore the source of life. When Jesus testifies to our hearts about the truth that we are one with Him and He is our life, we live out the truth by abiding in Him. We come to the Light so that what He does, says, and sees may be revealed in our lives. Living to love with Jesus is the way we practice the truth and set our seal in this world to the reality that Jesus is God. Today, as we live to love with Jesus, we are showing the world that Jesus really is God. We have received Jesus’ testimony. We want everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth that Jesus is God, has risen from the dead, and can live in them. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:32 What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony.John the Baptist was speaking of Jesus in these verses. Jesus is from heaven, and what He has seen and heard in heaven, of that He testified on earth. In the first chapter of his gospel, the apostle John said that Jesus came to His own people and they didn’t receive Him. In 3:11, Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.” So this point was important enough to John, that he mentioned it twice in this chapter. It raises the question for everyone reading, “Have you received Jesus’ testimony?”It is because of Jesus’ testimony that we call people to live to love with Jesus. He has come from heaven to tell us that God is love. He declared that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that He has made God known. He came to live to love with His Father. He commands us to believe He is God and to love one another as He has loved us. He has given us the Holy Spirit so that He abides in us and we in Him. The proof of our relationship with God is the fruit of His presence and power in our lives. That fruit is love. If we don’t love with Him, which is the only way we can glorify God, our lives are wasted (1 Cor. 13:1-3). We live to love because, unlike those of whom John the Baptist spoke in this verse, we believe Jesus’ testimony of what He has seen and heard in heaven. God is love, and we’re here to live to love with Him.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:30-31 He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.We are encouraged by these verses that Jesus is above all men and all things. John understood, and so should we, that we are of the earth and from below. In contrast, Jesus is from heaven and therefore should have first place in all things. This reminds us of what Paul wrote to the Colossians in 1:15-20.He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.John came into public ministry before Jesus, however, John knew as soon as the Messiah was revealed publicly, he was to decrease in importance and significance. He was to move out of the spotlight and put Jesus in the spotlight. As we live to love with Jesus today, may we decrease and Jesus increase. May we put Jesus in first place in all things, making much of Him, so others may be saved and sanctified through Him. He must increase, but we must decrease.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made full.This verse is John the Baptist’s comment to his disciples after they informed him that more people were being baptized by Jesus and His disciples. Again, we see that Jesus’ cousin knew his role—not only was he preparing the way for Jesus, but he was like the friend of a bridegroom who rejoices that his friend has found a wife and is getting married. Jesus is the bridegroom, and the people the Father gives to Him are His bride. John’s joy at seeing people following Jesus was full.So should our joy be full as we see people become disciples of Jesus because we have pointed them to Him. Consider this: living to love with Jesus is acting toward their highest good. There could be no higher good for someone than for them to be given to Jesus as His bride. So one of many ways that we love them is to point them to Jesus to see if the Father will give them to Him. We introduce them to each other and watch to see if any spiritual chemistry develops between them. It will be easy to see, just like it was easy for John and His disciples to see. They will follow after Jesus. They will want to learn more from Him. Eventually, they will fall in love with Him and give their lives to Him willingly and joyfully. Our role is to be Jesus’ friend and their friend.Maybe today we will have the opportunity to introduce someone to Jesus. Just this morning, while at breakfast in our hotel, I told our waitress, Mokgadi, that I had prayed for her earlier (which I had as I prayed the Live to Love prayer), thanking God for those He would put in my path today. I told her that Jesus knows her and I pray that she would know His presence. That’s all there was time for. It didn’t take long to introduce Jesus and Mokgadi to each other, so to speak. This evening, as we said good night to our driver who had been our guide for 3 hours at a game reserve here in South Africa, I simply told him that I wanted to thank God for him and asked if I could pray for him. He welcomed the prayer as I prayed for Jesus to make His presence and peace known to him as he went to sleep. May the bridegroom woo Simon to Himself tonight. That’s living to love with Jesus, and the result will be hearts full of joy like at any wedding. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:27-28 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.” You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, “I am not the Christ,” but, “I have been sent ahead of Him.”Today, I want to encourage us with three lessons from John the Baptist. First, he wasn’t building his ministry; he received his ministry from God. John knew who his source was. He had nothing that wasn’t given to Him from God in heaven. That’s not only a humble attitude, but it is the truth which gave John confidence and relieved him of the stress of striving to be successful and significant. Understanding this truth is foundational to living to love with Jesus. We aren’t trying to be successful lovers of God and people. We expect Jesus to love through us, day by day, moment by moment, as we encounter people. In fact, we live for that reality. That’s the fruit we display that glorifies the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ. So let’s remember, we aren’t building a ministry for the glory of God; we receive a ministry through His life in us, so the Father will be glorified in the Son.Second, John the Baptist knew who he wasn’t and who he was. He wasn’t the Christ, and he was the Messiah’s forerunner. Here’s the question for us. Do we know who we are not and who we are? For instance, do we know that we are not God and we are His creatures? Nothing comes from us. We are not the source nor the authority in our lives. We were made for Him. We are to be Christ-imagers. We are not life, but we are recipients of eternal life. Life is not about us. Life is about Jesus. Do you see what I mean? Do we know who we are not and who we are? Third, all believers are sent ahead of Jesus in the lives of those who will eventually follow Him. Yes, it is possible for God to draw someone to Christ without their having been influenced by a follower of Christ, but as a general rule, we make disciples of Christ by first building relationships with them. Just as John prepared the way for Christ in the lives of his followers, there will be people who are attracted to Christ in us who will, in a sense, follow us. They will first connect with us before connecting with Jesus, like John’s followers connected with him before following Jesus. Who are your followers that you are pointing to Jesus?I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:25-27 Therefore, there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.” John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.”What a profound reality: “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.” John’s explanation to his disciples of Jesus’ ministry could be said about every person. John had no jealousy of Jesus because He trusted God. There’s no competition when you know it is God who decides what you have and what you don’t have. In my book, Live to Love, I present three foundational truths that form the basis of Jesus’ worldview and therefore those who live with Jesus. The first one is that there is one God from whom are all things, and He is love. Hopefully, you can see that John believed that as well. It was the Father, God, who gave John the followers that he had, and the same was true for Jesus. All that were following Jesus were doing so because the Father was giving them to Him. The second foundational truth is that God’s love revealed in Christ satisfies the deepest needs of my soul. Finding one’s satisfaction in God’s love, another way of saying that one abides in God’s love, which enables one to be content with what God gives him. John the Baptist was content with those who followed him and were baptized by him because He found His satisfaction in God’s will. One of my favorite definitions of humility is that one who has a humble heart recognizes that everything he has comes from God. Can you see that John’s comment reveals humility? Another way of saying, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven,” is to say, “Everything that occurs in one’s life is from God, because there is only one God, and He is love.” We must walk in humility if we are going to live to love with Jesus.The primary purpose of the branch of the grapevine is to receive from the vine in order to display the fruit of the vine. As people cross our paths, we receive them as from the Father. Since we believe the Father sent them to His Son in us, we also look to Jesus within and receive what He gives us to love as they are given to us. We believe that if we receive someone in His name, then we may expect His grace to love them. I hope this encourages us today to recognize that we do not have anything that we haven’t received from our Father in heaven. He loves us and intends to glorify His name as Jesus loves through us. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:22-24 After these things, Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized-for John had not yet been thrown into prison.Baptism is an identity issue. The concept is that of one being immersed into a community, such as those anticipating and looking for the Messiah. John baptized people who were awaiting the coming of the Messiah and were preparing their hearts for Him. Jesus was baptized by John because He was the one for whom they were waiting. It was necessary that He identify publicly with those who were waiting for Him. Notice in the following verses what the uniting message was between John and Jesus. Matthew 3:2. “Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Jesus and His disciples began to baptize followers for the same purpose.” Mark 1:14-15. “Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” You’ll notice their messages were the same. Those baptized by both John and Jesus were identifying with Him.Baptism symbolizes a life-changing reality. God immersed us into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Cor. 1:30-31). He has baptized us into His love where we are to abide, stay, live, and draw the grace we need for our daily lives. We love because we have been baptized into His love. We are filled with Him, surrounded with Him, and move and have our being in Him. He is life to us. Being satisfied in His love, we have an unshakeable fullness out of which His love flows. Jesus is the spring from which we live to love for the glory of God.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."God has revealed His amazing love in Christ. Love has moved God to send His Son to be a savior to those upon whom He has chosen to lavish His love and grace. They once loved the darkness and ran from light because their deeds were evil. John described those who are saved in verse 21. They practice the truth by coming to the Light because they want God to get the glory. They want it to be shown that the works they do are God-wrought works. Let’s notice that coming to the Light is a continual action—they practice the truth. What is the truth that they practice? They practice this truth: flesh cannot please God. All of their efforts to be righteous fall short of the glory of God. They aren’t afraid of coming to the Light with their evil deeds because they know they are covered by the blood of Christ. They also believe another truth: Any good in them, even that of hating the darkness and loving the Light, is a work of God’s grace in them. That’s why I say we are living to love with Jesus and not just living to love. We acknowledge that the love we have for others is the love of Jesus, Himself, not a result of our good works for our own righteousness' sake. We know God only gets the glory if He does the work. Our prayer is for our works to be wrought in God, accomplished by Jesus working in and through us. Our boast is not in ourselves, but in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul echoed this truth in a couple of passages. Ephesians 2:10. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” And in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” This is the truth we practice by coming to the Light. We live to love with Jesus by the work and grace of God.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:19-20 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.We read today about the very opposite of living to love with Jesus—living to hate without Jesus. The presence of Light makes five things evident about those who are in the world and in need of the new birth and eternal life. As we continue to read through this gospel, John showed that this judgment of God is true. He sees that those without Christ do evil, hate the Light, love the darkness, and will not come to the Light for fear of exposure. The presence of Jesus, the Light, reveals that God has already judged them. He sent His Son into the world to save the world, which turns the light on them. They scurry away into the darkness because of fear and hatred of the Light, according to His judgment. Everyone in the world is hopeless and helpless unless God does something in them. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and it is hostile to God, as the apostle Paul wrote to the Romans in 8:6-8. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.They cannot live to love and please God because the flesh isn’t able to do it. The only works that please God are His works through His Son by the Holy Spirit. This is the good news John is proclaiming in this gospel! In God’s great mercy and love, Jesus told Nick that He is sending the Holy Spirit to give new life and reveal Himself. We will learn in the next verse how God’s work in the hearts of men is revealed by the Light.Our encouragement today is that if we are living to love with Jesus, these verses no longer describe us. They should also awaken inside of us a compassion for those in the world who are trapped in darkness. We may expect that there will be some who will react with hatred. It’s not hatred of us, but hatred of the Light. They will think we are toxic to them. When we share God’s Word with them, thinking it will encourage them, they will accuse us of abusing them and weaponizing the Scriptures. These verses teach us why they respond the way they do. They show God’s judgment—they hate the Light because their deeds are evil.We do not need to judge them, but instead, love them with Jesus. Let us love the Light and reveal the love of God to them, praying that God, in His great mercy and love will send the Holy Spirit to give them life in Christ.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.Light reveals what exists. That’s how God judges. When we walk into a dark room and turn on the light, the state of the room is revealed. The presence of light doesn’t change what exists in the room. The light reveals what is in and out of place. The point is that light reveals things as they truly are. We learn from this verse that God sent the Light into this world. He turned the light on in the world, so to speak. What is the state of mankind in the world? Their evil deeds reveal that they love darkness rather than the Light. This is God’s judgment that Jesus spoke of in the previous verse when He said, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already.” In John 1:4-5, John wrote, “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” So the state of mankind, bound in the darkness of sin, has been revealed. Without God doing a miraculous work of mercy and grace, every man is judged and condemned. Today, take a moment and consider how you respond when God turns the light on your evil deeds. When He reveals that you are unbelieving, fearful, selfish, impatient, lustful, impure, idolatrous, mean, hurtful, and untrusting, do you run to the Light or do you try to hide and excuse yourself? Your response is the judgment. There will be times when God reveals that you aren’t abiding in Christ (which means the Spirit has turned on the light). Humble yourself, quickly look to Jesus again, and thank Him for judging your sin in His Son on the cross. Then turn to Him, declaring that He is your life. Ask Him to love through you for His glory, and His Light will shine through you.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.Before we unpack this verse, we need to understand something about God’s judgment. God’s judgment isn’t like man’s judgment. When man judges, an action occurs, then judgment follows. In the kingdom of God, a sinful action reveals God's judgment. Let me explain it from Paul’s epistle to the Romans in 1:17-24.For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity.How is God’s judgment that a man is righteous before Him revealed? God sends them the gospel through which the gift of righteousness is manifested as God gives Him life in Christ, and he believes. God-wrought faith is the evidence that God’s judgment is true, namely that the person’s sins have been judged in Christ, therefore, he is not judged. This God-wrought work in the heart of men will be mentioned later in John 3. The judgment of God preceded the action of a faithful response to the gospel. God sees the man in Christ, proclaims Him righteous, and reveals this reality through the testimony of faith which God gives him when he hears the gospel. If this is a new thought to you, then I encourage you to look closely at Rom. 1:16-28 and meditate on it, asking the Holy Spirit to help you understand. Now consider how God’s wrath against sin is revealed. God gives a man over to what He sees inside him. He judges that he is unbelieving, and then to reveal His judgment is right, He reveals Himself in creation and through the gospel, and his unbelieving response proves God’s judgment is true. Again, God’s judgment precedes the unbelieving response to the gospel or God’s revelation. He sees the unrighteousness and ungodliness in the man that suppresses the truth, judges it, and then reveals His judgment by leaving him to himself to do what God sees in his heart. So when the Son of God comes into the world as the light of the world, and a man doesn’t believe, it is evidence that he is already judged.That’s why Jesus said, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” So here’s the encouragement for today. If you are living to love with Jesus, you believe that your sin has been judged in Him at the cross. Your unbelieving, self-directed life has passed away. You are not judged like the unbelievers are. You also believe that He lives and that He is your life. That’s why you live today—to love with the living Christ who dwells inside you. Does this encourage you? I hope so. Otherwise, you have been judged already, and I encourage you to repent of not...
John 3:17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.As we consider verses 16-18, we want to be careful not to think that God loves everyone in the world with the same love. Jesus was making the point to Nicodemus that eternal life isn’t just for the Jews. God promised Abraham that through him, the nations would be blessed. Psalms 22:27-28 declares God’s love for the nations. “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD’S and He rules over the nations.” Isaiah prophesied in 2:2, Isaiah 2:2, “Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it.”From before the foundation of the earth, God planned that everyone he would save in the world would only be saved through Jesus, His son. The plan from the beginning was to send His Son into the world to take away the sins of the world, not meaning every sin of every man, but that there would be no sins taken away from anyone that was not taken away by and through His son, Jesus. Peter explaining to the Jewish rulers, elders, and scribes how the lame man was healed in the temple said, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). That is the point in these verses.Nicodemus had mentioned at the beginning of the conversation with Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher.” Jesus corrected his understanding. He came from God this first time to be a savior. He will come another time as the judge of the world. That second coming is recorded in Acts 17:31: “Because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” We live in what is called the age of the Gentiles. Paul referred to it in Rom. 11:25: “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” This is the time when the Spirit of God is blowing through history, giving life to the Gentile world through the gospel. Each believer becomes a testimony of the love of God for the world, as Jesus mentioned in John 3:16. Living to love with Jesus is how we participate in the advancement of the kingdom of God. Our love for others is a testimony to Jesus’ resurrection and the continued demonstration of His love for the world. We have been saved through Jesus, and therefore, we expect others to also be saved through Him. He came to live and love in us so others might be saved. There is no other name given by which anyone may be saved.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:14-16 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.Do you remember the story from Numbers 21, when the people complained to God and to Moses about food and water? God sent fiery serpents to bite them, and many died. In verse 9, we read, “And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.” Let’s be encouraged by God’s love for His people, Israel, and then His love for the world. Nicodemus would not have been shocked by God’s love for Israel. What would have been shocking would have been to learn that God loves Gentiles in the same way He loves the Jews. These verses in this conversation put the spotlight on what Jesus had been saying. The only way into the kingdom of God for both Jew and Gentile is by new birth, by the Holy Spirit, who gives them faith in Jesus’ substitutionary death. Everyone has been repeatedly bitten by the serpent of sin. Without God’s provision of an object of faith, like the serpent Moses lifted in the wilderness, everyone perishes. It was the love of God for Israel that moved Him to provide a way of healing and deliverance. In these verses, what would have shocked Nicodemus was that God loves Gentiles also with the same kind of love. He is providing a way for anyone in the world to be healed and delivered from sin’s fatal bite. Yes, it is the general love of God that provides the object of faith, but it is the covenant love of God that provides the faith to believe in Jesus, the Son of God. For faith to be given as an assurance of eternal life, it has to have an object. Jesus’ substitutionary death is the object God has provided. Then, God can clearly show those who are in His kingdom through faith. Those to whom God gives eternal life will believe in Him and trust in Him, as the Holy Spirit gives new birth. What were the implications of this conversation to Nicodemus if he understood it? It meant that Jews and Gentiles were on equal ground before God. Self-righteousness and religious practices were meaningless. The old covenant was about to pass away and become obsolete, replaced by a new covenant through the blood of Jesus. Eternal life was to be offered to the world, and the way to eternal life was to be through the execution of the man standing in front of Him. All of this is because of the love of God. As we love with Jesus today, may our hearts be amazed at the scope of God’s love and the love that has provided eternal life to us through the gift of faith. To God be the glory.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:12-13 If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.There’s a lot in these two verses, but I want to focus today on one thing. As of the moment Jesus was speaking, no man had ascended into heaven and descended from heaven but Jesus. He came from heaven, but He had descended from heaven and ascended to heaven many times throughout history. Therefore, He could speak of heavenly things. As He previously said, He spoke of what He knew and had seen. He knew of the new birth from a heavenly perspective. He understood, had seen firsthand, and participated in the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Such is the authority of Jesus when He speaks.The writer of Hebrews told His readers about Jesus speaking of heavenly things when he wrote,God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:1-3)And again in this passage.How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. (Heb. 2:3-4)God has spoken through Jesus of heavenly things, like the new birth and the powerful ministry of the wind of the Holy Spirit. Nicodemus could not see how the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven intersected. His only points of reference were in the natural realm. To his thinking, if one was in the lineage of Abraham, then he was in God’s kingdom or family. When Jesus spoke of the necessity of the new birth, it was outside of Nick’s understanding. It was a mystery to him. A mystery is something that is outside the range of unassisted comprehension—only to be understood with the help of the Holy Spirit. I’ve discovered that living to love with Jesus is also a mystery. One can’t understand it without the Holy Spirit's assistance to believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, has died and was raised (descended from and ascended to heaven), and now has sent the Holy Spirit to generate His life in the bodies and souls of His children. So they live to love with Him in this world. Do you understand that Jesus is life, and He lives in you? Do you see His passion in your life for loving His Father and others? I hope so. That’s what I’m calling you to—to live to love with Jesus.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.It’s not clear who the “we” is to whom Jesus referred. It could be the prophets or the disciples. But it sounds very similar to what John wrote in the intro to his first epistle. “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.”I want to encourage you today that if you are living to love with Jesus, you are included in the “we” of our generation. You know and have seen that Jesus lives and loves through you. By experience, you know Jesus and the truth of the new birth. You can also testify that Jesus lives in you and can live in them. Let’s be sure that our walk matches our talk. We don’t just say we believe Jesus died on the cross and our old powerless and sinful lives died with Him, we also don’t live under the slavery to those lives of unbelief, self-consciousness, and pride. The feelings of our old self must not govern our responses to circumstances and people. To live to love with Jesus is to know Jesus, to know His feelings, faith, obedience, and love, of which we speak. Our lives are a testimony to the life of Jesus that we have seen in our lives. So, our confidence is in Jesus living in us, and when we practice the “truly, truly” of that confidence, our walk will match our talk.I hope we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen in Christ. Even so, there will be some who do not accept our testimony. At the time of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus, Nick didn’t understand or accept Jesus’ testimony. However, we discover later on that he did come to believe and follow Christ. So, let’s not be discouraged if people don’t “get” us or accept our testimony. Let’s continue to love them and share what we know and have seen of Christ. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:9-10 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?”Nicodemus was puzzled and confused at Jesus’ talk about the new birth by the Holy Spirit. “How can these things be?” In 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul wrote, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” Spiritual life cannot be understood by the natural man.Having biblical knowledge also isn’t the same as having a spiritual life in Christ. Nick was considered to be the teacher of Israel, not just a teacher in Israel. Certainly, he was knowledgeable of the Old Testament history and theology. Nevertheless, he could not understand how new birth by the Spirit was possible. Why are spiritual things difficult to understand for those who don’t have spiritual life in Christ?Jesus had just told Nicodemus why the natural man cannot understand the things of God when He said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The apostle Paul further explained why the flesh cannot grasp spiritual life in Romans 8:5-8. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.I was not given spiritual life until I was 29. I grew up attending church, learning about the Bible, having been a youth director, and was a teacher. When I look back at those years, the Spirit of God was with me, making me hungry for spiritual life. Like Nicodemus, I was drawn to people who had spiritual life because I wanted what they had. I wanted to know what I could do to get it. And therein lies the hostility of the flesh. Isn’t there something I can do to get life? And the answer is, “No.” New life in Christ comes like the wind. One can’t control it. One can’t make it happen. It is a gift from above. The encouragement we gain from this truth is that if one is hungry for it, like Nicodemus was, the wind is already blowing, and the hunger is the sound of it. The Father is blowing the hungry soul to Jesus like He did Nicodemus. Living to love with Christ is a result of being wind-blown by the Spirit. Love is the sign or fruit of the Spirit. Do you understand how this can be? If so, rejoice and love on. If not, don’t be discouraged. You are standing in the wind, and in time, you will understand because you will experience the glorious, powerful work of the living Son of God as His Spirit moves in your heart and soul.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:7-8 Do not be amazed that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.“You must be born again by the Spirit.” The word translated wind in verse 7 is the same word translated spirit in verse 6. The analogy is clear. One cannot control the wind or the Spirit of God. Like the wind, the Spirit of God moves as it wishes and where it wishes. You don’t know where either has come from nor where it is going. You only detect where it is at the moment—where you are. I think what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus would have been very troubling. It meant that with all of his learning, social status, and achievements, without the detectable move of the Spirit, giving him new life from God, he was dead and not in the kingdom of God. I guess that Nicodemus was used to being in control of things, and Jesus’ authority with which He spoke and security certainly would have been upsetting. Jesus’ statement should evoke a similar amazement to those who rely on their righteousness or goodness. Flesh goodness is just as impotent and condemned as flesh badness or weakness. Whatever is born of flesh is still flesh, regardless of any perceived benefit or service. That’s why trying to love and serve God and others without Jesus is an exercise in futility. Love, God’s love, only makes an impact where the Spirit of God, the wind of the Spirit, is blowing. It is evidence that the kingdom of God is present, and those through whom the wind is blowing have been born again. We should not be amazed at this reality, according to Jesus. It is the way the kingdom of God is manifested. Have you been born again? I hope so. You can know that you have been because you can hear the sound of the Spirit blowing through your life. You’ll love God’s word, love His people, and love for God to be glorified in your life. May the wind of the Spirit carry you today.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.Today, I want to encourage you to live to love with Jesus. To love with Jesus, one must be born from above by the Holy Spirit. The life of Christ must reside within for the love of God to be revealed. Jesus was talking with Nicodemus about the new birth. Nick responded from a fleshly perspective when he asked about entering his mother’s womb. Whatever is born out of the strength and power of the flesh can only produce flesh work. Jesus replied by speaking of new birth by the Holy Spirit. If one is born of the Spirit, then the fruit is Spirit work.This verse underscores for us the importance of loving with or through Jesus. First, let’s notice that if our loving is flesh born, it is lifeless and fruitless for the glory of God. Second, if our loving is born of the Spirit, it is full of life and fruitful for the glory of God. Someone who is not born from above cannot produce anything but flesh, regardless of how good it may appear to others. God sees the source. It’s flesh. When God gives new life by the Holy Spirit, He does so to produce fruit for His glory by the power of the Holy Spirit.To live to love with Jesus, we must abide in Him and draw from the life of Christ within, which is born from above by the Holy Spirit. When we love like that, we are glorifying God because He is doing the work for us. May we live our lives today filled with the Holy Spirit so that His love is revealed in our lives for God’s glory.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”In this passage, we have further comments from the Lord Jesus about the new birth, giving us three points of encouragement. Again, Jesus prefaced this statement with “Truly, truly,” to emphasize the reality of what He was about to say. So, we have good reason to believe what we are told. First, Jesus gave the means by which one is born from above—water. I won’t take the time or space to explain why this isn’t a reference to baptism. Instead, I encourage you with what the most reliable commentaries conclude. Water was used emblematically. Jesus used water in this way in John 4:14 in speaking to the woman at the well. “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” And again in John 7:38, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” We also learn from other Scriptures that it is the Word of God that is the seed or means of new birth. James 1:18 “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.” 1 Peter 1:23 “For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” It could also be a reference to Jesus Himself, who is the living Word. In John 14:10, Jesus said, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” Then, in John 15:3, Jesus spoke of the cleansing or pruning power of His words that prepared His disciples for fruit bearing. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” So the Father does the cleansing work of new birth through Jesus’ words. We are born again through God’s Word.Second, Jesus spoke of who produces the new birth—the Holy Spirit. We have a very clear testimony to both the cleansing effect of the Holy Spirit’s power in the new birth in Acts 15:8-9. “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.” The Holy Spirit regenerates us and gives us new life.Third, we are encouraged by the result of the new birth—entrance into the kingdom of God. Jesus had just told Nick that without the new birth, one couldn’t see God’s kingdom. This statement perhaps enlightens us as to what Jesus meant by “see the kingdom.” To see the kingdom is synonymous with entering the kingdom. Those who are born again from above gain entrance into the kingdom of God.The word of God is how the Holy Spirit births people into God’s kingdom. This encourages us about what to say to people who ask us about our faith and the hope we have. Our confidence is not in what we have done or are doing but in what God has done and is doing. He has caused us to be born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3) by the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:2) as He implanted the word of God in our hearts (1 Peter 1:23), the fruit of which is a sincere love of the brethren (1 Peter 1:22). Let us praise God for His love and power which has birthed us into His kingdom of love.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?”And the answer is obvious: “No, a man cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born.” We learn from Nicodemus’ question that he had no concept of spiritual regeneration. He didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about, much less see his need of being born from above. Unfortunately, the concept is probably strange to many people today, who, like Nicodemus, have been raised in a God-fearing, Bible-teaching, church-going family. Even more tragic cases are the Bible teachers and preachers who, like Nicodemus, have much knowledge but do not have the life of Jesus born in them from above.More than likely, Nicodemus’ relationship with God was based on his living for God and the accumulation of knowledge about God and the Law. He probably considered himself to be one of the most important spiritual leaders in Israel. We learn later in John 7:50 that he was a member of the Pharisees. With all of his learning and recognition, Nicodemus lacked spiritual understanding of life in the kingdom of God. It is impossible to live to love with Jesus without being born from above by the Holy Spirit. It is the work of the Spirit that transfers us out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God (Col. 1:12). The Holy Spirit is given by the Father and the Son, Who implants within our souls and bodies the life of Christ. He is born in us by the Holy Spirit, like He was born into this world through Mary. In both cases, Jesus receives a body in which to live to love with His Father. As Jesus said in John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” God is love, and He plants His seed (the Holy Spirit) in the soil of our souls. Living to love with Jesus is the fruit of God’s seed. Being born from above, we have the living Word of God, Jesus Christ, dwelling within us. As we abide in Him, His life is revealed in this world. Do you understand what Jesus said to Nicodemus? Have you been born again by the Holy Spirit? Do you see the love of Jesus growing in your life?I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”Let’s notice that Jesus’ words are a reply to Nicodemus’ recognition that Jesus has come from God and that God is with Him. This verse is very popular in evangelism. I want to encourage us today by noting 4 facts. First, what Jesus said in this statement is true. Jesus confirmed a reality in life. Therefore, Nicodemus and we should pay close attention to the truth of what Jesus said here. By the way, let me remind you that the truth is what God says, sees, and does through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the truth (John 14:6). Second. We see the necessity of the new birth. Physical birth into this world is a birth into death. We are born spiritually dead, unable to see the work of God in this world. John echoed this truth in 1 John 3:14: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” Nicodemus was considered by Jesus to be the teacher of Israel. He was, therefore, knowledgeable, dedicated, and a sincere seeker of truth. So, Jesus’ statement that one must be born from above to see the kingdom of God informs us that natural birth, religious zeal, and knowledge aren’t what gives one the ability to see and know God. The Greek word translated again by the NASB is literally from above. So here’s the truth: to have life in the kingdom, that life must be generated by God in heaven. By the way, John had already stated this back in 1:12-13. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Jesus is the life (John 14:6).Third, the kingdom of God may be right in front of you, but without new birth, you can’t see or recognize it. However, one who is born from above has spiritual insight, the ability to see and understand spiritual things. The writer of Hebrews in 11:1 called this faith: the ability to see the unseen things. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Jesus is the way (John 14:6).Fourth, the regenerated person can see God working in everything, which is what the kingdom of God means. The kingdom is wherever the will of an eternal, sovereign God rules or reigns—which is over the entire universe. Psalm 103:19 states it plainly. “The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.” So the person who is born from above can see God at work because the person and the work have the same source of origin—the Spirit of God. So what was Jesus saying to Nick, and what was John saying to his readers? If you can see God’s hand in everything, then you have the life of Jesus. If you cannot, then your greatest need is for God to instill the life of Jesus in you. There’s no way to live to love for the glory of God without the life of Jesus. You must be born from above to love for the glory of God. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 3:1-2 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”John wrote in 2:23, “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing.” Nicodemus was an example of one of these “believers” because of the signs. Our lives should also provoke genuine seekers to inquire about our lives because love is a sign that we are from God. The apostle John wrote in 1 John 4:7, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” I’m guessing John wrote that because of what Jesus said in John 13:34-35. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Love is a sign that we are from God, born of God. I have participated in the training of mission teams sent out by Global Challenge Expeditions based in South Africa for years. One year, a team of 8 young men traveled together for a week on a boat up the Amazon River. The passengers slept on deck in hammocks, and the team built relationships with others who were on board. My friend, Peter, told me about a conversation he had with two men, one an atheist and another a new ager who believed everything happened because of the power of the universe. Peter and his friends shared about the experiences with God that they had on their journey in hopes of witnessing to them about Christ. The two men told of their experiences but attributed their occurrences to either luck or the universe. It was like the contest of signs between Aaron and Moses and Pharaoh’s magicians. One would tell a story of God’s wonders, and the other would try to match the story with the wonders of the universe. Peter said they went back and forth until he drew the attention of the two men to how he and his team loved each other. Peter said something like, “You’ve watched us all week. Have you noticed how we love each other? That’s been the greatest experience of our journey together.” Both of the men remark that they had noticed and that they have never experienced that kind of love and luck, and the universe can’t do that. The door opened for them to have a discussion similar to that between Nicodemus and Jesus. The love of Christ within a community is a sign of God’s presence and power.As we live to love with Jesus, we should expect and be ready for those who notice the love and want an explanation or more information. Are you living in such a way that those who observe your life on a daily basis take notice that there’s a supernatural power at work in you? I encourage you today to be ready for those inquiries. Over the next few days, we have much to learn from Jesus on how to direct those conversations. May we be encouraged today to live to love with Jesus, trusting our Father to draw people like Nicodemus to Christ in us.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:24-25 But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.These two verses are insightful. First, Jesus did not believe in man’s believing as a result of merely undeniable facts, such as signs. The word entrusting comes from the word pistis (faith), which comes from the root peitho (to persuade or convince). When we believe something, we trust in it. Jesus did not trust in man’s natural faith. Nor should we.Second, Jesus knew all men. The comment is interesting because John didn’t say that Jesus knew these specific believers in His name, but that He knew all men. He knew what was in them, namely, the sin of unbelief and the inability of man to generate within himself new life. He knew He could not entrust Himself to any man unless the Father testified to Him that they were His, which leads us to the next insight. Third, Jesus didn’t need anyone to testify or witness on behalf of man because the only testimony He needed was the testimony of the Father, that is, revelation by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men concerning who He is. We see this most clearly in the encounter between Jesus and Simon Peter recorded in Matthew 16:16-18. Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. Do you see it? Once Jesus heard His Father’s testimony on Simon’s behalf, the declaration that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, He knew Simon could be trusted with the keys of the kingdom. No one else could testify for Simon that He believed in Jesus’ name. God-wrought faith is the testimony of God concerning each man. I get this from Hebrews 11. In verse 2, it says, “For by it the men of old gained approval.” The word translated approval is the same root word in John 2:25 translated testify. So, faith is an assurance or a testimony that men receive or gain from God, which testifies of His approval. Then the author went on to write about God testifying to Cain, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and many more that they were righteous by giving them faith. Without the testimony of His Father, Jesus would not entrust Himself to anyone.So we learn from these verses that there’s a difference between the testimony of men who say they believe in Jesus and the testimony of God that produces saving faith in Jesus. Love for God and love for His people is the fruit of God’s testimony concerning a man or woman. That’s why I say we have been called to glorify God by living to love with Jesus. It is God’s testimony to us that we truly have a God-wrought faith to which Jesus entrusts Himself. Please follow my line of reasoning. Love is the fruit of His life. If love is the fruit of our lives, not that we are perfect in love all the time, but that it is the practice of our lives, then Jesus has entrusted Himself to us. Isn’t that assuring?! Living to love with Jesus is God’s testimony to the world that we are His and Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing.The things Jesus did in the temple took place during the Passover, which means His coming death and resurrection were on top of mind. Surely He could not observe the Passover Sabbath week without thinking that He was the substance of the events. He was the lamb slain. His was the blood to be spilled and would mark the doors of hearts over which the death angel would pass. So the cleansing of the temple was a sign among many signs, apparently, done during the feast. John testifies in this verse that there was a faith of some sort generated by the signs. At first glance, this seems like a good thing. However, we are going to learn in the following verses that faith that comes from undeniable facts isn’t the same as faith generated by the Holy Spirit. We’ll talk more about that in the days to come.The point I want to make for our encouragement is what I have been saying in the last few days. We, the church, are a sign that God has placed before the world. As we live to love with Jesus, many will observe our love and believe in His name. But that doesn’t mean they are born again or have new lives. Not everyone who says they believe has eternal life. They may believe it because they cannot deny the facts. Many people have grown up in Christian homes who are like the believers spoken of in this and the following verses. They cannot deny what they have seen, heard, and experienced. They have once been enlightened, have tasted of the heavenly gift, have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, as it says in Hebrews 6:4-5. Yet, they fall away in unbelief. Their salvation is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to be an observable sign that Jesus is God living in bodies of flesh—our bodies. His love in us is the sign of new life and the power of God. Let us live to love with Jesus for His purposes and His glory, leaving all who cross our paths in His hands. We may trust the Holy Spirit to do the miraculous work of imparting new life as He wills.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:20-22 The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.To the unbelieving, the church of Jesus Christ is an absurdity. Notice that the Jews were mocking, scorning, and taunting Him. They were reproaching Him. They couldn’t understand what He meant by saying, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” But before we judge them too harshly, let’s notice that His disciples didn’t get it until after His resurrection. When they became the sign, they remembered His words and believed. I take some encouragement from this.Many times, I have read God’s word and didn’t understand it until days or even years later. I’m sure that as I meditate, pray, and write on these verses, I don’t get all that is being said here. How about you? I bet you’ve experienced the same. Yet that does not render us useless. God is so patient and enduring. His steadfast love is everlasting. He loves us, and there is a time to come when, if He so wills, He will bring to our remembrance what He has said, and it will make sense. In John 14:26, Jesus said, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” His disciples experienced this ministry of the Holy Spirit, of which these verses testify, and so do we. How many times have you been blessed by the Holy Spirit’s ministry to you? When you needed it, He reminded you of some verse of Scripture that was perfect for the moment. That’s happening to me now as I write, and the Holy Spirit connected John 1:22 and John 14:26. I had never noticed that connection before. So the encouragement today is that as we live to love with Jesus, we may expect the Holy Spirit to bring Scripture to mind so that we and others may believe in Him. That’s a great motivation to us to live in and by His Word—read it, meditate on it, memorize it, and pray it. May the Holy Spirit fill us with His Word as we live to love with Him.
John 2:19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”Today, we look at Jesus’ answer to the Jews’ demand that He show them a sign to verify His authority to cleanse the temple of the corruption He found there. First, I want you to notice there’s a play on words here. What Jesus did in the temple was a sign that the temple was to be destroyed. It was prophetic and authoritative. He knew God was destroying the temple of fleshly, powerless, corrupt expressions of religion. His actions were a sign against the temple and the Jews. Second, these words were prophetic. He was speaking of His death by their hands and His resurrection three days afterwards, through which He would raise up a new temple in which God would dwell. Please, let’s stop and meditate on what He said. He prophesied it, and it has come to pass. We are the fulfillment of those words. Listen to the apostle Paul’s understanding of this reality, which he wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:14-17.For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. 16Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 17Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.In verse 17, the words “He is” are not in the Greek. The NASB puts it there as implied. Literally, it reads, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, a new creation…” The new creation is the body of Christ, the temple raised on the third day after His death. We no longer know Christ in His earthly body, but in His new body, His temple, in which He dwells. In Jesus’ response to the Jews asking for a sign, He spoke of both His earthly body and His new body. Doesn’t this amaze you?!We are encouraged today that Jesus knew us that day when He prophesied that a sign would be given. We are that sign! The living body of Christ, filled with His love and holiness, fulfilling God’s purpose in this world. We have been a sign of the authority of Christ over the temple of God. Ephesians 1:22-23 “And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Jesus Christ has authority in His temple.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:18 The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?”Today, we consider the reaction of the Jews to Jesus’ zeal for His Father’s house. Of course, they didn’t understand it. It’s interesting to me that His disciples remembered Psalm 69:9, but the Jews did not. “For zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.” In this verse, we see the beginning of the reproaches of God that fell on Jesus. The Jews displayed contempt for Jesus. They scorned, shamed, and taunted Him. Their reproaches of Jesus were toward God, for Jesus is God. The zeal Jesus expressed for holiness and God’s house was the Father’s zeal. The Jews couldn’t see it because they didn’t believe He was the Son of God, God in the flesh. So they demanded a sign to verify His authority. Tomorrow, we’ll look at the sign Jesus was to give them. But today, let us be encouraged by this: Jesus is God in the flesh, and we not only have trusted in Him, but we have His life in us. We can expect two things. One, that as we live to love with Him, we will have a zeal for holiness and love for His people which will motivate us to drive out sin in our lives. Two, we may expect religious people who don’t have the life of Christ to reproach us, even as the Jews reproached Jesus. The reproaches of those who reproach Jesus will fall on us. We should not be surprised if we are scorned, shamed, and taunted because of our zeal for holiness and love for God and His people.May we not be discouraged by their reproaches, but instead consider ourselves honored that we would be considered worthy of such reproaches. As Jesus said in His sermon on the mount. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matt. 5:10-11).Living to love with Jesus isn’t always easy or comfortable. However, there is a blessing and hope that should fill us with joy. It’s the same hope Jesus had that day when He cleansed the temple. He foresaw the new house that was to be built by His Father and Himself, of which all who believe in Him until the end of their lives are living stones. So walk in love and holiness today with great hope and joy.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:15-17 And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.”If you missed yesterday’s podcast on the previous verse, I suggest you listen to it first. It sets the stage for what we read in these verses. We see Jesus’ zeal for His Father’s glory and His determination to love His elect from all peoples expressed. As I shared from Leviticus yesterday, Jesus fulfilled the Law and cleansed His Father’s house of a leprous mark, preparing the way for His Father’s condemnation and removal of the old covenant. A better covenant with a new house of prayer for the blessing of the nations was coming. The focus of these verses is to testify to Jesus’ zeal for His house. My encouragement today is that Jesus hasn’t changed, and He lives in us. That same zeal is present in our hearts if we abide in Him. His life becomes our life. His purpose becomes our purpose. His attitudes become our attitudes. His zeal becomes our zeal. His love becomes our love. The new house God constructed to replace the old, infected, and condemned house is His church. It’s all of us who believe in Christ for access and fellowship with God. One expression of the love of Christ is zeal for God’s house, which means zeal to love one another in holiness. Jesus has cleansed us forever. He has set us apart to Himself. We have been perfected in holiness for all time (Heb. 10:14). I take this to mean that if I see a sin or fleshliness in myself or my brother, I remove it from my sight, put it out, by faith in the blood of the Lamb who was sacrificed for us. The old house of flesh has been condemned and destroyed by His death, and a new house has been built through His resurrection and life. This zeal to love one another should consume us as Jesus’ zeal to cleanse His Father’s house consumed Him. They are the same because they are both in Jesus, who lives in us. May we be filled with His zeal and love for one another. May we remove those marks of flesh and sin which were condemned at the cross. Let us drive out all greed, hypocrisy, and carnal sacrifices so that His presence and love may fill His house today in zeal for God’s glory.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.We read today about a tremendous demonstration of Jesus’ love for God, the people, and holiness. This is one of two times Jesus cleansed the temple of corruption. Both times were necessary according to the Law of Leviticus 14:34-40.When you enter the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a mark of leprosy on a house in the land of your possession, then the one who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, “Something like a mark of leprosy has become visible to me in the house.” The priest shall then command that they empty the house before the priest goes in to look at the mark, so that everything in the house need not become unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to look at the house. So he shall look at the mark, and if the mark on the walls of the house has greenish or reddish depressions and appears deeper than the surface, then the priest shall come out of the house, to the doorway, and quarantine the house for seven days. The priest shall return on the seventh day and make an inspection. If the mark has indeed spread in the walls of the house, then the priest shall order them to tear out the stones with the mark in them and throw them away at an unclean place outside the city. When Jesus came into the temple, He found a mark of leprosy in God’s house of prayer. And by the way, He owned the house. The Law commanded that the house be cleared of the mark and then quarantined for a period of time to see if the house needed to be condemned and destroyed. If after the house was cleansed, the corruption returned, then God was condemning the house to destruction, and they were to tear out the stones that were infected. Notice in the passage that it was God who put a mark of leprosy on a house. We will read the next couple of days how His zeal, His love for His Father, and the blessing of His people who were to come to pray consumed Him. As He lived to love with His Father, His Father displayed His love for the nations and the holiness of His house. Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 56:6-7, Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to Him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath and holds fast My covenant; even those I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”My dear Gentile brothers and sisters, Jesus loves us! He loved us then, and He loves us today. He has brought us by His blood to His holy mountain, the place of salvation, the new Eden, the holy space where God in heaven has fellowship with redeemed mankind on earth. We have access to God in prayer because we are His house—cleansed, holy to the Lord, if we hold fast our confidence in Christ and the boast of our assurance firm until the end. We do that as we live to love with Jesus.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:12-13 After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days. The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.Let’s begin with a couple of facts. The distance from Cana to Capernaum was around 16 miles (which is almost 26 kilometers for my friends in other countries). The journey from Capernaum to Jerusalem was 85 miles or almost 137 kilometers. The average walker would make the trip to Capernaum in 5 hours and 15 minutes with no stops, so we know that didn’t happen. Perhaps with stops to rest, eat, and perform several unrecorded acts of love for people God put in Jesus’ path, the journey from Cana to Capernaum took a day or so. If we use the same calculations for the trip to Jerusalem, it was perhaps a 4-5 day journey. So from the time of the wedding until Jesus arrived in Jerusalem was somewhere around 12 days to two weeks. I shared these facts with you because that’s around two weeks of Jesus’ life and works of which we know nothing except His general location. What we do know is that every one of those days, He glorified His Father by loving with His Father. Everything He did and said was as necessary, powerful, and life-changing for those the Father put His path as the events at the wedding in Cana. The last verse of John’s gospel says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written (21:25). The same is true for you and me. Very few of the things we do each day will be remembered, much less written of, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t necessary, powerful, and pleasing to the Father. As long as they flow out of an intimate relationship with Jesus, the Father is glorified by Jesus in us. I encourage us all to abide in Jesus and not despise the little things, the mundane, the seemingly unnotable acts of love and service. Although they are not captured in print for others to read or see, the Lord has taken notice. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:10). These many things are not recorded, but they are all for God’s glory.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:11 This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.Today, I want us to be encouraged by the glory of God in Jesus Christ. We learn from this verse that the miracle of changing water to wine was a revelation of Jesus’ glory, which had an impact upon His disciples.First, consider that the glory Jesus manifested was given to Him by the Father. We learn that from John 17:5, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” And in John 17:22, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one.” The way the Son of God received glory from His Father was by His Father working in and through Him. The way the Son glorifies the Father is by receiving His will, word, and power one moment at a time. Jesus says as much in His answer to Philip, who asked that He show the Father to him and the disciples. Listen carefully to these words and notice that Jesus’ primary aim was that the Father be glorified in the Son.Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.Do you see it? When Jesus receives the Father’s thinking (which, by the way, is the Greek root of the word glory), the Father does His works in Him. When the Father does His works in Jesus, He glorifies the Father, and He receives and manifests His glory from the Father. S,o this makes sense that John would say that the sign Jesus did at the wedding manifested His glory. I draw this conclusion. Jesus glorified His Father, God, by living to love with His Father. We fulfill our purpose of glorifying God by living to love with Jesus as He glorifies the Father through and with us.Here’s the encouragement for all who live to love with Jesus. Like Jesus, our primary aim is that the Father be glorified in the Son. The Father is glorified in His Son, Jesus, as we abide in Jesus and His life is manifested in and through us. As we live to love with Jesus, Jesus does the work of love for us as we ask Him to do it like He promised in John 14:13-14. Did you notice above in those verses that Jesus invited them to ask, and He promised twice to do it for them? If the Father does the work in Jesus, His glory is manifested. If Jesus does the work in us, the Father i glorified in the Son in and through us. Therefore, I conclude with this encouragement. When we live to love with Jesus, and Jesus lives His life in us, we fulfill our ultimate purpose of glorifying God. We receive the glory of God manifested in the life of Jesus Christ, who lives in us. When this happens, people will believe in Jesus as they witness and experience His love. There is no greater purpose for your life than this: living to love with Jesus for the glory of God. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:8-10 And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him. When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.”What an amazing experience this must have been for Mary as well as the servants who had exhausted themselves filling and transporting the six waterpots. They obeyed Jesus and became participants in Jesus’ first miracle of His ministry. This underscores the importance of bringing our problems to Jesus and obeying Him as we walk with Him. I’m reminded of verses 8-9 in chapter 5 of Hebrews. “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.” Jesus becomes the source of salvation to everyone who obeys Him. The obedience spoken of in that case is to believe in Him by entering God’s finished work through Jesus Christ as our High Priest (Heb. 4:14-16). However, in this story, we see an example of the fruit of obedience daily, situation by situation. If we draw near to God through Jesus Christ, any time we need mercy or grace to help in time of need, we can be confident He will give us what we need on time, just like He did at the wedding. Mary brought the need and the servants to Jesus. They obeyed Him, and He was faithful to deliver them out of the predicament. This will happen to us as well if we will abide in Him, receive what He gives us to do, and do it with all the strength and wisdom He gives us.Living to love with Jesus is an adventure of fullness. We become participants in the miraculous work of God in this world. We will experience His faithfulness, and as a result, our faith and love will grow. Let’s notice that when we obey in faith what He gives us to do, He always supplies abundantly. In this case, the host and guests were fully satisfied. Additionally, I’m sure they had a lot of great tasting wine left over, just like there were many baskets of fish and bread left over when He fed the thousands. We may expect God to do above and beyond what we could think or ask if we will surrender our lives to His service of love. There is great joy in living with such purpose and obedience to Christ.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:6-7 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim.First, let’s recall what happened at the wedding in Cana. Jesus and His disciples were attending a wedding, probably of a family friend. A serious problem arose when the supply of wine ran out. Mary brought the problem to Jesus. Jesus’ response to Mary was that this problem wasn’t His or His disciples’ problem, and that His time hadn’t come. Nevertheless, His mother, Mary, in some way responsible for the servants serving the wine to the guests, told the servants to do whatever Jesus said to do. So now the situation is in Jesus’ hands.Second, let’s consider Jesus’ options. He could have done nothing. Or He could have spoken wine into existence into the empty wine jars that had been used. His Father could have had a wine supplier drive by at just the right time with a wagon full of wine. But there’s an important lesson for us to learn about Jesus. He believed everything that happened in His life was given from His Father to glorify His Father by demonstrating His satisfaction in Him and to reveal the Father’s love. So He simply received what the Father gave Him, both in the specific circumstance and in response. When Jesus noticed the waterpots, He received them as the Father’s provision for the situation. This is what He did later in His ministry when faced with the hunger of thousands of people on a couple of occasions. The Father provided a few fish and loaves of bread, so He worked with what He had. In living to love with Jesus, if we will have the same humble attitude of receiving what our Father gives to us, His love will flow freely through us.Third, when God is at work, it doesn’t mean we won’t have to work. Finding as much as 180 gallons of water, filling the pots, and then transporting them wasn’t an easy or quick task. It could have taken hours. All we know from John’s report is that the servants did what Jesus said. The typical way God works is through us. In this instance, the servants were serving the guests but doing so through the guidance and power of Christ. What they had to do certainly wasn’t convenient nor easy. As we live to love with Jesus, we should not be surprised nor put out if loving comes with the cost of inconvenience and exhaustion. We, like the servants, should be ready to do whatever He tells us to do so that God may be glorified as we look to Him for guidance and power.Fourth, the servants didn’t just put water in the pots, they filled them to the brim. As we serve the Lord in all that we do, let’s do it to the fullest degree. Think of it this way. The servants gave Jesus as much water as they could for Him to work with. Let’s do the same today. Let’s give Jesus all that we have so that He might be revealed in glory through our lives. We simply receive from Jesus and then give our all.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”It seems obvious that Mary had some responsibility at the wedding that involved the serving of the wine. It was probably an act of love for dear family friends. Giving directions such as this indicates she had some jurisdiction over the servants. At this point, she introduced Jesus into the situation and gave Him jurisdiction over them. As we live to love with Jesus, that’s what we are to do in every situation. We recognize that He has jurisdiction, the right to speak, over our lives. You’ll notice, that’s exactly what she did. She gave Jesus the right to speak to the servants. As we go through each day, I encourage us to look to Christ, expecting Him to speak into our lives and into the lives of those we encounter. We can see from Mary’s directions to the servants that she fully expected Jesus to speak and act. That’s faith in action.Let’s be encouraged by Mary’s example. She loved her friends and hosts, the servants, and the guests at the wedding by bringing Jesus into the situation. That’s what living to love with Jesus is. It’s faith at work through love. We also can bring Jesus into every situation and relationship by recognizing His presence. He lives in us. We believe He will provide the grace needed in the moment, just as Mary did. I also am encouraged to have an attitude of attentiveness and obedience to Jesus and His word. When we read the Bible, we are paying attention to what Jesus says. The Word of God, applied to our lives by the Holy Spirit, is the same as listening to Jesus speak. Our response should be to do what we hear. I’m reminded of Jesus’ comment about who His family is. It’s recorded in Luke 8:21. “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” Like the servants, don’t we want to listen to whatever Jesus says and do it?So, our encouragement today is to have the same attitudes Mary and the servants had. Bring Jesus into every situation. Listen to Him, and then do what we hear. That describes well the live to love with Jesus adventure. Pay attention and obey.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.”Jesus’ answer to His mother first strikes me as disrespectful, but we know it wasn’t. You’ll notice He didn’t ask, “What does that have to do with Me?” Perhaps it was another way of saying, “Their problem isn’t our problem.” Then He brought up a timing issue. “My hour has not yet come.” So what encouragement may we draw from Jesus’ response to His mother?As I noted yesterday, Jesus’ agenda and time table was 100% the same as His Father’s. So, let’s see if we can process this as He would, by reviewing the three foundational worldview truths of Jesus.There is only one God, My Father, from whom are all things, and He is love.My Father’s love is enough. He satisfies the deepest needs of my soul.My Father’s purpose in all things is to reveal His life in me for His glory.We learn from John’s gospel that Jesus abides in His Father’s love and will. John 15:10. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” Psalm. 40:7 informs us regarding Jesus. “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of Me) to do your will, O God.’” So we know in this instance at the wedding in Cana, Jesus’ was indicating to Mary that His life wasn’t dictated by the tyranny of the urgent or the glory of men. The only One who mattered in His life was ultimately, His Father. Yes, He knew the Father had control of the wine situation, but He was waiting on His Father for His response. That’s what living to love with His Father looked like. This is the encouragement we can draw from this verse. If we are living to love with Jesus, we too must learn to wait on the Lord before we react or respond to every circumstance and person. We glorify Him as we find our satisfaction in Him and His will above all things. Then, when He reveals Himself through u,s we display His fruit, by which the Father is glorified and pleased.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”Well, that was a big problem and quite embarrassing to the host. We don’t know at what point the wine ran out, but it became the setting for Jesus’ first miracle. Mary brought the situation to Jesus. Since Jesus is with us, we need to remember that every problem we encounter should be brought to Him. Let’s look at this situation from Jesus’ perspective. First, Jesus believes there is only one God from whom are all things, so He knows the situation has been given to Him from His Father. Second, He also knows that His Father’s love and doing His Father’s will is His greatest satisfaction for His soul. So, as we will see in the next verse, He isn’t swayed by the expectations of His mother, the host, or the attendees. So this situation is primarily between His Father and Him, not He, Mary, and the host. Third, Jesus knows that His Father’s purpose in this situation is to reveal the Father and bring Him glory. Jesus abides in the Father, and we know from John 8:28 and 14:10 that He doesn’t do anything or speak anything of His own initiative. So when He speaks or acts, we are seeing the Father at work. Have you realized that since Jesus lives in you, that every situation in your life, since you believed in Christ, is given to Jesus in you? It is given by the Father so you might glorify God by being most satisfied in Jesus’ love and will for your life and therefore reveal the presence and power of Christ in each situation. Just as in this situation at the wedding, every circumstance in your life as a believer in Jesus is given to you for the Father and the Son to be glorified and revealed. You aren’t the primary concern. The Father and the Son are the focal point. This is the mindset of living to love with Jesus. We have His worldview that shapes our responses to people and circumstances. To abide in Jesus is to think like Jesus. You know whatever happens in your life is being given by the Father to the Son living in you so that He can be glorified as you honor Him as God and find your soul’s greatest satisfaction in the love of Jesus and God’s will. Then you wait on Jesus to give you what you need to say or do to reveal that He lives in you. Whatever you receive, you give— if God’s word confirms that it is an expression of His truth and love.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 2:1-2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.We can’t be encouraged enough to live our lives with Jesus. In this verse, we see that both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. I guess the hosts knew that if they invited Jesus, they had to also invite His disciples. He didn’t go anywhere without them. Or maybe the hosts understood that if they invited Mary, they had to invite her Son and His entourage. Whatever the case, there’s a great truth I want to encourage you with today: If you go somewhere, Jesus is with you, just like if Jesus went somewhere, His disciples were with Him.There’s never a time when Jesus isn’t with us. In John 14:16, it is recorded that Jesus told His disciples, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” Then, in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” And after giving them marching orders to go to make disciples in the nations, He promised, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The encouragement is this: Wherever you are, He is with you! You may expect to see Jesus do great things because you are with Him, and He is with you. The next few days, we’ll be encouraged by how the Father loved His Son, His mother, and the entire wedding party. Walking in love with Jesus is an adventure. Remember, you are not alone. Wherever you go, Jesus is with you.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:50-51 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”We’ve been talking the last two days about the supernatural work of God in our lives and in the lives of those Jesus loves through us. These two verses testify to the supernatural work of God to be expected in the lives of those who have been granted faith in Jesus. Upon Nathanael’s testimony of faith, Jesus planted seeds of expectation in him. Jesus knew that if Nathanael believed in Him based on the initial revelation by the Holy Spirit, then it was the first revelation of even greater revelations about Jesus to come. It is the same with all who believe in Jesus. As the writer of Hebrews 11:1 stated, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.” Let me encourage you today in this way. Jesus gave two commandments in one. We are commanded to believe in Jesus and to love one another as He has loved us. The apostle John shows how connected these two commandments were when he wrote in 1 John 3:23, “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” Do you see it? One commandment is explained by two commandments: believe and love. Now, let’s make the connection with what Jesus knew about Nathanael in light of his testimony of faith. Jesus knew that faith was a testimony of God on behalf of the believer. And if the Father gives someone faith, then there’s more, much more to come. For Nathanael, Jesus was specific about what He was to see. The encouragement for us is this: If God has given us the ability to obey the first commandment to believe, then He will also give us the ability to obey the second commandment to love. Jesus assured Nathanael of future grace and revelations of God’s power and glory. We can also draw a similar assurance because Jesus’ assurance was based on truth. He said, “Truly, truly.” This was another way of testifying that Nathanael’s faith was the work of God. If you believe in Jesus, then I can say to you also, “Truly, truly, you will see greater things in your life than the work of faith. You’ll see the heavens opened over the Son of God abiding in your life. You will do greater works of grace and love for the glory of God because that’s how faith works—through love (Gal. 5:6). Let me make another connection and encouragement from this passage. Jesus said Nathanael would see angels descending and ascending on the Son of Man. Hebrews 1:13-14 tells us about the ministry of angels.
John 1:49 Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.”Yesterday, we noted the supernatural element in our love and concern for others as we live to love with Jesus. The Holy Spirit can give us a personal knowledge of people as He helps us be attentive to them. Nathanael’s conclusion from Jesus’ revelation that He knew him indicates another supernatural work as we love with Jesus. If you remember, Philip’s testimony to Nathanael was, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote-Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael knew what Philip meant by it because he declared, “You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” The statement seems convincing, doesn't it? There doesn’t seem to be any doubt or question in Nathanael’s mind. This testifies to another supernatural element to this encounter between Jesus and Nathanael—the revelation of who Jesus is by the Holy Spirit. This should encourage us that as we receive Jesus’ work in our own lives, we can expect the Holy Spirit to also work in the hearts of those we love with Him. Our confidence isn’t in our abilities or words but in His presence and power. That’s why we pray each morning in the Live to Love prayer, “Father, anoint and fill us with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that we can love and trust You and love those You put in our paths today for Your glory.” By the way, if you haven’t made a habit of praying your version of the Live to Love prayer, I invite you to visit www.livetolovewithjesus.com and familiarize yourself with the prayer. Take up the invite to pray the prayer each morning for 60 days, and see what the Holy Spirit does in your heart and life as you prepare yourself to be a channel of God’s love through the life of Jesus dwelling within you.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:47-48 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”Did you notice what Jesus did to draw Nathanael? Jesus’ comment revealed that Jesus knew him to some degree that was important to Nathanael. This encourages me in how I might love like He loves—be attentive to people, notice important things about them. For instance, I’ve noticed that if I remember someone’s name after first meeting them and call them by name within the first minutes, it shows that I care. Noticing their name on a name tag and calling them by name makes the encounter more personal. Jesus remarked that Nathanael was a man of integrity, which took the encounter to a personal level. There seems to be a supernatural element to this encounter with Nathanael. It’s difficult to know for sure whether Nathanael was within eyesight of Jesus when Philip “found” him. Nevertheless, I think when we are living to love with Jesus, expecting Him to love whoever He puts in our paths, we can expect a supernatural attentiveness and insight. I remember walking into the Brave to Love ministry offices. It is a ministry in South Africa dedicated to rescuing women from sex trafficking. I initially felt awkward about this opportunity because, as you probably know, my ministry has primarily been to men. However, the Holy Spirit reminded me that Jesus was the one loving them. I simply needed to go, receive, and give what I was given by the Holy Spirit. It was a supernatural encounter.The Lord reminded me that they had been treated as objects, and He wanted to show their value as persons by simply caring enough to remember their names as I met them, and as soon as possible, call them by name—often. I asked about their stories and the history of the ministry and then gave glory to the Lord for His grace to them. I don’t know the full impact of that meeting that day; however, when I returned the next year to present a Live to Love conference, some of the staff and girls attended the conference. I would like to think that they experienced the love of Jesus, which drew them to have an interest in a future encounter.The encouragement I am hoping to give you today from this verse is that as you live to love with Jesus, you can expect the Holy Spirit to give you a supernatural concern and care for people, which He will then use to draw them to Christ. They may not know it’s the love of God, or they might. That’s part of the live to love with Jesus adventure. We love with Jesus, experience his love and concern for others, and watch Him work as He draws people to follow Him. The Holy Spirit can give us a personal knowledge of people as He helps us be attentive to them.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:45-46 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote-Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”For our encouragement today to live to love with Jesus, I would like to note two things. First, let’s be encouraged by the Spirit-led excitement in Philip to share the good news of finding Jesus. How much more should we be ready to share what we have found in Christ. We know the good news of sins forgiven and access to His throne of grace. We have Him living in our hearts and empowering our lives. May we be ready to share with those God puts in our paths what we have found in Christ. Second, let’s notice Philip’s wise reply to Nathanael’s hesitancy to believe. Not everyone God puts in our paths will be satisfied with our testimony. They need to see for themselves. I don’t know if Philip expected Nathaniel’s resistance, but what a great response, “Come and see.” We should not be afraid to put the spotlight on Jesus. We may expect the Holy Spirit to make Him known. That’s why we invite people to come to our churches or Bible studies. That’s why we pray with and for them. We want them to be in His presence—to see for themselves that Jesus lives. I hope this encourages us to be confident to invite unbelievers into a relationship with us. When we live to love with Jesus, we know that if they spend time with us, Jesus will love them through us. If He puts them in our lives, then we, like Philip, may be confident that if they hang out with us, they will see for themselves that Jesus lives. All we have to do is invite them onto our turf, where they can see Jesus’ love flowing between the members of His body. That’s where Jesus stays. The apostle Paul taught this truth in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17. “Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” Philip could take Nathanael to Jesus in the flesh. We no longer can do that, but Jesus now dwells in a new body. Paul called the body of Christ with many members a new creature. That’s how we know Jesus now. So we can also tell the person with objections and hesitancy to “come and see.” Then we lead them into the fellowship of believers so they may see Jesus for themselves. Imagine with me the confidence we would have to tell people to come and see if we knew most of the people in our fellowship were living to love with Jesus. Jesus said that it was His love through us that would convince people that Jesus was sent by God (which is what Messiah or Christ means) and that He lives. John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” And in His prayer in John 17:20-21. “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” So let today’s verse encourage us to be bold and to invite the doubting and skeptical to “Come and see.”I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:43-44 The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.Jesus calls everyone to follow Him. Matt. 16:24. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” And again, John 12:26, “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me.” Let’s consider what is implied in Jesus’ command, “Follow Me.”First, it implies that Jesus has authority. Not just anyone can, out of the blue, tell someone to follow them and expect obedience. When Jesus said, “Follow Me,” He clearly thought He had the authority to do so. Indeed, as our creator, He does have the right to direct us as He pleases. Jesus is Lord and Master. All authority has been given to Him in heaven and earth. He can not only tell us to follow Him, but He can also tell us to go as He does in the Great Commission. Second, it implies that He has a plan for those who follow Him. If your boss came to you and said, “Follow me,” you know he has something in mind for you to do, and he intends to show you. So when Jesus tells Philip to follow Him, Philip knows Jesus has a plan for his life.Third, it calls for self-denial and surrender of one’s own plans and agendas. This is clear when Jesus said in Matt. 16:24. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” Philip knew Jesus expected him to lay down whatever plans he had for his life and surrender himself to do what Jesus had planned for him. Fourth, the command to follow reveals where the Spirit of God is working. The natural man won’t give up his self-life, his own aspirations, his purpose in life and submit to Jesus’ beliefs and way of thinking. Only one who believes that Jesus has authority over him would obey the call. Such faith is a work of the Holy Spirit, as Peter noted regarding the first Gentiles who believed. “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:8-9). So the command to follow reveals where the Holy Spirit is at work.Fifth, in those who hear the call to follow and obey, they have every reason to have a sense of hope and expectation. One doesn’t abandon his own will and surrender himself to another without believing the new purpose and plan is better than the present one.Sixth, to be told to follow is an honor. It is a tribute to you if your boss selects you to come with him to fulfill some important task. I again cite John 12:26, “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” The Father will honor those who serve Jesus and follow Him. So what is Jesus’ plan for those who follow Him? Jesus told His followers, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples” (John 15:8). And what is the fruit we are to carry? The fruit of the life of Jesus Christ—His love. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” That was the plan Jesus had in mind for Philip when He said, “Follow Me.” Jesus’ plan for us is the same—to take on His purpose and thinking. He calls us to live to love with Him for the rest of our lives. What an encouragement for all who have heard His call to follow Him. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated as Peter).Names are important. Obviously they are identifiers. The name, Simon, was the most popular name in the first century Hebrew culture. It is a derivative of Simeon. It means to hear or to listen or to understand. In Matthew 16, when Jesus told Simon he would be called Cephas or Peter, we learn that Peter means rock. Let’s consider how these two names relate to each other for our encouragement today.First, Jesus told Simon Peter that He would build His church upon this rock. He didn’t say He would build it upon Peter, but upon the Father revealing that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Let’s consider the context of Matthew 16:16-19.Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”Jesus would often say, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Simon Peter was a testimony to how Jesus builds His church—with the Father giving its members ears to hear— that’s the meaning of the name Simon. Jesus stated it plainly—His Father gave Simon the ability to hear and understand who Jesus is. He gave Simon the power to believe. The apostle Paul understood this truth when he wrote to the Romans in 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” So hearing from the Father comes first. Second, once someone hears and faith in Christ is received, then he or she becomes a living stone in Jesus’ church. The gift of hearing—Simon—is the rock—Peter—upon which Jesus builds His church. The second name follows the first name. God builds His church through Jesus as faith comes from supernatural hearing. There must first be Simon before there can be Peter. When you put the two together, the church of Jesus Christ is built. The names Simon and Peter reflect God’s work in building the church.What happens when you put hearing and faith together? Notice in the Matthew 16 passage, Jesus said He would give Simon Peter the keys of the kingdom, which in essence is faith at work, binding and loosing what has already been bound and loosed in heaven. It is the gift of faith that unleashes the will of God in the unseen realm into this world. That is the work of His church. The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, said, “For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.” That’s how the Lord builds His church. We are given ears to hear Him, faith is produced, and then we love with Him, unleashing His power and will in the world. In a wonderful sense, all believers are built on the meaning of the names Simon and Peter. That’s what’s in the names.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:40-41 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ).It’s hard to imagine Andrew’s excitement when telling Simon Peter that they had found the Messiah. The nation of Israel had been waiting for Him since the time of Abraham and all mankind had been waiting since God’s promise to Eve recorded in Gen. 3:15. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” Now we know why Andrew wanted to know where Jesus was staying. He planned on getting his brother, Simon, to bring him to Jesus, and He did. I find it difficult to maintain my excitement about who I’ve found in Jesus because I’ve been so familiar with Him for most of my life. It’s easy for the love and excitement to grow cold over time. I need verses like this one to remind me that we not only have found the anointed One, but He has also found us and has come to live in us to keep the fire burning and keep us passionate about living to love with Him.He has anointed us in the Holy Spirit, who has taken up residency in our souls and bodies. We are where He stays. What does that mean? Whereas Andrew had to bring his brother, Simon, to where Jesus stayed, whoever comes into our path has come to Jesus in us. We may introduce them to Him by the way we love and share our excitement about Him in the power of the Holy Spirit. May God fill us with the excitement of Andrew in bringing others to Jesus.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:38-39 And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when Jesus and the two disciples encountered one another. When Jesus saw them following Him, He went right to the heart. “What are you seeking?” They probably wanted to know where Jesus was staying so they could plan the rest of their day, but certainly they were interested in more than where Jesus stayed. The follow-up question might have been, “Why do you want to know where I’m staying?” We don’t know anything else about what happened. We may assume they followed Jesus to where He was staying and hung out with Him to discover who He was for themselves.What do we seek from following Jesus? Do you know where He stays? The word translated “stay” in this verse is the same word translated “abide” in John 15:10, where Jesus said, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” Jesus abides in the Father’s love. How would you like to stay where Jesus stays? Jesus came so that we might stay where He stays—in the Father’s love. He is the way to the Father.Let’s turn to John 15:5-9 and substitute the word “stay” for the word “abide.” I am the vine, you are the branches; he who stays in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not stay in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you stay in Me, and My words stay in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; stay in My love.I want to encourage us today to stay where Jesus stays. If we are true followers of Christ, we will stay where Jesus stays—in the Father’s love. Therein is life and fruitfulness. Abide in Jesus today, and let Him disciple you so that you can carry His fruit for the glory of the Father and Jesus Christ.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.Two of John the Baptist's disciples heard him testify that Jesus is the Lamb of God. They clearly understood what John was saying. This is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. On hearing John’s witness regarding Jesus, they followed Jesus. They trusted John, and God used him to draw these two men to His Son.This encourages us of what God can do with our witness regarding Jesus. All who are believers in Jesus Christ know who He is and have believed God’s testimony regarding Him. We who live to love with Jesus become forerunners for Him in our generation. Like John the Baptist, we have our experiences with Jesus to share with others. We also can expect the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of those who hear our witness just as He did in these two disciples. This encourages us to be bold and to share what we have seen and experienced with Jesus. Those who follow us, who know us personally, may then follow Jesus. The writer of Hebrews described a similar experience of the power of God accompanying the testimony of believers like John. In Hebrews 2:3-4 we read, “After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.” We may rely on the power of God to draw people to follow Jesus as we love with Him whoever He puts in our paths. There will be some who hear us speak of Jesus, who will also follow Him, just like these two disciples mentioned in this verse. God is still using the testimony of His followers to build His church. May God use us today to draw people to follow Jesus as we love them with the love of Christ.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:35-36 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"We come to the second time John the Baptist recognized Jesus as the Lamb of God. In vs. 29, the apostle gave this report about John the Baptist. “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” Jesus is like a lamb.The first time a lamb is mentioned in the Bible is in Gen. 22:7-8. Abraham was taking Isaac to be sacrificed when Isaac asked, “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’” We know the rest of the story. God provided a ram caught in the thicket as a substitute for his son to provide a type of Christ.Lambs were also offered as sacrifices in the tabernacle or temple. We and John’s first readers were familiar with the Passover lamb commemorating the passing of the death angel over the people of Israel in Egypt so that the firstborn among them would not die. The prophet Isaiah wrote in 53:7 that Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah of God, was like a lamb to be slaughtered. “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.”So John testified twice that Jesus was the lamb of God, understanding He was sent to be a sacrifice for sins. Yet, when John was imprisoned, he sent two of his followers to ask Jesus if He was the expected one (Luke 7:19-20). It seems strange to me that he would ask such a question when he had prophesied that Jesus was the Lamb of God. It makes me think that both times when John referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God were Holy Spirit-inspired moments—more for us than for The Baptist. Let’s remember, the apostle John knew the whole story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, which John the Baptist never saw. Furthermore, more than likely, the apostle John was one of the two disciples standing with the Baptizer when these statements were made. So when John wrote this account, the Holy Spirit reminded him of these two declarations. They are the central point of this gospel, for John wrote in 20:30-31,Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.Today’s verses contain Holy Spirit selected truth about Jesus upon which we can base our lives. He is God’s lamb given for us that we might have eternal life and not the death we deserve. This is central to understanding the love of God for us—the sustained direction of the will toward our highest good, at the cost of the life of His Son, in the power of the Spirit, for the glory of God. From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the Holy Spirit declared Jesus to be our savior through His testimony from heaven and then through John the Baptist. This is why we live to love with Jesus. God gave us His Son because He loves us. Jesus laid down His life in this world to live to love with His father, and we lay down our lives in this world to live to love with Jesus. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:34 “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”Luke 3:22 records what John saw. “And the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, 'You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” John the Baptist saw firsthand the Spirit of God descend and remain on Jesus so he could testify that He is the Son of God. He heard God speak to Jesus and call Him His Son. Surely, John couldn’t unsee or unhear such an event. It would be etched in his memories like nothing else. So we have eyewitness testimony regarding Jesus. He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. He was anointed with the Holy Spirit so that He could anoint all who believe in Him with the Holy Spirit. Listen to the apostle Paul describe the anointing of the Holy Spirit in Romans 5. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.When we are anointed by the Holy Spirit, God’s love is poured out in our hearts—like anointing oil is poured out. We are baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit, and immersed into His love. Paul later in His letter to the Romans wrote of the confidence He had that nothing could separate us from God’s love in Christ. This baptism by the Holy Spirit is the foundation and fountain of living to love with Jesus. Has the Jesus anointed you in the Holy Spirit? Do you experience His love and presence so that you can exult in your tribulations because His love satisfies your soul? The more you live to love with Him, the more you will be filled with His grace and fullness. May you be filled to overflowing with His love for God’s glory and joy.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:32-33 John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’”John the Baptist had an encounter with God that prepared him to know Jesus. It wouldn’t have been enough for him to say, “Because of an experience my mom had with His mom, my cousin, Jesus, from Nazareth, is the Messiah. The message God wanted Him to proclaim was that Jesus was the anointed One. The one anointed by the Holy Spirit is the one who baptizes or anoints in the Holy Spirit. The term Messiah in Hebrew means the anointed of God, and it is synonymous with the Christ. We learn from this verse the significance of Jesus’ ministry. He is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. That’s why John came baptizing. If you remember all of this, verse 24 is John’s answer to the question posed to him by those sent from the Pharisees. “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet? John the Baptist was preparing the way for The Baptizer. John baptized in water, and the water signified the Holy Spirit, which is to be poured out when Jesus is glorified by the Father. In John 7:38-39, John recorded Jesus saying, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ This He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John could only recognize the Messiah or Christ publicly once he saw the Holy Spirit descend and remain on someone. That was the sign God gave to John so that he would know, without a shadow of a doubt, that whoever he saw anointed with the Holy Spirit was the anointed One, sent from God to Israel as the Lamb of God to take away sin and to baptize them in the Holy Spirit. The baptism John proclaimed was not what is commonly associated with speaking in tongues. It was a baptism associated with the removal of sins. When someone is baptized by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit immerses or places them into Jesus’ death and resurrection life. See if this makes sense to you. One can tell those who are baptized in the Holy Spirit, not by the gift of speaking in tongues, for there are counterfeit tongues. Those who are baptized in the Holy Spirit are baptized into the life of Christ. The signs of that baptism are the signs of regeneration: faith and love. Faith and love remain upon the initiates like the Holy Spirit remained upon Jesus. Just as Jesus began His public ministry when the Holy Spirit came upon Him, so all who are baptized into the Holy Spirit by Jesus begin their ministry in this world. Their ministry is the same as Jesus’ ministry. He was anointed by the Father. He lived to love with His Father. We who are anointed by the Lord Jesus live to love with Him. Does that make sense to you? We live to love with Jesus because we are anointed by His Spirit, the fruit of which is love.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:31 I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.”John the Baptist did what he did so that Jesus might be manifested. That describes everyone who is a believer and forerunner for Jesus. We live to love with Him so that He might be manifested in this world. The Scriptures teach us that John was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb, and it was by the Spirit that he baptized and preached, preparing the way of the Lord. We also must be filled with the Holy Spirit if Jesus is to be revealed through our lives. Let me remind you of three foundational worldview principles for living to love with Jesus. These express Jesus’ worldview, and as we abide in Him, we live out His worldview. Here they are:There is only one God from whom are all things, and He is love.Jesus’ love is enough. He satisfies the deepest needs of my soul.God’s purpose in all things is to reveal Christ in me and prepare me for eternity.John’s purpose was to prepare the way so Jesus could be manifested to Israel. Our purpose is to live to love with Jesus so that He can be revealed in this world. We reveal Him as we glorify Him by being most satisfied in Him—filled with His Spirit. If we practice applying these three foundational truths, Jesus’ worldview, in every situation, we will manifest the presence of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit will do the work of unveiling Jesus to those He puts in our paths. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:30 This is He on behalf of whom I said, “After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.”John testified to the honor due Jesus Christ. He recognized Jesus’ higher rank, not in an earthly organizational or social way, but rank before God. One can’t be of higher rank than Jesus. He’s worthy of the highest honor, the greatest glory, complete submission, and enduring worship. I think we should keep this verse connected to the previous one. He’s worthy of these things because He is the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. The apostle Paul declared the same truth for the same reason when he wrote to the Philippians in 2:9-11.For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.The writer of Hebrews wrote of Jesus’ lofty rank when he introduced Jesus in this way in 1:3-4.And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.Notice that the reason for the honor and glory is the same reason given by John and Paul—He laid down His life for us to take away our sin.John also testified to Jesus’ eternality. As we know, John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin, and was 6 months older than Jesus. So we know John saying that Jesus existed before him, wasn’t a reference to an earthly age comparison. It must be John’s way of saying Jesus is eternal life. He has always existed. Remember, He was in the beginning with God (v. 2). The source of our love is the eternal, living Word, the glorious Son of God, Jesus Christ. We are living today with Him! Isn’t that beyond full comprehension? We can read this and understand it in part, but to grasp the full glory of it is beyond us now. But some day, it will not be outside our ability to comprehend and understand. We will see Him as He is, wrote John in 1 John 3:2.With all that we have, let us worship Jesus for His rank and glory. Let’s be amazed that we have been united with Him in love and have the privilege of loving with Him. Watch who He puts in your path today to love and care for. Then receive what He gives you and share it with them.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”What a wonderful truth we have here from which to take great comfort. If we look at it from our own perspective, we have our own personal sin-bearer. He removes our sins from us so we can be made right with God. He’s the Lamb of God, pointing to His sacrificial ministry on our behalf. Behold Him! Look at Him! Be amazed at Him! Thank Him.If we look at it collectively, the statement is even more stunning. He has taken away all of the sins of everyone in His body with whom He’s related. Therefore, we have a basis for total forgiveness for those who sin against us. Indeed, we can pray, “Forgive us our sins, debts, and trespasses as we forgive those who sin, trespass, and are indebted to us.” We may share the blessing of the Lamb of God with others.If we look at this statement for insight into Jesus and His character, we can be encouraged that His sin-bearing wasn’t thrust upon Him; He actively took up our sins. He went after it with the full intention of removing it and setting us free from sin’s penalty. His life wasn’t taken from Him, He gave it up willingly. The apostle John rightly defined God’s love in this statement and echoed it in his first epistle. 3:26. “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” And, 4:10. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” So what should our response be to this verse and the ones in 1 John? John tells us. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jo. 4:11). Living to love with Jesus means we willingly take up the sins of others who sin against us and lay down our lives that they might live before us. We don’t call them toxic and cast them into the outer darkness of our lives. Whoever does that does not know God. No, for the glory of God through Jesus Christ, we intentionally, willingly, knowingly, repeatedly take up their sins and recognize Jesus has already taken away their sins to bring that person to God, just like He has with us. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:24-28 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”John answered them, saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.Jesus wasn’t one to draw attention to Himself. The Pharisees, priests, Levites, and Jews did not know that Jesus was greater than John the Baptist. They were proud of themselves for being in the know. If anyone was somebody of religious, spiritual, and social significance, they must surely have their approval and attention. That’s why the Pharisees sent the priests and Levites to question John about who he thought himself to be. He was making a stir, and they had to know everything about him to maintain control. But John surely unsettled them with this statement about Jesus that He was among them, in their midst, but they didn’t know Him. Even more unsettling was the fact that John did know Him and considered Him to be so far above himself in significance that even a servant who untied His sandals was far more worthy of honor than John. And John wasn’t insignificant. He was becoming a celebrity among the common people. We may be encouraged by the humility of Jesus. The fulness of God was standing in their midst in complete submission to the Father, waiting for His time to reveal the Father—waiting 30 years. We are encouraged to walk in Jesus’ humility if He is life to us. We don’t need attention, glory, or fame from men. We simply need to wait upon our Father to reveal His Son in us, in His timing, wherever He leads us. Love flows out of humility, or maybe it’s humility that flows out of love. Hm. I’m not sure which is the truth. Perhaps both are true. Nevertheless, today, let’s walk in humility, not seeking the glory of men, but humbly walking in this world with Jesus to love whoever, whenever, wherever He desires.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:23 He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”The ministry of John the Baptist should be a great encouragement to us. When asked who he was, this was his reply. He identified with Isaiah, the prophet. I want us to consider God's great love for His people that He would send someone to prepare the way for His Son. John knew who he was. He knew his purpose—get people ready for Jesus so they would recognize Him when He came. The encouragement I take from this verse is that all believers essentially have the same purpose. We are forerunners for Jesus in the lives of those God puts in our paths. As we live to love with Jesus, we may be asked, “What’s with you? Why do you do what you do?” The questions may be answered with a similar idea as John’s answer. “I am a voice crying in the wilderness of this world, ‘Jesus is coming to you, get ready to receive Him.’” In a sense, John was the organizer of what I call “the hanging-out-at-the-river club.” He knew the Messiah was coming to the river. God had told him to go to the Jordan river in the wilderness and preach and wait. So he did. As we will see in the following verses, he had a message to give, and those who believed him joined the club. Each day, they would go out to hear him and wait for the Messiah. To put it in a more modern setting, we might think of it this way. The river at which we know Jesus is going to show up has several streams uniting into one river: the streams of Bible reading, prayer, meditation on His Word, preaching, and fellowship with believers. We know that’s where Jesus is going to show up. So we call people to come to the river to meet Him when He comes. What do they do while they wait? They get their driveways ready. They clear out anything that might hinder or prevent Him from turning in the driveway of their lives when He comes down the street. John called that preparatory exercise, repentance. Turn away from trusting in your religious exercises of self-righteousness. Repent of unbelief and idolatry. Stop doing things you know are antagonistic to the life of God. Seek His face. That’s making straight the way of the Lord. After making a purchase at a store, I told Lona, the checkout girl, that I had prayed for her that morning. I shared the Live to Love prayer with her and then asked if there was anything specific I could pray for. She said, “No.” I responded, “Then I will pray that Jesus will show up today in your life in an unmistakable way.” She thanked me, and I hope and pray she joined the hanging-out-at-the-river club, expectantly waiting for Him to come. Do we have anything in our lives that hinders the flow of the life of Christ? Are we making His way straight, right, easy so that He sees that we want Him and are seeking Him? Living to love with Jesus is the straight way. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the way to the Father. So let’s walk faithfully today, ready to love with Him whoever He puts in our paths, calling them to get ready for Him to reveal Himself to them. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:19-20 This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”What an important question. Who are you? In the next few days, we will see John’s answer to this question. All we learn from this verse about John is that he didn’t deny Jesus and made it clear that he was not the Christ. For him to even have to deny that he was the Christ reveals the power and anointing that was on John. They knew he wasn’t normal and that the power of God was upon him. Have you ever been asked the question, “Who are you?” How would you answer it? What is your identity? May I help you think about it? I’ve learned four identity principles by thinking about Peter’s answer to Jesus’ identity that may help you. Peter said about Jesus, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” He essentially said that he knew who Jesus’ father was, knew that God was His power source, knew that He was vitally connected to God, and revealed God. So, these four principles have determined and still determine who you are.Father. Who are your fathers? To whom do you belong? Your earthly father and your spiritual father determine your identity course. You derive your name from them.Power. Who or what is your power source? Identity is about power. We look for someone to belong to who has the power to give us significance, acceptance, and affirmation.Connection. With whom are you connected? Since we all have a need to belong, when we find someone or some organization that we think has the power we are looking for, we will connect with them.Revelation. Who do you imitate or have you imitated? Once we decide to connect with someone, we will imitate them to show them that we are like them. Does this help you answer the question, “Who are you?” I hope you’ll think about it. There’s no way we can live to love unless God is our father. He is our ultimate power source; we connect with Him through Jesus Christ, and we reveal that connection through our lives as we love. The way we live our lives reveals our true identity. It’s not what we say; it’s what we do and say. If our father is the living God, and He is love, then His love will be revealed through our lives as we live with Him.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. The apostle had previously said that through Jesus, grace and truth came into being in such a way that they could be realized. In this verse, the same root word is used but translated only begotten. The point is that the one and only God has revealed Himself in such a way as to become relatable to mankind. Up to that time in history, such revelation had not occurred. We obviously don’t have time to go back through God’s relationship with Israel to support John’s point. Abraham, Moses, and the fathers never saw God in such a way that they could relate to Him as a person. As was said in the previous verse, God’s revelation of Himself in the Law did not explain God’s personhood, so His grace and truth were cloaked. John made that clear when he said that no one has seen God at any time.We learn that Jesus is in the bosom of the Father. What’s the point? I think it is in the word translated as explain. Jesus has explained God to the world. The Greek word entails the idea of to lead, carry, and thus to show the way to the Father. Maybe John got the idea from Jesus’ declaration about Himself in John 14:6 and following. See if you can make the connection.Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”Did you get it? Jesus said to the disciples that if they have seen Him, they have seen the Father. That’s the point of verse 18. Jesus comes forth into this world from the bosom of the Father, God, showing us God is relatable. He wants a relationship. It is central to who God is. The Father and Son have an intimate relationship, and Jesus leads the way for us to have an intimate relationship with God as well. As the writer of Hebrews said in 2:10, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. And Peter wrote, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter. 3:18). Jesus leads the way to the Father. He brings us to Him by explaining to us that the Father loves us like He loves His Son. His bosom is open and welcoming to everyone who knows Him through Jesus Christ, His Son. I hope we will let the truth of this incredible verse sink into our souls. Meditate on Jesus and who He is, where He has come from, and what that means to us. That’s how you’ll be encouraged to live to love with Jesus. You are walking in relationship with God, the Father, through His Son, whom He sent to bring you to Him, so you might know that God is love. His will is set to do what is in your highest good (bring you to Him to know and share His glory), no matter what it cost Him (which it cost Him dearly by pouring out His wrath on His only Son, in your place). Jesus shows us, explained through His life and death, what God’s love is. Experiencing His love, being drawn into the bosom of the Father, knowing we are safe and at peace with God, we can love out of the fullness of Christ.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may be encouraged to turn their hearts to God and live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.There’s a pointed contrast in this statement by the Holy Spirit through the apostle John. When the Word of God was given through Moses, grace and truth did not come into being. That’s the idea conveyed in the word translated as "realized.” The Greek root word is similar to our English words genesis or generate. So the idea is that the Law had a flaw. It could not enable one to see or understand both grace and truth. The Law does manifest the truth, but there’s no place for grace in its administration. Many people feel that way about Christianity. They see it as a bunch of do’s and don’ts, which fails to give one an understanding of God’s grace. If you think living to love with Jesus is a law or a standard that you have to live up to in your own strength to be accepted by God, then you don’t really know Jesus. He revealed what James called the royal law or the law of liberty (2:8, 12).When Jesus came, He didn’t replace the truth in the Law; He fulfilled it with grace, thus grace and truth are realized through Him. Having His life in us, we love the truth. We love what He loves, which is righteousness. Heb. 1:9 says, “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.” Because Jesus lives in us, He gives us the desire and the power to love, and it’s not burdensome to us. We see the truth in God’s Word given to us through Jesus, and we receive the grace to walk in it through Jesus. So we live to love with Jesus because grace and truth are realized through Him.Do you get it? Maybe we can see grace and truth more clearly when we read about the New Covenant God made with His people through Jesus. Hebrews 8:10 says, “I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.”Do you realize the grace and truth revealed through Jesus Christ? He doesn’t throw away the Law. He writes it on our hearts and puts it into our minds. That’s both grace and truth. As we live to love with Jesus, we are demonstrating the reality of John’s declaration about Jesus in this verse—grace and truth are realized through Jesus Christ. We fulfill our destiny. We become what we were made for—imagers of God—through Jesus Christ.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may be encouraged to turn their hearts to God and live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.Consider today the fullness of Christ. We learn in verse 14 that Jesus is full of grace and truth. We can be encouraged that there is no end to His grace for us. From Jesus’ indwelling life, we have received of His fullness. That means that there’s nothing we will face today that will prevent us from finding our greatest satisfaction and joy in Him. If we need love in its various expressions—joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control- it is available to us in Christ. Expressing the fruit of the Holy Spirit is what living to love looks like. As we love in this manner, we receive grace upon grace.We might also consider the “we” to perhaps include everyone. There are common graces that everyone experiences from Jesus Christ daily, one after another, yet they might not recognize them. Maybe that’s what Paul was thinking of when he described to the Romans those who are experiencing God’s wrath. They know God and see His goodness and glory in creation but don’t acknowledge God or give Him thanks. They, too, experience common grace upon grace out of Jesus’ fullness.Let us be grateful, not only for the many common graces we receive each day, but also for the specific, wonderful grace upon grace to trust our heavenly Father with whatever He gives us today in life and to love those He puts in our paths. The love of God flowing through our lives pours out of the fullness of the life of Jesus Christ dwelling in us. May we be filled with gratitude, joy, and love in the fullness of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may be encouraged to turn their hearts to God and live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:15 John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’”John the Baptist was born before Jesus was born, yet he said that Jesus existed before him. It can only be that John was testifying to the eternal nature of Christ. It’s a reference not to Jesus’ earthly existence but to His being with God in the beginning, as verse 1 of John testified. John the Baptist also said that Jesus was of a higher rank than he. The idea of rank is interesting since Jesus made comments about John’s rank. Recorded in Luke 7:28, Jesus remarked of John, “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”The author of Hebrews spoke about Jesus’ rank among the angels in heaven when he wrote, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.” In the unseen realm of heaven, Jesus ranks first. Paul wrote to the Colossians about Jesus’ rank above everything in heaven and earth in 1:16-18.For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him, all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.For John to say Jesus outranks him was an understatement. In the kingdom of God, which includes both heaven and earth, John is ranked below the least in the kingdom. Here’s the encouragement. Regardless of where you are ranked, if you’re in the kingdom, God can use you, for you are ranked higher than John. We live to love in the power of the Holy Spirit, with full knowledge of the gospel, the death and resurrection of Christ, which John did not know of because he died before those events. We have a fuller hope than John could offer. We have more of the fullness of the Spirit than John had, and we have both Testaments from which to teach. The least in the kingdom of God is greater than John, even though at that time, he was the greatest ever born of woman. May God use us today to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus as we live to love with Him, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may be encouraged to turn their hearts to God and live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Yesterday, we considered the amazing reality that the Word of God became flesh. First, let’s be encouraged by the reality that Jesus is still full of grace and truth. He never changes. He is the same forever. If Jesus is full of grace, then God is full of grace. In Christ, we see the glory of God, full of grace. Isn’t it encouraging to know that God is a God of grace? If Jesus is full of grace, then He has grace to spare, grace to give. Grace overflows. Second, let’s consider that He’s full of grace. Think of grace as the power of God to do what God requires. God’s grace isn’t blanket forgiveness or just positional righteousness, nor is it that God sets aside the Law or the righteous requirements of the Law. Quite the contrary, grace upholds or fulfills the law at the deepest level because it empowers the recipient of grace to not only love righteousness but to do it—in the power of the Spirit—for the glory of God. God the Father said of Jesus, “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness” (Heb. 1:9). We learn in Heb. 2:9 that Jesus received grace from God to taste death for us all. What was the grace He received? It was the power to do what God required of Him as our high priest and the propitiator for our sins. He is full of grace. He could expend that power to fulfill God’s just requirements and still have infinitely more grace to give to us so we might believe in Him and live to love with Him, which God commands (1 John 3:23). We can live to love with Jesus because He is full of grace, the power to love both God and man.Third, let’s consider that Jesus is full of truth. He’s not full of a truth. He is full of THE Truth. Later John recorded Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:31-32). It helps me to think of truth in this way: Truth is what God does, says, and sees through Jesus Christ. It’s not a feeling, it’s not a perception, and it’s not one’s personal perspective. Jesus is full of reality. If we want to see the truth about God and everything that is happening in the world, we should look at Jesus. Truth is what He’s doing. Therefore, truth is what He sees happening. Since He is writing His story, His narrative is the only thing that matters. We can’t rewrite the narrative to fit what we feel, think, or would like for reality to be. There’s no such thing as “my reality.” There’s only one reality, and it’s the truth in Jesus Christ. Truth is what He is, and He’s full of it—full of what the Father is doing and saying. We, therefore, have something secure to base our lives on—the truth of God revealed in Jesus Christ, the living Word of God.If Jesus is full of grace and truth and He lives in us, then we have that fullness of grace and truth residing in our lives. When God gave us the Holy Spirit, He didn’t give us parts of Jesus or only certain aspects of Jesus. Jesus became our fullness. We are complete in Him (Col. 2:10), lacking nothing. His grace and truth look like love because God is love. So as we live today to love with Jesus, our lives should be filled with grace and truth.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may be encouraged to turn their hearts to God and live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.The Word which was in the beginning with God, was God, through whom all things were made, who was both Life and Light, became flesh and lived among John and his fellow disciples. The writer of Hebrews explained why the Word became flesh in 2:14-15, 17-18.Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.But this verse tells us there’s more. He came to reveal the glory of God. Hebrew’s author echoes this declaration about Jesus: “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power” (1:3). We learn in this verse from John that Jesus was unique in the flesh. There was never, nor will there ever be, anyone like Him to take on flesh. He is the one and only man in whom was the glory of God seen in its fullest measure. What made Jesus unique was that He was full of grace and truth. That cannot be said about any human being. He was full—overflowing with grace and truth. This is the quality of life dwelling inside of all who believe. There’s a fulness in Christ that is not available from any other source in this world. We live to love with Jesus because apart from Him, we can do nothing to bring God glory. “The Father is glorified by this, that we bear much fruit, and so prove to be His disciples” (John 15:8). With Jesus as our life source, we may draw upon His fullness of grace and truth. I hope that today, we will recognize the glorious reality of who Jesus is and what our purpose is in Him. We live to reveal the glory of God in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, not once, but multiplied in all of our lives. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may be encouraged to turn their hearts to God and live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:12-13 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.These verses were written in contrast to the previous statement about Jesus coming to His own, meaning the nation of Israel, and their not receiving Him. As we know, they not only didn’t receive Him, they killed Him. They declared Him an imposter and a demonized fraud, which John revealed later in his gospel. In contrast to the children of Israel are the children of God, described in verses 12-13. First, they received Him by faith as they believed in His name. In the minds of John’s readers, that meant they trusted in the works of Jesus. A child derives his identity and his name from his father. John recorded Jesus saying that a son does the works of his father (John 8:38). When Jesus asked Peter about His identity, Peter declared Jesus to be the son of God (Matt. 16:16), understanding Jesus’ works to be the works of His Father. Those who believed Jesus to be the Son of God, doing the works of the Father, received Jesus for who He said He was. Second, God gave those who received Him through faith the right to become His children. That right of sonship wasn’t something they earned. It was a right given when God regenerated them. So the right was received by virtue of new birth.Third, those who received Him and believed in His name did so because they were born of God. John made it clear that this birth wasn’t by natural means. He explicitly said it was not a right they obtained because of their physical heritage. They weren’t born into it through their earthly parents. They also didn’t receive the right to be a child of God because of a choice they made of their own wills, meaning the faith they had was not produced naturally apart from God’s power. Furthermore, the right to be children of God was not conferred upon them by an agency of man. Someone didn’t simply declare that these people who received Jesus were God’s children. No, as many as were born of God, the spirit of life in the son of God was given to them, and they believed in His name and received Him. Not by choice, but by the transforming, regenerating power of the Spirit of God according to God’s choice. The apostle Paul put it this way in Romans 8.2. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” John had said that in Jesus was life (vs. 4), so when God gives birth to His children, He gives them His life, His Spirit, the Spirit of the Son, the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit creates new life in someone, they believe in Jesus’ name and receive Him. Thus, they are children of God.If this experience is yours, then you know that in receiving Jesus, you have received His life. The assurance that God gave you so you know you are rightfully God’s child is faith in Jesus as the Son of God, sent to do the Father’s will and works on your behalf. You were born again, not to live for God. You were born again so Jesus might live for you! The Son of God was born again in you. He first came into the world in Israel. Now He has been born anew in you, the new Israel of God. The earthly Israel did not receive Him, but as many as are in the new Israel, have received Jesus as the Light and Life of the world. As we live to love with Jesus, we testify to our birthright and love in His name for the glory of God. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may be encouraged to turn their hearts to God and live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.Although every creature Jesus created is His, out of all of mankind, He chose a people to be His own special, holy nation—the tribe of Abraham, the Jews. They alone were the people of promise with a unique destiny and purpose in world history. The privilege and honor of the Jews was described by Paul in Romans 9:3-5.For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.When Jesus came into the world, He came to His own people, but they did not receive Him. As we will be encouraged in the next verse, this was God’s plan and necessary for us to have a savior. We should be encouraged by this fact and motivated by love to pray for God’s people, Israel. The apostle Paul explained God’s purpose in Israel’s initial rejection of Jesus. Romans 11:11, 25-26.I say then, they did not stumble to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery — so that you will not be wise in your own estimation — that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved.God’s own people did not receive Him, so we, Gentiles, would have a savior and become God’s channel of finally blessing them with the gospel.In Jesus’ day, God hardened His own, but perhaps in our day, all whom He foreknew will open their hearts to receive Him; for Paul wrote in Romans 11:2, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.” We should be grateful for them and ready to share the gospel with them should He put them in our paths. So we who live to love with Jesus should have a heart for God’s own people. Let’s be ready to tell them the good news!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may be encouraged to turn their hearts to God and live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.Jesus made the world—everything we see in nature and the heavens was made through Him. This must be important to John since he repeats this historical reality. In verse 3, John wrote, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” Pause with me, please, and consider the wisdom and power of Jesus to bring us and everything around us into existence. We live in His world. Let’s think about that for a moment.Now, let’s consider that the One through whom this world was made came into His world. Why has He done that? John wrote these words years after Jesus’ earthly life, but it is a testimony of an eye witness to this historical event. John wrote in his first epistle,What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life — and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us — what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also.John tells us in today’s verse that the world, not meaning the inanimate things or the animals, but the people in the world, did not know Him. This should amaze us. It shows us the power of the original sin. Although every man is enlightened by His light, His light reveals that every man is ignorant of his maker. Nature is enough for man to know that there is a God He ought to thank for His life, but nature is not enough for man to know His maker.If you know Jesus personally and walk with Him daily, then you do so by the grace and power of God. Sin’s power has been broken within you and over you. You have been loved by God. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may be encouraged to turn their hearts to God and live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.First, we see that Jesus is the true Light. The implication is that there are other so-called lights, but they are not true. They are not the real Light. I’m reminded of 2 Corinthians 11:14, “No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” Let’s not be deceived by those who say they have a progressive idea of Jesus that is more updated for our time. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He’s the true Light.Second, Jesus has come into the world to bring light to us. Without Him, we have no light. Do you need light for your path? Of course you do. I encourage you today that Jesus is the only true light in the world. If you want to know what is right, look to Him. If you want to know how to love, look to Him. If you need wisdom, He is wisdom. Whatever you need to live to love each day, He is the way. That’s why I say it so often: “Live to love with Jesus.” Jesus came into the world to bring us light.Third, consider the scope of His light. It enlightens or illumines every man. I think the Spirit is saying that Jesus shows what every man is like. “There’s nothing hidden from the eyes of Him with whom we have to do,” writes the author of Hebrews in 4:13. It also could mean what Paul taught in Romans 1:18-21.For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.Every man has enough light to know God and to know themselves. He is their maker, and they are His creatures. They ought to receive His light and walk in it, but they don’t. His presence, the presence of His True Light, enlightens every man to know he is a creature and not the creator. The next verse tells us more about the world’s response to His light, so we’ll wait til tomorrow to learn more. So today, let us be encouraged that Jesus is the True Light who has brought light into this world, and if you have seen who you are as God’s creature and in need of a Savior, then His Light has illumined you. To God be the glory. May we all walk in His Light, which is love, with Jesus.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may be encouraged to turn their hearts to God and live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.We can be encouraged again by what was said about John the Baptist. Who he wasn’t is clear. He was not the Light or the source of the Light. This can also be said for us. We are lights in the world but not the source of the light. In a sense, we are like mirrors reflecting the light into the world, or like the moon, which has no light source of its own but reflects the sun’s light. But we are more than that.Like John, as we live to love with Jesus, we testify about the Light. We are Jesus’ disciples who experience intimacy with Him as we abide in Him. Our testimony is that apart from Him, we can do nothing. We are the branches, and He is the vine. That’s what we will learn later in this gospel in chapter 15. As we abide in Christ and walk with Him, others should be able to learn about who Jesus is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He promises to do. I hope you’ll think about how you can testify about the Light today to those God puts in your path. One of the best ways to prepare for yours and His ministry today is to pray your version of the Live to Love prayer. I hope you’ll join me now and make this a habit in your life. Father in heaven, thank you for another day of life to know you and love you and to live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust you and love those you put in my path today, for your glory. Amen. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may be encouraged to turn their hearts to God and live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:21-22 They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”How would you explain your life and your life message? That was the question asked of John the Baptist. Obviously, he was outstanding. His message and lifestyle were not normal. He was bold and spoke with authority, unlike the Pharisees and religious leaders. The following verses contain John’s answer, and we’ll consider it then. The encouragement I take from this verse is that if I live to love with Jesus, I hope and pray that my life and my life message of living to love with Jesus will give me opportunities to give Him glory. Such a life and message aren’t normal. I’ve met people whose lives carry the fruit of the Spirit, and I’m drawn to them. I want to find out how they think, what they read, and who has had an impact on their lives. I want to find out about them so that I may glorify God like they do. I hope someday that I will be asked, “What do you say about yourself?” I want the only explanation to be the presence of the life of Jesus Christ. I know I won’t be perfect, but that’s the point. Jesus came and gave Himself for imperfect people. He came to love them and love through them. How about you? What do you say about yourself? As we read in the next few days, John’s understanding of himself, you’ll notice he doesn’t talk much about himself. He puts the spotlight on God’s purpose for his life. May this verse encourage us today to live in such a way that the only explanation is that we are God’s channels of grace and love.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:6-7 There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light so that all might believe through him.The encouragement today is that all of us who are believers in Jesus Christ are sent by God as witnesses to testify about Jesus so others may believe through Him. God sent John as a forerunner for His Son, and in many ways, Christ-followers are all forerunners for Jesus. Jesus spoke about John the Baptist in this way. “This is the one about whom it is written: ‘Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:27-28).John and we are sent as forerunners for Jesus because of God’s love. It’s an amazing expression of love for God to prepare the way for His Son that they might believe through Him and have eternal life. We are encouraged by this verse to point people to Jesus not only as the source of light but also as the source of faith. Notice it doesn’t say, “so that all might believe in Him.” God puts people in our paths so that we might manifest His light in our lives by loving with and through Him. Our testimony is that we have come to faith in Jesus through Jesus’s life given to us by God. The prayer of the father with the epileptic son expresses this understanding and awareness of need. “Lord, I do believe, but help my unbelief.” Peter, the apostle, echoed the truth that faith comes through Jesus Christ when he wrote, “For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:20-21). What does light do? It makes it possible for us to see and work. Remember John 1:4? “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” The witness to Christ testifies about the light that He is in the world, and Jesus is the light switch. If you want to believe, then look to Jesus for life.As forerunners, we have at least four functions. 1). To call people to be ready, alert, and looking for a savior. 2). Let them know what to expect so that when He comes, they recognize Him. 3). Encourage them to get their hearts ready by repenting of attitudes and actions that would hinder His coming to them. And 4). Point them to Jesus. Today, you may have some opportunities to testify about Jesus as the Light of the world. His life is the Light. Their greatest need isn’t the Light. What they need most is His life. Living to love with Jesus is testifying to Jesus as life, and His life is revealed by our love, which is the Light of the world. Let’s go, forerunners!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.I’m not sure whether this is an encouragement today as much as it is a reality we need to be aware of as we live to love with Jesus. Not everyone is going to understand or embrace the love of Jesus. I suggested yesterday that Jesus is life; His life is the light of the world, and the light of His life is love. John informed his readers of the relationship of Jesus’ light to the domain of darkness. The light of His love is incomprehensible to those who are in darkness.Later in John’s gospel, he wrote that God judged the world by shining His light. John 3:19-20. “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” So we should understand that if we love someone who is in darkness, they are not going to recognize it as love. In fact, they probably will hate you for it because it exposes their lack of love for people and their love for the darkness. This highlights this sobering reality. One has to be rescued from the darkness in order to be able to see the shining light of God’s love. Now we come to the encouragement today. If you understand God’s love, His glory, which shines in the face of Christ, then you have been rescued and saved out of the domain of darkness. Listen/read what Paul wrote to the Colossians in chapter 1:13-14 and rejoice in God’s love for you. “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” And again in 2 Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."Therefore, as we live to love with Jesus, we can know that if anyone recognizes His love in us, it is because God either is rescuing or has rescued them from darkness. His life in us, shining His love in and through us, is still judging the world. As He puts people in our paths, we can watch where God is working and where He is not as we boldly love and proclaim the gospel that God rescues people out of darkness through faith in Jesus Christ, His Son.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.That Jesus is life and has the power to give life and that His life is the light are major themes in John’s gospel. Let me show you what I mean. John 5:21. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will.John 6:33. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.John 6:63. It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.John 14:6. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John 1:9. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.John 8:12. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”John 9:5. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.It makes sense then that in John’s introduction to the gospel, he would declare that in Jesus was life and His life was the light of men. We will also see that the light that His life radiates is love. He alone is life. He alone is light, and He alone is love. The natural man can’t hold a candle next to Him. We have no light in ourselves. If we are ever to have life, light, and love, we must receive it from God through Jesus Christ.We are born dead. We come into this world with no spiritual life, light, or love. John spoke of this condition when he wrote in his first epistle, 1 John 3:14. “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.” Can you see it? The proof that we have Jesus’ life is His love flowing in and through us. If we don’t have his life and love, we abide or remain in a state of death.That’s why I have simplified my purpose in life to living to love with Jesus and inviting you to intentionally join the adventure. In believing in Christ, we receive His life. In receiving His life, His life becomes our light, and that light is His love shining forth through our lives. The way we know we are in Christ is that we have His life shining the light of His love in this world. To God be the glory. Let His light shine.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.In verse 3, we see Jesus’ relationship with the universe. He’s the creator. Notice there’s nothing that came into being that He didn’t create. It’s important to note that Jesus is outside of creation. This is important because of those who say that everything is god. Also, there are those who propose the false notion that Jesus was just a man who reached his full potential as a man, and we all ought to emulate Him. The truth proclaimed here is that Jesus existed prior to all things, and God created every material thing through Him. Obviously we are all part of His creation. We are His creatures, created for God’s purpose and glory. I hope you’ll follow what I’m about to say. First. God created all of the ages of time through Jesus (Heb. 11:3). “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” The word for universe in Heb. 11:3 is the word eon, which is ages. The same word, eon, is used in Rom. 11:36, and it’s translated forever. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.” Listen to what Colossians 1:15-18 says about Jesus.He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent [or be the first consideration].Second, after creating the ages, He created us and put us in the ages. As Lord of the ages and our creator, it is to Him that we will give an account. We will give an account to Jesus for everything we have done in our bodies, whether good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10).Third, we were created by Jesus, for Jesus, and all things in our lives will bring glory to Jesus. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:13 that we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared beforehand for us to walk in them. That’s living to love with Jesus. We were made for Jesus to live in and through. We become His temple, His body, and His people on the earth, filled with His Spirit so He can love through us. He created us. He brings forth His life in us. He brings into being His love in our hearts. He then directs His love and empowers it where He wishes. And ultimately, of course, He gets the glory as the creator of all things.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.John 1:2 repeats two foundational realities for everyone who lives for the purpose of loving with Jesus—the eternality and immutability of Jesus. Hebrews 1:10 reveals God saying about the Son, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain.” Then in chapter 13:8. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and, yes, forever.” Notice it was God who spoke about Jesus, which shows us that in the beginning, Jesus was with God, and they were separate persons. I’m encouraged by the fact that if I have Jesus living in me, I have eternal life. John wrote in 1 John 5:12, “He who has the Son has the life.” The life we have in us has always been and has always been with God. The source of the Son’s life is the life of the Father. To see the Son is to see the Father. May our lives be more and more united with Jesus as we live with Him so that those around us will believe that He lives. Then may the Father draw them to Christ that they might have life in Him and give their lives to live to love with Him. That is the way God planned for His kingdom to advance in this world throughout history.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.I think this is one of the most amazing statements about Jesus in the Bible. Commentator Arthur Pink wrote that in this verse we see Jesus’ relation to time, to the Godhead, and to the Trinity. Each reality is important. The first declares that Jesus is eternal. He already existed before the beginning of all things. The second reality is that He is the Word, “the spokesman of God, and the One who spelled out the Deity, and One who has declared or told forth the Father” (Arthur Pink). The writer of Hebrews in 1:2-3 described Jesus as the One through whom God spoke and the exact representation of His glory. Jesus could say, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father” (John 14:9). The third reveals that the Son is separate from God the Father and the Holy Spirit because He was with God. It also reveals that Jesus was and is always in the presence of God. And fourth, Jesus was God. Only one who is God can exactly express or reveal all of God. Jesus is God manifested. Expressing and revealing that great truth was the goal of John’s gospel.My vision for the live to love scripture encouragements isn’t to give an exhaustive commentary on each scripture. It's to draw from each verse an encouragement to live to love with Jesus as our purpose in life. I will argue that the primary way God receives glory in His people is by their living to love with Jesus. Then I will make an appeal for you to embrace God’s call to walk in love with Him. Jesus was God, yet separate from God, and His purpose in coming to earth could be described this way. He came to glorify His Father by living to love with the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit. John’s conclusion after knowing Jesus was that God is love (1 John 4:8). Jesus came to earth to reveal that God is love by loving with the Father. He died, was raised, and ascended to the Father in order to come be with us so we could glorify the Father as we live to love with Him.Our encouragement today is that as believers in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we have living with us He who in the beginning was the Word. He who lives in us lives in the presence of God and is God. We have God, who is love, living His life in us. This is the message of John’s gospel. It’s great news, and so we are not living for God, but He is living for us. As we will see in the next few days, Jesus alone is life. May we walk today in reverence and awe, showing our gratitude to God for giving us life by living to love with Jesus, for the glory of God.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:23-25 Take notice that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you. Greet all of your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all.We learn a few things about the author from today’s verse. It is believed the letter was written in the second half of 63 or the beginning of 64. He was probably in Rome, where it is believed Timothy was imprisoned for a time. Since he mentioned in his request for prayer that he would be restored to them, the author also may have been imprisoned in Rome at the time of writing this letter. We learn that he was hoping to be released as well and travel with Timothy to see them. He closes with a greeting to the entire Hebrew community.My takeaway from this verse is that we make our plans, but God establishes our steps. That’s how living to love with Jesus is. We must approach the days of our lives humbly, with open hands. As James wrote, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”As we walk with Jesus each day, we can trust that He will set the course for us. We only have today, and the greatest confidence we have that we will make it to the end in faith is to abide in Him now, today. That doesn’t mean we don’t make plans, but we trust God to lay out our course. So today, you probably have plans, and I hope you embrace Jesus’ purpose of loving with the Father those the Father gives Him. Receive well those He puts in your path, and then look to Him for grace to love them—for their highest good and greatest benefit. What better way is there to finish an appeal such as we have received from this letter than to say, “Grace be with you all.” I can’t think of one. If we are going to respond to any appeal to bring glory to God, the only way it is possible is through the grace of God. It is a wish or prayer that we know will be answered to all those who truly believe and seek God, knowing He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.Will you join me in prayer as we close the book of Hebrews? Father in heaven, we worship You and draw near to You through the powerful work You have accomplished on our behalf through Your Son, Jesus Christ. We want to show our gratitude to You for bringing us into Your unshakable kingdom. We seek Your face for the grace we need to love whoever You put in our paths today, for Your glory. May your grace be with us all. Amen.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:22 But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.After 13 chapters in our Bible, we may laugh at the author’s assessment of his letter. It’s a brief one. Wow! I wonder how long it would have been if he had written everything that was on his mind. Maybe it’s like John’s comment about all the works of Jesus. John wrote in 21:25, Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” As I come to the end of this letter to the Hebrews, my heart is so grateful for the encouragement I have found to live to love with Jesus—even in this brief letter. It has been full, so full of foundational truth and continual encouragement. It is a wonder to me that he felt he needed to appeal to them to bear with his letter, which he considered an exhortation or an appeal. If we were reading the Greek, we would see that the words for urge and exhortation are the same word. It’s like he appealed to them to bear with his appeal.The encouragement I get from this verse is that I want to appeal to you to do what this writer did with everyone God puts in your path. Follow my train of thought. We know God is love. God inspired this author to appeal to his readers to run the race by faith with endurance, fixing their eyes on Jesus, and confidently, continually, going to Him for grace so that God would receive the glory through Jesus Christ at the end of their lives and forever. I encourage us all to make the same appeal to our brothers and sisters in Christ whenever we meet someone who is growing weary and tired of the journey of life. They need the grace of God, and in this letter, we have learned where that grace comes from—Jesus Christ, Himself.So today, in harmony with the author of Hebrews, I make this brief appeal for us to love with Jesus like the author did by pointing others to Christ.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:20-21 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.As we get to verse 21, we see that this benediction is a blessing or a prayer. As we saw yesterday, the basis or confidence in this prayer is that we are at peace with God, who is the God of peace, through Jesus Christ. We see the author’s heart for his readers in this benediction. He longed for them to be equipped through Jesus Christ to do God’s will through every good thing they do. It is a recap of his main point throughout the letter: Through Jesus Christ, your high priest, you may draw near to the throne of grace to get the mercy and grace you need to run the race God has set before you and remain faithful to the end of your life.What else was He praying for? He also asked that the God of peace, through Jesus Christ equipping his readers to do His will, would accomplish His work in both them and him. In Heb. 11:6 we learned that it is faith that pleases God because faith comes from His Son. Do you get it? The only way for God to get the glory forever and ever is if all of the work done is from and through Jesus. That is the heart of the author: May God get all the glory forever through His people. His prayer is for God to grant the grace necessary through His Son, who gives us both access in prayer and then grace through His indwelling life, the Holy Spirit. This truth is absolutely life-changing. It is the foundational truth of living to love with Jesus. It’s WITH JESUS! It’s THROUGH JESUS! Jesus’ life is our life. His love is our love. His love comes from the work of faith in our hearts, the evidence of which is obedience. He commanded us to believe in Him and love one another. So God receives the glory; He works in us what He commands.This gives us confidence in life. It is the unshakable kingdom in which we live. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His grace is sufficient for us (2 Cor. 12:9). And when all is said and done in our lives and we come to the finish line, all the glory will be His. The apostle Paul echoed His praise in Rom. 11:36. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” To which we also add our, “Amen!”I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:20-21 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.I want to break up the benediction of this letter into two parts because there is so much in these two verses. We can derive much encouragement to live to love with Jesus. First, we take heart that God is a God of peace. This is so important for us since there is no peace on earth if it doesn’t come from God. The world is hostile to God and therefore always in conflict. It is always shaking. However, God sent His Son to give peace to all men with whom He is well-pleased (Luke 2:14). He said to His disciples, “In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And again, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. The author based the declaration of God as a God of peace on the atonement and resurrection just as Paul did when writing to the Romans in 5:1. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The author harkened back to his discussion about the new covenant, that it is an eternal covenant based on the blood of Jesus, His Son, and our Lord. He shed His blood on the cross as the propitiation or payment for sin, putting us at peace with God. Our encouragement today is that this peace originates with God. He is the great peacemaker between God and man. That is the ministry of the high priest of which the author spoke throughout the entire letter.We know we have peace with God through the blood of Christ because God raised Him from the dead. The resurrection is God’s testimony to the world that He accepts the sacrifice of His Son as payment for sins. Rom. 4:25 says Jesus was delivered up to death because of our transgressions, but He was raised because of our justification, meaning He has declared all who are in Christ as just in His presence. Sins paid for. All flesh removed. Nothing but Christ and His righteousness remains. The great Shepherd of the sheep has brought us all into the fold where we are safe and secure forever. Are you encouraged yet? I am! What love God has for His people that He would make peace within Himself on our behalf by dealing with our sin in His Son. He deserves glory, all the glory, forever and ever. If He’s to receive glory forever and ever, then we should give Him glory today. Let’s do it! Let us praise His name and show our gratitude to Him by loving with Jesus. Let us receive Him as life today and thank Him in word and deed for His steadfast love. We live out of His fullness because the God of peace has given us access to His throne through the blood of His Son, so we can fill up on His grace to love for His glory.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:18-19 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things. And I urge you all the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you the sooner.We don’t know any of the details about the relationship between the author and his readers. It is obvious, though, that they knew each other and that something had occurred that had separated them from one another. The writer’s reference to a good conscience and conduct may suggest that he and others with him were being detained by authorities for their ministry. Perhaps they were being falsely accused and detained, and the author felt compelled to defend their integrity. Their conduct had been honorable to both God and men, and they were not conscious of doing anything that displeased the Lord. We might note that confidence in prayer comes from a clear conscience. The author could confidently ask his readers to pray for him and his companions because they were at peace with God and were walking with integrity. Because he said they were acting honorably in “all these things,” it implies that all of the things of which the author was writing had gotten them into trouble with religious or secular authorities.I interpret their good conscience and honorable conduct to mean that they had been living to love with Jesus and teaching and living the truth. When we walk in love, we live honorably and freely. But that doesn’t mean that life will be easy with no conflict. We are strangers and exiles on the earth, so we should expect that those who are on the earth may look with disdain and disgust at our honorable conduct. In fact, loving, honorable conduct may make them feel more guilty. If they are deceitful, dishonorable, and have no integrity, they may make life difficult for those who are righteous. It doesn’t make sense to think his prayer to be restored to them implies that he and his readers have had relational problems. If he felt it necessary to ask them to pray for them, he obviously has confidence in their love for him and their faith in prayer. The apostle Paul also asked for prayer (1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1; Eph. 6:19). Philemon 22 expressed this same confidence in prayer for restoration. “At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.”The encouragement today is to continue to love with Christ today, being sure to walk with a clear or good conscience before both God and man. Let’s remember again that by our conduct, we are showing to both God and others that we are grateful to be in God’s unshakable kingdom. It is a privilege for us to be God’s ambassadors of His kingdom on the earth. As we abide in Jesus, we can know God will give us the grace we need to love well for the glory of His name.For those of you who are not familiar with my website, livetolovewithjesus.com, and book, Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships, I hope you’ll take advantage of the free resources so you can walk with Jesus in the power of His love. Jesus started the Live to Love movement when He was raised from the dead and sent His disciples out to make disciples in the nations. I hope you’ll join us in the live to love with Jesus journey.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.Of course, living to love with Jesus has to do with relationships with various people. Already in this chapter the writer mentioned strangers, prisoners, the mistreated, spouses, and brothers and sisters in Christ in general. So it shouldn’t surprise us that the leaders of one’s local congregation should come to mind. Jesus loves those who lead us, and one of the ways we show our gratitude to God for placing us in His unshakable kingdom is by loving them with Him. In this verse, we learn 3 aspects of loving our leaders.First, let’s distinguish between two Greek words translated as obey. This is not the kind of obedience commanded of children to parents (Eph. 6:1) or servants to masters (Eph. 6:5). The word used communicates to persuade or win over. W.E. Vines says that in the N.T. this word “suggests an actual and outward result of the inward persuasion and consequent faith. When a man obeys God, he gives the only possible evidence that in his heart he believes God. Of course it is a persuasion of the truth that results in faith (we believe because we are persuaded that the thing is true).” So we are encouraged that our relationship with our leaders is to be guided by love, being persuaded by faith that it pleases God. So ultimately, our confidence in our leaders doesn’t lie in them, but in God’s faithfulness and love. This command isn’t calling for blind, unquestioning obedience no matter what they say or do. Our leaders are part of the shakable things on earth. But the love of Christ in us is unshakable, and we are persuaded that God is at work in all things for our good. He will make it profitable for us.Second, we are to submit to their leadership, guidance, and teaching when it comes to soul issues. This is not a blanket submission. Notice they are to give an account for our souls. They have no jurisdiction in family and work decisions. When it comes to the health of our souls, we are not to be stubborn or resistant to what they say to us. We are to listen attentively with an attitude of trust in God to use His servant to our spiritual benefit. When we relate to our leaders in this way, it benefits them. We are doing good and sharing the life of Christ with them as we were directed in the previous verse.Third, we have an opportunity to bless our leaders by relating to them in love. We are to let the watch-care of our souls be a joyful responsibility for our leaders. If we do obey and submit to our leaders in this way, trusting God, and with a humble attitude receive their care for our souls, there’s a benefit for us. This is implied because he said it wouldn’t be profitable if we gave our leaders grief as they cared for us.So I wrap up our encouragement today with this: If we live to love with Jesus, Jesus will love our leaders through us in such a way that they will consider it a joy to be the Lord’s under-shepherd. We want to bless them in His name. So if God puts one of your church leaders in your path today, give him a reason to rejoice in the Lord’s love and grace through you.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:16 And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.It’s always good to know what pleases someone we love. When I see something my wife really enjoys, I want to get it for her. When we see our children thrilled about something, we plan a repeat experience. In this verse, God tells us something else that pleases Him. In 1:8, God tells us that Jesus loves righteousness. In 11:5-6 we learned that faith pleases Him. Today we are encouraged to do good to others and share. I’m reminded of one of the best definitions of love that I know of as I read this verse. Love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Spirit, for the glory of God. What is the highest good for another person? I suggest that the highest good of any individual is to find their greatest satisfaction and joy in Jesus for the glory of God. If we have the opportunity to make Jesus look good in someone’s eyes, let’s not neglect doing it. This is living to love with Jesus, because Jesus always does what is in our best interest. The apostle Paul echoed this same idea when he wrote to the Philippians, “Do not look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interests of others (2:4). As we walk in love today with Jesus, let’s consider every opportunity to do good to someone as an opportunity to offer a pleasing sacrifice to God.The second encouragement we have is to not neglect sharing. The concept involves fellowshipping, partnering, or sharing what God has given you with others. What has He given us to share? He’s given us His life! As God puts people in our lives, let us share the life of Christ with them. Love them with Him. Abide in Him, receive what He gives you for them, and then share it, whether it be words of affirmation, encouragement, or the Scriptures, or acts of service, kindness, and love.These are ways we are to let the love of the brethren continue in our lives because we are so grateful for being made partakers of God’s unshakable, eternal, heavenly kingdom. How encouraging it is to know that as we do good and share through Christ, our Father is pleased.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.Today we are encouraged by the blessing we have received through our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, our high priest. We are encouraged to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God by giving thanks to God in Jesus’ name. Jesus’ name is synonymous with His works, namely His substitutionary work in the atonement and His intercessory work through His life now in heaven, united with the Father. We are encouraged to let our praises and thanksgiving burst forth from our lips to God. If you remember, the first part of this chapter was focused on our showing our gratitude to God for His giving us an unshakable kingdom. In this verse we are told to continually praise God for what He has done by giving thanks to Him.I hope you’ll join me in obeying this Scripture. I’m going to praise His name with thanksgiving and use Psalms 118 as my guide.O, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever! Let us say together, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Let all who live to love with Jesus say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Let those who have received an unshakable kingdom in Christ say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Out of our distress we called on the Lord; the Lord answered us and set us free. The Lord is on our side; we will not fear. What can man do to us? The Lord is on our side as our helper. It's better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. The Lord is our strength and our song; He has become our salvation. Open to us the gates of righteousness, that we may enter through them and give thanks to You, Lord. Thanksgiving is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank You, Lord, that You have answered us and have become our salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Lord Jesus, You are the cornerstone. This is your doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. We are so blessed to come to You, Father, in the glorious name of Your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. We bless You from the house of the Lord, for we are Your temple. Lord Jesus, You are God, and You have made Your light to shine upon us. You are our God, and we will give thanks to You. You are our God; we will extol You. Oh my friends, continually give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever!I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:13-14 So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.With this verse, the author arrived at his final encouragements of his letter. It takes us back to the confession of the heroes of the faith he presented in chapter 11. Let’s revisit their confession.These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus, make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had the opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.We who believe in Christ confess that we are strangers, foreigners, and exiles on the earth. We are seeking a better country, a heavenly one. We know God has prepared a city for us. We also know that everything in this world doesn’t last and is unstable and shakable. Only Jesus, Himself, and His kingdom are unshakable. Our confidence is in Him. His life, His presence, His power, His love, His kingdom, and His Word. Based upon such confidence, the author concluded his argument and called his readers to leave the old covenant, the old city of Jerusalem with its varied and strange teachings. He had told them to fix their eyes on Jesus sitting at the right hand of God in the new Jerusalem, their new home city. The encouragement today is to join those who are on a journey to the heavenly city to come. Most of us aren’t being called outside the camp of Judaism, although if that has been your earthly home, consider yourself called out now. We are being called out of the camp of this world. We must turn our backs on the religions and gods of this world and never look back. An exile doesn’t seek to return to the country or city that has kicked him out. He’s looking for or seeking another country where he can rest and be at home. Notice the encouragement. We are going to Jesus! The location isn’t the primary goal. Let’s draw near to Him, experience His love, fellowship with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit’s ministry, and allow His love to overflow into the lives of the others who are on a journey with us to the celestial city.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:10-12 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.We have another contrast from which to be encouraged in our walking with Jesus in love. The writer was surely thinking of the Passover altar or sacrifice contrasted with the altar or sacrifice of Jesus. The high priest brought the blood of sacrifice into the holy place, but the body of the sacrifice was burned outside the camp because it was considered unholy and unclean. The priests and the worshippers identified with that sacrifice but received no benefit.In contrast, previously in Hebrews 12:24, he wrote that believers have come to “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” That is the believer’s altar. We who believe in Jesus identify with both the blood and the body of Christ, and we receive the benefit—entrance into an eternal, righteous, unshakable kingdom. We eat, spiritually speaking, from the blood and resurrected body of Christ.That sounds strange from an earthly perspective, doesn’t it? But it isn’t a foreign teaching to us strangers and exiles from the earth. Listen to these words of Jesus. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.The altar from which we eat is Jesus Christ, Himself. He was rejected and sacrificed outside the camp on a cross. He was despised and rejected by His own people, and the unbeliever has no right or privilege to eat from—spiritually benefit from—that altar.We are being set apart from the unbelievers as we identify with Jesus. Just as He was set apart to God’s purpose, suffering outside the city of Jerusalem, we are set apart to God for His use and glory as we live to love with Jesus as strangers and exiles from the earth.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:9 Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.Today’s verse is obviously connected to the previous declaration that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We are encouraged by the contrast, albeit a bit mysterious. Whereas the teaching of Jesus is always constant and dependable, there was an apparent danger lurking in the world system, of which he warned them throughout the letter. It is no different today in principle, although the specifics may vary.He warned them not to be influenced by, swept away by, or misled by teachings that were diverse and foreign to the teaching of Christ. If his readers confessed with the faithful saints of old that they were strangers and exiles on the earth, then they should be leery of foreign teachings, teachings that were new, novel, or different from that of Christ. This warning is very needed today with the so-called progressive Christians advancing varied and strange teachings to the historical faith anchored in the unchangeable Christ and His kingdom. We hear of ex-vangelicals, the deconstruction of faith, the new age, and those who have woken up to the progressive ideas of God, the Bible, mankind, and the spirit of the Christ. Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Stay on course, living to love with Jesus, drawing from His life, and anchored in His unshakable kingdom of love. As for the contrast between being strengthened by grace or by foods, I’m going to take a guess based on the context of the letter. I wonder if the author didn’t have in mind two generations with which God was so angry and swore that they would not enter His rest. They had good news preached to them, but the word they heard was not united with faith, and therefore there was no benefit to them. What was that generation so concerned about? Food! They provoked God in the wilderness by demanding food. They wanted to return to Egypt, for they said, “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic” (Numbers 11:5). That generation, which failed to enter God’s rest, did so because they were so occupied with the food they didn’t have. As a result, the good news of God’s promised rest was missed.I wonder if he also had in mind the Jews who failed to enter God’s rest because they couldn’t let go of the first, old covenant, which was the source of provision of food for the priests. To believe in Jesus, they would have to abandon the source of their daily food supply, which came from the altar sacrifices. He addresses the contrast of altars in the next verse. Since he had contrasted Jesus as the giver of the new covenant and the priesthood of the old covenant in this letter, this also seems feasible. The main point here is the contrast between the unbelieving who seek strength and life in the physical world versus those who are of faith and seek strength and life from the spiritual world in Christ. Let’s continue today seeking our life from Jesus, living to love with Him, and not be misled by the appeals of this foreign land in which we live that suggest there’s any lasting benefit from things or ideas originating from an earthly worldview.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.We are encouraged again about the unshakable kingdom we have received, having believed in Jesus Christ. This letter began with what God spoke regarding His Son, Jesus. In 1:10-12 we read,And, You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.Then remember what was written at the end of chapter 12. “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” Then here again, the author anchored his readers and us into the greatness and majesty of Jesus Christ, which is the foundation of our faith. Jesus is the cornerstone of the unshakable kingdom of which we are registered citizens. As we live to love with Jesus today, our confidence is in Him. He has always been a Helper, will today be our Helper, and will always be available to help us through whatever we face. As John Piper loves to say, we have confidence in future grace because of God’s faithfulness in the past and today.Consider how wonderful and secure it is to base our lives on the life of Jesus Christ. He is our life (Col. 3:4)! Our lives are in Him (Col. 3:3), and we can rest in His mercy and grace as we abide in Him. So draw near to Him with confidence and peace. If you have believed in Jesus, then your life is secure, unchangeable, and unshakable because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:7 Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.This verse almost seems like an abrupt redirection of attention, but it isn’t. If we think about the author’s line of reasoning, it makes great sense. His aim, since 10:39, was to encourage his readers to not shrink back but to endure in faith until the end of their lives. In chapter 11, he encouraged them by reminding them of many O.T. examples of enduring faith. Then in chapter 12, he encouraged them to fix their eyes on Jesus as they ran their race to the finish line, receiving everything as the Father’s love and training exercises. They were to repent of unbelief, run in the path of peace and holiness, and watch out for those who might defile them with bitterness and immorality. Then he highlighted the unshakableness of the heavenly kingdom of God, where Jesus is king, and that showing gratitude by love is the only reasonable response. After giving practical ways to express their gratitude through love, he encouraged them with that they are to put their confidence in, namely, God’s presence with them.However, that’s not all they have to remember. They not only have examples of past ages; they have contemporary examples, those who were the leaders of the church, such as Peter, James, Barnabas, and the other disciples. Perhaps you remember from Acts 7 that the disciples selected deacons so they could focus on teaching the word. In Heb. 2, verse 3, he mentioned those who had heard the Lord and then taught it to them. Not only were they to remember what they had been taught by those leaders, but they were to remember how they lived out their faith until the end of their lives. They were to encourage themselves by repeatedly recalling their faithfulness and then imitating them. As we run our race living to love with Jesus, there are those whom God has given us who have confessed that God was their helper, and they lived it out by not being afraid of men. They taught us the truth, even if it meant suffering persecution and rejection from the outside world and those of the world in the church. The verb, remember, is in the continuous action form. They were to continually remind themselves of those faithful saints who taught them by both word and example. Do you have some of those people in your life? People who have labored in the kingdom, running their race with endurance and keeping their eyes fixed on Jesus, showing gratitude to God by loving with an unshakable love? Don’t forget them. Remember them today, and give God thanks for giving you living examples of His life dwelling within them. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:5-6 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?”There are a number of confessions throughout Hebrews, and here is another important one. There are things that we say because we are believers in Jesus Christ. In chapter 11, we say we are strangers and exiles in this world. In this verse, we say that the Lord is our helper as we run the race set before us, and therefore we will not be afraid of what man can do to us. The reason we are not afraid of what man can do to us is that man cannot take away what we have been given in Jesus Christ. We have His presence and help in any situation. We can abide in Him, confidently and continually draw near to His throne, where we know we will receive mercy and grace any time we need help, and in a timely manner.What a tremendous encouragement! Our confidence each day is that we are not alone. We have the Helper, the Holy Spirit, manifesting the presence of Jesus in our lives. If you remember in 2:18, the author wrote, “For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” His life, by the Holy Spirit within us, is our strength, wisdom, protection, and source of love so we can walk in love with Him.Let’s remember that this is in the context of the author admonishing his readers to let love of the brethren continue in order to show their gratitude for receiving an unshakable kingdom. This great fact, that we have Jesus as our Helper 24/7/365 forever, is unshakable. Therefore, we confidently say, “The Lord is my Helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?” My friend, Jerry White, in A Disciple’s Notebook, wrote about the way to walk with Jesus. “The way is by childlike faith, implicit obedience, and by simple abiding. The Lord Jesus tells us this is possible.”One last encouragement today. Let’s not miss this; the author wrote that we do say this with our voices and our lives. I think there is something important about our hearing our own voices say these great words. We can’t declare the truth enough. Jesus is my life! I will not be afraid. No one can take Jesus away from me. I hope you’ll memorize these two verses and open your mouth with this wonderful confession and then live in the confidence of it today as you live to love with Jesus.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:5 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”This verse is often misunderstood as an admonition to be content with whatever salary the Lord has given you. However, there’s a much greater encouragement here than what first meets the eye. The context helps us see what was on the author’s mind. Let’s recap what we’ve heard. He called them to enter into the promised rest through Jesus, our high priest, by confidently and continually drawing near to the throne of mercy and grace for help in time of need (4:15-16). They were to hold fast their confidence in Christ and the boast of their hope firm until the end of their lives (3:5). He encouraged them to not shrink back but endure in faith, fixing their eyes on Jesus, who sits at the right hand of God, interceding for them continually to be saved eternally. After several warnings against unbelief, he called his readers who were running the course of suffering, persecution, and rejection to “lay aside every encumbrance and the sin (unbelief) that so easily entangles” them in 12:1. Their confession was that they were strangers or foreigners in this world and also exiles on the earth (11:13). God had shaken everything in this world that could be shaken in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain (12:27-28). Most of his readers had put their confidence in what they had, meaning money and physical possessions, but that had been shaken and taken. In light of their present ill circumstances, how were they to show their gratitude to God?For their love for the brethren to continue, they had to embrace the promise of God’s word with all their hearts. The NASB translates tropos, as character. W.E. Vines suggests it means the manner or way in which you live your life, so you can see that it isn’t a great leap to the idea of character. The typical way of all men who are at home in this world is to put their confidence in their money or possessions. The love of money drives their daily decisions and directs their paths. This will be an encumbrance in the race. It is what all unbelievers do who live their lives consumed with what they can see, experience, and accomplish in this world. The first readers of Hebrews knew by experience that living for what they could amass in this world was shakable, futile, and thus insecure. However, believers had something unbelievers don’t have. They have the incredible, unchangeable, timeless promise of God. “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” This promise comes from several places in the O.T. Scriptures. Deut. 31:6. “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” Or Joshua 1:5, “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.” Then out of the mouth of our Savior, to His disciples, we hear in John 14:16, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.” And Matt. 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”With those words, we are to be content. The love of God flows out of the man or woman whose way or manner in life is confidently and continually guided by the truth of those words. The question is, “Do we believe Him when He promises to be with us and help us?” Our encouragement today is to believe that we can live to love with Jesus in any circumstances we find ourselves in because Jesus is with us to help us. If we believe Him, then we run our course, fixing our eyes on Jesus and drawing near, abiding in Him to receive the ...
Hebrews 13:4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.We continue to draw encouragement to show our gratitude to God for bringing us into His kingdom from these Scriptures in Heb. 13. From verse one, we are encouraged to let our love be continuous. I take that to be another way of saying live to love with Jesus. We are to continually be abiding in Christ so that His love can flow through us as fruit for the glory of God. The author calls our love an acceptable service to God. Beside loving hospitality and remembering prisoners and the ill-treated, we are to understand that we can show our gratitude to God by faithfulness in marriage. Of course, we would expect most believers to be married to another believer, which means that how we love our spouses is an expression of love for Jesus. The most continuous application of Jesus’ love in my life is toward my wife. To be sexually unfaithful to one’s spouse is to defile, corrupt, soil, or stain the bed upon which their marriage was consummated. The marriage union declared in the ceremony is completed by the first act of sexual intercourse. It is a physical expression of a spiritual and social reality. That union is to be honored because it is the highest good for the couple, the family, and the believing community. However, because marriage was instituted by God, our fidelity in marriage also honors Him. Living to love with Jesus starts with the first and last person we see most days—my spouse. This love is to be continuous, as verse one said, “Let the love of the brethren continue.” If we are married, then having a God-honoring marriage relationship is one part of the race that is set before us, which requires endurance. The only way we can love like that is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who gave His life for His bride. He fought every temptation within to abandon His bride and serve His own flesh, even to the point of shedding blood. If Jesus lives in us, then we should expect that kind of love to flow out of us toward our spouses. Faithful, enduring, undefiled, pure love continues throughout our lifetimes toward one woman or man with whom we have both declared our commitment publicly and privately consummated that union physically.We have a clear statement by the Holy Spirit that God will judge those who do not hold marriage in honor. Which, by the way, needs to be stated, is only between a man and a woman. To have sex outside of marriage is to dishonor marriage. To have sex with someone who is not your wife or husband is to dishonor marriage. To dishonor marriage is to dishonor God. God will judge not only the sin but also the people who bring shame to Him and the marriage bed. If you have failed to be faithful in your marriage and have defiled your marriage bed, then it’s because you didn’t believe Jesus is your life. You were entangled by unbelief and set your eyes on someone other than Jesus and your spouse. There’s no one else other than blame. I encourage you today to lay aside this sin and the unbelief and repent. Turn your eyes on Jesus and receive His forgiveness, cleansing, and new life. Quit trying to live for Him, and receive His life to be lived through you until the day you die. Purpose to live to love with Jesus every day until your final breath. If you live to love with Jesus, you will overcome the flesh and will honor both God, marriage, and your spouse. Living to love with Jesus is to let love be a continuous expression in your life, which is how you show gratitude to God for His bringing you into His kingdom. Give it forward: www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:3 Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.We are encouraged today by another way to offer service to God as an expression of gratitude for His giving us an unshakable kingdom. It is assumed that the prisoners in view here were fellow members of the kingdom, who had been imprisoned for their faith. We know from Heb. 10:32-34 that some of their number were imprisoned and ill-treated, and from verse 1, the author encouraged them to let their love continue.“But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.”So the original readers knew they were being urged to keep up their ministry of service to their brothers and sisters who had been ill-treated and imprisoned for their faith. It’s easy to forget someone who is out of sight, such as someone in prison. These have suffered the loss of physical comfort in the body. They are suffering physically, and perhaps the best way to be motivated to love and care for our brothers and sisters who are suffering is to put ourselves in their place, so to speak. We should think about how we would feel if we were also suffering in the body like they suffer. I don’t believe visiting those who are in prison for crimes they committed against others is what the author had in mind. However, we do have brothers and sisters who have come to Christ once they were incarcerated. If we stop to think how we would feel in their shoes, or in their bodies, it might motivate us to show our gratitude to God for His love by visiting them in prison to encourage them in their suffering.This isn’t quite as relevant to us today, so we may need to grasp the principle so we can apply it. When we hear of anyone suffering or being ill-treated for their faith, we ought first to remember them in prayer. Second, let’s look for ways we can encourage them from the Scriptures to endure to the end in faith, specifically from Heb. 12:1-15. That may be with an email, text, phone call, or an in-person visit. The main encouragement we receive today as we live to love is this: If we know of someone who is suffering for their faith, let’s not forget them; rather, let’s ask Jesus how He wants us to pray for and encourage them.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.Showing hospitality was a very important and expected social practice. The apostle Paul encouraged it in Rom. 12:13; 1 Tim. 5:10, and the apostle Peter wrote, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” in 1 Pet. 4:9. In the Middle Eastern setting, if one didn’t have a home in which to stay, their only other option was a hostel, which was often an environment of immorality and adultery. So traveling saints were dependent on members of the local church opening their homes. Hospitality also meant fellowship with members of the body of Christ around the meal table. The example of Abraham welcoming three strangers into his tent and offering them food and fellowship comes to mind when we read about entertaining angels, doesn’t it? Abraham didn’t know who he was receiving, but we do. It was the Lord with two other messengers. Gen. 18:1-5.And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” If we stay in the context of verse 1 of chapter 13, we assume that hospitality is one expression of the love of Jesus for His body. This makes sense if we are showing our love out of gratitude for being placed into God’s kingdom of love. Those we host are also partakers of God’s kingdom and grace. To love them is to love Him. To serve them is to offer an acceptable sacrifice.Hospitality is a service. One has to expend the energy, time, and finances to have their home in such a state that it is available for His use at any time. That’s not easy. There’s a cost to hospitality, so we should look at the expenditure as a love gift to Jesus. If we don’t keep our homes neat and operational for hospitality, when the opportunity comes, which is usually spontaneous, we won’t be ready for it. We can also show hospitality by taking a visitor out to eat if our homes are not available. Perhaps today, God may put a stranger in your path who is a brother or sister in Christ. The first thing you can do to show hospitality to a stranger is to have your heart open to receive everyone God puts in your path. Then as you love them with Jesus, you’ll find out best if and how you can meet practical needs through hospitality. Hospitality is just one aspect of living to love with Jesus and showing gratitude to God for His receiving you as a stranger into His home. When you practice hospitality to strangers who are in Christ, you are inviting Jesus into your home.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 13:1 Let love of the brethren continue.Today we begin the last chapter and the practical ways we can offer acceptable service with reverence and awe. You’ll notice that all of the recommendations by the author fall under the category of showing brotherly love. We see what living to love with Jesus entails. The first verse of this chapter could be an overall introduction to the following verses because they all are expressions of love for brothers and sisters in Christ.The author acknowledged back in 6:10 when he wrote, “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for His name in serving the saints, as you still do.” So it makes sense that at this point he would encourage them to continue loving one another. In 10:24 he had admonished them to consider how to stimulate one another to love and good works. In these verses, he made love practical. Gratitude isn’t just a feeling; it’s expressed in acts of service to everyone else who has received an unshakable kingdom. Today, this scripture encourages us to do the same. I will also assume that you consider loving those God puts in your path as a privilege and a satisfying purpose. Let that love continue today. Be on the lookout for ways you can express your gratitude to God for His love and grace by loving others. Receive well whoever and whatever He gives you. That’s serving Him with reverence. Also, be in awe that loving is something you love to do because He has loved you. Lean into the reality that you are His to consume for His glory. I pray and hope you’ll embrace His call to live to love with Jesus.I invite you to join me in praying what I call the live to love prayer. If you haven’t already prayed this prayer today, then I hope you’ll make it a regular part of the beginning of your day. It will put your heart in a right relationship with God and with others. Let’s pray.Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to live to know and love You and to live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love all those You put in my path today, for Your glory. Amen.I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.
Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.If you have received God’s unshakable kingdom in Christ, what has been your response? In today’s verse, we are encouraged to show our gratitude to God. What does that gratitude look like? What are we to show the world? The answer to these questions will be given in detail in chapter 13. For now, we get a general answer. Because we are so grateful for the new unshakable kingdom of love that we have received through Jesus Christ, we offer our lives to God for His service with reverence, that’s piety, do you remember that word in 5:7? And we offer it in awe because just like the Israelites saw God’s consuming fire descend on Mt. Sinai, we see His fire consume us for His glory. Let’s unpack this a little more. The only thing that is acceptable to God is the work of His Son. That’s why Jesus told His disciples that apart from Him, they could do nothing fruitful for the Father (John 15:7-8). In chapter 11, we learned what pleases God, namely the faith that He produces in and through His Son. If we offer anything in our lives with and through Jesus Christ, God consumes it for His glory. For God to consume something, such as the sacrifices on the altar, was to demonstrate His acceptance. Do you remember, Elijah offering the sacrifices on Mt. Carmel when the fire of God came down and consumed everything? That’s the picture here. The way we show our gratitude to God for the unshakable kingdom we have received by grace is to offer ourselves for His service. We are to first, do it with reverence, piety, dedication, and commitment to doing His will. I suggest for your consideration that living to love with Jesus is the way we show our gratitude to God for His love and grace. We do it by receiving well, that’s reverence, whatever He gives us in this world. He’s going to show us that this world is empty and full of suffering. We are going to be foreigners here and kicked out by this world because our living to love as the purpose of our lives shakes their world. It makes them look and feel bad, and they don’t like having their world shaken. In contrast, we consider it a joy to express our gratitude to God and love as a pleasing sacrifice to God. We know our living to love with Jesus will be an acceptable service to God. Paul put it this way to the Ephesians in 5:1-2. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”Second, we are also to offer our service of love in awe. We should be in awe that God would accept our failing and weak offerings of love simply because it is with Jesus. It is awesome and awe-inspiring to experience God’s pleasure and see God use our meager offerings of love to His people in this world. Just as Israel was in awe upon seeing God’s fire fall upon Mt. Sinai, and again seeing God consume Elijah’s offering, we should offer ourselves in awe that God is pleased with what we offer Him to the degree that He consumes it for His joy and glory. Because we are abiding in Christ the Father is delighted with the offering. We live to love with Jesus because that’s how we show God that we are grateful to be in His unshakable kingdom.
Hebrews 12:28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;There is nothing in heaven and earth that is not shaking because of the power of the word of God through Jesus Christ. He has overcome the world through the power of the cross and the resurrection, making everything that is seen unstable, insecure, and transient. It’s all passing away. In Christ, we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. It will remain forever. Even when the heavens and earth are destroyed with fire, the kingdom of heaven will be unshaken, and we are in that kingdom by the grace of God. The apostle Paul spoke of this eternal kingdom in 1 Cor. 13:8-14:1. The Corinthians were in conflict over the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and Paul wanted them to see they were missing what God has spoken in Christ, namely, that He is the way—the way of love—that will last forever.Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Pursue love.All of the gifts of the Spirit are part of this shakable world. Only one gift is unshakable. Only one gift will remain when our time on earth is done. Only one gift never ends for all eternity. It is the gift of love. This is a good place for me to emphasize again why I call you to live to love with Jesus in this world. Everything we pursue in this world is shakable and is going to pass away. Only one thing—living to love with Jesus—is not shakable. Jesus is the same forever, and He is love. He came to this earth to love with His Father, and that’s how He overcame the world. His purpose was and is unshakable. His blood speaks the love of God. It is in His life and the sacrifice of His life that we see what love is. That love speaks today through our lives, and what does it say to everyone in our paths? The very power of it shakes everything this world thinks is valuable, purposeful, and significant. If you are living for some other purpose, then your life is shakable, insecure, and passing away. It will all burn. However, if you are living to love with Jesus, no one can shake you or take it away from you. You live in a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Have you received His unshakable kingdom?
Hebrews 12:26-27 And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.When Moses called the people to Mt. Sinai to give them the words of God, it was an earthshaking event. Ex. 19:18. “Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.” According to the Holy Spirit, the incredible display on and in the mountain was to heighten their sensibilities to the importance of the message. It was to impress on them the seriousness of ignoring His word, producing the fear of the Lord. These verses are a commentary of the Holy Spirit on Haggai 2:6-7, which recalled to the minds of his audience the initial giving of the Law and the first covenant. Haggai prophesied of another time when God would speak, and the importance of the message would be exponentially greater. Much more would be shaken than one single mountain. I read Ps. 50:1-2 a few days ago. “The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to where it sets. From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.” From Mt. Sinai, just the nation of Israel was summoned. From Zion, the heavenly city, everyone on earth is summoned to listen and obey. The author remembered Haggai’s reference to the word of the Lord prophesying of the very time in which the author and his readers were living. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts.The time in which the original audience and we live has been promised. God has spoken in His Son, Jesus Christ, and calls everyone to pay attention to His words, He has shaken the entire earth and the heavens. Nothing in this world is stable. God said to Jesus, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end” (Heb. 1:10-12).When His blood was finally spilled, it spoke! The earth shook, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom, and even the graves were opened and the dead were resurrected by the power of that word. Just before turning Himself over to be crucified, told His disciples, “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Do you get it? From the time Jesus came, the entire world system has been shaking at the sound of the gospel, calling men and women to repent of seeking life in this unstable, shaking world, and to come to God through His blood to receive an eternal kingdom. God is filling His house with glory as He shakes us out of the nations into His kingdom of love. He is shaking everything on earth to gather His people for glory.
Hebrews 12:25 See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.Before we unpack this verse, let’s revisit Heb. 2:1-4 because this is a repeat of his warning in those verses.For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so we don’t drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? After it was first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testified with them both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.You can see that the author was concerned that his readers would refuse what God has spoken in His Son. If they did refuse it, they could expect a much more severe punishment than those who refused what God spoke through Moses. What will they escape if they listen to what the blood of the new covenant speaks? We have an answer to that in 10:26-29.For if we go on sinning deliberately [and the sin is unbelief] after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?The blood of Christ is still speaking. It speaks that God has provided a new covenant in and through the blood of Christ that removes sin, cleanses the conscience, establishes righteousness, and offers eternal life. It warns that there is no other way provided by God. There is no escape from the punishment that the Law requires if one refuses Jesus’ message of eternal life. This should encourage us all the more to pay attention to the previous verses regarding what we have come to—the great reward of the new covenant. This should inspire us to draw near to the throne of grace for mercy and grace to live in the fullness of Christ. His grace is available to us all the time if we will abide in Him. The fruit of abiding in Him is the peaceful fruit of righteousness, which is another way of describing love. If we walk in love with Jesus, we can be assured that we will escape the judgment of God and dwell in the presence of God forever.
Hebrews 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.We who believe in God, have come to Jesus! There is no other way to get to heaven or God, apart from Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He said that no one comes to the Father except by Him (John 14:6). The Father draws all those registered in heaven to His Son (John 6:44-45) so that they may be partakers of the new covenant in His blood. As our high priest, appointed by God to bring us to Him, Jesus has inaugurated the new covenant by shedding His blood for the propitiation of our sins. The author wrote of this back in chapter 2, verse 17. “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” In 11:4, we read about the blood of Abel speaking. “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.” What did Abel’s blood speak? It said he was faithful until the day he died at the hands of his brother, Cain. Jesus’ blood also speaks. It tells us that Jesus was faithful even to death, death on a cross. However, Abel’s blood didn’t enforce an everlasting covenant like Jesus’ blood did. Jesus’ blood also still speaks, and it speaks a better thing. All who believe in Jesus have come to the mercy seat where Jesus’ blood speaks, not only to us but to God. His blood mediates a new covenant with God. It says to God that justice has been done against all our sins. There is a basis for forgiveness, access, and intimate fellowship to be offered freely to all who are registered in heaven’s assembly. The blood speaks to the assembly gathered in heaven that their sins are forgiven, they need never fear, and access to intimacy with God has forever been secured. It speaks, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). Abel’s blood could not speak this message.My dear friend, listen to the great message of salvation the blood of Jesus speaks and walk in His peace. The love of Jesus only flows out of a peaceful heart, anchored in the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. Receive His love and walk in love and peace with Him.
Hebrews 12:23 to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,Yesterday’s verse focused on the place, the heavenly Jerusalem, to where we are running. Today’s verse has those who dwell in heaven in view. We aren’t living for the glory of God by living to love with Jesus just so we can get to a destination. When we believed in Christ, we came to a new family. We became part of a universal assembly of all believers of all time. The author called it the assembly of the firstborn. Jesus, of course, is the firstborn, the head of the church. We also learn that our names are registered in heaven. Are you on heaven’s registry? Paul wrote of this to the Philippians in 4:3. “Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.” We read of this register in Rev. 21:27. “But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Our names are already posted at the finish line! Praise to the Lord!We are also encouraged that we have come to God, the Judge of all, the Mighty One, as we read yesterday from Ps. 50. Jesus came and died to bring us to God and present us before Him, holy and blameless and without reproach (Col. 1:22). Hebrews 2:10-11 made this point clear. “For it was fitting for Him, for whom and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father. For this reason, He is not ashamed to call them brothers.” We have come to God.And we have also come to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. Let me quote Jonathan Edwards again from Heaven, A World of Love. “There are none but lovely objects in heaven. — No. odious, or unlovely, or polluted person or thing is to be seen there. All the persons that belong to the blessed society of heaven are lovely. The father of the family is lovely, and so are all his children; the head of the body lovely, and so are all the members. Among the angels there are none that are unlovely — for they are all holy.” Can you see who we have come to when we believe in Jesus? We are now part of a community of brothers and sisters who will know nothing but love for one another because the entire atmosphere is love. How do we get ready for that experience? We live our lives to love our brothers and sisters now with Jesus because that’s what we are going to do for all eternity. Let’s get a head start today. Love with Jesus, knowing that God, the Judge, the Father of the family, will reward you greatly and you will be filled with His joy forever.If you haven’t read my book, Live to Love, I hope you’ll visit livetolovewithjesus.com and get your free copy, or download the audio or ebook. I encourage you to get some friends together to go through the book and encourage each other to live to love with Jesus because you know where you are going and who is going with you.
Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,This and the next three verses serve as a contrast to Mt. Sinai, where Moses received the first and old covenant. Since we have been thinking about running a race, we might think of it this way. Before Jesus came, the finish line to which all were running was on Mt. Sinai and the course they were running was the Law. The old covenant came from Mt. Sinai and the Law. Now, since Jesus came, the course is Jesus, Himself, and the finish line is heaven. The new covenant comes from heaven. The earthly Mt. Zion was the mountain upon which Abraham offered the ram in place of Isaac. It was where Jacob had the dream of stairs to heaven. The city of David was established there. David purchased the threshing floor of Onan to atone for his sin on Mt. Zion. Solomon’s temple was built on Mt. Zion. However, in this verse, we learn that Mt. Zion has a symbolic meaning. It signifies the place where God’s presence is manifested. To the Hebrews, Zion is the place of salvation. Therefore, it is synonymous with the city of the living God (remember, Jesus was the promised King from David’s line), the millennial Jerusalem, and the heavenly Jerusalem, home to myriads of angels. Notice how Psalm 50:1-2 speaks of the Lord’s presence and His word going forth to all the earth. “The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to where it sets. From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.” The author was focusing on the finish line for us who are running the race. He was giving his readers encouragement to run with endurance. The reward is great to those who run well and endure to the end. In essence, we are looking at this great salvation that Jesus has given to all who believe. In this verse, we are encouraged to live to love with Jesus until we die or Jesus returns by considering our destination, our finish line. We are running to heaven, from which our salvation comes through Jesus Christ. When we draw near to the throne of grace, we are abiding in Christ. We are drawing near to God’s throne in heaven for grace to run the race to the end. It’s where God speaks and shines forth in all His beauty. He is the mighty One. In Jonathan Edward’s treatise on the loveliness of heaven, Heaven, a World of Love, he wrote, “Heaven is the palace or presence-chamber of the high and holy One, whose name is love, and who is both the cause and source of all holy love. And this renders heaven a world of love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven, fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light.”I think you get the point. We are in a full run toward the presence of God, who is love. Now, that love is a failing love. It isn’t perfected, but we are running to a city, a country where we are from, that is all love. Therefore, let loving with Jesus be our course. Stay on course by abiding in Jesus, drawing near to His throne in heaven for grace to endure. We are running to heaven by the grace given us from heaven.
Hebrews 12:18-21 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.” And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.”The encouragement we get from this verse is that, thankfully, we have been brought near to God through Christ and therefore can approach Him without fear when we need anything. We can bring with us anyone who is immoral, godless, unbelieving, and bitter into the presence of God to find forgiveness and healing. This is made possible through the New Covenant. In contrast, when the Old Covenant was given to the people through Moses on the mountain, access was only given to Moses. Let’s read about it in Exodus 19:12-13.You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, “Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether beast or man, he shall not live.” When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.Aren’t you glad that God has not placed such a boundary around His presence now? The throne of mercy and grace is available to all who will come through Jesus Christ, even the repentant immoral, or godless person may come. Listen to the encouragement of the New Covenant. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying “Know the Lord,’ for all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.God is still a holy God who cannot tolerate sin. He has not changed. What has happened that has changed everything is that He sent His Son to propitiate for our sins, to remove them, and to give us His righteousness. Peter said it well in 1 Pet. 2:24-25. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.” Jesus has made us holy and perfected us, so we can approach God without fear. Amazing grace and love!We will learn more about what we have come to through Jesus Christ in the verses to follow, but today, be encouraged to draw near to the throne of mercy and grace, grateful that Jesus has brought you to God for the glory of His name. Live to love with Jesus, depending on grace upon grace to be yours as you abide in Him.
Hebrews 12:17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.Today’s verse continued the author’s admonition for believers to see to it that there be no immoral person like Esau in their midst. We learn some things about Esau. First, he desired to inherit the blessing of his father, even though he sold it for a bowl of soup. I think the point is that Esau had no faith to endure. He couldn’t even say, “No,” to his fleshly appetites. Had he endured resisting his desire for food only a little while longer, he could have eaten and his inheritance would have been preserved. As it was, his desire for a temporal relief was greater than his desire to inherit the blessing. Every believer faces similar temptations. We have the promise of mercy and grace in Christ if we will abide in Him until the end of our lives. All we must do is stay on the path of peace and holiness by the grace available to us in Christ. However, as we run the race set before us by our Father, the flesh screams for relief from the trials of life with their sufferings. Unbelief focuses on the momentary distraction of the sights and smells of a fleshly meal. Then it becomes a contest of desires. Esau’s heart desired immediate satisfaction of the flesh. As a result, unbelief easily entangled him, and he disqualified himself for his inheritance. We are to be on the alert for so-called brothers or sisters whose fleshly appetites lure them off course, out of the path of peace and holiness. Let’s call them to repentance and to join us in living to love with Jesus. However, we might be disappointed. The second thing we see about Esau is that he couldn’t see that he was at fault for giving up his inheritance. It says, “He found no place for repentance,” because he wasn’t looking for it. After Esau realized what he had lost, he didn’t take responsibility for losing it. Instead, captured by unbelief and bitterness, he was blinded to the reality that he desired a single meal more than he desired the blessing. That’s what unbelief and bitterness do. They blind us to our true heart condition and we look for someone to blame, like Esau blamed Jacob. That’s why it’s so important to lay aside every encumbrance and the sin of unbelief that so easily entangles us and with endurance run the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. I suggest that if you purpose to live to love with Jesus, you will overcome the temptations of the flesh to be like godless persons. You will look for every place of repentance where you have quit abiding in Jesus. A third thing we see about Esau is that the desire for what he had lost brought him to tears. Esau didn’t seek the blessing with tears before he ate the meal. It wasn’t until later that the full weight of the consequence of his immorality fell upon him. The appeal of immorality seems irresistible at the moment, but later, once the gratification passes, one sees what has been lost. Then the tears flow as they wish they hadn’t succumbed to the lusts of the flesh. They feel sorry for themselves and view themselves as victims, resulting in greater bitterness and separation from others. I hope, my dear listener that you are not like Esau. However, if you can relate to Esau, in love, I call you to repent of unbelief, immorality, and bitterness. Look for places to repent. Take responsibility for your sin and for hurting those you blamed and defiled. Take them to Jesus. Draw near to Him, and receive His forgiveness and the blessing you desire of peace and holiness. Receive the discipline of the Father, and run the race with endurance now to the end of your life—living to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 12:16 that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.As we know from previous portions of Hebrews, the author’s audience wasn’t 100% believing. Some were in danger of neglecting God’s great salvation (2:2), of having evil, unbelieving hearts (3:12), of hardness of heart (3:13), of not entering into God’s promised rest (4:1), of being incapable of repentance unto life (6:6), and of shrinking back to destruction (10:39). With that in mind, we shouldn’t be surprised at the author’s seemingly shocking admonition to be on the lookout for immoral and godless people. We all have the responsibility to “see to it” that there are none in our circle of believers who would compromise the name of Jesus for momentary, earthly gratification of the lusts of the body as Esau did. How do we “see to it?” Three courses of action come to mind. If you become aware of someone who is acting immorally, that could be participating in porn, an unmarried couple living together with privileges, or a married person involved emotionally or sexually with someone who is not their spouse, then 1). in love and concern, confront them with Hebrews 12:1-16, and call them to repentance. That’s also the application of Matt. 7:1-5 and Gal. 6:1. 2). Inform an elder or leader of their church about your concern and love for them based on Heb. 12:15-16. Ask them to go with you to confront the individual(s) to call them to repentance (Matt. 18:15-17). 3). If they will not repent, then in accordance with Matt. 18, unite with the church in denying them fellowship. You are to avoid them as Paul admonished in 2 Tim. 3:5. Living to love with Jesus isn’t about making sinners who call themselves Christians feel good. God’s love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of someone, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. Not confronting an immoral so-called believer isn’t in their best interest. Wouldn’t you want someone to confront you if you were caught in a transgression such as this? We should do to others what we would wish were done for us (Matt. 7:12). If we ever are faced with such a situation, let us ask Jesus how He wants to love them. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so we can love them well. God has put them in our path, and therefore, we know He intends to love them through us.
Hebrews 12:15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;Today’s encouragement is again to the body of Christ, or the congregation as a whole, and not primarily a personal introspection. We are thinking of our brothers and sisters in Christ as we all run the race of suffering set before us by the Father so that we might be conformed to the image of Christ by the Father’s loving sanctification. In the previous verse, the Holy Spirit admonished us to blaze a path of peace and holiness to see the Lord in our midst. In this verse, there is a tremendous insight into how we are to love each other. We are told here that we all have a responsibility to the body of Christ to make sure none of our members falls short of God’s grace as they run their race. Let’s remember one of the most important verses in Hebrews. Heb. 4:16. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” How does one come short of the grace of God? By not drawing near to the throne of grace. Saving grace is unconditional, but the grace of God to believe, to trust God, and to love is conditional. We must abide in Christ continually. It’s living to love with Jesus. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. How can we tell if someone is coming short of the grace of God? We are to be on the watch for bitterness in the body of Christ. Bitterness in one member causes trouble that defiles many because it impacts everyone they interact with. When difficulties arise, if we have unbelief, instead of drawing near to Christ for grace, our hearts will harden and we will become bitter. The author warned of that very thing in 3:12-13. “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Can you see that this verse is saying the same thing in a different way? If we don’t receive the difficulty as an opportunity to practice drawing near to the throne of grace so we can express the faith and love of Christ, we will blame God and others for our circumstances. The next thing you know, there’s a cancer in the body that is destroying the peace and holiness we are to pursue together. If you hear a brother or sister judging, criticizing, or slandering anyone, then you have an opportunity to apply this verse of scripture. You know they are graceless at the moment and are under the influence of unbelief. You know what they need. They need encouragement to repent of unbelief and fix their eyes on Jesus and the Father’s training exercise to build their faith and love. They need to get in the tracks of pursuing peace and holiness with the body of Christ. That’s the way to help someone who has been injured in the race to receive healing. So this is a very practical obedience on our part as we live to love with Jesus. We are on the lookout for those who have been tripped up by unbelief and have become bitter. They need our help!
Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.In verse 14, we have another imperative or command. Pursue peace. This is probably the straight path the author had in mind in the previous verse. Let me help you see how similar this is to the apostle Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians to pursue love (1 Cor. 14:1). In 1 Cor. 12:31 Paul wrote, “And I show you a still more excellent way.” Then Paul defined the way of love with its application to the gifts of the Spirit in the body of Christ. The idea was that as you relate to one another with various gifts, make love the way you relate to one another. Pursue the greatest gift of love, not the lesser gifts. In Hebrews 12, the Holy Spirit teaches that we all have various kinds of trials in our race, and the way or the path we need to make is the path of peace. As we relate to one another with our various trials, run together in the way of peace. It’s simply another way to say pursue love or live to love with Jesus.Why do I say repeatedly, “Live to love with Jesus?” The “with Jesus” is what holiness or sanctification is all about. He is the one who sanctifies. Let me remind you of Heb. 2:11. “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” The finish line of the race is holiness or the revelation of the glory of God in Jesus. We will be perfectly one with Jesus. In this life, we are being sanctified or becoming more and more one with His life as we cast off unbelief and fix our eyes on Jesus. Heb. 10:14 says it succinctly, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” The finish line is perfection in Christ, and as we run the race of suffering, pursuing the paths of peace and holiness, God produces a progressing conformity to Christ. Here’s the apostle John’s version of the same truth. 1 John 3:2-3. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.Heb. 12:14 gives us great insight into what living to love with Jesus looks like. Pursuing peace with every kind of person in their various trials and pursuing oneness with Christ. If the readers of Hebrews were to practice (make paths) like this, they would see the Lord Jesus manifested in their midst. If a congregation isn’t pursuing living to love with Jesus, they won’t see Jesus in their midst. It’s that simple. They will simply be a religious organization or club organized around being victims of the circumstances of life. To live to love with Jesus is to pursue holiness and peace with everyone through Jesus Christ. We are united as one body, in one race, with one access through our high priest, to the grace we need because of what He has done for us. So make some tracks for those following you—the tracks of peace and holiness—or, in my words, living to love with Jesus. You will see the Lord in your midst!
Hebrews 12:12-13 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.We receive encouragement today from these verses in light of the previous verses of this chapter where the author spurred his readers on to lay aside unbelief and run the race of life with eyes fixed on Jesus. We can tell that the imagery is of an athletic activity; a race is still in mind. Also, Is. 35:3 probably was in mind. “Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble,” and Prov. 4:26, “Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established.” Although this exhortation might have personal application, more than likely it was an admonition to encourage brothers or sisters who were struggling. We are not running our race alone. We are members of a running club, so to speak. Based on that, he gave a two-part exhortation to help other runners.First, take note of those who are incapable of keeping up because they are exhausted. The ideas of weak hands and feeble knees are a fit description of those who are weak in spirit. Some were losing heart and needed their brothers and sisters to come alongside and restore them to strength. I wonder if the author still had the exhortation in mind that he gave in 10:24. “Consider how to stimulate one another to love and good works.” Also, this certainly applies to those who, due to the intensity and stress of their suffering, were weary of the constant uphill battle. The more they prayed, the more circumstances worsened. Can we relate to this condition? Do we know someone who seems so overcome and exhausted from the long trial that they are spiritually weak? Their faith muscles, so to speak, are exhausted. We are encouraged by this verse to come alongside them and strengthen their faith with the truths of Hebrews 12:1-11. These are important verses to commit to memory so that we have the first aid that is needed for our fellow runners.Second, take note of those who have been injured. They need to be healed before they run more. Their course needs to be a straight and easy path during this time, so they can heal and be strengthened to continue on. The concept of a path is like the track that a wheel makes in the dirt. We are to make tracks so others can follow. As we run our race, we have been warned about unbelief. The sin of unbelief can cause serious injury. Back in 3:12-13, the author warned, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” When muscles get hard or cramped due to exhaustion, one becomes lame. Worse injuries may occur. The same happens spiritually. Those who suffer like this need a straight path to the throne of grace so they can be healed. We are to help them with clear, straightforward encouragement to draw near to Christ and to live to love with Jesus for help and healing. The straight path is the path of righteousness, and righteousness is walking in love with our brothers and sisters. That’s only possible if we are with Jesus, abiding in Him, and ministering out of His fullness and grace. When we love with Jesus, we are strengthened and healed in the process.
Hebrews 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.God’s training is puzzling, isn't it? It’s a mystery. In some ways it is like the discipline of a young child by a father. The lovingkindness and benefit of the discipline is overshadowed at the time by the sorrow it brings. In the moment, when we are being disciplined, we become aware of how we have disappointed our Father. In this context, we are being disciplined for our unbelief, and making choices on the basis of what we see and experience on the earth has consequences. Sometimes those consequences have a large splash zone and a long shelf life, which brings great sorrow in our lives. We can be encouraged to know that He’s preparing us for glory. The difficulties, trials, and suffering in our lives have a good purpose. In the moment, we need to remember that through His Son’s sacrifice on the cross, He has taken away all of our sin that is exposed in the trial. Thankfully, the sin is powerless to separate us from Him and His love, and it is useful for training purposes. We need practice having our senses trained to discern good (the faithful response for His glory) and evil (the unbelieving response) as it says in 5:14. When we become aware of unbelief, we don’t usually leap for joy. It is sorrowful, but it is a sorrow that leads to repentance. We must lay aside the unbelief with its encumbrances, as the author told his readers in 12:1. The result of our Father’s training brings great encouragement. Such discipline and training produce righteousness. Righteousness brings peace to the heart. As the author said, it is a “peaceful fruit.” For when we repent of unbelief and draw near to the throne of God for mercy and grace to love, we experience His peace. We are at peace with God because we are covered in the righteousness of Christ and have experienced His forgiveness. We are at peace with ourselves because we have repented of our unbelief, and our consciences are clear before God. We are at peace with all men because we don’t look at them as the cause of our trials. We recognize that they are sinners just like we are, and we forgive them as we have been forgiven. And last, we are at peace because we are living to love with Jesus. That’s what righteousness is. It’s walking in love toward our fellow man. So, we move from sorrow to peace.
Hebrews 12:10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.Yesterday, we were encouraged that our Father in heaven disciplines us for our highest good and our greatest satisfaction. That is reaffirmed by today’s verse, isn’t it? Again, we have a contrast between our earthly fathers and our heavenly father. The first observation in this verse is that there’s a contrast in time perspective. An earthly father disciplines with the immediate time in view. Perhaps he was thinking of the immediate time when the father feels that his child needs help. It’s a short time according to the author. Or perhaps he was thinking that the child-rearing years are only a short time compared to a lifetime. In contrast, our heavenly father disciplines us with eternity in view, which is for our good. He knows where we are going. He knows what and who we are going to face, but most of all He wants us to share His holiness. This leads us to the second observation. Second, the author wrote that earthly fathers are motivated by what seemed best for them at that time; however, in contrast, our heavenly Father disciplines us for what is best for us. We can be greatly encouraged that whatever we are going through in our journey in this life, it is that we might be set apart to Him for His glory. That apparently is our highest good. We are being sanctified in this life with eternity in view. The concept that helps me understand holiness is the concept of unity or oneness with God. Jesus is one with the Father. His life is dedicated to, set apart for, and united with God. God put us in Jesus, making us one with Him. We have been dedicated to God through Christ. We are set apart for Him and united with Him. Jesus prayed that we may be one even as He and the Father are one (John 17:11). In other words, He prayed that we might share His holiness. Jesus commanded His disciples to live to love each other with Him because that called them to the same purpose in life that Jesus had with the Father. Living to love with Jesus is oneness with Jesus. It’s sharing the same purpose in ministry as Jesus. He lived to love with His Father, and He has called us to live to love with Him with the Father. We endure His discipline, His training, so we may share His holiness. Therefore, don’t grow weary or lose heart as you run the race set before you. Trust in the Father. Abide in Christ by drawing near to Him for grace to help in any circumstance or relationship. Draw upon His fullness and love well for His glory.
Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?Out-of-wedlock pregnancies were almost non-existent in the time of the letter to the Hebrews. Everyone reading had a father who disciplined them. On top of that, they lived in the Middle East, in which every culture was an honor/shame culture. Honoring one’s parents was expected, and if one shamed his father, not only did the father shame his son, but the community joined in the discipline process. The statement, “We had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them,” could not be so adamantly stated as a fact today as it was when the author wrote it. Besides the point that we should endure in faith by drawing near to God’s throne for grace to trust and love in the midst of suffering and hardship and keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author continued encouraging them to view their difficulties as loving child-training by their heavenly Father. In their day, one didn’t question the discipline of the father. A father was respected for going to whatever lengths were necessary to train his children for life. Children were expected to respectfully submit themselves to the father’s discipline so they would be prepared for adulthood. The author’s point was that if one respected his father, who was preparing them for life on this earth, how much more should one respect the heavenly Father, who is preparing them for eternal spiritual life? The earthly father looks ahead at what the child is going to need to be happy in this world in adulthood. The heavenly Father knows what His children need to be happy in heaven, in the new city where they are going to live. Therefore, through the difficulties in life on the earth, He prepares them to inherit His kingdom. If we know our Father is preparing us for His glory in His kingdom, then we endure the training, knowing we will ultimately be grateful and satisfied.May we submit ourselves today to whatever training exercises our Father has for us, knowing it is for our highest good and greatest satisfaction. It is my hope that you will join us in the live to love with Jesus journey by reading my book, Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships. You’ll find it available in several formats at livetolovewithjesus.com. If you haven’t already visited the site, please stop by and check it out.
Hebrews 12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.In this verse we are given encouragement as sons and daughters of God. All of God’s children partake in or are companions in the discipline of our Father, God. What is that discipline? It’s the process of learning obedience and having their senses trained to discern good and evil through suffering. It’s the daily practice of putting off encumbrances and the sin of unbelief and keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. The author encouraged them that if they found themselves growing weary and tired of the difficulties of life as they ran the course God set before them, then they were to keep drawing near to His throne for grace. The repeated practice of abiding was the very proof that they are children of God. Deep down in their hearts, they know that they must keep on running with their eyes fixed on the finish line and He who stands there to receive them. In contrast, those who are illegitimate children, not children of the Father, God, are revealed through the fact that they don’t even recognize the Father’s discipline. They don’t recognize it because they do not believe He exists or that they are in a race at all. The course is not set before them. They don’t see any finish line. They see themselves as carefree and inclined to choose whatever path they wish, which usually is the path of least resistance. I’m reminded of the years I coached high school basketball. If they were to win the prize, they had to do the hard work of being in better shape than their opponents. One of the most important aspects of practice each day was running—sprints back and forth up and down the court—for a long time. They ran until they ached, and blisters were inevitable. However, they were companions in the discipline. They hurt together, complained together, encouraged one another, and went undefeated. They faced teams with more talent but had been partakers of loving discipline. I loved them, and they loved me. They played basketball by faith, trusting the Holy Spirit to remind them of game preparation and coaching. Without a coach, they would have done whatever they wanted and would have lost most of their games. But with a coach and loving discipline, they had an amazing season.We have a heavenly Father who loves us and is coaching (discipling us) every day through the circumstances of life He has put in our paths. The discipline is proof of sonship. We are encouraged in this verse to receive whatever hardships come our way with confidence that our Father is training us and growing us up into Christlikeness for His glory. Purposing to live to love with Jesus keeps you in the mindset that will carry you to the prize and result in an amazing life.
Hebrews 12:7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?In verse 5, the author said that they had forgotten the exhortation that was addressed to them as sons from Prov. 3, where they were warned not to take lightly the loving child-training from the Lord. In verse 7, he encouraged them further that the purpose of enduring, the word literally means to abide under, the purpose of abiding under the hardships of life is to receive the training of their heavenly Father. This training of the Father was first introduced back in chapter 5:14. “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” The word for training is different. It literally means to be stripped naked by the practice of suffering so that you can see what’s in you, both good and evil. That practice came from God, the Father, in love, so you could grow up and mature. That’s the same idea here in 12:7. The Father is training His children to mature them or grow them up through suffering. This isn’t a new concept in Hebrews. How did Jesus learn obedience? Heb. 5:9 indicated it was through the things which He suffered. Two times in Luke 2, it was said of Jesus, in His childhood, He grew in wisdom and grace. He too had to be disciplined by His Father through suffering as a child so He could mature and grow up, as we say. This, said the author, is the purpose of endurance. It is so we might grow up.So the encouragement we glean from verse 7 today is that our Father in heaven has already planned out our days. Like a good and loving Father, He deals with us as His children and is implementing His child-rearing philosophy, namely, training us through hardships so we can grow up into the maturity of Christ. I believe the goal of that training is that we will glorify Him by living to love with Jesus. Have you embraced our Father’s child-training method? Have you taken it lightly, or have you considered yourself loved and privileged to have such a loving Father? If you have received it well, like Jesus did, you will abide under it; you will, to the end of your life, continue to draw near to Him through Jesus Christ, our high priest, so you can receive the mercy and grace necessary to grow up into the image of the Son of God. As you walk with Jesus through this training process, you will grow in love for Him and with Him.
Hebrews 12:4-6 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”Today, let’s take our encouragement from the end of verses 4-6. In light of the struggle his readers were having to endure difficulties and hardships in their lives and their great need to endure in faith until the end of their lives, he reminded them of an exhortation from Prov. 3:11-12 and a truth from Ps. 119:75. He thought they had forgotten them. My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof, for whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.We may be encouraged in our journey of love with Jesus that God will reprove us like a father reproves a son. That is what the author has been doing with his readers—reproving them for fainting, growing weary, and losing heart due to yielding to the sin of unbelief. Because they didn’t believe that everything comes from God and that He is a rewarder to those who seek Him, they had not practiced drawing near to the throne of grace for help in time of need. Therefore, God disciplined them or reproved them by not giving them grace to help. Being graceless in the storms of life left them carrying baggage as they ran their race, which was why they were growing weary and losing heart. His point in these verses was that they were not to take their gracelessness and weariness lightly. To do so would be to reject the Lord’s discipline and to loathe, hate, or abhor His training of them as His children. It would be to reject His love. This speaks to us today. How are we viewing our weariness and gracelessness in our trials? Are we in unbelief, griping, complaining, and blaming others, or are we realizing our loving Father in heaven is training us by the affliction of powerlessness?The word scourges means afflicts. Ps. 119:75 keeps us grounded when difficulties arise. God is righteous when He judges that we have unbelief in our hearts. He sees us clearly. So in love and faithfulness, He afflicts us with circumstances that bring out the unbelief so we can learn to draw near to Him for grace instead of trying to handle it ourselves. A child must learn to trust in the Lord with all his heart, as admonished in Prov. 3:5. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.” How does the Lord train His children to trust Him? Through affliction, hardship, and suffering, we have our senses trained to discern good and evil responses to them. Have you forgotten your Father’s exhortation to trust in Him with all your heart? Whatever trial you are going through, it has been sent to you in love, so you can experience His grace, for His glory, and the joy of the final reward with Him. You are being trained by a faithful and loving Father. So I encourage you today not to reject His loving discipline. Live to love with Him with confidence in His love, drawing near to Him for grace to love.
Hebrews 12:4-5 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him;”In verse three, we were encouraged to consider the hostility Jesus endured so as not to grow weary or lose heart. Today, in these verses, the author revealed something about Jesus that he wanted his readers to take into account. He opposed sin to the point of shedding blood, and He didn’t lose heart. I don’t think the author had Jesus’ opposition to the sins committed against Him. I think the spotlight is on His opposition or striving against the temptations to sin in Himself. I say that because of Heb. 2:17-18. “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” And again in 4:15-16. “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Perhaps the author had in mind Jesus’ resistance to sin in the garden when He sweated drops of blood under the agony of becoming united with our sins.I think the sin of unbelief is specifically in view in this admonition to resist sin. That has been the warning throughout the book and in the first verse of this chapter. Of course, we should strive against all sin in our pursuit of living to love with Jesus. I close today’s encouragement with an excerpt from A Disciple’s Notebook, a devotional by my mentor Jerry White, Jr. (By the way, it’s available at spiritofelijah.com). Sin causes suffering. It inflicts pain from guilt and shame. It defiles and separates from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). It viciously destroys love, joy and peace. It ushers in death. Tolerating sin is like permitting a venomous snake to live in your house. Either kill the snake or be poisoned by it.The Lord Jesus accomplished everything necessary for us to utterly slay sin. By steadfast faith in Him and His finished work, and by the power of His Holy Spirit, we do not have to continue as slaves to wrong attitudes, or selfish thought patterns, careless damaging words, ungodly deeds, or neglect of doing what He has commanded. Through Christ we are more than conquerors.”So as you run your race today, living to love with Jesus, determine to resist all sin, but especially the sin of unbelief. Fix your eyes on Jesus.
Hebrews 12:3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.Yesterday we drew encouragement from how Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, ran His race in this world as He lived to love with His Father. Today we consider what Jesus endured as He ran the race. To consider something means to take it into account or to reason, think, or analyze. The author told his readers to consider the hostility that Jesus endured against Himself. Would you think about that with me? What comes to mind? First, a short list of some of the sinners that come to my mind. Let’s see. Herod the Great sought to kill Him. The Jews of Nazareth were going to throw Him off a cliff. We know of a few times when the Jews in the temple in Jerusalem planned to stone Him. He called Peter, Satan, for his hostility to His mission. His own brothers pushed Him to move against His Father’s timing. Then there was Judas Iscariot, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod Antipas, and the Roman soldiers. Why should we think about them? So we see that He, like us, has sinners who will cause us suffering in this world. He made it to the end and finished well, and so will we.Second, consider the hostilities He suffered. For almost the entire time of His ministry, Jesus endured hostile questioning, insults, and shaming. He was slapped, beaten with the cat of nine-tails. He was stripped, mocked, had a crown of thorns pounded on his head, nailed to a cross, and was pierced with a spear. Have you suffered like that?Third, let's consider his endurance of such hostility against himself. He had to endure the hostility of the Pharisees his entire season of ministry, from emotional and verbal attacks and slander to physical threats. How can we possibly overlook the endurance of the pain of the crucifixion? Certainly, it ranks at the top of the most inhumane forms of torture in human history. He knows what it takes to endure hostilities and will help you.Why are we to consider these things? The author was encouraging them to endure in faith until the end of their lives regardless of what they suffer in this world as foreigners and exiles. In this verse he was encouraging them to not grow weary and lose their motivation to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus and finish well. We all need such encouragement, don’t we? Sometimes our suffering is circumstantial, and other times it comes from the hands of sinners. If you are in the second category of suffering, let this verse spur you on to live to love with Jesus regardless of what you suffer. Fix your eyes on Jesus’ heart to finish well, and join Him at the finish line for the glorious celebration and reward.
Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.How are we to run the race God has set before us? Implied in this verse is that our race is the same race Jesus ran. He has run the race that has been set before us. The author first had his readers look at Jesus as a fellow runner. Heb. 2:10, 17-18.For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings (that’s the race in this life).Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.Jesus knows what we need at the beginning and throughout the race. The key to His running the race was fixing His eyes on His Father, His joy, and His reward as the heir of all things and to sit down at His Father’s right hand. Today’s encouragement is to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. Let’s remember, the author’s point throughout chapter 11 was to encourage his readers to not quit but endure to the end of their lives in faith. His encouragement in this verse was that their confidence as they ran was to be in Jesus, who is the starter and finisher of faith. In the analogy of the race, He was the starter who called them to their mark and then fired the starting gun. Their race began when Jesus gave them faith. He also is the finisher of the race. He’s there throughout the race to carry them through to the finish line.As we live to love with Jesus, we may expect to carry our cross and suffer shame and rejection as He did. We are indeed running this race as foreigners and exiles, even as He was. Fix your eyes on Him! Compared to the joy set before Him and the reward of His Father’s joy and exaltation, the suffering and rejection were not worth thinking about. They were despised in His mind, meaning they were made little of or overlooked. How are we to run the race of living to love with Jesus with endurance? Fix our eyes on Jesus, the Son of God, our high priest who made purification for all our sins, and has sat down in victory at the right hand of the Majesty on high where He runs all things by the power of His Word and ever lives to intercede for us until we cross the finish line. When you feel yourself fainting, growing weary, or entertaining the idea of quitting the race, then overlook your suffering and focus on Jesus. Draw near to Him, and He will give you the mercy and grace you need to endure to the end in faith. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Hallelujah! What a friend!
Hebrews 12:1 has so much for us to consider when it comes to living to love with Jesus. So today, let’s zero in on running the race that is set before us with endurance. 12:1. “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”Everyone in the cloud of witnesses endured to the end of their lives. The imagery in this verse is like that of the arena where races were run. You can imagine the cloud of witnesses in the arena cheering on their favorite runner in each event. The author views each of the witnesses in the cloud as runners who had also previously competed and won their races. The runners didn’t just run for the fun of it. They also didn’t decide how far they were going to run after the starting gun went off. Their races were “set before them.” The finish line was the end of their lives, and their inheritance in Christ was the reward for finishing well. All of the readers of Hebrews are running their races in the presence of those who have run before them, and we are in the current generation’s heat. Have you noticed that many are dropping out of the race? When they hit a “wall,” they quit. When they look at how much farther they have to run, they consider their own weakness and negative feelings, get discouraged, and give up. In the author’s words, they “shrink back” (10:39).Listen again to the encouragement from 10:35-36 and this verse of chapter 12. “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” We are all at different stages in our races. Some of you are in the early laps, some are near the halfway point, and others of us can see the finish line. Wherever you are, consider those who have gone before us, like those of chapter 11, hear them cheering us on, yelling things like, “God will be faithful; keep running. Don’t get distracted by others running their races; run the race God has set for you. Throw off your doubt, unbelief, and discouragement. Fix your eyes on Jesus, who has run the same race, runs with you now, and is waiting at the finish line to reward you.” That’s how you run the race with endurance, and that’s tomorrow’s verse, so I’ll wrap up today’s encouragement right there. See and hear the cloud of witnesses cheering you on, and run with confidence today as you live to love with Jesus.
I want to encourage us again from Hebrews 12:1. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,The author encouraged his readers to lay aside the sin that so easily entangles us—the sin of unbelief (3:12-13). I mentioned yesterday that unbelief looks at what we can see, experience, and desire on the earth. You might remember that the apostle Paul admonished his readers in Colossians 3:2, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” We will see that this author says the same thing in Heb. 12:2, “fixing our eyes on Jesus.” Living to love with Jesus only occurs when we abide in Christ and keep our eyes fixed on Him. The moment our minds set on something we can see or experience on the earth, in that moment we succumb to unbelief. I can almost hear you replying, “It’s impossible to keep our minds constantly set on things above.” Exactly, that’s why in this verse he spoke of the sin which so easily entangles us. Reacting to people and things on the earth is such an easy thing to do, isn't it? What we see, hear, and experience on the earth entangles us. The word carries the idea of something encircling us. It’s all around us. The encouragement I give you today is that you can expect that you will have to turn your mind to God’s throne of grace dozens of times a day. It will take endurance of a supernatural kind to live to love with Jesus. We’ll talk about endurance tomorrow, but today I hope to encourage you not to be discouraged by how much you have to intentionally turn your mind off of the circumstances in your life and turn it to Jesus. How quickly your mind becomes occupied with ways you can escape hardship, suffering, and pain in your own strength and wisdom. Even if you could figure out a way of escape, if you did it without reliance upon Jesus, it would bring Him no glory and therefore be a waste of time and energy. God only gets the glory if our responses flow out of Jesus’ life. We can only respond with His love as we abide in Him, which is impossible if we have our eyes fixed on the circumstances. Also, consider how easy it is to get entangled in trying to figure out the “why” behind circumstances from an earthly perspective. You can spend literally hours, days, weeks, and years consumed with assessing who did what, what shouldn’t have happened, what you wish had happened, and finding out who’s to blame for the problem. That is the fruit of the sin of unbelief. And yes, look how easily it entangles you. So today, be prepared to lay aside this sin of unbelief many times so you can live to love with Jesus in freedom.
Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,In Matthew 17:5, while Jesus was speaking to Peter, James, and John, "a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, 'This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!'" This is the image portrayed in this verse, except the witnesses of chapter 11 are the cloud of witnesses whose ministries are not completed until we walk in faith to the end of our lives. God is collectively speaking through their testimonies, “These are my beloved sons and daughters in whom I am well-pleased. Listen to them.” Remember 11:6, “Without faith it’s impossible to please God”? We are surrounded by not only the people of Heb. 11, but also by other people who have been faithful examples to us in our lifetimes. These surround us like a cloud surrounded Jesus and His disciples. God speaks to us out of the cloud of witnesses. What does He speak?First, every one of those examples of enduring faith had to lay aside every encumbrance, weight, or baggage that hindered them from pressing on in faith. Where did that weight come from? It came from not drawing near to God for grace and mercy. Think with me about Heb. 4:16. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Notice that the grace and mercy are conditional. One only receives grace for a trial if he or she draws near in faith. If one doesn’t draw near and abide in Jesus, then the storm in life becomes baggage because there’s no grace given. You’ve experienced this. You’ll notice the baggage you have accumulated on life’s journey comes from events or relationships where you didn’t abide in Christ and get grace to trust and love. So those events are now trigger points in your life. They are encumbrances to faith working through love. The only way you can move on is to lay those events aside by bringing them to Jesus and acknowledging that they are His to use for His glory in your life. All of the cloud of witnesses had to do this. How do they lay these encumbrances aside?That leads us to the second thing: God speaks through these witnesses. To lay aside the encumbrances, they had to also repent of the sin of unbelief that easily entangled them and which also easily entangles us. Let me remind you of my working definition of unbelief. Unbelief looks at what we can see, experience, and desire on the earth. In contrast, faith focuses on God and His promises. Bitterness, unforgiveness, doubt, depression, discouragement, and hypersensitivity are all the consequences of unbelief—baggage that we carry because we didn’t draw near to the throne of grace to receive grace and mercy in time of need. Third, God calls us to also run our race that God sets before us with endurance. Faith recognizes humbly that everything that happens in life comes from God, so the faith of Christ might be displayed for His pleasure and glory in our lives. When we draw near to God with a humble heart and receive well the hardship and suffering that God allows in our lives, we can then lay aside the baggage that comes from the proudness and hardness of heart that develops due to unbelief. Then we can run with endurance for the rest of our lives. What baggage are you carrying from the past or present storms of life? You can lay them aside today and get free to run in love with Jesus by confessing you failed to abide in Christ in those storms and thanking Jesus for forgiving you of unbelief. Turn to Him now and give Him those events and relationships to carry. He carried them for you on the cross so that you may be free to live to love with Him. Listen to God speak from the cloud.
Hebrews 11:39-40 And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.In these two verses, we have the author’s summary of God’s grace to those he mentioned in chapter 11, from which we can be encouraged. First, gained approval is the word maruteo, which we learned is to receive a witness or testimony from God that they have been made righteous and gained God’s approval through Jesus Christ. We saw that faith is God testifying to them of His acceptance. If we believe in Jesus, then we may also be encouraged that we are righteous and accepted in Christ. Second, God gave them all the kind of faith that endured to the end of their lives even though they didn’t receive what was promised in their lifetimes. What was the promise they didn’t receive? I think it was the promise to Abraham that he and his descendants would be a blessing to all the nations. They would never be able to see the fulfillment or completion of that purpose in their lifetimes, but they believed God and trusted that He was a rewarder to them if they walked with Him all their days. Do you believe God’s purpose for your life extends beyond your lifetime? Third, all that we have seen about the men and women of faith were provisions of God for us. Like I said yesterday, we have a better and stronger testimony to encourage us than they did. God worked in their lives to encourage us to trust in God, endure to the end, and finish well. So their purpose isn’t fulfilled until we learn from them, are encouraged to abide in Christ daily, and endure to the end for the glory of God. Every person who reads Hebrews 11 and walks faithfully with Christ completes their ministry. And I might add, I’m sure the same can be said about our lives, which are testimonies to those God puts in our paths. Our lives are made complete according to God’s purpose for us as others are encouraged by our faith and love.As we live to love with Jesus, we are testimonies of God’s faithfulness to keep His word and His people through faith. Therefore, our faithfulness isn’t primarily about us; rather, it’s about the glory of God. I hope that as you consider the testimonies of God’s faithfulness in the lives of the men and women of chapter 11, you will be encouraged that God has been and will always be faithful to you as you abide in Him and walk in love. Remember, your ministry won’t be completed in your lifetime, but in the lives of those who follow in His steps because of your testimony. Then your purpose in life will be completed.
Hebrews 11:32-38 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.Today’s encouragement comes from these amazing testimonies of faith in the face of tremendous suffering and hardship. The author’s point was that these men and women did not shrink back when the going got tough. They endured to the end of their lives, believing God was with them and looking to Him for whatever was needed to do what He called them to do. We know God is with us also because He has given us faith in Christ. We have so much more than all of these faithful men and women. We know that the faith of all these mentioned in chapter 11 of Hebrews was purchased through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. They received the testimony from God that they were righteous before God, but they didn’t have a clear view of what Jesus would do for them. We do have the fullness of the gospel revealed to us. Rom. 3:21-26 explains the foundation of God’s grace to them and us.But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.So there you have it, clearly stated. All of us are justified in Christ through faith. He related to them in view of what He was going to do on their behalf in Christ. He relates to us on the basis of what has been done for us in Christ. We all have received life in Christ through faith. Therefore, we know we can draw near to God’s throne of grace to receive whatever we need to love with Jesus as we have been commanded. We can trust God through whatever He takes us and endure to the end for the glory of His name. The writer of Hebrews wrote that the world is not worthy of us. But we have been given to the world just like God’s grace has been given to us, who are not worthy of it. This day is filled with more opportunities to reveal the righteousness and grace of God, which is available to all who call upon His name and abide in Him. Worthy is the Lord to receive much glory through us, as faithful testimonies of His grace.
Hebrews 11:31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.God magnified His name through Rahab. For a Canaanite prostitute to believe that God exists and is a rewarder of those who seek Him is remarkable. We are encouraged in this verse that Rahab was spared in the destruction of Jericho by faith. So we may conclude that God granted her mercy and grace through Jesus Christ. In Joshua 2:8-13, we see how God magnified His name through Rahab.Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of truth, and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” How did Rahab know that the God of Israel was the God in heaven and on earth? She knew by the grace of God. When she heard the news of Israel’s conquests and what was done for them, God opened her heart to believe that He existed and that He was a rewarder of those who seek Him. Apparently all who lived in Jericho were considered disobedient to God, but God had favor on Rahab and her family, much like He did with Noah and his family. We know God wished to glorify His name through Rahab because He gave her faith to believe in Him. The faith birthed in Rahab didn’t just deliver her from destruction when God destroyed Jericho; it also placed her in the lineage of the Messiah. She became the wife of Salmon, who gave birth to Boaz, father of Obed, grandfather of Jesse, and great-grandpa of David. So, she was the great-grandmother of David, and Jesus was her descendent. Amazing grace. Amazing faith. Amazing God.Are we not all among those who are disobedient? Have we not all had idols, other gods, people, things, and ideas that we have found more satisfaction in than Jesus Christ? That makes us all spiritual harlots. Yet, has it been revealed to you that God is the God of both heaven and earth? Do you believe He exists as a person apart from and separate from His creation? Do you believe you will find His blessing if you seek Him diligently? If so, then you have been delivered from the destruction to come, and God has amazing unforeseen plans for you like He did for Rahab. In confidence, you can walk with Jesus in love. You may welcome all of God’s people in peace.
Hebrews 11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.Our encouragement today comes from this very familiar story in Israel’s history. God told Joshua and the soldiers to walk around Jericho one time for six days and then seven times on the seventh day. Joshua 6:4-5. “On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead.” So Joshua and the people obeyed the Lord, and the walls of Jericho fell down just like God said they would. Why did they do what God told them to do at Jericho? It’s because they believed God existed outside of creation, that He was the God of the universe and all creation. They didn’t believe that all creation was God or that God was in all created matter. They believed He existed outside of creation and therefore could do what He wished with it. They also believed that if they did what God said, He would reward them by destroying the wall surrounding Jericho. He had promised to give them the land of Promise, and the defeat of Jericho was God’s warning to the rest of the cities in the land. He was making a name for Himself by being with them to defeat their enemies. Is it too great a leap for you to see the relevancy to us and to the original readers? This verse further establishes the author’s point made in 11:6. “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” This verse tells us that Joshua and the soldiers went to God in faith that they would receive what was promised, and they were not disappointed. This encourages us to believe the same is true for us and for all who will draw near to God, believing He will give them mercy and grace to obey His word. Armed with this testimony, as well as all of these in chapter 11, we can obey the Lord’s commandment to believe in Him and love one another. 1 John 3:23-24 states the case for us. “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”By faith, the walls of Jericho fell after they obeyed God. By faith, we draw near to the throne of grace as we live to love with Jesus, believing He will do for us what He promised. He will magnify His name, both by giving us faith and producing fruit through Jesus Christ, who lives in us. So may we walk with purpose and confidence just like Joshua and the Israelite soldiers. We aren’t living to love with Jesus for an earthly conquest, but for the glory of His name and a heavenly reward.
Hebrews 11:29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned.What made it possible for the people of Israel to pass through the Red Sea on dry land? We see from this verse that it was by the faith God gave them that the sea stood up for them to pass through. But when the Egyptians attempted to pass through, it is implied that they couldn’t because they had no faith in God. We are all going to come up against barriers in our relationships with others. Faced with the impossible, their backs up against the sea, and having no way of escape, Moses cried out to the Lord (Ex. 14:13-16).But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land.” Moses and the people believed God and walked forward as Moses lifted up his staff. The author was encouraging his readers to believe God is for them and is prepared to deliver them when threatened by their enemies. When things look impossible, draw near to God, and He will fight for you. He will deliver you for His name's sake. As we know from 10:32-34, his encouragement wasn’t irrelevant to his Hebrew readers. They endured a great conflict of sufferings. Some of you may feel hopelessly pinned in or surrounded by the enemy. You are not without hope because of faith. God isn’t asking you to muster up enough faith to deliver yourself. No, He wants you to recognize the assurance and confidence you may have because you believe in Him and His provision of access to the throne of grace through His Son. You didn’t believe by mustering up faith. God’s Spirit cleansed your conscience by faith (Acts 15:9) as you looked to Jesus for eternal life when you heard the gospel. At that time, the faith and love of Christ were born in you to assure you that when you face enemies in this world, you may walk forward with confidence. Jesus has raised His staff, His strong scepter, over every enemy you have so that God may be glorified as you pass through it on the dry land of His grace. The love of Christ flows out of those who look to Him. He is able to preserve you forever because He ever lives to intercede for you (Heb. 7:25). So walk with purpose today to glorify God by trusting Him and loving with Him. He will bring you through and will also overthrow your enemies.
Hebrews 11:28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.Moses led the people of Israel to keep God’s commandment to observe the first Passover. In Exodus 12:28 we read, “Then the sons of Israel went and did so; just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.” We learn from this verse in Hebrews that God did not destroy the firstborn of Israel due to Moses’ faith. This encourages us that as we walk in love by faith, many people may be blessed. Our abiding in Christ and living to love with Him is not about us only. God intends for many to experience His love, protection, and blessing.Think about the amazing extent of Jesus’ loving sacrifice that the Passover sacrifice portrays as you listen to Rom. 5:8-9, 15. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. Jesus is our Passover lamb. We have been sprinkled by His blood. Through Him, we escape death, and through His life, we live, receiving grace upon grace. Daily, we live in the blessing of Jesus’ sacrifice so that we might live out of His fullness and be a channel of His love in this world. Moses’ faith brought blessing to an entire nation through which we have received a savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Through Him, we live to love, so we might pass on the blessing of life in Christ to many.
Hebrews 11:27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.This is a very interesting comment about Moses leaving Egypt after it was made known that he had killed an Egyptian who was beating another Hebrew. We read this in Exodus 2:15. “When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.” What are we to conclude from this Holy Spirit-inspired testimony of Moses’ faith? First, we must conclude that when Moses fled for his life, it wasn’t out of fear but by faith. He had assurance that God would best work out His plan concerning him if he left Egypt when he did. Second, he feared God more than he feared the king. Third, Moses’ faith endured for 40 years, according to Stephen’s account found in Acts. 7:30. Fourth, Moses faith came from his intimate relationship with God, “seeing Him who is unseen.” He kept his eyes fixed on God, the author and perfecter of his faith (Heb. 12:2).So Moses sought to please the Lord, did not shrink back in fear or unbelief, and kept his eyes fixed on God. What a great description of the character of faith that God works in the hearts of His people. Such a faith comes to all who are born again by the Spirit of God and see the kingdom of God with the eyes of a new heart. We see Him who is unseen with spiritual eyes. We experience His presence, love, guidance, courage, and endurance. All of these qualities are ours as we live to love with Jesus. They are grace gifts to us as we draw near to Him and abide in Him by faith. Let’s draw near to His throne now in prayer.Father, we come to You through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our high priest and intercessor. Thank You for bringing us to Yourself through Him so that we might experience Your presence, love, guidance, courage, and endurance. We fix our eyes on You. Express Your life, Lord Jesus, in us today as we walk with You for the glory of our Father and the honor of Your name. Amen.
Hebrews 11:24-26 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.When I read, “for he was looking to the reward,” my heart is immediately encouraged. That’s what Holy Spirit-inspired faith does. It looks to the reward or the promise. Let’s remember what verse 6 tells us about faith. One believes that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Moses had the courage to leave Pharaoh’s house and suffer with his own people because God gave him faith to believe God would keep His word to His people. The faith God gave him was the assurance he needed to tell Pharaoh’s daughter that he was not her son and walk away from tremendous honor, wealth, and authority. Dr. Donald Guthrie, in his commentary on Hebrews, helps us understand that Moses’ motivation was linked to Jesus’ suffering. He wrote,All that Moses suffered was in the cause of God’s plan of salvation for his people, culminating in the abuse that was heaped on the Christ himself, of which the writer is acutely conscious through this epistle. Moses looked away from the riches he enjoyed in the king’s house and cast his eyes toward the spiritual riches he knew would be his if he identified with God’s people. In the face of great loss, sacrifice, and suffering, how was Moses so sure? The author’s point was that the faith God gave him testified that the heavenly riches he was to receive from God surpassed the earthly riches of the king of Egypt. Faith gave Moses the courage to seek the blessing promised by God to his fathers realized in Christ, even if it meant being ridiculed, reviled, insulted, and treated harshly. Let’s be encouraged to live to love with Jesus, forsaking the passing pleasures of sin and selfishness, and looking to our reward of entering into the joy and glory of the Lord. We must, like Moses, look away from what the world offers and turn our gaze to the greater riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. The only people who can do that are those who have a faith of the same kind as Moses. If you haven’t forsaken seeking the temporary riches of this world for the eternal glories of heaven, I encourage you to ask yourself if you have the same kind of faith as Moses. Has God revealed His Son in you? Do you have His life dwelling in your heart and body? If so, rejoice! Look up, and live to love with Jesus. Count on it: the treasures and approval of this world cannot compare to what God has in store for those who take up His cause in this world. Turn your gaze to heaven’s reward.
Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's edict.Today we draw our encouragement from Moses’ parents and the Hebrew midwives. We learn from the Holy Spirit that it was faith that gave them the courage to ignore Pharaoh’s edict to throw all of the newborn Hebrew sons into the Nile (Ex. 1:22). They feared God more than they feared the king. In verse 21, we read that “the midwives feared God.” In chapter 2:1-4, although faith isn’t mentioned, we see its fruit—courage and overcoming fear of man.Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.In one sense, Moses’ parents cast their son into the Nile according to the edict, but the Spirit of God led them as to when and how to do it. We know this is true because the faith mentioned in this verse is a work of the Holy Spirit. It was a testimony of God to them, giving them assurance that God would protect their son. If we are going to live to love with Jesus, we must have courage and overcome fear of man. Having courage and no fear of man comes from faith, which is the grace to draw near to God. We learn from the faith of the midwives that the fear of God overcomes the fear of man. Being afraid of what people are going to say or do to us is contrary to faith and hinders the love of Jesus. Jesus made the connection between faith and fear of man when He said to the Jews in John 5:41, “I do not receive glory from men,” and verse 44. “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” You can see it clearly, can’t you? Jesus didn’t seek glory from men, but from God. He told them they couldn’t believe if they didn’t seek glory from God (fear God) above the acceptance and approval of man. We may conclude then that one of the distinguishing characteristics of a God-wrought faith is its focus on pleasing God rather than man. Such is the work of the Spirit of Christ in our hearts, which enables us to love with Him. The love of Christ is bold and courageous, conquering fear of man. May we be encouraged today to seek the glory of God as we relate to and care for the people God puts in our paths. God gets the glory as we abide in Jesus, receive His love, and give what He gives us to love others. This is confirmed in John 15:8. Right after encouraging them that they would bear fruit as He abided in them and they abided in Him, He said, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” So let us seek the glory of God by abiding in Jesus and living to love with Him.
Hebrews 11:20-22 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come. By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph demonstrated faith because they believed what God told Abraham, their father. God promised that Abraham’s descendants would be through Isaac, so they could, with assurance and confidence, bless their descendants. Their testimonies of faith honor God, who made the promises and granted them faith to act on them. Joseph gave instructions when he was dying, also based on faith in God’s word to Abraham about the land of promise.We are encouraged by Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph because we too have God’s promise given to us in Christ. God has prepared a place for us in heaven. Through His Son’s ministry as our high priest, we have confident access to God so we may receive mercy and grace in time of need. No matter what we face in our lives, we know we are not alone and without hope.What are you facing today? Is there anything that you are afraid of or concerned about? Do you feel overwhelmed, weak, rejected? Are you in the middle of a raging storm with no end in sight? Believe God's promises in Christ and draw near and hold fast to your confession that you are a stranger and exile here on the earth but have a God who has the grace you need to glorify Him. Let’s let Paul’s understanding of this truth encourage us.Concerning this [a long-lasting storm in life], I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.Do you get it? Paul knew he would receive grace for the day if he drew near to God. The trials of the day were purposed by God so the power of Christ might dwell in him. It is with that confidence that we go through life. Whatever we need to glorify God by living to love and trust Him will be granted as we draw near to the throne of grace. We too can live by the promises of God in Christ.
Hebrews 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.The Holy Spirit had something else to say about Abraham, which honored God above everything else he had done in his life. Abraham demonstrated his love for God by showing He loved Him more than his only son. God was a greater treasure to Abraham than Isaac or his reputation. Because God had said to Abraham, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called,” Abraham offered up Isaac to God. Do you get it? Abraham believed God’s word about Isaac, so he offered him up by faith.Where did the faith come from? It came from the Holy Spirit when God promised that his descendants would come through Isaac. Since faith comes from God and Abraham believed God, he had the assurance that even if he killed Isaac, God would raise him up from the dead.This is one of those Bible stories that earth-blinded people cite as a reason not to believe in God. The story is too strange, too weird, too unthinkable. What kind of a god would ask a man to kill his only son as an act of worship? From an earthly point of view, we get it. There’s no earthly explanation that makes sense because they don’t understand God’s purposes or supernatural faith. It’s strange to them.We see Abraham’s faith in two statements found in Gen. 22:5. “Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.’” And vs. 8 when Isaac asked about a lamb for the offering. “Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’” God provided the ram as a substitute for Isaac according to Abraham’s faith, and Abraham received his son back, just as God received His Son back after resurrecting Him to life. We can see the type, can’t we?From God’s viewpoint, He purposed in eternity to glorify Himself in Abraham, Isaac, and in Jesus, His Son. God prepared a prophetic testimony to His offering up His only Son as a sacrifice for the sins of those of whom He is not ashamed to be called their God. God is not ashamed to be the God of Abraham, who, by faith and love, offered up his only son, or the God of Isaac, who willingly gave himself to be sacrificed out of honor to his father. God is also not ashamed to be called the God of Jesus, who willingly gave Himself as a sacrifice for the honor and glory of His Father. For Abraham, Isaac, and Jesus to do what God commanded them made them all strangers and exiles on the earth.They did what they did because they believed in God and believed He was a rewarder of those who love, obey, and seek Him. God has made us strangers and exiles on the earth through what He has commanded us to do. Glorify Him by giving up our lives in this world to live to love with Jesus, His Son. The only way this is possible is by faith. Walk today in love, by faith.
Hebrews 11:16. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.We are encouraged today by what God thinks about everyone who calls themselves foreigners and exiles on the earth. This is what is meant by “as it is.” As strangers on the earth who have been kicked out by the world system, they desire a heavenly country. In the heavenly country, God has prepared a city for them that they can call home. The Holy Spirit tells us something about what God thinks about those who consider their home in heaven to be better than their home on earth. He is honored to be called their God.Let’s notice the implied contrasts between those who are happy citizens of Earth and these strangers and exiles. They have different gods. When we talk about gods, we must talk about love. Let’s see how God connects idolatry and love in His condemnation of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord GOD, “Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD. Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers and with all your detestable idols,” God said He would destroy them with their gods to whom they looked. Those who are home on the earth have gods that are on the earth. God is ashamed to be called the God of people who love the things and people of the earth more than they love Him.In contrast, God is not ashamed to be called the only God of those who are strangers and exiles on the earth. They are strangers and exiles primarily because they love, and therefore seek, God, Himself. They consider God’s word, will, and promises as better than what the world has to offer. They desire a better country, God’s city and country. That’s exactly why they are exiles. They have been kicked out because they won’t worship the gods of the people of the earth. That makes them vastly different from everyone else on earth. God is the object of their love and the source of their love. Therefore, He’s not ashamed to be called their God.My encouragement today is to consider living our lives in such a way that God is not ashamed to be called our God. If we live to glorify God by living to love with Jesus, God is honored to be called our God. We will honor Him like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah did. More than likely if we live like that, people will say to us, “You’re not from ‘round here, are you?” Who and how we love will be strange to them, but God will not be ashamed to be called our God. So press on in love with Jesus toward the heavenly city whose builder and maker is God.
Hebrews 11:14-15. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.What is it that the men and women of faith say? They say they are strangers and exiles on the earth according to vs. 13. Anyone who calls himself a foreigner makes it clear that he is from somewhere else. If you meet a foreigner, you might ask where he’s from. You ask because if he isn’t from your country, then you know he’s from somewhere else.The author distinguished a foreigner from an exile. If he were only a foreigner, then he would still be thinking of his country and would be looking for an opportunity to return to it. But if he says he is a foreigner and an exile, then it is clear he’s not seeking to return to his home country. An exile has been forced out of the country from which they came, so there’s no use in thinking of that country. There’s no going back.These men and women of faith consider themselves foreigners and exiles from the earth. Jesus told His disciples that this present world would cast them out, force them into exile. So it was with the Hebrews to whom this letter was written. Being a stranger and exile with no place to call home was relevant to his readers. According to Galatians 1:4, Jesus “gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”Like an exile who has given up all in his home country, those who say these things have given up all on the earth. Their minds aren’t set on the things of the earth, which is my working definition of unbelief. Unbelief looks at things as they are on the earth, but faith sets the mind on things above, as Paul wrote in Colossians 3. “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” That’s exactly what those who say they are strangers and exiles do, and we’ll talk more about that tomorrow.Those who are living to love with Jesus have left behind all hope of finding life and happiness on the earth. Jesus’ call to discipleship was to deny self and lose one’s life in this world to follow Him. He spoke the truth to the Jews who wanted to kill Him when He told them, “He who loves his life [meaning on the earth] loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal” (John 12:25).Are you one of those who say they are foreigners and exiles on the earth? Do you think the earth is your country, your home? If so, you’ll find yourself looking for opportunities to return to it, to live in it, to be at home in it. I warn you in love, you are walking in unbelief rather than faith. Would you consider these men and women of faith to be strange? God is calling you to die to this world and look to Jesus for life and the grace to love with Him. If you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart, but draw near to God through Jesus Christ to experience His life and love. He’ll change everything.
Hebrews 11:13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.We are encouraged by this verse that the faith God gives is a faith that sustains a person until they die. “All these died in faith.” They lived by faith and died in faith. Of course, this statement reinforced the Holy Spirit’s point made in 10:39. “We are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah all finished well. They didn’t receive what was promised in this life but saw them off in the distance. They are like a man living on a plain who sees the car of his son headed his way many miles off. He knows he’s coming soon, and in his heart already welcomes him with joy and great expectation.In this example, the distance isn’t a few miles, but from this world to the next. What does faith do? Faith opens the eyes of the heart to see the promises of God in eternity. The next verses tell us what they saw by faith, which we will consider tomorrow.I want to encourage you today with God’s faithfulness to keep you in faith until you die or He returns. Our confession is that our home is in heaven, not here on the earth. We aren’t looking for or expecting life here on earth to be easy and comfortable. God hasn’t promised that to His people. He has promised to be with us until the end and then receive us into His glory. So may we take heart in whatever we are facing that God will give us everything we need to walk through it by grace and to finish well. Such is the confidence we have as children of the kingdom of God.
Hebrews 11:11-12 By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.We are encouraged by these Scriptures today through Sarah that we too may receive the ability to do the impossible. Having received faith, Sarah also received the ability to conceive. When Sarah heard about God’s promise of having a natural-born son, she may have laughed at first, but eventually she believed and obeyed. She did what it took for conception to occur, and God gave them a son.Let’s remember that faith is revealed in those who are in Christ when God speaks. For those who are not in Christ, when they hear the word of God, they are unmoved and disobedient. Heb. 4:2 described such an occasion with faithless Israel. “For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.” We can conclude from this verse and previous verses that God also testified to Sarah that He was pleased with her and would do what He promised by giving her faith. That was enough assurance from God for Sarah to obey and receive the promise.God has commanded us to do many things we don’t have the ability to do naturally. For instance, love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34). Or husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25). Or wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord (Eph. 5:22). Do you realize that you can receive the ability to love from the indwelling presence of Christ by faith? How does that work? If you believe that Jesus Christ is your high priest and that He has given you immediate and continuous access to the throne of grace, then you draw near to God’s throne through Jesus for the ability you need to obey and love. That was the point the author had been making since the end of chapter 4. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”How’s your faith? Is it the same kind as Sarah’s? The kind of faith that, in the face of the impossible, considers God faithful to keep His promise to give you the help or grace you need. If so, then walk in obedience. Let us draw near, hold fast our confidence, receive what He gives us, and give Him glory. What an encouraging word for us today from Sarah’s faith.
Hebrews 11:9-10 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.The previous verse testified of Abraham’s obedience to the call of God, which showed the faith God gave him and the righteousness of God given to him. Verses 9-10 reveal how faith sustained him throughout the rest of his life. In 1 Peter 1:5, Peter wrote that we are “protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” These verses in Heb. 11 indicate the reality of God’s protecting faith in Abraham’s life.Like Abraham, we have the promise and hope of a new city, a new country, a new kingdom, a new world where Jesus Christ reigns in righteousness. To get there, we must endure to the end of our lives, living as aliens or foreigners in this world. We are not alone. We have brothers and sisters with whom we live and journey who have the same promises we have. Abraham lived by faith, looking to God to work out His will and promises.In Colossians 3:1-4, the apostle Paul also echoed the reality of Abraham’s faith as Peter did.Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.May this encourage us to live by faith all the days of our lives, looking to God to work out His will and promises. I’m moved by this to keep my eyes fixed on things above rather than things on the earth as I live to love with Jesus. He is my life, and in Him I find everything I need for each day. These Scriptures are a wonderful encouragement to walk by faith in love with Jesus as we live to love with Him.
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.Today and tomorrow we will be encouraged by the faith of Abraham. It is implied that faith came when God called Abraham. The call of God, working with the Spirit of God, reveals the righteousness of God for Abraham. When God commanded Abraham to leave his home country and people and go to a land that God would show him, the Holy Spirit gave Abraham the power to believe. God’s call to Abraham is found in Genesis 12:1-3.Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”Notice the “I wills” in these verses. There are five, which told Abraham that God would be with him and that He would give him an inheritance. Typically, an inheritance or blessing comes from the father to the son. So when God asked Abe to leave his father’s house, he basically was saying to him, “I will be a father to you.”The point of the author was that the faith that God gave Abraham was an assurance or proof to Abe that God would keep His word. He believed God was with him, so he obeyed with nothing more than faith that God was with him and would show him where to go and what to do. Throughout Abraham’s journey, he had to keep reminding himself of God’s call and promises.The encouragement we are to receive from Abraham today is that we also are to remember God’s call and promises to us. He is our father. He has called us to leave everything and live to love with His Son, Jesus Christ, who is with us and will guide us by His Spirit. We must remind ourselves as we journey with Jesus that He will bless us and give us everything we need to obey Him and glorify Him. We are His, so His name is at stake.Each day of our journey, we go out, not knowing what God has planned for us or who God is going to put in our paths. However, we do have the Lord’s promise. “I will never leave you or forsake you. I will be with you always, even to the end of the age”, the aion, which you’ll remember from verse 3; we believe God prepared it for us by His word. Therefore, dear friends, let us, like Abraham, obey His call to live to love with Jesus, believing He will give us what He promises, grace and mercy, as we need it.Thank you for listening. Would you please take a moment and share this podcast with friends or family members? Everyone needs daily encouragement to glorify God by loving with Jesus.
Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.Let’s look first today at what Noah did. He literally prepared a wooden box (an ark) to save his family from a rain that he had never seen happen. Therefore, his obedience wasn’t motivated by reason or natural understanding. We know it was an act of radical obedience simply because of the enormous size of the ark and therefore the time required to complete the project. Second, let’s be encouraged by the fact that Noah prepared the ark in reverence. The Greek word translated reverence here was translated piety in Heb. 5:7. “In the days of His flesh, He (Jesus) offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.” It means both Jesus and Noah received well what God told them to do. It describes an attitude of heart that is devoted to accomplishing the will of God. That’s why they both received grace to obey, and God gets the glory. We have been commanded to love one another as proof of being Jesus’ disciples. Faith enables us to receive Jesus’ commandment well, which moves us to confidently seek God for grace to love for His glory.Third, let’s consider why he built the ark. I see two motivations in this verse. God told him to, and he loved his family. So the two motivations were obedience and love. Let’s note what drove the obedience and love. It was faith—faith that rose up within him when he heard God speak. But Noah wasn’t always a man of faith. In Gen. 6:5, God described Noah along with everyone else on the planet at that time. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Then in 8-9 we find an unexpected declaration. “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD…Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.” Noah was like Enoch. God chose to act favorably toward Noah. He didn’t deserve it. God’s grace to Noah was a favor, an act of 100% grace, not a reward for good deeds. Before God revealed Himself to Noah, every intent of Noah’s heart was only evil continually. At some point in his life, God gave Noah faith. He believed he continuously walked in God’s presence and that God would reward him if he continuously drew near to Him. It was by faith that Noah built the ark and loved his family. Fourth, Noah inherited the righteousness of Christ, which is given in accordance with faith. If God gives faith, then God gives righteousness. They are a package given in love. If we believe in Jesus Christ and intentionally practice abiding in Him, drawing near to Him for grace to trust and love, then we also are heirs of righteousness. Like Noah, may we receive well God's call to live to love with Jesus. I encourage you to draw near to the throne of grace all day, in every situation and relationship. You are building your ark one plank at a time by faith for the benefit of those you love.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.This verse is a further commentary by the Holy Spirit on Enoch, who was pleasing to God. I hope that everyone listening to this podcast wants to be pleasing to God. We learn in this verse what pleases God. Faith. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. To begin with, let’s purpose to walk by faith today because that’s how the righteous are to live. As it says in Rom. 1:17. “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”Rom. 14:23 gives insight into why it is impossible to please God without faith. Without it, we sin. God says, Paul writes, “Whatever is not from faith is sin.” Or to say it in the positive, if what we do is by faith, it isn’t sin. Is it possible not to sin? Apparently so, for 1 John 3:5-6 attests to it. “You know that He (Jesus) appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins.” So now let’s apply the transitive property of equality. (a=b, b=c, therefore a=c). With faith=no sin; abiding in Christ=no sin; therefore, with faith = abiding in Christ. In John 15:5, Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Apart from Jesus, we bear no fruit. Apart from Jesus, we sin. Apart from Jesus, we have no faith. Faith is the evidence that we are united with Jesus. It is actually the witness of Jesus’ life dwelling within. If we are united with Jesus, then it is a fact: God is pleased with us. He works in us, as a gift of grace, the very thing that pleases Him—the faith of His Son. When Jesus’ life (faith) is working in and through us, we can be filled with the joy of the Lord because we know He is pleased. We also learn two characteristics of God-given faith. First, we believe that God exists as a being outside of creation. And second, we believe God rewards those who seek Him. Apparently, we are to conclude that is what Enoch believed. His walk with God was driven by a faith that endured to the end. The aim of the Spirit of God is to encourage us to 1) continually draw near to God like Enoch did because we believe we are continually in His presence (He is). And 2) continually draw near to Him for grace to help in time of need because we believe He is a rewarder of those who draw near to Him (seek Him). This is also what Jesus believes. That’s how He walked with His Father on the earth and was able to offer Himself as a living sacrifice for our sins. It is the faith of Jesus that drives living to love. Without His faith, it’s impossible to please God. Apart from Him, we can’t do anything but sin. But with Him, we display His fruit and receive the witness that God is well-pleased.
Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.Today, Enoch’s life encourages us. Here’s the testimony of Enoch from Gen. 5:23-24. “So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” He was here on earth one minute and then gone the next. The Spirit of God simply says, “He was not.” This verse testifies with Gen. 5:24 that he couldn’t be found because God took him up to heaven. We learn from this verse also that Enoch was pleasing to God. He knew it, as did those around him, because (here’s that same word martureo) he was given an assurance from God, a testimony of faith. God spared Enoch from the experience of death as a witness to all of the subsequent history of mankind that the way someone knows they are right with God is through the faith He gives them. Furthermore, because it was God testifying, and not a faith that Enoch generated, his faith endured to the end of his life. Enoch walked with God until God took him. This is one of the reasons the author highlighted the work of God in this great cloud of witnesses. Remember in 10:36 he wrote, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” We are encouraged by the examples in this chapter to keep on drawing near to God with confidence that we will receive the grace promised to those who do so. God promises the grace to receive well what He places in our paths, whether blessing or storm, and the grace to trust and love well as we walk with God as Enoch did. So I encourage you today to walk with God by the faith He has given you. Do the will of God, which is to love with Jesus those He puts in your path. Consider how you might encourage others to love and good deeds for the glory of God. Please join me in prayer. Father, thank You for another day of life to know and love You and live to love with Jesus. Thank you also for the faith that You have given me to walk with You. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You, and love those You put in my path today for Your glory. Amen. I hope you’ll visit livetolovewithjesus.com and spiritofelijah.com to find more encouraging resources for your journey with Jesus.
Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.Our encouragement today comes from Abel. He still speaks. How? He’s dead. And what message does he speak? Before answering these questions, let’s notice that the word translated “obtained the testimony” and “testifying” in this verse is the same word translated in vs. 2 “gained approval.” That’s why I interpreted “gained approval” in vs 2 as having an enduring testimony because of the faith God gave them. Who’s doing the testifying? God is! Notice it says, “God testifying.” It’s not saying that Cain testified of his faith by offering a sacrifice. Abel obtained or received something from God that Cain did not receive. Abel received a testimony from God that he was righteous before Him. He was given faith, an assurance or proof that his offering would be accepted by God. So he offered a better sacrifice than Cain because he was moved by God’s gift of faith. God testified to Abel that he was righteous through the faith He gave to him. Let’s now connect some dots. Abel’s righteousness didn’t come from Abel. Abel’s sacrifice wasn’t better because he was a good man. His righteousness came from His union with Jesus, which was God’s doing before the foundation of the world. Paul taught this good news explicitly in 1 Cor. 1:30-31. But by His (God’s) doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”Abel’s faith, which motivated his sacrifice, was a testimony of God to Abel that God put him into Jesus Christ when He died on the cross and was risen from the dead. Jesus was delivered over because of Abel’s transgressions and was raised as a testimony of Abel’s justification or being made righteous. When God gave Abel faith to offer the sacrifice he did, God was testifying to Abel that he would be accepted by Him. The testimony or witness that Abel received from God, the Father, through Jesus Christ, still speaks to us who have also received the same kind of faith as Abel. We know, like Abel, that if we draw near to God through the blood and intercession of Jesus, we will be accepted and will receive whatever grace we need to glorify God. That’s the author’s point in all of these testimonies in chapter 11 of Hebrews.When we live to love with Jesus, we are offering ourselves to God as a sacrifice like Abel offering the firstlings of his flock and their fat portions (Gen. 4:4). Listen to Paul’s calling the church of Ephesus (and you) to live to love with Jesus. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” Through faith you have obtained a testimony from God that you are righteous through Jesus Christ, who offered Himself to God as a pleasing aroma to Him. The best way to celebrate Christmas is to walk in love. It’s the best gift we can give to God and everyone else because we love through Jesus Christ. We do so by the very faith He has given us. Abel says your offering will be received and accepted by God. Wow! What good news on this Christmas Day! Do you hear what I hear?
Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.This is such an interesting verse, containing foundational truths. First, let’s make sure we understand the word translated world in this verse. It’s also used in Heb. 1:2, where the author wrote, ”In these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” He didn’t use the word cosmos, which typically refers to the earth or the universe. Aion is usually described by spiritual and moral characteristics and refers to an age or ages in the plural. So the term eternal ages may be the best understanding of the word the author used. In the N.T., aion always communicates eternal or everlasting purposes. How does someone understand the all-encompassing foundational truth that God prepared all of the ages of time with its purposes by His word? By faith, which leads us to a second word that needs defining.Second, the author taught that the eternal ages with their purposes were established by the word, the rhema of God. It is by the rhema of God that faith comes to those who believe. Romans 10:17. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word (rhema) of Christ.” Let’s let W.E. Vines help us distinguish rhema from logos. He wrote in his Dictionary of New Testament Words, Vol. 4, pg. 230.The significance of rhema (as distinct from logos) is exemplified in the injunction to take “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” Eph. 6:17. Here the reference is not to the whole Bible as such, but to the individual scripture which the Spirit brings to our remembrance for use in time of need, a prerequisite being the regular storing of the mind with Scripture.The distinction between rhema and logos is the power of the Holy Spirit attending to or applying the word of God. That’s why just knowing the Scriptures or knowing facts isn’t enough to produce faith. Only the Holy Spirit can produce faith because it is by His doing that the hearing of the heart comes. As the author wrote in chapter 4, the Israelites heard the good news, but it was not united with faith in their hearts. The Holy Spirit hadn’t given the words life and therefore, power. Our hearts are prepared for the purposes of God even as the eternal ages were prepared according to God’s purposes by the Holy Spirit empowering the words of God. Now let’s make an important connection. God’s purpose for believers in Christ is to glorify Him by living to love with Jesus. The ages were prepared for us to do this! The faith that the Holy Spirit wrought in our hearts works through love (Gal. 5:6). So, we understand that God prepared all of the eternal ages by the power of His Holy Spirit to exist for His glory. For God to be glorified, He gave us His Son, to live His life of love for us and through us. That is our testimony of faith. What we see happening in our lives flows out of the invisible, glorious purposes of God. Romans 11:36 echoes Heb. 11:3 and this great foundational reality. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever (that’s the word aion). Amen.”
Hebrews 11:2 For by it the men of old gained approval.Chapter 11 of Hebrews is often thought of as the hall of the faithful. It’s one testimony after another of men and women who were led by God to do amazing deeds. He called them “men of old,” and of course, the term “men” is an inclusive generic term in this case. Why are these specific men of old in the author’s mind? Why is their testimony, after all of these centuries, still remembered? This verse answers that question. They have this enduring testimony because of the faith God gave them. That’s what is meant by “gained approval.” At the end of chapter 10, I hope you’ll remember he encouraged them to love and good deeds by reminding them of the faith God had given them. “But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul” (vs. 39). It’s faith that gives them confidence to keep on drawing near to God for the grace they need to obey and love with Jesus. After giving them direct encouragement to believe and draw near, in chapter 11, he provided examples from the Scriptures of righteous men and women who lived and were known by the faith God gave them for His glory. The aim of the writer wasn’t to encourage his readers to praise these men because they were good men who did the right thing. His aim was to combat the sin of unbelief by fanning the flame of faith that God ignited in their hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.Today, I encourage you that you also may obtain a similar testimony or witness in this world by drawing near to God’s throne of grace to receive mercy and grace to love with Jesus. By the way, that is exactly what the author did with his readers in the beginning verses of chapter 12. We’ll revisit that encouragement when we get there. Today, I want you to see where the author was going, so you can apply it today. If you are righteous before God, then He has given you faith to trust in Jesus. You believe Jesus gives you 24/7/365 access to the Father, so you won’t shrink back when the going gets tough. You’ll abide in Jesus. You’ll go to Him for grace today so His life can shine through your love and good deeds as He gives you grace. Do you get it? That’s living to love with Jesus! That’s the testimony you want to have in this world for the glory of God.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.Today we begin a look at the miracle of faith. Chapter 11 of Hebrews is jam-packed with examples of men and women of faith. We begin our study through this chapter with this question. What does it mean for a person to have faith? This statement about faith testifies to the fact that the faith in view is a miraculous work of God in the heart of a person that enables them to please God. I want to first encourage us with three scripture passages that indicate that God produces faith in the hearts of His children. Acts 15:8-9 “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.” It is the Holy Spirit who produces faith.1 Peter 1:20-21 “For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” Our faith and hope come through Jesus so they are in God.1 Peter 1:5 In speaking of those who are born again through the resurrection of Christ to a living hope, Peter said, “who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We are protected by faith, which is the power of God exercised on our behalf. The second encouragement springs out of the fact that faith is a work of God. If faith is a work of God, then the recipient of faith has an assurance from God that what He has promised is theirs. A faith that man produces would have no assurance or certainty to it. Our hearts are deceitful, and we can convince ourselves of almost anything if we want it bad enough. Just because I think something is true doesn't mean it is true. However, if God gives me the very faith of Jesus Christ, then I know He is for me. That is precisely what occurs when the Holy Spirit is sent into our hearts. The Holy Spirit unites us with the life of Jesus, and we are indwelled with His faith. That’s why He gets all the glory. It is His work in our hearts for the glory of God. I can be assured that God will do what He says concerning me if I believe, for that faith is a gift from God given so I might have assurance. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.The third encouragement echoes the second. Since faith is a work of God, it stands as proof of what is true in the spiritual world. The word conviction in this verse means to expose or to prove. When we say that a man is convicted of a crime, we mean that the evidence has been brought before the court or jury, and they are convinced that the man is guilty. The evidence proves him to be guilty. In the same way, faith is the proof that God is for us. We can’t see that we are righteous in God’s sight, because presently we are still here on earth and cannot see that it is so in heaven. God’s word tells us that the presence of a God-wrought faith in the heart is proof of the conviction that God has declared us righteous in and through His Son, Jesus Christ. As we will see tomorrow, it’s how we know God is pleased with us. So today, if you believe and trust in Jesus Christ as your life. If you believe He lives in you, then you know that if you draw near to God’s throne for grace to love, God will give it to you. That’s how faith works. It works through love. So faith is at the root of one who is living to love with Jesus, and faith pleases God. Live in His love and joy.
Hebrews 10:39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.In the previous verses we learned that those who are righteous before God have a faith that endures to the end. God is pleased with them. The writer wanted his readers to know who he knew them to be. He and his readers were not of those who cast away their confidence in Christ but were those who ran by faith until the end. Let’s notice the two peoples, two ways, and two ends mentioned in this verse. The two peoples. Those who, during a time of trial and hardship, shrink back from drawing near to God for help in time of need. Then in contrast there are those who have faith to the very end of their lives.Then there are two ways. There are those who shrink back or quit when difficulties arise. It is implied that they are unbelieving. In contrast, there are those who persevere by faith. They live their lives with their eyes on Jesus, drawing near to Him to receive grace to trust and love through their tribulations. Lastly, there are two ends mentioned here. One group suffers loss and ends in destruction while the other group is saved. The souls of those who persevere to the end by faith are preserved.This reminds me of the words of Jesus recorded in Matt. 24:9-12. Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.We can see that there’s no promise of being saved from pain, suffering, and persecution. Believers don’t escape hardship and trials in this life. It is their souls that are preserved and saved, and that through an enduring faith.Ever since Jesus came to earth and was resurrected, Christians have gone through tribulation at the hands of evil men and women. We live in a time where falling away from the faith occurs in almost epidemic proportions. Believers are betrayed and hated because of their faith in Christ and their recognizing the Bible as their authority in life. True biblical evangelicalism and patriarchy are considered toxic, destructive ideologies by progressive thinkers and therapists. False prophets have arisen and mislead many. Lawlessness has definitely increased, and the love of many has grown cold. How are we to respond? Shall we shrink back from our confidence in Christ? Shall we quit boldly proclaiming the truth? Shall we compromise the truth to be accepted in our culture? We cannot if we are going to live to love with Jesus. We are not of those who shrink back to destruction along with the apostate church. We must and will today proclaim the good news of Christ and look to the great reward of walking by faith, in holiness and love. Let us encourage one another to endure to the end, loving one another as Jesus commanded us, by abiding in Him—going to the throne of grace for mercy and grace to help in time of need. Our salvation and the preservation of our souls will be to the glory of God, who gave His Son, that we might live to love with Him.
Hebrews 10:37-38 For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.The author had been encouraging his readers that there is a great reward for enduring and holding fast to their confidence in God’s promises in Christ. Today we learn what that great reward is. It is Jesus, Himself. He is our possession. He is our great reward. He is our Helper. Jesus promised that He would return. All believers throughout all of history since Jesus ascended into heaven have been waiting for the sky to unfurl and for Jesus to return in glory with His holy angels. Paul articulated our hope well in Phil. 3:20-21. “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” The author in Heb. 10:37 asserts this reality. Jesus is returning, and when He comes, He is our reward. This is a reference to Habakkuk 2:3-4. “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal, and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it, for it will certainly come; it will not delay. Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith.”You’ll notice that the Holy Spirit inserted “He” for “it.” In Habakkuk, “it” referred to the vision that God gave the prophet. In this verse, the Holy Spirit focuses our attention on Jesus. His main point is that Jesus’ promised return is certain. He is certainly returning just as the vision God gave in Habakkuk’s day was certain to happen. God gave the promise and delayed its arrival so those who are righteous may be revealed. How are they revealed? They are revealed as they run the course set before them by God (a course with hardship and suffering) by the faith God gave them through Jesus. In chapter 12, we learn how we are to run this course of life—fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.So we are encouraged today that the faith by which we run and hold on to our confidence in Christ isn’t dependent on us alone. It’s 100% dependent on the grace we receive as we draw near to the throne of God through Jesus Christ. He authors and perfects our faith as we run. In this verse he again encouraged his readers not to throw away their confidence. He encourages them by what God is pleased with. He’s pleased with the faith of His Son being displayed in our lives for His glory. He is not pleased with anyone who shrinks back, casts off their confidence, or takes their eyes off of Jesus in unbelief. His point from Habakkuk 2:4 is that everyone who has been made righteous in Christ will not shrink back when the going gets tough but will run with endurance by the faith God has given them. They will run with eyes fixed on Him by His grace until He returns. Those who run by faith will feel that their wait has only been for a little while. They will experience Jesus’ presence as if there was no delay in His promise. They have Him now!Do you want to please God? Then run your race living to love with endurance, fixing your eyes on Jesus. He will give you the grace to trust and love. With Jesus, God is pleased.
Hebrews 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.All of us have need of endurance. We need to hold fast our confidence in Jesus’ life dwelling within us until the day we die or He returns. Some synonyms for endurance are steadfastness, perseverance, and to patiently wait. Today’s live to love scripture encouragement is to live to love with Jesus as the purpose for your life for the rest of your life. That is the will of God for you. God’s will is that you glorify God by living out of the life of Jesus, whom He gave to you and to whom He gave you. Jesus is only glorified if you believe He is God and you draw near to Him, abide in Him, and He lives through you. If you endure to the end, living to love in Jesus, you will receive the reward that has been promised to those who do so. The following verses unpack both the need for endurance and the reward, so I’ll try not to get ahead of myself. Today, perhaps you are like me. You’re in a how-long-is-this-going-to-last trial. Maybe you work or live with someone with whom it is hard to get along. You may be suffering physically with no remedy in view. We have a need for grace to endure. The only way we are going to glorify God is to receive our suffering well and, moment by moment until the end of our days, draw near to the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace to help in our time of need. That’s Heb. 4:16. Another aspect of piety is devotion to God’s will. We see this concept again in this verse. “When you have done the will of God.” There’s only one God from whom are all things, and He is love. Whatever or whoever comes into the course of our lives, whether good or bad, we know it is God’s will for us to draw near to Him for grace to trust and love. We believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, so we hold fast to that promise so we may receive that great reward.
Hebrews 10:35 Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.Do we realize the great reward there is if we hold fast our confidence in Christ until the end of our lives? This is today’s live to love scripture encouragement. There is a great reward for those who possess the life of Jesus and live to love with Him until the end. We know that Jesus is our possession if our confidence in Him endures to the end. To have Jesus is to have Him who has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us. Our confidence is in His word and His character.So today’s encouragement is to not throw away your confidence in Jesus’ promise to be with you forever. It’s a lasting confidence that endures every hardship and suffering because His presence and help were promised by the Lord, Himself. We are to never bend or throw away our confidence in this great truth. Heb. 13:5-6 and Heb. 11:6 should be etched in our hearts and minds. Here’s Heb. 13:5-6. "Make sure that your character is free from the love of money [because it can be taken away from you in this world], being content with what you have; [now here’s what you have that is your confidence in life] for He Himself has said, 'I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,' so that we confidently say, 'THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?'" And Heb. 11:6. “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” My dear friends, we are pilgrims, strangers, and exiles on the earth, as it says in Heb. 11:13. Jesus’ presence and help as we live to love with Him is the proof that we are citizens of a “heavenly country,” citizens of a better city that God has prepared for those who don’t throw away their confidence in Him and live each day abiding in Jesus. When we draw near for grace to love with Jesus, we are abiding in Him, holding fast our confidence in what we possess—namely, His promise to be with us forever and to be our Helper. So don’t throw away your confidence in Jesus’ life dwelling in you. There’s a great reward that we will learn more about in the coming days.
Hebrews 10:34 For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.We are encouraged today by the underlying motivation for living to love with Jesus. It’s our eternal union with Jesus now and in the future in a new heaven and earth. We know we have an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for us (1 Pet. 1:4). We know this world is not our home; in fact, we know that the minute we leave this world, we are finally, ultimately free from all sin, death, and suffering.It was this understanding that motivated the believing Hebrews to show sympathy to their brothers and sisters who had been imprisoned for their faith. They also had their property taken from them, and they received it joyfully? Are you kidding me? Doesn’t that catch your attention? What if Christians became the greatest enemy of the state, and they imprisoned us and took our lands and property from us? Would we accept it joyfully? Here’s the point. There were some very mature believers to whom Hebrews was written. Do you remember the mark of maturity we studied in Hebrews 5? It’s piety. Piety is receiving well whatever hardship or suffering God gives us in this world, like Jesus did as He suffered for our sins. He learned obedience through the things that He suffered, and so do we. We learn to obey God’s command to abide in Him, to draw near to Him for grace to love and trust Him, and to love those He puts in our paths. I want us to notice that the possession we have is Jesus, Himself. We have the very life of the Father and the Son dwelling in us now. I read John 17:23 this morning. “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” Jesus is in us, and the Father is in Him. We also have a kingdom that cannot be shaken! It is a lasting one. Later in chapter 12:27-28, the author wrote, “This expression, ‘Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.’” One of the foundational worldviews of Jesus is that the Father’s love is enough. He satisfies the deepest desires and needs of my soul. That’s what He believed, and if He lives in us, then that faith and satisfaction dwells in us. The joyful acceptance of suffering for Jesus’ sake issues forth from that deep, unshakable satisfaction of the heart and soul rooted in Jesus Christ, Himself. As we live to love with Jesus, we may expect God to glorify Himself and His Son through the loss of things and relationships so we can show what we really possess in this life: the indestructible, eternal life with Jesus Christ. When we root our satisfaction in this world in Christ, the Father and Son are joyful. When they are joyful, their joy becomes our joy as we experience their pleasure. So if God takes away an earthly possession, we joyfully receive it as an opportunity to display our greatest treasure, which cannot be taken away—living to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 10:32-33 But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.The author of Hebrews was aware of the good testimony of his original recipients. When they first started following Jesus, there was no honeymoon period. Once the light of Christ shined on them and they saw and believed that He was God, they experienced what Jesus prophesied to His disciples in John 15:20 and 16:1-2. Remember the word that I said to you, “A slave is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you…These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. They (meaning the things Jesus had spoken to them) will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.The Hebrew recipients of this letter had suffered because of their faith in Christ. Some were publicly shamed and persecuted while others suffered because they were identified with them. The author reminded them of how well they received these hardships. Let me remind you of what the author said back in chapter 5 about how Jesus was heard by His Father because of His piety. He received well the suffering that came from obeying His Father’s will. (5:7-9). The author went on to say that receiving suffering well as an opportunity to display what is good for the glory of God was a sign of maturity in Christ. So we can see the connection between the writer’s explanation of maturity and the testimony of many to whom he wrote. In these verses, we see another example of maturity. When they first believed, they willingly embraced suffering for Jesus’ name's sake, whether it was personally or as a result of loving their brothers and sisters in Christ. For us, there may be times on this journey of living to love with Jesus that you will suffer public humiliation and insult and be reviled and severely tested. When that comes, the temptation is to back off, lay down, quit, and run for cover. That’s when we need most to draw near to God to receive mercy and grace so we can continue loving in Jesus’ name. That’s when we need more stimulation and encouragement to love and good deeds. If you are going through a tough time, I encourage you not to give up or retreat from living to love with Jesus. Receive well what our Father has for you, and love everyone He puts in your path, even if they are adversaries. We should expect to suffer for Jesus’ name's sake, so when we see our brothers and sisters suffering, let’s be sure to join them in their suffering and express Jesus’ love.
Hebrews 10:29-31 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.Verses 30-31 are a reference to God’s adversaries, whom he described in verse 29. Surely the author had the Song of Moses from Deuteronomy 32 in mind as he wrote these verses. You can see the connection of his warning to those who neglect so great a salvation as God has provided in Jesus with these verses from Deuteronomy 32:18-22, 35-36, and 43.You neglected the Rock who begot you, and forgot the God who gave you birth. The LORD saw this, and spurned them because of the provocation of His sons and daughters. Then He said, “I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; for they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness. They have made Me jealous with what is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation, for a fire is kindled in My anger, and burns to the lowest part of Sheol, and consumes the earth with its yield, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, in due time their foot will slip; for the day of their calamity is near, and the impending things are hastening upon them. For the LORD will vindicate (judge) His people, and will have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their strength is gone, and there is none remaining, bond or free.Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance on His adversaries, and will atone for His land and His people.What catches my attention in verse 30 is that the author said, “We know God is a God of vengeance against His adversaries. The history of the Hebrews, God’s people, revealed time and time again that God judged those who rejected Him. Yes, the godless nations were His enemies, but who are God’s greatest adversaries? Is it the godless or those who identify with His name yet reject His Son and seek their own glory through their religiosity? We know the answer to that question. Jesus confronted those who were seeking to kill Him with these words, ““How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God” (John 5:44)? Why do we live to love with Jesus? We are seeking the glory of God. We’re not trying to make a name for ourselves. We recognize that Jesus is our life. We only bring glory to God if He lives for us. We draw near to Him for grace to love because we want God to be glorified. We look for ways to stimulate one another to love and good deeds for Jesus’ name's sake.So join me today in bringing God glory by living to love with Jesus. Abide in Him today by adopting His purpose in life, to love with His Father, and embracing His beliefs. You can find these in my book, Live to Love, at livetolovewithjesus.com. If you live to love with Jesus, you’ll never be afraid of being God’s adversary. You’re His friend.
Hebrews 10:28-29 Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?Back at the beginning of chapter 2, the author wrote, “For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? The author was referring to the Law of Moses in these verses. The first covenant had no provision of mercy if someone broke the Law willfully in the sight of two or three witnesses. If someone who despised the word of God revealed in the Law, the first covenant, was punished without mercy, what do you think God will do to someone who despises the second, greater covenant established by His Son, Jesus Christ? Can someone neglect so great a salvation as God has provided in Jesus with impunity? To reject or neglect God’s promises in Christ is to trample on Jesus. To refuse to be washed in Jesus’ blood is to insult the Holy Spirit of grace, by which one is to be set apart to God. The seriousness of unbelief is graphically unpacked in these verses. There’s no escape from the fury of God’s judgment if one insults the Holy Spirit, by whose grace the Son of God gave Himself to redeem God’s people and give them entrance into the Holy Place for the glory of God. I wonder if this is the sin against the Holy Spirit that is unforgivable. Of course these verses are intended to produce a fear of the Lord, which gives one wisdom and understanding. Job wrote, “And to man He (God) said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding’” (Job 28:28). One is a fool to despise wisdom. So let us consider how to stimulate one another to live to love with Jesus. For some, knowing the truth of what God has done for us in Christ is a great, positive encouragement. For others, the negative approach is needed—a strong warning of what can be expected if we don’t continually abide in Christ and love with Him. Draw near to the throne of grace, my dear friend, and draw from the fullness of God’s love and grace so you can bring Him glory in the day of judgment, which is coming soon.
The encouragement today is somewhat negative and severe, but it has the same aim as the previous verses, namely to stimulate love and good works for the glory of God. Hebrews 10:26-27 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire that will consume the adversaries.Before we can understand verses 26-31, we need to consider what the author has already said. The sin he warned his readers about was unbelief. “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God” (3:13). And again in 3:19, “So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.”He told them of a promised rest from God that has been provided in Jesus Christ as their high priest. That rest is the throne of grace, where Jesus had entered in with His blood to redeem them and bring them to God. Since they had a great high priest who could sympathize with their weaknesses and who had been tempted as they had been, he encouraged them to continually draw near to the throne of grace where Jesus sits as their intercessor and source of mercy and grace. In chapter 5, he showed them how Jesus received suffering well, drew near to His Father for grace, and did good rather than evil. He told them the mature have been trained by practice in suffering to discern good and evil. In light of what God has done through Jesus for His people, to not draw near to God for help is a willful sin. He has loved us by perfecting us in Christ, once and for all, and He has provided His grace to us. The only reason for not drawing near to receive grace to trust God and love with Jesus can only be because we don’t believe what God has said and done. If we have received the truth that Jesus’ sacrifice for sins has satisfied God’s justice and have the testimony of the Holy Spirit before us, then our sin is willful rather than ignorant. The one who willfully refuses to draw near to God for grace to trust and love has rejected Jesus Himself. God has provided no other sacrifices since Jesus’ sacrifice finished the work. All that remains for such an adversary of Jesus and righteousness is a terrifying expectation of judgment. God’s judgment will rage against His adversaries like the fury of a fire that consumes everything in its path. Notice the “for” at the beginning of verse 26. That connects these thoughts to the previous admonition to consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. This very serious warning was given in love as a powerful stimulant for those who were drifting away, abandoning the call to live to love with Jesus. It was a call to repent of willfully rejecting Jesus and His call to love while they still had time to be fruitful.I close today’s encouragement with this thought. We are going to be consumed—one way or another. Either we will be consumed by the love of God or by the fury of God’s fiery judgment. If you know God has provided His Son to live for you and you reject His grace because you want to live for yourself, you sin willfully. There’s no hope in rejecting Jesus’ sacrifice and provision of grace. Please repent today. But if you hold fast to the confession of your hope in Christ, you will not be disappointed when you finish your race and stand in the judgment. His blood will cover all your sin, and His righteousness will have been the fountain of your love and good works. God will be glorified either way, but your experience of His glory is determined by your intentional obedience to the truth.
Hebrews 10:25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.We are encouraged by today’s verse that the body of Christ needs regular fellowship and encouragement to love and good deeds. Apparently there were some who had abandoned regular commitment to the assembly. If we are to live to love with Jesus, I think we need daily encouragement. On a practical note, how can one obey Jesus’ command to love one another (believers) as He has loved us if one doesn’t walk regularly in a community of believers? Living to love with Jesus means we will hang out with members of His body on a regular basis. Can you even imagine Jesus forsaking or deserting His own, much less making a habit of doing so? Unthinkable.The author suggested that the more his readers saw the day of judgment drawing near, the more they should consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Is it even possible to effectively stimulate someone without being with them? I don’t think so. When he mentioned “the day,” I’m not sure whether the author had in mind Jesus’ return and the final judgment or their death and entrance into God’s presence. I lean toward our thinking about our death. In Hebrews 9:27, the author wrote, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment.” Every day, we are drawing nearer to our deaths. Once we die, it’s too late to glorify God by loving and doing good deeds. Therefore, since we can draw near to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ to receive the grace we need to love and do good to one another, it makes sense that we ought to encourage one another daily to abide in Jesus and love with Him.I hope you’ll consider yourself stimulated and encouraged to love and good deeds today through Hebrews 10:25. Make use of every day to bear as much fruit for the glory of God as you can by abiding in Jesus and loving with Him. Let’s love with Jesus while we have time.
Hebrews 10:24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,We come today to the third admonition from the author based upon our confidence in Christ as our great high priest and in His blood shed for us. Let us draw near to God. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. And now thirdly, let us consider or contemplate how to stimulate or provoke one another to love and good deeds. First, since we have been so loved by God as to be given 24/7/365/forever access to the throne of grace, let’s think about ways we can encourage each other to love like we’ve been loved. That was Jesus’ parting command to His disciples. “Love one another as I have loved you,” He said. This love is agape love—doing the highest good for one another. Why should we consider “how” or “the way” to stimulate one another to love? Every person is different. The way to love one person may not be the way to love another person. What stimulates one person may not encourage someone else. We need to think about how to love each person uniquely. The only way that is going to happen is if we draw near or abide in Christ. We need His wisdom, love, discernment, and knowledge for how best to love each person He puts in our paths. It’s not a one-size-fits-all kind of love. So be encouraged today to think about how Jesus wants to love each person you meet. Draw near. Ask for help. Listen. Then speak words that will encourage them to live to love with Jesus. Second, the Christian lifestyle is to be characterized by love and good deeds. It’s the proof that we are His disciples (John 14:35; 15:8). The Holy Spirit must have really put this on the mind of the apostle Paul when he wrote to Titus.Titus 2:7 in all things show yourself to be an example of good deedsTitus 2:14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.Titus 3:8 This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.Titus 3:14 Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful.We are encouraged in Heb. 10:24 to not only be engaged in love and good deeds but to stimulate one another to live that way. This verse is one of many verses that moved me to produce the Live to Love Scripture Encouragements podcast. Each day as I study the Scriptures, I draw near to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ, expecting the Holy Spirit to give me grace to love you well and stimulate you to love and good deeds for the glory of God. I have not been disappointed in this hope that God will give me what I need to connect every Scripture in some way to living to love with Jesus. I’ve gone through John’s gospel, 1-3 John, Romans, and now Hebrews. Consider how you might stimulate your friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and family members to love and good deeds by listening to this podcast daily and sharing it with them. Also, please encourage them to visit livetolovewithjesus.com and get or give Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships or spiritofelijah.com, where they can also get or give Equipped to Love: Building Idolatry-free Relationships. These are some ways you can consider to obey Heb. 10:24.
Heb. 10:19-21, 23 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God…Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;Today’s live to love scripture encouragement comes from verse 23, with which the author gives a second admonition beginning with “let us.” Yesterday we were encouraged to draw near to the throne of grace. Today, let us hold fast to the hope we have in Christ without wavering. Our hope is that God is pleased with Jesus’ work on our behalf and welcomes us with open arms to share in His glory forever. We are assured by God’s faithfulness that we will receive whatever grace we need to glorify God through Jesus Christ. I hope you can see the connection between this verse and John 15:7-8. Notice the promise of God in these verses. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” Our confession is that God is glorified most as we live our lives abiding in Jesus so that His life and love can be displayed (bear fruit) in this world. He who made this promise is faithful. That’s why we don’t bend or lay over in the face of difficulties and hardships. By the way, that’s what it means to not waver. As we live to love with Jesus, we draw near to God’s throne of grace with confidence and hope that we will receive whatever we need to glorify God through Christ Jesus, our great priest. Let us hold fast to our confession: Jesus Christ is our hope of glory because He is our life. No matter how rough the road, how painful the suffering, or how impossible the relationship, we agree with what God says regarding His Son. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and He is the only way to the Father and the only way we can receive the grace we need to live to love in His name.
Hebrews 10:19-22 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. The last two days we’ve looked at two reasons for living a life of love: 1. We have confidence to enter into the presence of God through the blood of Jesus, and 2. we have a great priest in Jesus who ministers for us in the presence of God. Today we begin looking at what we ought to do in view of these two wonderful blessings in Christ. In verses 22-24, the author gave three admonitions to those who have such blessings in Christ. He introduced each admonition with the words, “Let us.” The first thing we should do is draw near to or come before the throne of grace with a sincere or true heart. Because of the blood of Christ shed for us, we have every encouragement to come to God for help because the truth is that our hearts have been cleansed by faith through the power of the Holy Spirit. When Peter testified to the rest of the disciples that they should receive the Gentiles who had believed in Jesus in Joppa, his argument was based on the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. He said, “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.” In verse 20, the author stated that we have the same confidence. You’ll notice the verb tense “having” indicates the work is passive. It’s not something we have done; it’s something that has been done to us. We can draw near with sincere hearts because God has given us faith, and faith is the assurance, the full assurance, of God’s pleasure and acceptance. The presence of a Holy Spirit-wrought faith cleanses our consciences. He used the image of the priests sprinkling blood from the sacrifice in the tabernacle on the worshipper, except this blood is the better and greater. We know we are identified with Jesus’ blood sacrifice, so we know our sins are removed once and for all time. He also used the image of the priests and worshippers washing their bodies with the water from the bronze basin in the tabernacle before approaching God. Again, the water used for washing in the tabernacle did not wash them once for all, but the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood is a pure water. One only needed to be washed once for all time. Do you remember when Jesus washed Peter’s feet and Peter resisted Him? Jesus said, “‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.’ Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.' Jesus said to him, ‘He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.’ For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’” Our bodies of sin have been completely washed clean by the blood of Jesus, as well as our consciences. Therefore, wouldn’t it be evil for us NOT to draw near to God when He has prepared us for that very thing? We are perfect in His sight. Let us live like it.Before we take another step into this day, let us see ourselves spotless, undefiled, and unblemished in God’s sight. Faith in Christ assures our hearts that it is true. That’s a true heart. Let us go to Him for the fullness of life and love that our souls desire so we may live today to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 10:19-21 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near…Yesterday we were encouraged by the first of two reasons for the Christian lifestyle of love. Today, let’s be encouraged by the second reason: We have a great priest over the house of God. This has been the main point of this letter to the Hebrews. Back in chapter 8, verses 1-2, we read, “Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.” The priestly ministry of Jesus is great, which makes Him a great priest over God’s house, “whose house we are (said the author in Heb. 3:6), if we hold fast our confidence (our confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus as we just read in verse 19) and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” The priests in the tabernacle offered the blood of goats and bulls, but the greatness of Jesus is that He offered Himself—His own blood—acting on behalf of God for us and acting on our behalf before God. Since we have this new way and this great priestly ministry acting for us, let us draw near to God’s throne for the grace we need today to love with Jesus. He loves everyone He puts in our paths. He has put them there so they might experience His love and so that God might be glorified through us as we display the glory of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We will look more at the glory of God that we display in the next few days, but today, let’s be encouraged by this second reason for why we live as we do. Jesus is our great priest who has faithfully served His Father and us by bringing us to Him, spotless, blameless, and perfected. I close today’s live to love encouragement by thanking You, Jesus, for being such a great priest for us. Thank You for making a new way, a living way, through the sacrifice of Yourself as well as through Your resurrection life. We worship You! We are so grateful for the grace You give us as we draw near to You. We want to glorify the Father with our lives, and apart from You, we can’t do it, but with You, we are able to display Your fruit for His glory. So, live Your life through us today, empowering us with Your love by Your Spirit. Amen.
I’m going to read Heb. 10:19-25 so we can get the full scope of these verses first, and then focus on verses 19-20. Hebrews 10:19-25 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.What can be more encouraging to people who have embraced God’s call to live to love with Jesus than to hear a direct admonition from the Scriptures to love based upon what God has done for us in Jesus Christ? Verses 19-22 provide the why behind our loving. Today let’s be encouraged by the first of two reasons for the Christian lifestyle of love. We have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus. Let’s remember why we enter the holy place. We enter the holy place in heaven to receive mercy and grace to help in time of need. Let me remind you of Heb. 4:16. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” How do we gain access to the holy place? We gain access through a new and living way rather than through an old, dead way. Jesus made a new way through the veil of His fleshly body. We learn from Matthew 5:50-51 that when Jesus breathed His last breath, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom as Jesus passed through the veil of His flesh into the Holy Place in heaven. God provided a sign in the temple on the earth, which was a shadow of what is in heaven, signifying what took place in the heavenly reality. In His death, Jesus inaugurated a new and living way for us to enter into God’s presence.We, who live to love with Jesus, know we cannot display the fruit of the love of God apart from abiding in Jesus, who is seated in the Holy Place. Jesus means for us to draw near to Him continually. He said in John 15:5. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him (this is a present active verb meaning continuous action), he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” So the encouragement today from verses 19-20 is that we may confidently, continuously draw near to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ. He is the way, the new and living way, to the Father’s presence, love, and grace. He is our source of life and love today. We have everything we need to love whoever God puts in our paths.
Hebrews 10:18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.Let’s follow the author’s reasoning. In 9:15, he wrote, “For this reason He [Jesus] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” Then in 9:22 we read, “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Jesus shed His blood for the redemption of our transgressions so we could be forgiven and made perfect (Heb. 10:14). So, since through the blood of Jesus we are forgiven once for all for all time, there is no longer a need for another offering of sin. Our redemption is complete!We can reverse our reasoning and also consider it this way. If God is not requiring any more offerings for sin, then He has forgiven all sin, once for all, for all time. We are free from sin’s condemnation and therefore are free to live to love with Jesus. Furthermore, that is our testimony to others. We have this good news to preach as we love people.This encourages us to love others freely. We don’t love so we can be forgiven of our sins. Our love isn’t an offering for sin. Jesus’ work on the cross is sufficient. This encourages us also to love without expecting people to do something to earn our forgiveness and love. We give expecting nothing in return, just like Jesus loves us. Remember what Jesus told His disciples? “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). What a joy it is to love with Jesus with His kind of love. Today, let us show others that we believe Jesus’ offering for sin, once for all, has purchased complete and total forgiveness. May we be satisfied with His love and what it has accomplished for us.
Hebrews 10:15-17 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them," He then says, "And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”What is your view of Scripture? Is it like the author of Hebrews, who when he reads the Scriptures, reveres it as the testimony of the Holy Spirit? Today I want to encourage you with this great reality. As we live to love with Jesus, we have the testimony of the Holy Spirit as our source of authority, hope, encouragement, and guidance. Every time a Scripture comes to mind to encourage or guide you as you love, you are receiving the word of God. As we think through all that we are faced with in life, we can test our thoughts and attitudes by the Holy Spirit’s revelation contained in the Scriptures. Will the Holy Spirit testify that what I am doing and saying is of God? Remember, when we come to stand before God on the Day of Judgment, it will be the witness of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures that will either testify against us or for us. We want to walk in the truth. What is the truth? A definition I have used for decades is this: Truth is what God sees, says, and does. The Holy Spirit gives us an explanation of the truth through the inspiration of the Scriptures. We can’t walk in love with Jesus if the testimony of the Holy Spirit isn’t abiding in us. Jesus told His disciples, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” Jesus’ words recorded in John 15:7 are the witness of the Holy Spirit, just like the words of Jeremiah 31 contained in these verses. May we walk in love with confidence that we are walking in the truth. I encourage you to honor and revere the Scriptures. Read them often. Memorize them and meditate on them. Let the word of Christ richly dwell in your hearts so that the fruit of the Holy Spirit may be evident for the glory of God.
Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.We read in this verse the goal of Jesus’ mission on earth—to perfect all those whom the Father gave to Him once and for all time through the offering of Himself to die in their stead. Let’s talk about the encouragements we have to live to love found in this verse today. First, one offering. You and I have nothing to offer God that could merit God’s favor and love. God knew we were helpless and hopeless. All praise to God, who is righteous, merciful, and gracious. Second, He has perfected us. All that God requires of us, He has provided for us in Christ. In love, Jesus has made us perfect and presented us to His Father. The work is done. There’s nothing we can add to His work. Stand in awe of the beauty and loveliness of Jesus’ work.Third, He perfected us for all time. God knew that we could not right ourselves if we just had more time. Let us not live under the delusion that with time, we can improve ourselves or do something that brings God pleasure so as to merit entrance into heaven when we die. Most people think good people go to heaven, which is partially true. Only good people, perfect people, go to heaven. The reality is that none of us is good. Jesus’ offering made us good, made us perfect, so we have an eternal hope and access to heaven now through Him.Fourth, Jesus’ offering wasn’t for everyone; it was only for those who are sanctified. Who are the sanctified? Jesus identified them in His prayer recorded in John 17:2. “Even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.” So the sanctified are those set apart from the world and given to Jesus by the Father. Romans 8:29-31 reveals this amazing work of God on behalf of those He sanctified. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?How do you know if you have been sanctified, set apart for Jesus to perfect? How do you know God is for you? There is a day of power when God extends the righteous scepter toward you. Your sanctification is revealed to you in the day He sends the Holy Spirit into your heart, and you believe in Jesus’ offering as your only hope of salvation and access to God. As Paul wrote to the Romans in 1:17. The power of the gospel is for all who believe. "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.'" This concept of sanctification is conveyed in John 14:20. “In that day [the day the Holy Spirit is sent into your heart], you will know that I am in the Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” The Spirit’s presence in you means you are sanctified and perfected by Jesus’ offering once and for all time. How do you know that the Spirit dwells in you? You receive and see Jesus’ faith and love in your life. That’s living to love with Jesus. So what shall we say to these things? God is for us! Isn’t that encouraging?!
Hebrews 10:12-13 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.The author saw Jesus seated at the right hand of God, waiting for His enemies to bow before Him in surrender. He has been quoting from Psalm 110, and this verse about waiting for His enemies to be subdued at His feet is followed by these verses. “The LORD will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, ‘Rule in the midst of Your enemies. Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power.’”Do you remember the story of Esther? She could only approach the King, her husband, if he stretched forth his scepter toward her. We learned in Heb. 1:8 that Jesus’ scepter is His righteousness. It is the scepter of His kingdom. “But of the Son He says, ‘YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM.’” To the Jews, Zion is the place of salvation. We learn from Psalms 110:2-3 that when Jesus died in Jerusalem and was raised from the dead, God raised Jesus’ righteousness like a wand of authority toward His enemies, signaling they could approach Him without fear. He would spare them. He would show mercy to them in spite of their hostility toward Him. When His enemies see His righteousness extended toward them from God’s throne, they approach Him in freedom, surrendering themselves to be His footstool on the earth. Jesus said in Matt. 5:34-35, “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING.” When God reveals His righteousness to and in us, we become the place where He dwells on the earth. We freely surrender ourselves for His use, to be His servants in this world. We once were enemies who thought freedom was getting to do what we wanted to do. We were, as Paul wrote to the Colossians, hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds. Then in the day of His power, when His righteousness was revealed for us, we were transformed. We realized that we were loved, forgiven, and offered access into His presence; faith rose up in our hearts, washing our consciences. We drew near, bowed in humble submission to His purpose in this world—to glorify God by loving with Him. Have you experienced the day of His power? Have you seen His righteous scepter extended to you? Are you serving at His footstool?
Hebrews 10:10-12 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.The author’s focus in these verses is the contrast between the ministry of the priests under the Law, the old covenant, and the ministry of Jesus, our high priest, in establishing the new covenant. The single, once for all, sacrifice of Jesus wasn’t like the sacrifices repeatedly offered by the priests in the temple. But more importantly, the sacrifice of Jesus actually took away sins, whereas all those sacrifices made in the temple never took away sins. Also notice that the priest stood daily, continually working because the sacrifices weren’t able to satisfy God’s justice. After offering Himself, once for all time, Jesus sat down on the seat of authority in the heavenlies at the right hand of God. The apostle Peter echoed this glorious exaltation of Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him (1 Peter 3:22). If Jesus has sat down, then His work as a priest is finished and complete. Nothing more could be added to it. Let’s make an application of this truth to our lives. Consider Jesus offered one sacrifice, His body, for sins for all time. Now consider all of your sins committed in your entire life taken away. That’s right; they don’t exist. They are gone. They have vanished. What else does Jesus have to do to present you before His Father, blameless, spotless, and holy forever? You’re right again. Nothing! What is your response to having freely received such a generous gift of righteousness? It means you can go to Him for help at any time because His sacrifice sanctified you for all time. Do you need grace to love your husband well? Do you need grace to love your wife like Christ loved the church? Do you need grace to love and honor your parents? It’s at your fingertips. It’s as close as a prayer. The veil to the Holy of Holies has been torn in two, and you can transition from earth to heaven in a heartbeat. You have been raised up and seated with Christ in God, wrote Paul to the Colossians. Your life is hidden there in Christ.My encouragement today from these verses is that because Jesus has offered Himself for sins for all time, you can go to Him for help at any time for the rest of your time on earth. When we fix our eyes on Jesus as our source of life, we can experience and express His love freely and powerfully. Live to love with Him, seated at the right hand of God.
Hebrews 10:10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.“By this will,” what will? The will of God that Jesus came to do, namely offer His body as a pleasing sacrifice to His Father for the purpose of making all of those the Father gave to His Son, holy and righteous. That’s what sanctification entails. Once and for all, for all time, we were completely set apart for God’s glory through Jesus Christ.When Jesus died, with you united with Him, God once and for all sanctified you. The work was done, completed, finished. That’s the verb tense used by the author. God did something through Jesus Christ once for all to everyone the Father put in Him. He set us apart to Himself for His glory. The apostle Paul understood this great reality. 1 Cor. 1:30-31. “By His, [God’s] doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.’” I want to encourage you today that the way we glorify God through Christ Jesus is by living to love with Him. Jesus said in John 15 that the Father is glorified by our displaying His fruit of love in our lives. It’s how we prove we are His disciples. We have been set apart for this purpose in Jesus as He did God’s will by offering His body once and for all. We receive God’s wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption so we will boast in Jesus. Let us live to love with Jesus, and as His love flows through us, let us be sure to boast in Jesus. Let’s give Him glory. We couldn’t love without His resurrection life in us, and we couldn’t have His resurrection life in us if He had not died in our stead to make us holy vessels. God cannot dwell where sin abides. So, through His death, it was God’s will to be merciful to our iniquities, forgive our sin, and cleanse us once for all for all time. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” We worship You and offer ourselves to You as holy vessels through whom Your love may flow for Your glory.
To all the Elijah Ministry Family,Greetings from South Africa! First, on behalf of the Board of Directors of Elijah Ministries I am writing to thank you for your partnership over the years with EM. You would think that as Norm is moving through his early 70’s that he might begin to slow down a bit and dial back some of his ministry opportunities, but I assure you that is NOT the case. If anything, 2024 has been busier than ever. In recent weeks Norm has traveled to Brazil, Columbia (the country), Romania and South Africa. While his travel within the U.S. is usually covered by the host groups, his travel outside the U.S. is carried by the ministry. But because Norm is experiencing God’s grace so powerfully in these places, more and more opportunities continue to appear. Now he must pray through which ones he can accept, always keeping in mind his duties to his family at home as well. This has been a very fruitful year for Norm and Elijah Ministries. He continues to do Equipping Men retreats, homeschool conferences, father/son events, and church conferences along with his numerous ongoing Live to Love Adventure discipleship groups. Last year Norm invited me to join him in South Africa for a debriefing week with the Global Challenge Expedition team. He had trained them in February in preparation a one-year journey of ministry and travel. We listened to their stories for a week while also engaging with the mother organization, Global Challenge. While here I discovered some opportunities that fit my wife’s and my abilities and callings, so we decided to come back for a month in June and are now here for another 5 months.God continues to open up avenues of ministry here in South Africa that I want to invite you to consider supporting financially. This is fertile ground for the gospel and such a great place to invest in the kingdom in a way that truly maximizes the impact of our resources. We are partnering with Global Leadership Academy, a K-12 private school, which has a scholarship program for poverty-stricken students from the black township. Through the Live to Love message and his mentorship, Norm has helped ground the school staff and the Global community in living to love with Jesus. (You can give here is you wish to sponsor a student). We give God glory for how God works through Norm’s life and ministry here in South Africa.We on the board of directors thank you for your past support. We would be remiss not to ask that you prayerfully consider including Elijah Ministries in your year-end giving plans and for 2025 as well. We are seeing new and exciting opportunities opening around the world in Ukraine, Romania, Brazil, and Vietnam. We want to be able to answer the call when it comes, as the Lord directs. You may give here or send a check to the address below. Please pray for Norm and the ministry as we move into a new year, and Merry Christmas to you and your families. John Gross, President, The Spirit of Elijah Ministries International Board of Directors
Hebrews 10:8-9 After saying above, "Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second.What a glorious gospel. Jesus has established the new covenant in His coming, His death, and His resurrection. What good news! For the apostle Paul, the gospel was the power of God, His boast, His main spring. Listen to what He wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 15:1-5.Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.The first covenant was not able to establish God’s will or bring about righteousness in God’s people. However, Jesus did accomplish God’s will. God justified us in Christ through His death and resurrection. Verses 8-9 tell us that God was doing something in the two statements in these two verses. He was taking away the old order of the first covenant, the Law, and establishing a new covenant—for us, you and me who believe—to live today. Let’s begin this day with thankful hearts, appreciating the grace in which we stand. Then out of the fullness of Jesus’ life and love, let us love those He puts in our paths today. There will be great reward and fullness of joy. “Thank you, Father, for giving us Your Son as our high priest, through whom we have confident access so that we may receive mercy and grace in whatever circumstances You place us. Pour Your love through us for Your glory. Amen.
Hebrews 10:5-7 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.” Then I said, “Behold, I have come (In the scroll of the book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God.”Verses 5-9 are quotes from Psalm 40:6-8. I read verses 5-7 so we could keep in mind the point the author was making. He wanted his readers to understand that Jesus’ suffering was to fulfill the Law and was God’s plan A. Jesus came to offer Himself according to God’s will. Our encouragement today is that in verse 7 we have a look into Jesus’ heart. He loves to do the Father’s will. Jesus’ attitude of humility, obedience, and love dwells in our hearts. I’m reminded of a couple of passages of Scripture. First, Luke 22:42, where Jesus prayed, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Second, Philippians 2:5, 8-9. “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who…being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.”Let me remind you of Hebrews 5:7-8. Jesus “was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” The word piety means to receive well God’s will. It embodies the idea of devotion to God’s will, even if it means great suffering. Add to these ideas this truth: The love of the Father satisfies the deepest needs of our Lord’s soul. Abiding in the love of the Father was more dear to Him than life itself. He knew that His Father’s purpose in everything that happened to Him was to provide an opportunity for Him to reveal the love of the Father. This is the attitude of the Lord Jesus living inside us.We know that living to love with Jesus is doing God’s will. That’s what it means to abide in Him. It is to receive Him, His mind, and His heart as the wellspring of our lives. Today, proceed through this day saying to the Lord, “I have come into this day to do Your will, O God.”The live to love prayer expresses this attitude, but in different words. Please join me in prayer. “Father, thank You for another day of life to live to know and love You and to live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love those You put in my path today, for Your glory. Amen.”
As I read this verse, I’m reminded of what God the Father said when Jesus came into the world. It’s found in Heb. 1:5. “‘YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU’? And again, ‘I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME.’” In Heb. 10:5-6, our Live to Love Scripture Encouragement, we see what Jesus said when He came into the world. “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, ‘Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.’”The author continued to show that Jesus is God’s appointed high priest sent to bring us to God and present us cleansed and with perfect consciences so we can serve the living God. He had been explaining the weakness of the old covenant and the powerlessness of the sacrifices for sin. In these verses, our hearts take great encouragement from Jesus’ knowledge of what pleases His Father. He came into this world, given a body through the agency of the supernatural impregnation by the Holy Spirit of Mary. Jesus stated it clearly. He came into this world to sacrifice the body God gave Him so that He could remove sins. That was and is the pleasure of the Father. Jesus knew from the beginning that God was not pleased with what was taking place in the temple. As we have learned, it was only a shadow of Him. He was the good thing to come, the form and substance, the reality of which the entire old covenant was a type. The writer’s point has been this. Jesus’ coming made the old covenant obsolete. God has provided His own Lamb, His own Son, as the sacrifice for the removal of sins. This harkens back to the story of Abraham’s willingness to offer Isaac on the altar. Remember the story. Abraham told Isaac that God would provide for Himself the lamb when Isaac asked, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” This is the love of God that captures our hearts and springs up like a fountain, which turns into a river in our lives. We have come to Christ because we are thirsty, and like the deer pants for the water brook, we drink of Him until He satisfies our souls. Our encouragement today is that we know God is pleased with the sacrifice of His Son, and He is our hope and confidence before God. As we abide in Him and drink our fill of His love, His grace pours out from us to bless the nations.
Hebrews 10:3-4 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.The repeated sacrifice at Passover each year of bulls and goats was to serve as a reminder that a perfect sacrifice was coming, which could make the worshippers perfect in conscience. The point was made in that after making the sacrifices, they were still aware of their sins and their sinful dispositions. Remember, the old covenant offered no grace to the worshippers to fulfill the Law’s requirements. The Law teaches us what sin is, how powerful sin is, and how helpless we are to justify ourselves. It reminds us of our sinfulness rather than taking away sins. Let me put living to love with Jesus in perspective to encourage us. If you are living to love with Jesus and you experience His love pouring through your life, then that means you have the Holy Spirit, the life of Christ, dwelling within you. The Holy Spirit is the seal and assurance that God has removed your sins through the death of Jesus Christ, His Son. Living to love isn’t the source of our assurance. It is the assurance that our lives are hidden in Jesus, and He is the source of our lives and love. Just as it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins, so is any other action rooted only in ourselves. Love flows out of a heart abiding in Jesus. A heart abiding in Jesus is the work of the Spirit that proves God has taken away all of our sins, once for all, through Jesus’ sacrifice. May we, by the grace found in Jesus Christ, love and serve the living God.
Hebrews 10:2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?Apparently, the Hebrews to whom the author was writing knew exactly what he meant by this question. They would know by experience, from having offered repeated sacrifices at the temple, that they were still conscious of their sin. The sacrifices had not cleansed their consciences of sin. They had been sufficient to make the worshipper ceremonially clean so they could pray, but the sin still weighed heavy on their hearts. Had the exercise of ceremonial worship actually cleansed them of sins, they would not have needed to keep up the practice. This reminds us once again that we should never think that there’s something we can do to cleanse ourselves of sins. The encouragement I have for us today is this: Our hope and boast before God is Jesus Christ crucified because of God’s great love and mercy. We must be careful not to think well of ourselves because we intentionally live to love with Jesus, or for that matter, any good deed or exercise of religious worship. Our confidence before God isn’t in ourselves. It’s not that we are in ministry, give generously, pray for people, or help others. We can do those things repeatedly, like the Jews offered sacrifices in the temple on a regular basis, but they have no power to remove sins. We still sin, and we know it. Today’s live to love encouragement is that we live to love out of love and appreciation for Christ, His sacrifice, His blood, which cleanses us and frees us to serve the living God with clear consciences.
Hebrews 10:1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.Today’s encouragement is to not trust in the old covenant of works and observing and performing divine regulations. We learn the defects of such worship from the author of Hebrews in this verse. Since the Law, the old covenant, has only a shadow of the good things revealed in Jesus Christ, let’s be sure we don’t think God is pleased by our working the shadows. The continual annual sacrifices for sin were powerless to make any worshipper perfect in conscience. Have you noticed that the continued things you do of a religious nature, week after week, are just as powerless as the repeated sacrificial offerings were in the tabernacle? Does the good really outweigh the bad in your conscience? No, your conscience is still aware of your sins. I read this in Ezekiel 18:24 today. “But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity and does according to all the abominations that a wicked man does, will he live? All his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered for his treachery which he has committed and his sin which he has committed; for them he will die.” Outward religious practices without the worship of the whole heart are meaningless to God. They must be done out of love for God by the power of the Holy Spirit for God to be pleased with them. Without the life and love of Jesus gushing out through our worship, the activity amounts to nothing more than dead works. I remember reading about one of the missionaries in China during the Shantung revival in the late 1920’s. Someone was praying in the congregation, and the missionary interrupted the prayer, saying something like this. “Dead man’s language. Dead man’s language. Give us someone who can pray.” The missionary wasn’t being harsh or critical. The Spirit of God was not pleased with natural, fleshly religiosity. So today, let this verse encourage us not to be satisfied with natural, fleshly religiosity. May we love God by worshipping Him and loving others in the power of the Holy Spirit, filled with the glory of God.
Hebrews 9:27-28 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.What hope and expectation we have in Jesus! God has appointed that the soul that sins must die (Ezekiel 18:4). “Behold, all souls are Mine…the soul who sins will die.” Therefore every man, woman, boy, or girl is appointed to die, and then they face God’s judgment. The same is true of Jesus. He became a man, so likewise it was appointed by God for Him to die and then stand in the presence of God to hear His judgment. The author in the previous verses had made the case that Jesus’ death was once for all. He does not have to die over and over again because He bore the sins of many all at one time. Then God judged that His death was sufficient for and satisfied the demands of divine law. Jesus’ appearance in God’s court resulted in our acquittal and freedom. As we read in yesterday’s verse, sin has been removed from our account. We know this is true because God raised Him from the dead. God’s judgment has been manifested in the resurrection. God has also appointed that Jesus must appear a second time in the history of the earth. This time it will not be to deal with sin. That’s finished.The second time Jesus will appear to save His people from the wrath of God’s judgment. God’s wrath has been promised upon all who dwell in the city of destruction, as John Bunyan called it in Pilgrim’s Progress. All those who have been called and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb will be saved on that day. For them, the judgment has already happened. It is for that salvation that all who died in Christ await. We died when Jesus died because God loves us and put us in Christ. Our great hope is in heaven, where our lives are “hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life is revealed, then we also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Col. 3:3-4). Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) Your appointment with death has already been met, and the judgment has been rendered in your case. That occurred in Jesus’ first appearing. You have one more appearance of the Son of God to look forward to—His second coming, when we will begin our eternal life in glory in the new heavens and earth. Have you believed in Jesus as God’s appointed high priest and eternal redeemer? Do you believe He is the resurrection and the life? What are you to do if you believe in Jesus? Rejoice that you are loved by God and that your sins have been put out of the way. Then show the reality of your faith by loving every day with Him as you await His second coming.
Hebrews 9:26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.If Jesus had not entered into the holy place in heaven, then He would have needed to suffer from the foundation of the world to cover sin. But since He has entered into the heavenly Holy of Holies, in the presence of God, with His own blood, once for all, for all time, we can see that sin has been put away. God has put sin out of court, to speak in legal terms. Sin has no standing before God to condemn us or hinder our relationship with God. The author considered the first century as the “consummation of the ages.” The image is of God gathering together all of the ages of history and showing Jesus’ one purpose in relation to them—to take upon Himself all of the sin committed by God’s people in the ages in which they lived. What an awesome picture of God’s work in Christ.I encourage you today with the power of Jesus’ sacrifice. It has the power to put away all of your sin. These ideas are in the Greek word translated put away. Sin has been laid down before God. And because of Jesus’ sacrifice, which redeemed and paid the debt owed by God’s people, God has moved sin aside, pushed it out of the way, and rejected it as evidence in His court of divine justice. In legal terms, He has determined that sin has no standing in His court. It has no voice before the judge. Sin has been silenced. Now what does your conscience say to this? You are not the judge. You are the defendant. The judge has declared that you are just in His sight. You may stand at His throne and ask for anything you wish to bring Him glory and to express His love. His grace and peace will not be withheld, and your request will not be refused. Such is the encouragement we derive from this verse. Take a moment and enter into the presence of God in the heavenlies. Behold with awe as God dismisses all of the sin with which Satan accuses you. He tells our adversary at law that he has no case and that the case is dropped, put away, once and for all. Your case has been declared a mistrial for lack of evidence and proof of guilt. What are you feeling? What will you say to your advocate, your counselor, who has defended you and has acted on your behalf so effectively? What is His service worth to you? Does He give you an invoice with His charges? No! How do you feel when He tells you there is no charge for His defense and representation? What do you say when He adds that His costs were covered by the judge? Put yourself in that place, and say what’s on your heart, because that’s where you stand every day. Then walk out of that court to live to love with Jesus because you are free.
Hebrews 9:24-25 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own.Look at what Jesus did for us and marvel at the love of God and the ministry of His Son. Under the old covenant, the high priest merely entered a copy or shadow of the holy place in heaven. Furthermore, although the Holy of Holies represented the presence of God, the high priest didn’t enter into THE presence of God for worshippers. Also, the annual repetition of entry into the holy place was with the blood of animals, not his own blood.In contrast, God appointed Jesus as a high priest forever to intercede for all whom He gave to Jesus, once for all. Those whom God chose to make this new covenant with were chosen on the same basis as Abraham was chosen—the sheer will and mercy of the Father, God. There was nothing in Abraham that moved God to enter into covenant with him. God’s love is always directed toward His own for their highest good and for His own glory. So Jesus was appointed and sent by God, as He said in John 8:18. “I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.” He was sent to offer His own blood for the forgiveness of sins once for all, for all time. After making the supreme sacrifice, Jesus appeared in THE presence of God in heaven, which is the reality upon which the copy was made. And now consider this and marvel. Because of His love, God sent Him to minister for us and to us, all who were given to the Son and who believe these things. God is for us, and that is our confidence. The apostle Paul encouraged the Roman church with these words that echo what we find in these verses. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:32-35; 37-39).Jesus appears in God’s presence to accomplish what the Father and the Son desire and enjoy—their glory that comes from loving. That’s what motivates and encourages us to live to love with Jesus. We want God to be glorified as we love with Him. I hope you’ll visit livetolovewithjesus.com and take advantage of the free discipleship resources.
Hebrews 9:23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.The author continued the contrast between the old and new covenants. He said in the previous verses that the old covenant required that blood be shed for the forgiveness of sins. The blood required was symbolic of a better sacrifice to come, which would accomplish what the blood of goats and calves could not accomplish. Everything in the sanctuary was a copy of a heavenly reality—even the process of cleansing with blood. That cleansing in the earthly sanctuary indicated that in heaven there was a better sacrifice for the cleansing of the worshippers. On the mountain, Moses was shown the blood of Jesus offered for the forgiveness of the sins of God’s people. The sacrifices and the blood sprinkled on everything shadow that reality, according to the author of Hebrews. Let this sink in! That’s why the old covenant is obsolete. The better sacrifice has come, and what Moses saw was fulfilled in Jesus’ death. He was the Passover lamb. He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, as John the Baptist declared.Why is this important? Why should we be encouraged by this? This tells us to draw near to God with confidence so we can receive mercy and grace to help in times of need. The blood that has been offered before the mercy seat in heaven has been accepted on our behalf. He has been merciful to our iniquities, and because Jesus has paid the ransom for our sins, He remembers our sins no more. Draw near! Now, constantly, forever. Hold fast to what we believe about Jesus and abide in Him. In Him is life everlasting. Through Him, we have received grace upon grace so that we might glorify God as we live to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 9:22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.The purpose of sprinkling blood on the tabernacle and the worshippers was for cleansing so they could be forgiven. The author reminded his readers that everything in the sanctuary is cleansed with blood. There could be no forgiveness without the blood, which meant that death had occurred as payment for the sin. The blood covered a multitude of sins. The point for our encouragement today is that Jesus’ death and the blood He shed were so our consciences could be cleansed and we could be forgiven. Indeed, His blood covers a multitude of sins, doesn’t it? Everything the believer in Christ has done in the flesh, dead works, as he called them in verse 14, is cleansed and forgiven. What an extravagant act and display of God’s love. What Charles H. Spurgeon wrote about Hosea 14:4, recorded in Devotionals, Gems, and other Writing bears repeating. “When God says, ‘I will love them freely,’ He means that no prayers, no tears, no good works, no alms are inducements to Him to love men. Not only nothing in themselves, but nothing anywhere else was the cause of His love to them, not even the blood of Christ. Not even the groans and tears of His beloved Son. These are the fruits of His love, not the cause of it. He does not love because Christ died, but Christ died because the Father loved. Remember that this fountain of love has its spring in itself, not in you nor in me, but only in the Father’s own gracious, infinite heart of goodness.’”The fountain of God’s love is the blood of Jesus shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus said, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:54–56). Be encouraged today to drink Jesus’ blood, which means to abide in Jesus’ death and life for the forgiveness of your sins. Confess your sins and Jesus will be faithful to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Father, give us humble hearts to confess our sins and receive Your forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Keep us abiding in Your love revealed in Your Son’s sacrifice for us. We boast in You, Lord Jesus. We are grateful for Your pain and sacrifice that we might have life eternal and know Your love. For Your glory, pour out Your love in our hearts and through our lives today.
Hebrews 9:18-21 Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.In today’s verses, the author explained how God established the first covenant with blood or with death. The blood of the animal sacrifices was sprinkled on the covenant as well as the people. The image is gruesome. Blood sprinkled on everything and everyone involved in worship. Do we forget that the blood of Christ testifies to God’s love for us? He loved us so much that He gave His only Son to die so that we might have eternal life. On the night that Jesus ate His last supper with His disciples, we read in Luke 22:20, “And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.’” The life that we enjoy in Christ today is ours because we are sprinkled by His blood. Listen to Peter’s intro to his first epistle, which, by the way, was written primarily to Hebrews. “To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure” (1 Peter. 1:1-2). I hope this encourages you, as it was meant to encourage Peter’s first readers. We were chosen by God to obey Jesus, namely, to believe in Him, love like He loves, and be sprinkled with His blood. To the Jews, who understood the significance of being sprinkled with blood required by the first covenant, it clearly indicated holiness—being set apart for God’s purpose. We are sprinkled with His blood, which makes us holy to the Lord. Each day of life we live is not ours; it’s His, and we are receptacles and channels of His love for His glory.
Hebrews 9:16-17 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.I’ve waited until this verse to explain the meaning of the word covenant. The author said that a covenant is like the last will and testament of an individual. It’s purpose is to dispose of the inheritance according to the will of the deceased. Remember that in the last verse, he introduced the idea of an inheritance. “For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that... those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” It is a legally binding document that gives clear title to the recipients stated within. The author in this verse made a point everyone understood. A last will and testament is only enacted when the one who made it dies. The following verses unpack the contrast the author was making between the old and new covenants. So we will get to that tomorrow.However, today, let’s be encouraged by the obvious. God drew up a will, leaving an inheritance to His children of eternal life. The only way the inheritance could be given to them is if God died. Jesus is God in the flesh. He came so He could die and the children receive the inheritance. The author’s point was that Jesus has died and the inheritance has been given. The new covenant is now in force!Do you have eternal life? John wrote in his first epistle. “He who has the Son, has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:12–13). Having eternal life isn’t difficult to detect. The fruit of eternal life is faith and love, the two things Jesus commanded His followers to do. “Believe in Me,” commanded Jesus in John 14:1, and “Love one another as I have loved you,” in John 13:34.Have you ever received an inheritance from a deceased family member? Weren’t you overwhelmed with gratitude that the deceased person loved you so much to include you in his or her will? How much more should we be overwhelmed by the love of God? Jesus’ life is our inheritance. His life is the light of our lives. His love is the outflashing of His light. Today, may we be filled with gratitude for the inheritance we have received through Christ. Live to love with Jesus to show your gratitude.
Hebrews 9:15 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.For this reason, what reason? Because Jesus “through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God,” He is the mediator of a new covenant. We learn in this verse why this new covenant was instituted—so that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For the eternal inheritance to be secured, the transgressions against the first covenant had to be paid for by death. The wages of sin is death, according to Rom. 6:23. Everyone under the first covenant could only fulfill the requirements of the Law by dying. Thus, they could never receive an eternal inheritance.Praise and give thanks to our merciful God. He sent His Son to earth with the command to offer Himself as a blood sacrifice to pay for all of those transgressions, once for all, for all time. Then He raised Him from the dead, declaring His sacrifice acceptable payment, raised Him up, and seated Him at His right hand. Having glorified His Son, then, in love, God sent or sends the Holy Spirit into the hearts of those He chose in Christ. The Holy Spirit is a down payment and a seal of the eternal inheritance which they have received.Let’s see these incredible encouragements in other passages. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:3-5). In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14). “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:38-39).If you have a never-ending flow of living water, the love of Christ, springing up within you, then you have been called and will receive the eternal inheritance. You live under the blessing of the new covenant. Jesus mediates that covenant so you may live with confidence and be not only a receptacle of His love but a channel of His love. Our living to love with Jesus is grounded in the presence of Jesus Christ abiding in us, which could only happen for the reason unpacked in these verses of Hebrews 9. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and praise and glory be to Jesus, our redeemer, savior, friend, and intercessor.
Hebrews 9:13-14 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?It’s impossible to live to love without Jesus. This reality is punctuated in these two verses by four things we learn about Jesus Christ. The continued aim of the author was to show the superiority of Jesus and the new covenant to the old covenant by showing how much better and more effective was Jesus’ sacrifice.First, Jesus had no blemishes, just as the animals that were sacrificed had no blemishes. Leviticus 1:10 “But if his offering is from the flock, of the sheep or of the goats, for a burnt offering, he shall offer it a male without defect.” However, it was only the outward, physical nature of the animals that was without defect. Jesus’ perfection was moral and spiritual. He lived an unblemished life before God—100% perfection according to God’s Law and will. He obeyed out of love for His Father. Such is our obedience to love when it flows out of His life as we abide in Him.Second, Jesus offered Himself through the eternal Spirit. No priest or animal could take such initiative. Jesus willingly laid His life down as our high priest. His death was not a mistake, accident, or random act. He offered Himself so we would know what love does. The apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:16, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” The author emphasized the inner, eternal, spiritual nature of Jesus’ sacrifice in contrast with the limited, physical, outward nature of the animal sacrifices. The agency through which Jesus laid down His life was through the inner power of the Holy Spirit. As we love with Jesus, we also take the initiative and lay our lives down through the power of the Holy Spirit as a fragrant aroma of Christ. Our love for others isn’t something thrust upon us; rather, it is an inner working of the Spirit that makes our love an offering of worship.Third, His blood cleanses our consciences from dead works. Our consciences are aware to some degree that sin and self make our works defective or blemished. The old covenant was based on the works or deeds of the worshippers. So even when we love, our love isn’t perfect. We are aware that all of our works fall short of the glory of God. The blood of the sacrifices under the old covenant could symbolically cover the sins and effect a ritual cleansing, but the conscience was still aware of its failure and God’s righteous judgment of such failure. The blood of Christ, because it was offered with eternal and full knowledge of every sinful and selfish motivation, gives the conscience an answer before God. God cleanses the conscience through the blood of Jesus. His sacrifice and love are sufficient, so when God said, “I will remember their sins no more,” we know He can and does do what He said.Fourth and last, Jesus’ blood frees us to serve the living God. Because our dead works have been removed and we can freely approach the throne of grace and mercy, we have confidence that He will give us the grace to love with Jesus. We know that when God wants to use us to love someone, He will do it through the life of His Son abiding in us. We become servants of the living God. The active, living God does His work through transformed people who are at His service—living to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 9:12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.What tremendous encouragement we have from this verse! In the previous verse, the author reminded his readers that when Jesus appeared as a high priest (which didn’t ever happen in His earthly life in an earthly tabernacle), He entered into the perfect tabernacle in heaven. In this verse, they were reminded that Jesus entered the holy place through His own blood.First, let’s be encouraged by the fact that Jesus has entered the highest place of authority in all of heaven—the very eternal throne room of God. He appears in the presence of Him who created all, sees all, knows all, and therefore is sovereign over all. He appears before Him, to whom all will give an account. He could serve in no higher place.Second, let’s be encouraged by the fact that Jesus represents God’s interests as well as ours. It is for His Father’s highest good, joy, and glory that He appeared on earth and gave His life blood. He justified God’s forgiveness and mercy once for all time and declared God’s righteousness in punishing all our sins, once and for all in Him. And it is for our highest good, joy, and glory that He appeared on earth and gave His life blood for us.Third, let’s be encouraged that He lived, died, and appeared before His Father through His blood, once for all. In Hebrews 13:20, the author said God raised up Jesus from the dead “through the blood of the eternal covenant.” The new covenant in His blood is eternal because Jesus suffered once for all time and appears before God on our behalf forever.And fourth, let’s be encouraged by what His blood accomplished for the glory of God and our greatest enjoyment, peace, and satisfaction. He obtained eternal redemption. To redeem means to purchase release by paying a ransom. Our freedom from sin’s power, penalty, and presence, isn’t free. It cost God dearly. But then such is God’s love: the sustained direction of the will toward our highest good, no matter what the cost. Jesus paid it all because God loves His children. All to Him we owe. Our freedom has been purchased by His blood, and His blood is of infinite worth. That’s why we live to love with Jesus.Rom. 3:21-26 is a fantastic commentary on this verse. Let’s rejoice and worship our God and Father and His Son in the Holy Spirit as we listen to these verses.But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.Do you have faith in Jesus? If so, Jesus is your high priest who appears in heaven with His blood for you! You are redeemed and released from sin’s power and penalty because you are loved by God with an everlasting love. Your great hope is that you will eventually be released from sin’s presence as well. Imagine that!
Hebrews 9:11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;The closest the high priest could get to God was to touch His shadow. That’s what the Holy of Holies was—a shadow of good things to come—a copy of something Moses saw on the mountain. But Jesus came, died for our sins once for all, and then entered into the very presence of our God and Father. Jesus was sent to be our high priest because God loves us. He was received into the Holy of Holies in heaven because God loves us.There is no higher place that Jesus could have gone to accomplish our salvation than the greater and more perfect tabernacle in heaven. He has standing with God that no one else has, and He has brought us to God through His righteousness. No other human high priest had such standing, which was the fault of the first covenant. But now Christ has appeared. He has come. He has suffered. He has risen and ascended on high, and to let us know the covenant has been sealed and made perfect, the Holy Spirit has been poured out in the hearts of those who believe. He cleanses our hearts by faith and then makes us receptacles and retainers of His love. From the moment that the Holy Spirit was given, God’s love poured into this world like a tsunami—overpowering sin, death, the devil, and this world. The torrent of His love is still sweeping through history and mankind through God’s children. We live to be channels of Jesus’ love. That’s why the Holy Spirit was sent. Jesus is in God, the Father. You are in Jesus, and He is in you. Such is the life of a true Christian.
Hebrews 9:9b-10 Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.In today’s verse, we get to the heart of the matter in relationship with God—a clean or perfect conscience. The author reemphasizes this point in Heb. 9:14 and 10:22. Hebrews 9:14 How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrews 10:22 Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.The gifts and sacrifices offered by the priests could not make the worshipper perfect in conscience. They were, as mentioned by the author before, physical requirements that had no effect on one’s standing before God. Those outward regulations were temporary but pointed toward a time of reformation. Jesus’ offering of His own body and blood brought in that time of reformation.The repeated sacrifices under the first or old covenant could not bring the worshipper to God and present him completely cleansed or perfect in God’s sight. In contrast, when Jesus’ blood was applied to our sin, the sacrifice completed or perfected the work of God for us. His offering of His own life gives our consciences peace with God because we know He has accepted Jesus’ offering on our behalf. We know it because of the resurrection. God raised Jesus for our justification, according to the apostle Paul. Rom. 4:25-5:2. He who was delivered over because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.”This great truth is important because the goal of our lives “is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5). We live to love with Jesus because our consciences are clean before God. Therefore we can draw near to God with confidence to receive mercy and grace to love as He has loved us. As we saw above, the author will speak more about having a perfect conscience later in his letter. Today, let’s be encouraged that we live in the time of reformation, when the old covenant has been replaced by a new covenant 100% based on Jesus’ once-and-for-all perfecting work on our behalf. Let us rejoice and be glad, and give Him all the glory.
Hebrews 9:8-9a The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time.The author showed his view of inspiration by saying that God, the Holy Spirit, is present tense, signifying something. The Holy Spirit is signifying how the old covenant is to be applied. By the very order of things in the old covenant, the Holy Spirit is telling us something. What’s He saying? By the very presence or standing of the first tabernacle, in effect, blocking the way into the Holy of Holies, the Holy Spirit is saying there’s a time coming when there will be no hindrances to access to God and His glory. The present time is the time of history when the tabernacle has standing before God. It’s the time of the old covenant, which prepares the way for the new covenant.The outer tabernacle has standing, or a place in divine worship, as long as the symbol is needed. In other words, the copy has a purpose as long as the original hasn’t arrived. But once the original comes, there’s no need for the symbol or the copy to remain. It loses its standing, loses its place. Here’s the Holy Spirit’s and the author’s point. The way into the Holy of Holies has been disclosed. Jesus is the way into the Holy of Holies. Access to God and His glory is here! There’s so much more to say as to the significance of what the author said, and he will unpack it in the following verses, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself.This verse begs the questions, “Are we in tune with what the Holy Spirit is speaking or signifying when we read about Jesus in the Bible? Are we satisfied with symbols of God’s love and presence when He Himself is accessible? Are we more in love with the forms of religion than with Jesus Christ, Himself? Are we making much of the shadows and copies of the kingdom of God?If so, we are giving the symbols, copies, and shadows more standing in our hearts than God Himself. That makes them idols. Idols are powerless and have no ability to produce glory to God. Jeremiah spoke of this idolatrous mindset when He wrote, “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder, be very desolate,” declares the LORD. “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”Now that Jesus has come into the world, the fountain of living waters is available to God’s people. Every shadow, copy, or substitute has become obsolete, old, and broken. Like the first or outer tabernacle blocked the way to the Holy of Holies, so religious objects and forms, which are symbols, block the way to God and His glory.The Holy Spirit is speaking. Do you hear Him? Do you understand? Beloved, believers, you are the tabernacle of God in this world. The curtains should be pulled back so that everyone God puts in our paths may walk right into the tabernacle of God and experience His love. Jesus dwells in our bodies, His tabernacle. Our lives are not a symbol or a copy. Maybe you can think of it this way. God has made our hearts, our spirits, the Holy of Holies on the earth. The Holy Spirit is signifying that Jesus lives. He is in the Father. You are in Him, and He is in you (John 14:20).
Hebrews 9:6-7 Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.We can be encouraged in these verses on four points. 1). Under the first (old) covenant, the work of the priests in the tabernacle was never done. They continually served, worked, and worshipped in the outer tabernacle, which was the Holy Place. The new covenant is established forever because Jesus completed that work. Therefore, we have every reason to find our deepest satisfaction in Him.2). Under the first (old) covenant, access to the Father, the God of glory and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, was only allowed for one very short time a year and for only one person, the high priest. The new covenant brings us into His glorious presence by faith and promises to bring us to live with Him forever—eventually by in-person, by sight. Let your soul drink from that well for awhile!3). Under the first (old) covenant, the worshippers never could draw near to God firsthand. They had to have a priest represent them, and the repeated shedding of blood for sins committed against God meant that the sacrifice of animals did not satisfy God’s justice. It was only a shadow of the ministry of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The new covenant in Jesus’ blood satisfies God’s justice, and therefore our consciences are washed and therefore drawn into the presence of God without reservation.4). Under the first (old) covenant, there was only a sacrifice for sins committed in ignorance. There was no sacrifice for willful sin. Let these words of the new covenant wash over your soul. “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” That’s all of our sins, both ignorantly or willfully committed. God has given us access to Himself—all that He is because He loves us. Enjoy His love!A friend just sent this quote from Charles H. Spurgeon—Devotionals, Gems, and other Writing. Hosea 14:4. “‘I will love them freely.’ When God says, ‘I will love them freely,’ He means that no prayers, no tears, no good works, no alms are inducements to Him to love men. Not only nothing in themselves, but nothing anywhere else was the cause of His love to them, not even the blood of Christ. Not even the groans and tears of His beloved Son. These are the fruits of His love, not the cause of it. He does not love because Christ died, but Christ died because the Father loved. Remember that this fountain of love has its spring in itself, not in you, nor in me, but only in the Father’s own gracious, infinite heart of goodness.’”How great is the Father’s love that He gave us a shadow of His glory in the old covenant and then revealed His glory in Jesus—the glory of His love. May our souls revel in His love. Have you found your satisfaction in the love of God? If so, give Him glory by loving with Him.
Hebrews 9:3-5 Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron's rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant; and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; but of these things we cannot now speak in detail.If you haven’t listened to the previous Live to Love Scripture encouragement podcast, I hope you’ll do so before listening to today’s podcast. We learned that Jesus has eliminated the holy place and given us direct access into the presence of God. What an encouragement! Today’s verse described the Holy of Holies, a second tent within the sanctuary. Let’s remember that God’s ultimate glory is to bring the worshipper into His presence with right standing and a clear conscience. The Holy of Holies was the one place on earth where the glory of God dwelled on the earth prior to the coming of Jesus Christ. The author wanted to show the glory of the physical home for God under the first covenant; therefore, he emphasized what was made of gold. In fact, everything was covered in gold. It was certainly impressive and glorious. However, the author didn’t speak of all the details because that wasn’t his point.The point he was making was that the first covenant, even in all of its physical glory, was made obsolete by Jesus because it was only a copy and therefore insufficient to reveal the fullness of God’s glory. Remember, the worshipper never personally entered the holy place or the holy of holies. The priests could not bring the worshipper into the presence of God. That sanctuary with its divine regulations has been made obsolete. Now, the very least in the kingdom of God sees and experiences the glory of God to a greater degree than the greatest high priest in the earthly sanctuary.Paul wrote in Colossians 3 that if we have been raised up with Christ, our lives are hidden with Him in God (Col. 3:1-4). We actually live in the Holy of Holies, the real thing! Our life is to be found in Christ, so our minds are to be set there. As things happen in our day and as people cross our paths, if we abide in the Holy of Holies with Jesus, He manifests His life in and through us in this world. We are the lamp, and He is the light. We are containers, receptacles of God. We are the house of Israel, for that’s what the name Israel means.Paul wrote that when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then we will be revealed with Him in glory. The glory of God was represented in the Holy of Holies, but the hope we have in Jesus is that in Him, we are the glory of God. As we love with Jesus, our lives should show forth the glory of God like the gold in the Holy of Holies did. Think of it this way. As Jesus’ love flows through you, you become more valuable than gold, and He gets the glory.
Hebrews 9:1-2 Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread; this is called the holy place.In chapter 9, the author showed the superiority of the second covenant in Christ over the first covenant. The first covenant was a copy or shadow of the second covenant. The apex of both was and is the presence of God. In these first verses of chapter 9, we see the limitations of the first covenant as the author described the design of the sanctuary, meaning the entire place of worship, and its regulations. The author understood that the Holy Spirit was communicating something to mankind through the design and regulations of the tabernacle, the original sanctuary.Here’s the overarching point of this passage of Scripture. God’s ultimate glory is to bring the worshipper into His presence with right standing and a clear conscience. The first covenant did not offer a way for the worshipper to enter into God’s presence, but the second covenant did!In the first 7 verses of this chapter, he described the sanctuary and its regulations for divine worship. There were two tents, or tabernacles, in the sanctuary. The first tent, the holy place, was on the way to the place of God’s presence, the holy of holies. Its very presence in the design was a limitation to access to the glory of God. I won’t go into detail on the lamp stand, the table (a probably reference to the altar of incense), and the table of showbread because the author didn't. What I want us to be encouraged by is the powerful ministry of Jesus Christ that we enjoy.If you were to stop listening right at this point in this podcast, you could immediately enter into the presence of God, the Holy of Holies, to experience His love—His mercy and grace. The way into God’s presence has no limitations, as the shadow sanctuary had. There was no way for a worshipper to enter the holy place, much less the Holy of Holies. The holy place could only be entered into by the priests who served there. The worshipper had to stand outside after offering his sacrifice so he could pray.Today, as soon as this podcast is over, you have nothing to prevent you from entering and enjoying God’s love and presence as you worship God through Jesus’ ministry on your behalf and the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Jesus has made the first tabernacle in the sanctuary obsolete. It was a copy and a shadow; therefore, it had no power. Each of the objects in the holy place were symbolic of Jesus. Once He came, He fulfilled their purpose, so they are no longer needed or meaningful to us. Jesus eliminated the holy place.That’s what our lives are to display on a daily basis. We are the temple of God now. As God puts people in our paths, we have the privilege of showing them that the glory of God is now accessible. It is the love of Jesus flowing through our lives that communicates that reality. Living to love with Jesus can only happen as we abide in the Holy of Holies and His love pours through us to others.
Hebrews 8:13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.If you bought a new car, what would that make the car you used to have? It would make it your old car. What eventually happens to the old car? It gets replaced. Its days are numbered and it is nearing its end. That’s the same logic the author employed as he considered God saying He was going to make a new covenant with the house of Israel. If God made a new covenant, then the first covenant is old, that’s what the term obsolete means, and therefore unnecessary and ready to vanish from sight. God brought the ministry of the high priest to a screeching halt the day Jesus died on the cross. Do you remember what happened in the temple? The curtain between the Holy Place and Holy of Holies was torn in two from top to bottom. The new had come, and the curtain, which was the shadow of a heavenly reality, was obsolete. It was ready to disappear. It wasn’t needed anymore. It had no purpose anymore. We are encouraged by this verse that the covenant of works that God established with Israel has become obsolete. We no longer should be reticent to come into the presence of God for fear that we might be rejected because of our iniquities and sins. We need grace to love because that is what Jesus commanded (John 13:34). We can draw near with confidence that all of the requirements of the old covenant have been fulfilled on our behalf. Our sins have been forgiven and removed. Jesus will do in us what we ask. Knowing this is foundational to living to love with Jesus. We must be assured that the old covenant has disappeared and the new is in force. Knowing Jesus will love through us when we ask Him to, gives us courage and confidence to step out in relationships and circumstances, no matter how difficult and daunting. May we experience God’s faithfulness today as we rely upon God’s mercy and grace in Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 8:12 “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”The author quoted from Jeremiah 31 to show how God cares for those with whom He “cut” a second covenant. That’s how covenants were established in the Old Testament times. An animal was cut in two and the two parties passed through the halves testifying that if they didn’t keep their side of the covenant they should also be cut in two and give up their lives. In the second covenant, the new covenant, God fulfills the requirements for both parties. This shows the superior nature of the covenant of grace. It cannot fail. Even if the house of Israel, those who are to be receptacles and retainers of God, sin against God, He can and will be merciful. Their sins will not be remembered against them. Israel in the flesh did not receive God’s mercy regarding their iniquities. Indeed, He wiped them off the face of the earth because of their iniquities just as He promised when he established the first covenant. Jeremiah stated the fact plainly. Jeremiah 13:22 “If you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things happened to me?’ Because of the magnitude of your iniquity your skirts have been removed and your heels have been exposed.” Jeremiah 30:14 All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not seek you; for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the punishment of a cruel one, because your iniquity is great and your sins are numerous.The new covenant in Jesus Christ went into effect the moment Jesus breathed His first breath in the tomb. Our hope came alive! Listen to Peter bless God the Father in 1 Peter 1:3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” We have a living hope since Jesus ever lives to intercede for us. We live under a new covenant which flows out of God’s mercy. He’s removed our sins far from us so we can know God, experience His love, and receive His grace to love in His name. We daily depend upon the mercy of God, which should equip us to show mercy to others. We receive God’s forgiveness for our sins which motivates us to forgive those who sin against us. Would you join me in giving thanks to God for His mercy and forgiveness?Thank You, Father, for pouring out Your mercy upon us. Thank You for not remembering our sins, for forgiving them all. Thank You Jesus for taking on our iniquities and sins in your own body and for shedding Your blood for the forgiveness of sins. Holy Spirit, thank You for shedding the love of God in our hearts so we can live in Christ and love with Him. Amen.
Hebrews 8:11 “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.”We are encouraged today by more aspects of the new covenant that God has instituted when He raised Jesus from the dead. Yesterday we learned that we are the new house of Israel, receptacles and retainers of God Himself and His love. Today we can be amazed at the power of the new birth. The new birth makes us receptacles of God, Himself. Because He lives in us, we know Him firsthand by experience. John the Baptist told his followers about what happens when Jesus brings life into a person, also called the new birth. Matthew 3:11. “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” When Jesus’ life enters the soul of man, it signifies that the person is immersed into the death and life of Jesus. It means God knows that person, and Jesus has come to make God known to him or her. Eternal life, according to Jesus, is to “know the Father and the One whom He sent” (John 17:3). John put it this way in 1 John 4:7-9. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” If you have been born again from above, by the Holy Spirit, you know the Lord firsthand. You don’t just know about Him; you know Him. You know He is love. There are no exceptions, writes the author of Hebrews, “all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.” We live to love with Jesus because we know the Lord. As John wrote in his first epistle. “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). If you haven’t gotten the message yet, let me say it one more time. If you know the Lord, you will live to love with Him because you know and have experienced His love. Have you given up your life of loving yourself to love with Jesus? I hope so. If you haven't, there’s no better time than now to repent, believe that Jesus lives, and surrender your life to live to love with Him for the rest of your life. Even the least in the kingdom who know the Lord know He is love. If you hear God’s voice today, don’t harden your heart, but draw near to God through Jesus’ blood shed for you and embrace the life He has for you. To God be the glory.
Hebrews 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the Lord: “I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”The significance of this verse lies in the context of Jeremiah’s days. God said to Israel in Jeremiah 31:27, “‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. As I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,’ declares the Lord.”In this verse, when God referred to “after those days,” I think He was referring to the days of plucking up, breaking down, overthrowing, destroying, and bringing disaster, which sums up the history of the Hebrews. The author considered his present time to be the time of which God spoke through Jeremiah when he prophesied the effecting of this second, superior covenant. This is the time of building and planting that the Lord watches over to perform. That time of which God spoke is now. It began when Jesus was resurrected and continues until Jesus returns. Let’s notice this covenant is with the house of Israel. The root of the name in the Hebrew conveys the idea of becoming rigid from the retention of liquidity added to the Hebrew name for God, el. Some have suggested Israel means to struggle since the name was given when Jacob wrestled with God. However, this definition of Israel based on the root forms of Hebrew from Abarim Publications expresses significant meaning. “Israel means He retains God, or slightly more elaborate: He has become a receptacle in which God can be received and retained.” That meaning best describes what it means to abide in Him and He in us. It matches what we read in these verses describing the new covenant in Jesus Christ. We, His people, become a receptacle in which God, the Holy Spirit, is received and retained. When God gives us the Holy Spirit, we receive God’s laws in our minds. God writes His laws on our hearts. He is our God, and we are His receptacles, His people, who retain God within our souls and bodies. Does that encourage you like it does me? That’s amazing! The first Israel struggled with God under the covenant of Law, but the new Israel receives and retains God. He dwells within as we live under the blessings of a covenant of grace. Can you see the connection with what Jesus said in John 15:10? “If you keep My commandments (receive them and let them abide in you, written on your heart), you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” My dear friends, believers in Jesus Christ, whether Greek or Jew, are the new Israel, under a new covenant. We retain God! Therefore, we are receptacles and channels of His love in this world. Stop and think on that reality—you are a receptacle of God’s love—so live to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 8:9 “Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in My covenant, and I did not care for them,” says the Lord.The covenant God made with Israel, which included the tribe of Judah, was based on their obedience to His commandments. I am shocked by the Lord’s comment, “I did not care for them." How about you? The author was quoting from Jeremiah 31:31-33. Listen carefully to what Jeremiah wrote, “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD.Did you notice that the phrase “I did not care for them” was not in Jeremiah’s version? Obviously, the Holy Spirit added that comment through the inspired author. What are we to make of this variance? I think it contrasts God’s care for wayward, adulterous Israel and Judah with His care for His children of promise under the new covenant. God did care for the children of Israel physically. He provided for them, protected them, and led them by His hand, metaphorically speaking. However, He did not care for them spiritually because, although He blessed them with the Law, He didn’t care for them by giving them the grace to keep the covenant. In the new covenant that God established in Jesus Christ, His Son, He cared for them, as we will see, by supplying the grace that His Law requires. The following verses clearly reveal what it means for God to care for His people, so I won’t spoil it today. If you trust in Jesus, then God cares for you more than He cared for Israel and Judah when He led them out of Egypt and gave them commandments He knew they could and would not keep. You can be encouraged today that if you are living to love with Jesus, you are doing so because God cares for you. He is doing in you what pleases Him. He has given you faith to believe Jesus lives and that you are united with Him. You have 24/7/365 access to the throne of grace so that you may receive all that God has for you through and in Jesus, His Son. Let us be overflowing with gratitude that we live under a covenant of grace through Jesus Christ, our Lord and high priest.
Hebrews 8:8 For finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;The author quoted God speaking through Jeremiah the prophet (Jer. 31:31), “Behold the days are coming, says the Lord.” Well, the days are here! God found fault with Israel and Judah. Notice he said, “finding fault with them.” He certainly couldn’t mean that God found fault with the first and second covenants. Furthermore, the problem with the first covenant wasn’t on God’s part, as we noted yesterday in Romans 8:3. “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh.” The fault God found with the houses of Israel and Judah was that they could not keep their side of the covenant of Law. The flesh is not only too weak, but it is actually hostile to God and not able to obey God’s commands. Paul wrote in Romans 8:6-8, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” We should be encouraged that we live in the days of which Jeremiah prophesied. God effected a new covenant, of which the author speaks in the following verses. All who believe in Jesus are beneficiaries of the new covenant with which God finds no fault. If you have not believed and trusted in Jesus Christ as your savior, mediator, and high priest in the heavenlies, then may I encourage you to enter into this new covenant which God established through Jesus Christ, His Son? To do so, you’ll have to repent of thinking that you are going to enter heaven because you are a good person or not as bad a person as others you know. The first covenant of Law was based on the goodness of people, and the problem was that there wasn’t anyone good enough to keep the Law flawlessly and enter heaven. Approximately 1313 years passed before God brought in the new covenant through Jesus—plenty of time for God’s judgment to be proven right. “By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Rom. 3:20). We may rejoice today if we have come to believe in Jesus as the Son of God and the only one by whom we may be justified before God. Every time we partake of communion, or what is called the Lord’s Supper, we celebrate God’s gracious provision of a new covenant in His body and His blood—the sacrifice Jesus offered to God in fulfillment of the new covenant. This covenant is sealed by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, and the only way we know we are in this new covenant is that we have faith to abide in Jesus so we can love with Him and bring glory to God. Living to love with Jesus is a sign that we are partakers of God’s new covenant in Christ. May we walk today in the reality that we are at peace with God and that we are testimonies of God’s faithfulness.
Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.In chapter 8 of Hebrews, the author contrasted two covenants. There was the first covenant God established based on the Law and man’s keeping it. Then Jesus came to establish a second covenant, which is exponentially better. Why would God seek a second covenant with man if the first one was faultless? Of course, He wouldn’t need a second covenant if the first one accomplished God’s pleasure. The apostle Paul wrote of these two covenants to the Romans in 8:1-4.Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.The first covenant promised life if the Law was kept perfectly. We can all see the problem, can’t we? The fault with the first covenant wasn’t with God or with the commandments. They were both good. The fault lay with humans in the flesh. From the beginning, before the foundation of the world, God assigned weakness and fruitlessness to the flesh. He never intended for the flesh to be able to please Him. The first covenant merely established the fact that man was in sin and could not please God. That highlighted the fact that we all need a savior. Enter Jesus Christ, God’s Son. From the beginning of time, the plan was always that He alone would produce fruit that pleases God. He was the only vine God planted in the world, God’s vineyard. He had the Spirit of life in Him, and therefore was able to produce fruit for God, for His glory. What the first covenant could not produce because of the weakness of the flesh, God did produce the fruit He desired through His Son, Jesus Christ, and the second covenant He inaugurated. Living to love with Jesus is the fruit of the second and better covenant. I hope we’ll take some time today to celebrate this second covenant of grace by drawing near to God through Jesus so we can glorify God by living His love.
Hebrews 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.But now, now that Jesus has risen from the dead, ascended into heaven with gifts and sacrifices to offer to God in the heavenlies, and sat down at God’s right hand, He inaugurated a new and better relationship with God. Jesus’ ministry is more excellent than the ministry of the earthly high priests because He mediates a better covenant between God and man. This new covenant is based on better promises than the promises contained in the Law. When we stop to think about this, we should be greatly encouraged. First, we are encouraged that we don’t have to go to a physical place to worship God. We are free to worship God anywhere at anytime. That’s better! Second, our relationship with God isn’t mediated by another sinner like us. That’s destined to fail and can give no confidence. Jesus is now our mediator, and He is perfect, appointed by God forever to represent us in God’s presence. That’s better! Third, we are encouraged that the covenant we have with God isn’t based on our performance as a part of the covenant. The new covenant rests 100% on Jesus’ righteousness. That’s better! Fourth, what an encouragement that the promise of life is ours on the basis of faith given to us by God as a gift rather than based on our ability to keep God’s law. That’s better!Therefore, we have a better hope that when we draw near to God for help to live in such a way as to glorify God and bring Him joy, we will receive the grace we need. My friends, we live to love with Jesus. He has a more excellent ministry to us than any other religion offers its worshippers. We can be confident that He will minister to us, for us, and through us as we draw near to Him for help to love those God puts in our paths today.
Hebrews 8:4-5 Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.”The Law designated the tribe of Levi to minister in the tabernacle and temple. We are told here that the structure, order, and services in the tabernacle and temple were copies and shadows of heavenly things. The earthly sanctuary showed something about the true or real sanctuary in heaven that we could not know otherwise. It was also a shadow of the true sanctuary. A shadow has no substance, but it exists because the substance or true thing exists. For example, when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, a shadow is cast on the earth where it blocks the light of the sun. This could only happen if there was a real object between the sun and the earth. Jesus did not serve as a priest when he was on earth. He was from the tribe of Judah, and not Levi. However, the author’s point was that the earthly priests and their duties in the earthly sanctuary revealed Jesus and His ministry in the heavenlies. Everything in the tabernacle speaks of Christ. Sometimes, when a business makes a new hire, they ask the new employee to “shadow” someone they are going to work with or replace. They follow them throughout the day to learn the job skills and processes. Moses apparently got to “shadow” Jesus in the heavenlies while he was on Mount Sinai. There he saw the realities in the heavenlies and the worship of God. From seeing the real thing, he was directed to make an earthly copy or shadow of what he saw. The Law, with its designs, practices, statutes, and laws, was the result. It was never meant to be the truth and the life because it was a temporary revelation of the worship of God. Dear friends, beloved of God, our Lord Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the substance, the real thing. He is the true man. We are the copies of the true man. He is the true God; we show forth the reality that God exists as we live on earth in the life of Jesus Christ, who is in heaven. Our lives should be shadows of His life. Everything in the heavenlies expresses the love of God, for He is love. May we cast a shadow of His love on the earth as we interact with people so they will know that Jesus really lives.
Hebrews 8:3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.The main ministry of every high priest was to offer both gifts and sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. With Jesus, it is no different. To come into God’s presence, He did not come empty-handed. The author contrasted Jesus’ ministry in the heavenly sanctuary with the earthly ministry of the high priests in the tabernacle and temple in the following verses, so I won’t get ahead of the author on this one. Today, what comes to mind as I read this verse is that when Jesus entered the Holy Place with His own blood, He also brought us with Him. Think about this. Jesus offered us to God, so to speak. He presented us to God, holy, blameless, and beyond reproach. That’s how Paul put it in Colossians 1:21-22. “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” We were given to Jesus by the Father with the command to give us eternal life. Jesus prayed in John 17:1-3, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” There we were, stained, ruined, and dead in our sins, separated from God. Through His blood sacrifice, He washed us, perfected us, and raised us up with Him to eternal life. So when Jesus came into the temple in heaven to worship His Father, He didn’t come empty-handed. He presented a gift to God—His children, beloved and spotless, with eternal life.That’s the love of God poured out to us. The love of God in the life of Jesus, the Son. We have the Son. We have the life. We have His love. We live on earth out of His love experienced in the heavenlies. I hope today your eyes will be opened to the hope of His calling you into eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 8:1-2 Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.After seven chapters of the letter to the Hebrews, we get to the main point in what has been said. Believers in Jesus Christ have a high priest who sits at the right hand of God and who ministers on their behalf. How often, before listening to this podcast, did you think about how wonderful it is that you have a high priest? So far, this is the main point of this book in the Bible. It must be vital to our faith for us to know this great reality. Several things in this verse should encourage us in our living and loving with Jesus.First, Jesus has taken His seat. That means His work of sacrifice on earth is finished. There’s nothing left for Him to do on earth. The author will make this point again later on. We draw encouragement from this that Jesus’ sacrifice for us was sufficient to save us from all our sins and bring us to God. Second, Jesus sits in the place of authority and rule in the heavens. Remember, Jesus said to His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18). We are encouraged that there’s nothing God can’t do in answer to Jesus’ intercession for us. We ask Him to love through us, and we can be confident that the resources needed will be authorized from heaven’s throne. Third, Jesus ministers for us in the highest place, the true sanctuary of God, where the ultimate worship of God exists. Jesus told the woman at the well of the hour in which we live. “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). We are encouraged by this that the love we need to love others comes directly from God Himself as we worship Him in Spirit and truth. The apostle Paul remarked to the Ephesians that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. If Jesus sits at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, so do we! He is the source of our lives, as Paul wrote of our position in Christ to the Colossians in chapter 3:1-4. Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.So having a high priest in whom we have our lives is a main thing. Let’s keep our minds fixed on the main thing, namely, us united with Jesus, who is seated in the heavenlies, as we walk in love today with Jesus.
Hebrews 7:28 For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.We are living to love with Jesus, who was made perfect forever. We cannot love perfectly in our own strength, but when we abide in Jesus and He loves through us, His love is perfect. 1 John 3:5-6 says about Jesus, “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins.” So when we are abiding in Him, receiving His love, and giving His love to others, we don’t sin because it is His love, and His love is perfect. It is acceptable to God because it is the love of God Himself. The love of God has been made perfect. It has been tested and proven through suffering and trials. Yes, Jesus has always been perfect. Before He came to earth, He was perfect. But His perfection needed to be lived in a human body so He could give us His extra coat of righteousness. I like this idea that I heard many years ago. Jesus already had a coat of righteousness, but He needed to make another coat of righteousness to give to His people who were naked and ashamed. So He came to earth and made a new coat for us. Heb. 5:8–9 speaks of that coat of perfect righteousness made for us. “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.” What does it mean that Jesus was made perfect? Wasn’t He already perfect? The word teleloo can be understood to mean to accomplish or reach a goal. God tested His Son so that He could accomplish the goal or finish the task His Father gave Him to do as our high priest. Jesus came to accomplish our salvation by performing for us a righteousness we did not have through His obedience to His Father’s will and by offering Himself as a sin offering. He showed us the sustained direction of His will toward our highest good, no matter what the cost. He had to lay down His life, His comfort in heaven, His lofty position, and become a servant to us, so we might know what God’s love looks like. That’s the kind of love Jesus displays in us for those God puts in our paths. We become their servants. We lay down our lives, learning obedience through the things that we suffer, and Jesus’ love is made perfect in us. The apostle John put it this way in 1 John 4:16–17. “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.” Like Jesus, we are being made perfect through suffering. We are completing the task God has given us to do, namely, bring glory to His name by loving with Jesus. Jesus was made perfect through suffering, and so shall we be made perfect through suffering. If He was made perfect forever, take heart; so will we be made perfect forever in Him.
Hebrews 7:26-27 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.We have much to be encouraged about when we consider that Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself was once for all. The author contrasted the effectiveness and sufficiency of Jesus’ one-time sacrifice for sins with the repeated, daily sacrifices the earthly high priests had to make in the temple. Because every priest was a sinner, he first had to offer a sacrifice for his own sins before offering sacrifices for the people. However, Jesus never sinned, so the sacrifice of Himself was an offering without moral blemish or stain. His offering was perfect and pleasing to God, so it only had to be offered once for all. Is. 53:10 declares this reality. “If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.” This great truth gives us confidence to enter into the presence of God for help to trust and love in Jesus’ name. Jesus entered the presence of His Father with His own blood as the offering for sin one time for all who were given to Him by the Father. The following verses highlight the power and sufficiency of Jesus’ once for all offering.Hebrews 9:12 says, “And not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”Hebrews 10:10 “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”Once for all can also mean, not just one time for all people, but one time for all of time. That’s the idea in Hebrews 10:14, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” Our confidence in Christ will last until the end of time. His offering was so powerful that it covered all of our sins, once for all, for all of time. This is great encouragement to us who are intentionally seeking to love with Jesus all the days of our lives. We need help, and this verse encourages us that when we fail, it’s covered by Jesus’ blood. When we need help, His blood speaks for us and gives us confidence that we will receive mercy and grace to love when we ask for it. We glorify God by boldly approaching His throne of grace through the sacrifice of Jesus, our high priest. The more we do so, the more God is glorified through His Son. Jesus’ once for all sacrifice of Himself invites us to daily add to God’s glory every time we seek His help to live to love with Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 7:26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;Please worship and enjoy with me this description of Jesus. Never was there a more holy high priest than Jesus. Oh, the beauty of holiness. Holiness entails the concept of oneness or union with God. Jesus is fused into one with the Father and Holy Spirit, and all function as one beautiful, glorious being. Psalms 29:2, “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in holy array [the beauty of holiness].” Holiness also means set apart from something (this world) to something (to God). There’s no one like Jesus. As we look at Him and all the other high priests who ever served in God’s temple, Jesus stands out in incomparable grandeur and beauty. Unlike all other high priests, Jesus is innocent—literally, He stands apart from what is evil or bad. Not one thought, word, or deed is associated with evil. His life is also undefiled, spotless, or unstained by any evil. Evil has not touched Him. I’m reminded of something Jesus said to His disciples on His last night with them. John 14:30. “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” There is not one desire in Jesus for anything the devil has to offer. That is not true of any other high priest. The basic idea within the word separated from sinners is the idea of a chasm or a space between items or people. He is exalted above us. We are earth bound, associated with sin and evil, defiled, stained, and corrupted with lust for this world. Do you see us as a group standing together on the earth? But Jesus is not like us sinners. He is lifted up above the heavens. Can you see the space between us? Therefore, God has made it clear that He is fit to act as our intercessor with God forever. Imagine His life now as your life! Imagine Jesus standing in for you in the presence of God. Imagine God counting the beauty and glory of Jesus’ life and character as yours, and worship Him. My dear friends, we are indeed blessed beyond words. Could God do anything more for His beloved? It is fitting, it is clear, that God can do no less than the absolute greatest possible thing for those He loves, and that He has done. He has given Himself to be our righteousness, our redemption, our sanctification, and our confidence in His presence. Therefore, love others out of His fullness.
Hebrews 7:25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.What a wonderful encouragement we have today in this verse! Because Jesus lives forever, He is able to save forever. The word sozo can be translated as save, preserve, and restore. Since the action is in the middle voice, we understand the writer was describing those who themselves are drawing near to God, just as the author admonished them to do in Heb. 4:16. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Additionally, we know the original readers were experiencing persecution and very difficult circumstances, so perhaps the best understanding of sozo is the idea of preservation. Since Jesus lives forever to intercede for those who exercise faith and intentionally, purposefully, and continually practice drawing themselves into the presence of God through Him, He is able to preserve them through any trial or storm in life by giving them mercy and grace.This encourages us greatly, doesn’t it? No matter what we face today, if we keep drawing near to Him (which we will do if we believe in Him as the Son of God and our High Priest), Jesus prays that we will be brought through it by His grace. And if the storm lasts days, months, years, or even decades, Jesus lives to pray for our preservation and restoration. The answer will be as sure as was the answer to Jesus’ prayer for Peter as he went through the greatest test of his love and faith—his denial of Jesus. Jesus encouraged him with this: “But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”This verse encourages us again, just as Heb. 4:16 says, to draw near to the throne of grace so that we may receive the fullness of God’s love and grace through Jesus Christ, our Lord and merciful high priest. We learn from this verse that He will give us what we need to glorify God as we live to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 7:22-24 so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.As the author continued explaining the authority of Jesus to serve as God’s priest in the holy, heavenly sanctuary, there was more to say. Not only will God never change His mind regarding the authority of Jesus’ ministry before Him, but those who trust in Jesus and draw near to God through Him have a better guarantee or agent of security than those who tried to relate to God on the temporary authority of the Law.The priests who served on the basis of physical requirements were limited by death, so God appointed the entire tribe of Levi to keep up the intercession for the people for generations until Jesus came. His coming signaled the end of their service because Jesus established a better covenant with an unfailing, enduring hope of fulfillment. Since He conquered death, all who believe in Him have eternal security. It will never change, and therefore worshippers may have confidence to enter into relationship with God forever through Him.Remember what the author wrote in 5:14? “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” That’s how we learn to obey the author’s command, on the authority of the Holy Spirit, to draw near to the throne of grace with confidence when we need mercy and grace to help. We should obey and draw near because we perceive, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the good to come, namely God’s glory, by our drawing near. And we also learn how evil it is not to! If we are to mature, God must give us practice in training our senses through suffering and testing.These true things are meaningful only if we do something with them. If we believe that Jesus’ presence before God is our salvation and our security, our guarantee that God will accept us and give us the grace we need to glorify Him by loving with Jesus, then we practice abiding in Him as much of the day as we possibly can. We draw near to God through Him and hold fast to this hope. Let’s not be like babies who are only secure when there’s no mess and they feel comfy and cuddled by God. We have the guarantee of better things than temporary, personal comfort and happiness on earth. In Jesus Christ, we have access to God’s peace, love, and joy forever. Let’s live like it! Overflowing with His life and the fullness of grace that He guarantees.
Hebrews 7:20-21 And inasmuch as it was not without an oath (for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever’”);The author of Hebrews magnifies Jesus’ authority by again contrasting how each was appointed. God’s appointment of the Levitical priests did not come with an oath, meaning God could terminate their service. His word did not prevent Him from replacing them. However, in contrast, because Jesus was appointed a priest with an oath, we should have great confidence to trust in Jesus. Since God swore Him into office and won’t change His mind, Jesus serves with authority forever.No one loves perfectly. We are all weak and sometimes overcome with natural, selfish, demonic impulses. How can one approach God’s throne with confidence to ask for grace to help when he or she has so many times turned their backs on Him and tried to do things in their own strength, or even worse, knowingly repeated sinful actions and spoke hurtful, damaging words? What makes them think God forgives their sins? How can He and be just? What kind of love can just wave a hand and turn a blind eye to such adultery and treachery?Perhaps human love can just overlook transgressions, but holy, just, righteous love cannot. The love of righteousness demands that sins must be punished, atoned for, and justice served. The very foundation of His throne is righteousness and justice, but lovingkindness and truth go before Him. (Ps. 89:14). It is for this reason that God swore when He appointed Jesus to be a priest forever. He could intercede for the transgressors. Listen to Isaiah’s revelation of the Messiah, God’s appointed high priest.Isaiah 53:10-12 But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt coffering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge [knowledge of what? Their iniquities] the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.Consider the hope this fosters in the hearts of those who trust in Jesus and draw near to Him when they sin and need mercy and when they need grace to love. They can rest in the reality that Almighty God, their heavenly Father, cannot deny Jesus when He intercedes for them. Not only does He intercede for them, asking for God to be merciful, but He also advocates for them. He stands beside them to comfort them and give them grace to love with Him. This is the reality of living to love with Jesus. We live and love based on the authority of God’s word (His oath) regarding His Son, our high priest, our Savior, and constant, gentle companion.
Hebrews 7:17-19 For it is attested of Him, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.Today we rejoice in the hope of eternal life and constant access to God through Jesus Christ. The Scriptures witness to Christ that God has appointed Him to be a priest on the order of Melchizedek, that is, on the order of an indestructible life. In so doing, God set aside the uselessness of the first system of worship, which couldn’t perfect anyone or anything, and brought in a better system filled with hope because it is based on Jesus’ life. This is what encourages us today to draw near to God for mercy and grace when we need help.We draw near through a better hope than what the Jews had to do to draw near to God through the priesthood according to the Law. The Law made nothing perfect, but Jesus made us perfect in the eyes of God. Let’s jump ahead to 10:14. “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” My dear friends, we operate out of the fullness of the work of Jesus Christ. We are complete in Him, as Paul wrote to the Colossians. So let’s take great caution to not attempt to live our lives in our own strength according to the weak, useless elementary principles of the world system and that which the Hebrews labored under. Draw near to God moment by moment through the better hope we have in Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 7:15-16 And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life.Imagine if you sinned today and wanted to pray to God for forgiveness and help. But before you could pray, by law, you had to go physically to a temple and offer a sacrifice upon which you confessed your sins. You placed your hand on the animal while confessing your sins, signifying that you were becoming one with the offering, and its blood would be your payment for your sins, so you could then pray with holy hands. That’s what the Law required before you could approach God and pray. Those were all physical requirements—you had to go to a physical place, offer a physical sacrifice, using a physical person as your mediator, before you could pray. Aren’t you glad God has raised up a priest who is not bound by the physical requirements of the law but instead offers a relationship with God based on His power to give eternal, indestructible life?!Let’s think about the power of an indestructible life. The greatest power God has is the power to give life. The apostle John wrote in his gospel, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” (John 1:3–4). The apostle Paul giving a charge to Timothy praised God when he wrote, “I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things.” Jesus has the power to give life eternal because He always lives to intercede for us and serve as our priest. We live before God even as Jesus lives before God. We are seated in Him, united forever with Him, and have the same future as Him. That’s our hope today as we live to love with Jesus. Hold fast to that hope, and let us overflow with thanksgiving, joy, and love because of that hope. Christ in us, the hope of glory.
Hebrews 7:12-14 For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests.According to the Law, the descendants of Levi were required to serve as priests in the temple. It was a requirement based on a physical reality, being born into the tribe of Levi. When God appointed Jesus to serve as our high priest in the heavenly temple of God, it meant that God had changed the Law by which priests were appointed. Jesus was from the tribe of Judah, about whom Moses in the Law had not authorized any priestly duties. The author concluded that if God appointed Jesus as a priest forever, then that meant that God had also changed the laws governing relationship with Him. For that we can be grateful!Praise be to God; He has changed the law upon which your relationship with Him is based! Up until the time of Christ, no one from the tribe of Judah ever served in the temple. But when Jesus Christ came, He inaugurated a new relationship between God and man, not based on the Law of Moses. Melchizedek showing up in the life of Abraham as a priest of the Most High God, who was not from any earthly tribe, was like a movie trailer introducing something great to come. The interesting thing about Melchizedek was that he was both a priest and king. The Law of Moses had no such office. There were other indicators pointing to a priest and ruler from Judah, such as Jacob’s blessing of Judah in Gen. 49:10. “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”Our encouragement today is that we are not under the old Levitical law but are under a new law. The apostle Paul spoke of the new law in Romans 8:2–5.For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.We are governed by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The idea of law in this verse is that of assignment, just like God assigned Jesus as our high priest. He has assigned the Spirit of Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit, to bear fruit for God in our lives for His glory. God magnifies His name in us as we live to love with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit. Let’s walk by the Spirit, abiding in the life of Jesus who abides in us.
Hebrews 7:11 Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron?The author stated in chapter 6, vs. 1, that he wanted his readers to press on to maturity. The Greek word used for maturity was teleiotes, and the Greek word used for perfection in this verse was teleiosis. You can see or hear the similarities, can’t you? They are forms of the same root word communicating the ideas of completion, perfection, or maturity. His main point was that the first priesthood obviously wasn’t able to perfect the worshiper or bring him to maturity or completion. If it were, there would be no need for another priest of a different order, like Melchizedek, to fulfill God’s promise and purpose.The Levitical priests and the Law could not present worshippers as complete, mature, or perfect. So, God provided His Son, not only to perform what we needed to be justified before Him but also to apply His perfected justifying work to our lives until we stand blameless and spotless before Him in glory. As Paul wrote to the Philippians in 1:6. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” We are going to learn in vs. 25 of this chapter that Jesus lives now to bring His work on the cross to maturity, to completion, by interceding for us and saving us to the “uttermost.”We live today by and through the life of Jesus Christ, who has been designated as our priest forever and who is interceding for us every moment of our lives. We don’t need to be afraid that we won’t be able to love anyone—no matter what they do. We will endure to the end of our lives walking in love with Christ. How do we know we will? Because that state of perfection doesn’t depend on our strength and wisdom, but on His faithfully performing the office of the priest of the Most High God. Our love for others flows out of His life and intercession for us! Think on Him until your heart sees the glorious beauty of His work and promises. Doesn’t that encourage you?!
Hebrews 7:8-10 In this case mortal men receive tithes, but in that case one receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives on. And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.The author was contrasting two orders of priests, the order of Aaron and the order of Melchizedek. In these verses, he made the point that the Levitical priests, who descended from Aaron, received tithes from the descendants of Abraham. However, when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, Levi positionally paid tithes to him because he was Abraham’s descendent. The word of God witnesses about Melchizedek that he lives on; he had no age of death and therefore is a priest perpetually (vs. 3). His point was that the order of the Levitical priesthood was inferior to the order of Melchizedek’s priesthood. He went on to unpack this point in subsequent verses. If Melchizedek’s was superior to Levi, then Jesus’ is also greater.This reminds us of how blessed we are to have Jesus as our high priest—forever. As our intercessor, He brings us to God and brings God to us. “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). Jesus’ disciple, Matthew, writing about Jesus’ birth, wrote, “Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘GOD WITH US.'" (Matt. 1:22-23). Jesus brings God to us in Himself. This means we have constant daily access to the only source of true love in the universe. God’s love is defined as the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. His love has been poured out in the hearts of all who know Him (Rom. 5:5), and the source of His love, Jesus Christ, Himself, dwells within them. Therefore, we who believe in Jesus may express the love of God who lives with us as long as we are abiding in Him, who not only is our high priest in God’s temple in heaven, but is a living intercessor inside us, God’s temple on earth. Jesus is ours, and we are His. Amazing!
Hebrews 7:4-7 Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the choicest spoils. And those indeed of the sons of Levi who receive the priest's office have commandment in the Law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their brethren, although these are descended from Abraham. But the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. But without any dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater.When Melchizedek came out to meet Abraham when he returned from conquering the kings, he blessed Abraham. According to the author, that meant that Melchizedek was greater than Abraham because there is no dispute in principle; the lesser is blessed by the greater. The implication of the author is that if Jesus is a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, then Jesus is greater than Abraham. Therefore, the covenant established by Jesus is greater than the covenant made with Abraham.Remember, this discussion of Melchizedek was in the flow of the author’s teaching about Jesus as our glorious high priest. His point is that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promised blessing of Abraham. This raises a question in my mind. So who has the greater joy, the one blessed or the one who bestows the blessing? I suggest that not only is the one who blesses the greater of the two, but also he is the one who experiences the most joy when the blessing promised is bestowed and fully realized.This encourages me to be the one who blesses, not because I want to be greater than others, but because of the joy to be experienced from giving the blessings. God’s joy is full because He is the source of blessing to all who are in heaven and earth. What incredible joy He must experience! Jesus said that He commanded us to love so that we might experience His joy and our joy be made full (John 15:11). So today, let’s turn our joy meters on and love with Jesus. Let’s be the ones who bless those with whom we come into contact, with the love of God.
Hebrews 7:3 Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.Melchizedek was a very unusual man. Was he a real man? Was he an angel? Was He the angel of the Lord? The reason the author mentioned that he was without father, mother, genealogy, or any knowledge of a birthdate or day of death was that the way all of the priests in the Old Covenant received their appointment as priests was through birth. If they didn’t have proof of their genealogy, they couldn’t serve. Yet Melchizedek was a priest of the Most High God. The author said he was made like the Son of God and therefore remains a priest perpetually. In what way was he made like Jesus? Jesus did have a genealogy, but he didn’t have a beginning of days or an end of life. Jesus’ life is eternal life; therefore, his priesthood is also forever. We might recall God’s appointment of Jesus, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”Our encouragement today is that because Jesus serves as our high priest forever, we have 24/7/365 access to God’s presence for grace to help. This is why the author encouraged his readers to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that they might receive mercy and grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16). The apostle Paul obviously understood the continuous availability of grace from Jesus because he ended both of his Corinthian letters, as well as Philippians and Philemon, with some version of “The grace of the Lord be with you.” He blessed Timothy with, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1).I hope you see that the fact that Jesus is our high priest forever is only of benefit to us if we do something with what we believe. If we believe God has given Him to us so we might have continual access to His grace on a daily basis for the rest of our lives, then we should practice drawing near to Him all the time. It should be the habit of our lives. So the perpetuity of Jesus’ office as our high priest encourages us today to go to Him for grace to love those God puts in our paths. Since we are getting the grace from Jesus, we are loving with Jesus. We get the privilege to love, and He gets the glory for our loving.
Hebrews 7:2, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace.We are learning about Melchizedek here in chapter 7 of Hebrews. He was a priest of the Most High God who blessed Abraham when he returned victorious after a war with some kings. The author reminded his readers that Abraham gave him a tenth of all that he had taken as spoil from the war. The significance of that will be explained later.Jesus is a priest like Melchizedek. He explained the meaning of his name. In Hebrew, Melchi means king, and zedek means righteousness. Jesus is the real King of Righteousness. Second, Melchizedek was the king of Salem, which in Hebrew is translated peace. Look how we have been blessed by Christ! He has blessed us with His righteousness so we might be justified before God. Furthermore, through His sacrifice, we have peace with God. Consider the great love God has bestowed upon us that we would be called children of God, presented 100% righteous before God. We have peace with God because all of our sins have been paid for and removed from consideration. We have been brought to God through Jesus’ high priestly intercession, through the blood of His sacrifice.What an encouragement we have today to set our minds on the righteousness and peace we have in Christ. Full righteousness! Full peace! My friends, we are loved perfectly. You may feel like you are in a war or just are returning from a war. This righteousness is your breastplate, the protector of your heart. You journey through this world with your feet shod with the gospel of peace. You are ready to walk the path God has for you today in fullness. Out of the fullness of being right with God and at peace with God, you can love whoever God puts in your path. When you approach God’s throne of grace, you can be confident you will be blessed by Jesus, just like Abraham was.
Hebrews 7:1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,We are looking at this introductory phrase regarding Melchizedek. I pronounce his name that way because it is a compound word. Melchi means king, and zedek means righteousness. The author had been encouraging his readers that God swore that Jesus is an appointed high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek’s priesthood was a type of Jesus’ priesthood. In chapter 7, he decided to unpack the significance of this appointment. The story of Melchizedek is found in Gen. 14:17-20."Then after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” He gave him a tenth of all."I want to encourage us today with the fact that Christ, like Melchizedek, was sent to bless those who are to inherit God’s promises. God had sworn he would bless Abraham, and Melchizedek is a fulfillment of God’s promise. Jesus Christ came to give a greater blessing than Melchizedek gave.Consider how God has blessed us because we are in Christ, who is God’s promised blessing to Abraham. On a daily basis, we are blessed in Christ. We have been rooted and grounded in Jesus for a purpose. The apostle Paul explained that blessing in a prayer he prayed for the Ephesians.For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.We have been blessed to be filled up with all the fullness of God. Out of that fullness, we love both God and man. Living to love with Jesus is possible because we are rooted and grounded in Him so we can, with our brothers and sisters in Christ, experience His love as we share it with one another. So remember, you have been blessed by God’s high priest, Jesus Christ, as you journey through this world. Walk in the blessing of life in Christ, overflowing with gratitude.
Hebrews 6:18 so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.This verse tells us why God swore that He would bless Abraham—to encourage us to take hold of the hope we have in God’s promises in Christ. When God made the oath to Abraham, He added a second reason for Abraham to trust Him. First, God cannot lie, so if He says He’s going to do something, then we can confidently expect Him to do it. Second, to add additional encouragement, He made an oath. He didn’t have to swear He would do it. His word should be sufficient for hope to give birth to faith. He did it out of love so everyone who takes refuge in Christ would be encouraged to hold fast with all the strength and diligence they have to God’s promised Sabbath rest. Let’s not miss this important concept: To take refuge in Christ is the same action as drawing near to the throne of grace upon which Jesus sits. When we draw near to the throne of grace for mercy and grace to help in times of need, we are taking refuge in Jesus. If we practice drawing near to Jesus on a daily, moment-by-moment basis so we can love with Him, there’s a hope that comes with that constant and persistent abiding in Christ. It proves we are His! It proves we are in His house! It proves God has justified us in Christ, and we will forever be with Him in glory. That’s the kind of love we have dwelling in us. If we are His, our purpose is to love like He loves us. The marriage vows are meant to give assurance and a strong hope to the couple. Traditional Protestant Christian Wedding Vows: “In the name of God, I, Norm, take you, Alma, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow.” Our word to our spouses to love them until death parts us is an expression of His kind of love. It’s meant to give our spouses hope. She or he should think that my spouse has not lied to me when she or he vowed to love me until death parts us. My guess is that most of my listeners made similar vows to the one I just read. What if after the vows, someone swore to keep their vows? After saying, “This is my solemn vow,” they said, “I swear in the name of God that I will keep this vow.” Why would they do that? It would be to give additional confidence to their spouse that the vows will be kept.I hope that helps us get God’s point and the author’s point. Anytime you need grace to love, draw near to God and hold fast to His character and His promise so you can receive and give His love. Living to love depends on faith in God, who cannot lie and has given us access to all the grace we need through His Son, Jesus Christ. So we have strong encouragement today from this verse to do just that. Draw near and take hold of the hope of future grace based upon the character of God, who has given us His word, His Son, and His access, and His grace.
Hebrews 6:16-17 For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath,In the next three verses, the author explained the power of an oath in their day in order to bolster the confidence of his readers to draw near to God and hold fast to Jesus Christ, their hope of glory. Let’s see what encouragement to live to love with Jesus we can draw from this verse.The point made is that when there is a dispute over the truth, the highest expression of authority that a person can make is to swear or make an oath. The Greek word ergo literally means to shut in or out. Essentially, it closes the matter. It’s the end of the discussion. Or, to say it another way, there’s nothing more to be said. It’s settled. The author took that argument that everyone understood and applied it to God’s oath to Abraham. With that said, the author, by the Holy Spirit, looked into the heart of God and revealed the reason God made the oath. He desired even more than when a man makes an oath, to show or convince the heirs of the promise (that’s us, all believers in Jesus Christ) of the unchangeableness of His purpose to bless them through Christ.The encouragement I take away from this verse is that we gain insight into God’s kind of love. I define it this way in Live to Love. “The sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God.” Can you see the connection between that definition and God’s desire to show to the heirs of promise the unchangeableness of His purpose? Essentially, God wants them (us) to know that there’s nothing they can do to make Him not love them and be faithful to them. His will is set. He decided to bless His people through Christ, and He wants them to trust Him and rest in Him as if the end is already realized. That’s the hope they can hold fast to.This shows us the direction of the love of Jesus toward those He puts in our paths. He loves them, and there’s nothing they can do to make us not love them if we are loving with Him. Our aim with Him is their highest good, namely, to glorify God by being most satisfied in the love and will of God in Christ. That purpose should be unchangeable in our lives. We are living to love with Jesus, and that purpose is unchangeable. Therefore, it should be settled in our minds that there’s nothing anyone can do to make us not love them. To God be the glory.
Hebrews 6:15 And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.Abraham looked to the character of God to fulfill what He promised until the day he died. That’s what faith looks like. As we all know, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Abraham. He had his weak moments, like we all do. We know there was a time when Abraham didn’t wait patiently. It was when he was unbelieving and took his eyes off of God’s character and word. In the hardness of his heart, he decided not to wait upon the Lord. He thought he could bring about the blessing and multiplication of his seed in his own strength and means. We know how that turned out. It didn’t go well. But that didn’t stop God from being faithful to Abraham. The promise wasn’t based on Abe’s faithfulness but on God’s own character, upon God’s faithfulness. At some point in the journey, Abraham became patient. The Genesis account tells us that he had to wait another 14 years after the birth of Ishmael to receive the child of promise, Isaac. So Abraham obtained the promised child, but he died without seeing the promised multiplication fulfilled. It is still being fulfilled and won’t be completed until every person in view when God made the promise comes to faith in Christ. The author’s intention was to encourage his readers to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus and the faithfulness of God like Abraham did. Also, he was encouraging them to patiently endure to the end of their lives to receive the reward promised in Christ to those who seek Him diligently through Jesus. He had told them what it meant to seek Him, it was to continually draw near to the throne of grace through the storms of life. It was to hold fast to the gospel hope in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit inspired the author to write those words with us in view today. God’s inspired word is timeless, living, and active. It shows where God is working as the word is read or heard. It’s happening right this moment as we listen to or read these words. The Spirit is encouraging us to inherit the promises through faith and patience, just like Abraham did. God has given us another day to glorify Him by showing our love for His name by trusting Him and loving with Jesus. One day at a time. Besides the final day, this is the only day for sure that we know we have to show our love for His name. May we live at the throne of grace today, receiving the faith and patience we need until we inherit the promises with Abraham.
Hebrews 6:13-14 For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you.”What an example Abraham has been to God’s people for around 3500 years! The focus isn’t on Abraham; it’s on the God of Abraham, who is our God, Jesus Christ. Consider God’s great love for Abraham, to whom He promised blessing upon the authority of His own character and name. The author intends for His readers to understand that the God of Abraham is our God. God promised to bless him and provide him not only with an heir but multiplied offspring. As we know, God is still fulfilling His promise to Abraham, even through us. All the believers in Jesus Christ throughout all of history are his inheritance. God swore on the authority of Himself to bless Abraham. Here’s the encouragement to us today. God is bound by His promise to Abraham to give you and me grace and mercy when we draw near to Him through Christ. We are Abraham’s inheritance, and He must bless us to keep His oath to Abraham. Since He swore upon His own name, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our high priest to bring all of the multiplication of Abraham’s seed to glory. He made Jesus the heir and high priest. He exalted Him to His own right hand. He gave Him an excellent name—a name that is better than the angels. His name is the greatest name on earth in history. At His name, every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. This isn’t news to most of us, but have we realized what God is telling us? Have we fixed all our hope on the character and oath of God, Himself? What does it look like to trust in the God of Abraham like He did? We draw near to Him in time of need, as the author encouraged his readers in 4:14-16, and hold fast to the promises of God in Christ Jesus, His Son, the appointed heir, high priest, who made purification of sins and has sat down at the right hand of the majesty, where we have 24/7/365 access to everything we need as we run the course of life set before us. Today, we live to love with Jesus by abiding in His presence in heaven while we walk on the earth. We have confidence that God will be faithful to us because His word and faithfulness to Abraham were sworn to by an oath, and we were in view when God swore to bless Abraham. Let that sink in! Then diligently live to love with Jesus to show your love for His name—His faithfulness to keep His word through Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 6:11-12 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.In these verses we have the introduction to the hall of faith the author has in mind to talk about later in his letter. The ones the author wants his readers to emulate will be listed in Chapter 11. They are the witnesses to the hope in Christ that have gone before us. When he referred to the “same diligence” in verse 11, we can see who he had in mind in verse 12. He desired for his readers to have the same diligence—earnestness, effort, and consistency—as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and rest. With their eyes fixed on Jesus, the Promised One, they all patiently waited on God to give them what He promised. They didn’t grow sluggish in their faith or patience. They believed in God’s faithfulness through thick and thin. They weathered the storms, persecutions, and setbacks in their lives with faith and patience because they loved the name of the Lord and knew that their ultimate hope wasn’t rooted in this world in this life. At the writing of this letter, all of those they were to imitate had run and finished the course God set before them and had inherited the promises. The author’s desire was for his readers to do the same—exercise the same diligence—imitate their faith and patience so they could realize the full assurance of hope until the end. I ask you today, “Do you hear the voice of the Spirit calling you to that same diligence to draw near to the throne of grace and hold fast to God’s promise in Christ Jesus?” Pay careful attention and hear these words again as if they were written with you in mind. “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” What impact do these words have on you? Will they have the same effect they had on his Hebrew readers? They showed their love for Jesus’ name by working with Jesus, loving and ministering to the saints with the hope of what they were sure to receive at the end of their lives. That is my desire for you as well, as I write and present this podcast. May the Holy Spirit quicken His word to your heart and spur you on to maturity in Christ until you reach the ultimate promised Sabbath rest of God. Live to love with Jesus until your last breath, when you will be ushered into your inheritance of the promises of God.
Hebrews 6:11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end.Let’s let this verse encourage us, as it was meant to encourage the original readers. What is the hope that he wants them to realize? It is the justice of God not to forget their work and love shown toward the Lord’s name by loving and ministering to others, to the saints. To put it in a positive light, he wanted them to realize the hope of being rewarded by God for their love for Him and for His people. He wanted them to realize the hope they have of God’s reward provides full assurance all the way until the end of their lives. The full assurance comes from God’s character. They can fully count on God’s justice to reward their faithfulness. Later in chapter 11, he put it this way. If they have a faith that holds fast to Jesus until the end of their lives, then that faith is the assurance of the promised reward, which they cannot presently see. It is faith that pleases God. He will reward faith because it is the work of His Son in their hearts.With that in mind, the author expressed the desire of he and his companions for them to keep up the good work of love toward the name of the Lord by loving one another. He wanted them to show the same diligence all the way until the end of their lives. He assured them that they would not be disappointed. That’s my encouragement to you today. Be diligent to show love for Jesus’ name by loving with Him through the rest of your life. Love well. Finish well. You will realize—experience—the fulfillment of your hope in being rewarded by God. I’ll put the cherry on top of today’s encouragement with Hebrews 11:6. “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Hebrews 6:10. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.Righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne, according to Ps. 89:14. Psalms 33:5 tells us that the Lord “loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord.” That’s why the Holy Spirit said that God will not forget the love shown toward His name by the love for the saints that has been expressed by those the author knows are ready to press on to maturity in Christ. The Lord loves righteousness, which is love expressed to others. He also loves justice. If God is just, which of course He is, He must punish those who do evil and reward those who do good. So if we are living to love with Jesus, let us first be encouraged that God will reward us in Christ, for our loving is because of the life of Christ dwelling within us. Surely, God will reward His Son and those of us who work and love with Him.Second, love for the name of the Lord is one of the “better things” that the author cites that accompanies salvation. When someone is saved, they have a desire to see God glorified in their lives. Concern for the name of Jesus underlies their daily words and actions. To love God is to love His name. In this verse, we learn two evidences of saving faith. It works to glorify the name of Jesus and works to minister to the saints.Third, we see that love for the name of Jesus is shown by ministering or loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. The people the author had in mind not only had at one time ministered to the saints, they were still doing it! It had become their lifestyle. So, not only love for the name of Jesus, but love for others is another “better thing” that accompanies salvation. Do you see why I say that living to love with Jesus should be our purpose in life? It’s how we glorify the name of Jesus. We were created for God’s glory. If we love His glory, then we show our love toward His name by working and loving with Jesus. We glorify our God by living to love with Jesus. I suggest there is no higher purpose for life in this world than that. So my final encouragement today is that you adopt this purpose as an expression of your love for God and love for His name, expecting to be a partaker in the reward our Father gives to His Son. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed, just like those the author had in mind in this verse.
Hebrews 6:9 But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.We are reminded of what the author was doing in chapter 6. He was explaining why he was going to press on in explaining why Jesus was the mediator of a better covenant than what the Jews had received through Moses. In verses 2-8, he explained the first of two cases: some had heard the good news and God had not given them faith to believe, so repeating what they had already heard about Jesus would be fruitless. In this verse, he took up the case of those who had heard and were ready to move on to maturity. He was convinced that they were the “ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled.” The author was convinced of “better things” concerning this group of readers, things that accompany salvation. In the next verse, we learn what those “better things” were. How was the author convinced that these readers were saved? He had either seen or heard of the fruit of their lives. When someone is born again, it is evident to all who know Jesus. I’m reminded of the selection of the first deacons in the church in Jerusalem. The twelve disciples called the congregation together to inform them that they needed to dedicate themselves to the teaching of the word rather than be distracted by serving tables. They said,“Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task” (Acts 6:3). How were they to pick these men? Pick them based on the testimony of their lives. Being full of the Spirit was so evident that it was as if these men had a dove image pasted on their foreheads. “Go pick the men with doves pasted on their foreheads.”Today, I want to encourage you to be that type of person—a person in whom the evidence of salvation is observable and undeniable. If we live to love with Jesus, there won’t be any question about where we stand with Jesus. We were saved to be lights in this world. Ambassadors for Christ. We will have many opportunities today to show the “better things” that accompany salvation. Father, grant that today we may be filled with the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Magnify Your name in Your people today, for Your glory.I invite you to visit livetolovewithjesus.com to receive more encouragement to live to love with Jesus. Also, would you consider posting a review of the podcast and inviting others to follow? Thank you so much.
Hebrews 6:8 but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.Well, we certainly don’t want to be the kind of ground that yields thorns and thistles, do we? He was referring to those who had heard the good word of God yet did not bear fruit for God. Such ground, or such a soul, is useless to the owner. Notice, the idea is that the ground drank in the rain that God caused to often fall on it. But instead of yielding anything that would be of benefit to the owner, it yields thorns and thistles. Worthless, cursed, and burned. This negative example should motivate us to examine closely what we do with the blessings of God. For instance, we don’t want to use the word of God to stick and prick people. We don’t want to use it like a weapon against others. I’m sure that’s not in our hearts. Our joy is to receive God’s blessings and pass them on to others for their benefit and God’s glory. We want to be vessels in God’s hands to water the ground or souls of others so they can glorify God by bearing fruit. I hope we’ll enter into God’s presence today with thanksgiving for the rain He pours out in our lives. I pray that we’ll drink until we are satiated with His love. May we be like sponges that are so saturated that when we are touched by others, nothing but the love of Jesus comes out. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?!
Hebrews 6:7 For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;It’s an interesting contrast the author reiterates between someone who merely tastes and another who drinks. The picture is of God providing an abundant supply of rain to a piece of ground, which then nourishes the vegetation so that the farmer can eat. The author is focused on the blessing the ground receives. We, the believers, are the ground in this analogy. When we receive God’s word and give what we receive to others, we receive a blessing from God. It’s a blessing to be an instrument in His hands for the sake of others. That’s why we should intentionally live to love with Jesus. As we abide in Him, we receive the rain of the Spirit, His love, which often falls on us. The rain is given for the sake of others. If we drink in the love of God that is poured out in and on our lives and then extend His love to others, we receive a blessing from God. What an incredible, wonderful, fruitful purpose for living! Let's drink in the grace of God to us today, not for ourselves but for others. Since He is the source of the blessing, He will get the glory.
Hebrews 6:6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.As we consider this verse, I want to begin by making a few comments. First, the context is that the author has decided to leave the elementary teaching of Christ because some of his readers had heard enough, and still thought Jesus to be an imposter. If he were to keep going over the same basic truths about Jesus which they already had heard, he knew they couldn’t have a change of mind about Jesus. There’s nothing new to be said that they hadn’t already heard. It would only provide another opportunity for them to in essence crucify Jesus and publicly shame Him. Second, I don’t think this means that these people can’t be saved. His thinking was that repeating the elementary things about Christ wouldn’t cause them to think again about who Jesus is and what He has done. ——If God was going to use his letter to lead them to repentance, then he had given the Holy Spirit enough to work with. That doesn’t mean that God could not at some future time in different circumstances bring them to repentance and salvation. The Saul to Paul transformation is an example. Surely many who have at one time thought Jesus to be an imposter, namely, of Jewish origin, have been saved by the power of the Holy Spirit. Today, I want to encourage us guard against all hard-heartedness. When a person’s heart is hard, they are not receptive to God’s word and Spirit. As the author said in chapter 3 about an evil unbelieving heart; it hardens the heart. That’s how these were who could not be renewed to repentance. As we live to love with Jesus, abiding in Him, we want to be sensitive to the moving of the Holy Spirit. We want our hearts to be like clay in His hands which is easy to fashion and mold into the image of Christ. We want to be easily guided into His will today. May the Spirit of Christ be free to do in us what He wishes to do for the glory of God.
Hebrews 6:5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,The encouragement today from this verse is to not be merely hearers only, or people who merely do a taste-test with Jesus. The people the author had in mind who have fallen away are like the second kind of hearers in Jesus’ parable of the soils. “In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away” (Mark 4:16-17). The word tasted good, and they felt good about the demonstrations of power they saw in Jesus, but when they were threatened with rejection and expulsion from their communities, they fell away. In our day, this same thing happens to people who have been raised by faithful believing parents. These adult children have seen and tasted the power of the Holy Spirit manifest in their homes and churches. Because they couldn’t deny the reality of Christ and wanted to please their parents, they gave mental assent to the tenants of the faith. However, as they grew up and faced the challenges and hurts of life in a fallen world, because they didn’t have the faith of Christ birthed within them by the Holy Spirit, they walked away. From their unbelieving perspective, Jesus didn’t work for them. These tasted the good word of God and the power of the age to come (saw the effects of the Holy Spirit in lives around them). This encourages us to not be taste-testers with Jesus. If we are going to live to love with Jesus, we must abide in Him constantly—drawing from His life—to love others with Him. This is drinking deeply of Christ and digesting His good word and His life. Merely tasting of Jesus and His power isn’t enough for us. We want to see His life and His power at work in us. So today, as you read God’s word, meditate on it and wait on the Lord so you can learn how to apply it. Live to love with Jesus throughout each day, and you won’t ever be in danger of falling away from Christ. In fact, you’ll see the good word of God working in your life and experience the power of the Holy Spirit in all things.
Hebrews 6:4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,I wish to encourage you today by contrasting you from those who crucified Jesus and put Him to open shame. First, when the light of the world came, they were blinded to it. The light shined on them. They were exposed to the light like a person walks out into the sunshine, but then moved away from the light. That’s not been the case with you, has it? You were not living in the time when Jesus was on earth like these first readers, yet you believe. Look how blessed you have been! As Jesus said in John 20:24. “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” You haven’t seen Jesus with your physical eyes, but it has been given to you to see with your heart. Give thanks to God for His mercy.Second, the case with some was that they had tasted of the heavenly gift of Christ and thus shared in the experience of seeing the work of the Spirit of God in Christ. However, it only had a temporary impact. That’s conveyed in the idea of tasted. That same word is used of Jesus, who tasted death. Like food that is only tasted has no lasting effect on your body, so death had no lasting effect on Jesus. Many people go to church and taste the gift of the Holy Spirit. They share in the experience where Jesus’ presence is manifested, yet they leave unchanged. The moment they walk out the door, the feelings they experienced are gone. They fall away from the condition of grace poured out when God’s people assemble to praise and worship Jesus. But that’s not been the case with you. You have not only tasted; you have digested and internalized Jesus in your life. He has impacted not only how you think but how you live daily. You have not only shared in the experience of His presence in the assembly in worship, but you experience the reality of the Holy Spirit as you live with Jesus. The Holy Spirit has manifested the presence and power of Jesus in your life as you love with Him. I know, you probably are thinking that it doesn’t happen all the time, but do you realize that if it happens when you practice abiding in Him, then you are growing in maturity? You are not merely a spiritual taster; you are feeding and living off of the sustenance and support of Jesus, Himself. I hope you’ll be encouraged by the contrast of your own life with those who have tasted but have no lasting effect. May you be encouraged to receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit and let Him guide and fill you today with the presence and power of Christ. Would you pray the live to love prayer with me?Father, we thank You for another day of life to know and love You and live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill us with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that we can love and trust You and love those You put in our paths today, for Your glory. Amen. If you haven’t taken up the Live to Love Prayer challenge of praying your own version of this prayer everyday for two months, I invite you to do so. Go to livetolovewithjesus.com and click on the “I’m in” button. If you wish, you can add your “dot” to the world map and see where people around the world are living to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 6:4-6 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.Today I want to look at what the author is saying in these verses and then in the following three days unpack three sections. The author explained why he was leaving the elementary principles of the Christ and pressing his readers on to maturity. As he assessed the spiritual condition of his readers, he thought they fit into two categories. These verses today explain one of the two cases (he calls them). There are those who, having heard, seen, and tasted, but yet are not believing. There’s nothing more that can be said to convince them that Jesus is the Son of God. The case with them is not that they were saved, but then fell away and lost their salvation. No, they were never born again by the Spirit. They were living as if God were not alive and working in everything in their lives.Do you remember the warning back in 3:12? The term “brethren” was used in this case to refer to all of his Hebrew brethren. He knew some were regenerated and some were not. “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” Even with this warning, there were some who had heard the good word, but God had not done the work of faith in their hearts for them to receive it. Their hearts had become hardened, and like those who crucified Him, they believed Jesus to be an imposter and blasphemer. They were doing again what was done to Jesus and put Him to open shame in unbelief. For them, there would be no benefit to continuing to go over the same elementary principles because they could not be made to rethink their perspective of Jesus. The seed had been sown, rain had fallen, but nothing of the life of Jesus had grown in them.In verses 7 and 9, he stated the case of the second category of readers. These, when they heard the good word, believed it and brought forth fruit. To continue to go over the elementary things would be unnecessary. They needed to go deeper and press on to maturity. The author was confident, as we will see, that those in this category were ready to hear more and grow in their love for God and one another. If you are living to love with Jesus today, then you believe Jesus wasn’t an imposter. He really is the Son of God. He is your fullness. There’s nothing more that needs to be done for you to be satisfied in Him. You can identify with those who are in the second case, as the author saw it. You are pressing on to maturity as you practice what you believe with Jesus. You love Him. You know He loves you, and because of this, you live today to love with Him. I hope this encourages you to press on with Jesus, practicing abiding in Him for the glory of God.
Hebrews 6:3 And this we will do, if God permits.The following Scriptures illustrate the same humility that we see in the author of Hebrews revealed in the statement, “If God permits.”Prov. 16:9. The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.1 Corinthians 4:19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power.James 4:15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” I want to encourage you today that God’s will is going to be done in your life. The Lord does what He pleases, and it is He who sets the course of our lives. In fact, in Hebrews 12:1, the author said as much when he wrote, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The author was practicing good sense. He believes there’s only one God from whom are all things. If something happens, it’s because God wills or permits it. This is an attitude of humility. We are not God. We are, as Isaiah wrote in chapter 40, “like grasshoppers” or “like the grass that withers and fades away.” We can’t control the next minute of our lives. We have dreams, plans, and agendas, but they only materialize or take place if the Lord permits. What the author intended to do was good. He intended to encourage his readers on to maturity. However, regardless of how good a certain course of action may appear to be to us, we must be careful not to think it must happen for us to be happy or content in Christ. When we say we are satisfied with Jesus, we mean we are satisfied with His will in our lives. It entails an attitude of surrender that is rooted in humility. Our will and our plans are not the source of our happiness. The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains. We are here for Him.Today, I intend to live to love with Jesus. I have my plans, but I am at His mercy. I trust He will guide my steps and then give me the grace necessary to walk with Him in love. I hope your plans today are the same. However, let’s hold our plans lightly, but our faith in Christ firmly. Let’s adopt this attitude of humility that we see in the author of Hebrews as we press on to maturity. “And this we will do, if God permits.” This is indeed a humble perspective.
Hebrews 6:1-2 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.In chapters 1–5, the author had been teaching the elementary or beginning things about Jesus Christ. We have been encouraged by them since July 17. After reproving his readers that they should by this time in their journey with Jesus be more mature, he decided to urge them to move on into maturity.Let’s remember from Heb. 5:14 what maturity looks like. Mature believers have been trained by God through their circumstances and relationships to discern good and evil. Their senses, meaning their “organ of perception,” (I think this refers to their minds), have been trained to discern how God can accomplish good in all circumstances. Since they know God and practice drawing near to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ, they receive grace in time of need. From God’s throne of grace, they get God’s perspective of things. They learn, by practice, to think like Jesus thinks and look at things from His perspective. I’ve repeated His perspective many times, and it is no trouble to do so again since it takes practice and repetition for us to become mature. Here’s the elementary teaching about Christ and what He believes. 1) There is only one God from whom are all things, and He is love. So that means the mature knows nothing happens that God’s love can’t be seen. 2) The love of the Father is enough. His love and will satisfy the deepest longings of my soul. For us, we believe Jesus’ love is enough and satisfies our soul’s deepest longings more than anything or anyone on earth. The mature learn this by practice. And Jesus’ perspective was, 3) God’s purpose in all things, even when He lets evil run its course, have its way, and have its hour, is to reveal the Father in and through Him and prepare Him for that great day of glory. From our perspective, we believe God’s purpose in all things is to reveal His Son in and through us and prepare us for that great day of glory. This perspective practiced daily in every circumstance and relationship makes us mature. It’s a process that takes first the training of our organ of perception (our minds, which is why I keep repeating the three foundational worldview truths) and then second, the repeated application. The author said it was time for his readers to move on from thinking relationship with God is all about religious knowledge. Yes, knowledge is important. Knowing these three truths is important. They are elementary. What brings us to maturity is practicing them in real life. That’s what living to love with Jesus is all about—practicing what we believe on a daily, moment-by-moment basis. We believe that without the life of Jesus, all our works are dead. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. We believe Jesus lives, and our faith is from His life and is always directed toward God. Today, God will give us more practice and opportunities to apply what we say we believe. We press on to maturity when we live to love with Jesus and put our faith to work for the glory of God.
Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.Today, I hope to offer you more solid food to satisfy your spiritual appetites. We learned yesterday that the word of righteousness is solid food. I believe the encouragement to live to love with Jesus is solid food because that’s what righteousness looks like. We learn today that solid food is for the mature, and we also learn what maturity looks like. Those who are mature and who have experienced the love and righteousness of Christ first hand didn’t get to that place of maturity through their hard work and determination.They have their senses trained over and over again by God. Let’s not miss the verb tense. The training isn’t something the mature do. It’s something that has happened to them in the past, the results of which they experience in the present. This is how Jesus learned obedience through the things which He suffered. He received well the training of the Father as He received suffering as from His hand for His good and not for evil. The discernment of good and evil comes from the heart attitude of trust in God’s righteousness—namely, that He wouldn’t allow anything into His life that wasn’t for the purpose of glorifying His name and revealing the life of God in Him. Knowing that He is living to love with His father put Him in the position to train His senses to experience and know the love of God, and then express His love in any given situation. Every situation was a training experience given to Him by His Father so He could learn obedience. Or to put it another way, every situation was an opportunity for Him to trust and love His Father, and every relationship was an opportunity to love with His Father. His senses were trained because of practice. That’s how Jesus was trained, and that’s how the mature are trained.Let me contrast the mature with the immature or the infant, as the author called them. The immature have not been trained yet to discern the good and evil when things happen. Because it’s not settled in their hearts that there is only one God from whom are all things and that He is love, they don’t receive well circumstances or relationships that bring about suffering. They think suffering is evil and anyone who causes suffering is evil. They haven’t learned obedience yet because they reject God’s way of training them. Like infants, they are only happy when they are clean, cuddled, and their stomachs are full. When they don’t get what they want or things aren’t easy, they can’t discern what could be good about that. They think their discomfort or inconvenience or suffering is bad. As a result, they worry, get anxious, complain, and blame whoever’s causing what they think is evil. Do you get it? Can you see the difference between the spiritual infant and the mature in Christ? One hasn’t been trained by God and the other has. The mature has learned that every day is filled with practice given by the Father to trust and love so their senses can be trained to discern good and evil. They know that every situation is an training opportunity to trust and love God and every relationship is a training opportunity to love with Jesus. So, which are you? Do you relate more to the infant or to the mature? I’m thinking, because you are listening to this podcast that you relate more to the mature. You are learning and growing accustomed to the word of righteousness. Let us give thanks to our Father in heaven who because of practice has trained us to discern good and evil.
Hebrews 5:13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. We are learning today from the author of Hebrews about what he considered spiritual solid food. He considered solid food to be the “word of righteousness.” He said spiritual infants weren’t accustomed to such food. The term accustomed is translated from a word that means experience. The idea is that they have yet to experience the power of God’s word of righteousness spoken in Christ. We know from the verses above in chapter 4, that he means the word of God hadn’t been beneficial to them because it had not been united with faith in their hearts. That makes sense because he had been warning them about the sin of unbelief and their failure to enter into God’s Sabbath rest. What is the word of righteousness? It is that Jesus finished the work of righteousness on our behalf through His work on the cross so we could draw near to God for help in living righteously in the midst of suffering in this world. Later in chapter ten, the author stated why believers gather together on a regular basis. It’s to stimulate and encourage one another to love and good works (10:24). That’s another way of defining righteousness. Encouraging one another to live to love with Jesus is our meat, our solid food. If we are mature in Christ, we should be accustomed to such a diet of spiritual food. That’s what I’m seeking to do through the Live to Love Scripture Encouragements. I’m offering my listeners solid food so they can grow to maturity and stand before God, complete in Christ. To live to love with Jesus for the glory of God is the word of righteousness. It’s impossible without Jesus. We must believe the gospel that God has provided His Son to be our high priest to give us access to God so we can be filled with the life of God through faith in His Son. As we enter into His life and rest, we learn to obedience through the suffering God orchestrates in our lives. We receive well what He gives us, because we have believed the gospel, the good news preached to us in Christ. I hope you have found the Live to Love with Jesus Scripture podcasts to be solid food for your souls. I hope it is helping you develop a healthy appetite for the word of righteousness—the word that calls you to live out of the life of Jesus Christ, who loves righteousness and hates lawlessness, as the author wrote about Him in 1:9. If it is helping you, please share the food with others who you know are hungry to grow in love with Jesus by loving others. Please let them know about livetolovewithjesus.com and the resources available for their growth in love.I hope that today you will not only trust in the righteousness of Jesus Christ for your standing before God, but also in His righteousness, His love, as you receive well whatever He gives you today, for His glory.
Hebrews 5:11-12 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.The author did have a lot to say about Melchizedek, and he’ll say it in chapter 7, but for now, he was led by the Spirit to reprove them. Sometimes a reproof is necessary. It depends on whether the erring person has a heart to receive it. I’m reminded of a few Proverbs at this point. Proverbs 15:31, “He whose ear listens to the life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise.” Proverbs 10:17, “He is on the path of life who heeds instruction, but he who ignores reproof goes astray. The author refers to Proverbs 3:11 in chapter 12. “My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof.” From the author’s perspective, his readers should be more mature than they are. In fact, he thought they should be teaching others, making disciples. He said they had a hearing problem. They were dull of hearing. God had spoken to them in Christ, but they had not entered into His rest. They had had the good news preached to them (4:2), but unbelief had hardened their hearts so that the word of God was not feeding their souls as it should. Can you relate to this reproof? How do you respond to the word of God when you read it or hear it preached? Are you learning obedience from the things you are suffering, or have you not receive it well and find yourself griping and complaining at God and others? If so, you’re living for the wrong reason. You’re not living to love with Jesus. Instead, you’re living for yourself. If that’s the case, consider yourself reproved—hopefully, lovingly. By the way, Jesus’ disciples needed a similar reproof. He reproved His disciples in Mark 10:15 when they didn’t like the interruption of their agenda or expectations by parents and children coming to be blessed by Jesus. “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” Don’t miss this. Jesus was giving them milk when He told them that. This is entry level for nursing babes in the kingdom. One can’t even get into the kingdom of God if he doesn’t learn to obey like a child and receive well what the Father gives them. Receiving well our circumstances and our suffering means we trust our Father’s purpose and love like Jesus did. That’s the reproof the author of Hebrews has in mind with his readers. Do you need someone to teach you the elementary principles of the kingdom of God? Are you struggling to enter into God’s rest in the midst of your trials and suffering? You’re not the first to face these things, nor will you be the last. I hope you’ll receive not only the reproof of the Spirit in these verses, but repent and receive the kingdom of God well for His glory. Draw near to the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace to help in time of need so you can glorify Him as you live to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 5:9-10 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.We first notice the verb tense in having been made perfect. Jesus was made perfect or complete by whom? Of course the answer is that the One who was able to save Him from death, God, His Father, heard His prayers and supplications as He suffered, and finished the work of teaching Him obedience. He perfected Him through His suffering. Because Jesus received His suffering and His Father’s grace well, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him because He was God’s forever appointed apostle and high priest. The point of the author was to build up the confidence of his audience to trust in Jesus as their Messiah and savior as well as encourage them to learn obedience in their suffering. Has God’s word in these chapters from Hebrews accomplished His purpose? We should also be encouraged to obey Jesus since only those who obey Him are eternally saved. That begs the question, What has Jesus commanded that we must obey? Let’s let Scripture inform us at this point. The apostle John stated it clearly in 1 John 3:23. “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” Did the writer have this command in mind? I think so because in the next chapter listen to what he said.Hebrews 6:9-10 But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.Living to love with Jesus is obeying Jesus’ command. We should obey Him because he is the source of our eternal salvation. He obeyed His Father’s call to live to love with Him, and we obey His call to live to love with Him. If you would like to learn more about how to walk in love with Jesus, please visit our website, livetolovewithjesus.com where you’ll find print, audio, and video resources to encourage you in your journey with Him.
Hebrews 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.Even though Jesus was the Son of God, He still had to learn obedience. Do you find that puzzling or hard to grasp, as I do? Certainly it’s because our tendency is to focus on Jesus’ divinity, which typically entails omniscience and sovereignty. The author in the previous verses put the spotlight on Jesus’ humanity—his partaking of flesh with its weaknesses when facing suffering and temptations in this world on our behalf. Jesus suffered many things. Matthew 16:21 states, “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.” We learn from this verse that he learned obedience from all these things. Do we all agree that learning obedience is a good thing? Would you also agree with me that its a good thing for God to orchestrate things in our lives so we can also learn obedience? Let’s unpack this idea that suffering is necessary if one is to learn obedience. Do we learn obedience if we like the circumstances? For instance, what’s the difference between a parent commanding a child to finish eating all his ice cream and commanding the child to finish eating all of his brussel sprouts (I’m assuming the child doesn’t like them)? The difference is that eating the ice cream doesn’t require overcoming an internal reluctance or dislike. Suffering rarely feels like eating ice cream. However, to eat something one doesn’t like in order to please a parent reveals the strength and direction of heart motivations and desires. The child must choose to please his parents more than gratify himself. In doing so, he learns what it is to obey and receives the reward both internally as His conscience approves and externally as his parents respond with joy. That’s a simple illustration, but it makes the point.Jesus received well the things He suffered. He believed they came from His Father who loves Him and has His highest good in mind. Jesus’ highest good is to glorify the Father by finding His deepest satisfaction in His Father’s will and purposes. He knew His Father’s purpose in all things was for Him to reveal the life and love of His Father in every situation as He trusted Him, received grace from His Father, and then spoke or did what reflected the Father’s glory. Obedience was the fruit of processing life through such a God-centered worldview. Jesus learned obedience by applying His Father’s worldview or mind in one circumstance after another, day by day—through the things which He suffered. This is exactly how loving with Jesus is. We must learn obedience to His command to believe in Him and love others by the things we suffer in this life. Every circumstance is God-given. We must receive it well meaning we apply these three foundational truths. 1) There’s only one God from whom are all things, and He is love. 2) The love of Jesus is enough. His love, presence, and will satisfy the deepest needs of my soul. and 3) God’s purpose in all things is to reveal Christ in me and prepare me for glory. Faith and loving obedience are the fruit of such practice. Are you learning obedience through the things you suffer?
Hebrews 5:7 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.We are encouraged today by Jesus’ example to us of what to do when we are faced with suffering and death—not just physical suffering and death, but also death to self in fulfilling God’s call to love with Him. That’s what Jesus was doing—He was obeying His Father’s command to love with Him. He knew it was going to cost Him His life. He had been appointed by God as a high priest for the purpose of bringing us to God on the basis of the sacrifice of His life. How was He to overcome death and fulfill His office of bringing us to glory? We learn that as Jesus suffered, He drew near to His Father’s throne and offered up prayers and supplications to His Father. He alone was able to save Him from death. In this context, I take death to mean separation from God. The passion and earnestness of Jesus’ intercession is highlighted in how He prayed—with loud crying and tears. We know from the gospels that Jesus agonized in the garden as He performed His appointed office, and surely that agony only intensified as He obeyed His Father and expressed His love in this world. This encourages us to do the same as we live to love with Jesus. The only way we can obey His command to love is to lay down our lives for others, agonizing in prayer for their deliverance and salvation. How are we to overcome ourselves? How are we to obey? Only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ! We too must offer up both prayers and supplications to God, recognizing God has called us into this place of blessing. In fact, Jesus encouraged His disciples in His last hour or so with them to confidently pray and ask for help in His name (John 14:13; 15:7 16:26). We are also encouraged as the author reveals why Jesus was heard. He was heard because of His piety. The word translated piety is a compound word in the Greek. It’s a combination of eu, meaning well or good, and a from of lambano, meaning to take or receive. This tells us that Jesus received His office, with its command to lay down His life on behalf of God’s people, well. He received it as an honor. We get this same idea from Heb. 2:9. “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” It is also the focus of the previous verses where being called to be our high priest is an honor bestowed upon Jesus by God. That’s how devout and pious Jesus was. He wanted God’s will above all things. He found His satisfaction in the love of His Father to be greater than life itself. This the only way we can live to love with Jesus. We identify with His life in us, and trust that He will display Himself in us. We must first receive God’s call to love well—with faith and satisfaction in the love of our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We must not receive it with complaining and reluctance. That’s not receiving it well. How can we pray and ask God for help with any confidence if we don’t like having to love others—if we don’t like what He’s called us to do? If we receive His call to live to love with Jesus well, we then agonize in prayer and supplication for the grace we need to help us love well. We agonize, not for what we are going through personally, but for the blessing, salvation, and deliverance of those He sends us to. For Jesus, there was no way we could be saved if God didn’t give Him grace to obey. For us, there is no way the people God puts in our paths may be blessed, saved, or delivered if God doesn’t give us grace to obey and love with Him. We’ll talk about this again tomorrow. Today, remember, we are called to lay down our lives for others. If we receive His call well, we will pray and ask Him for help, expecting Him to hear us because of our piety
Hebrews 5:5-6 So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You”; just as He says also in another passage, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”In these verses, the author began the comparison of Jesus to the high priest. Just like the high priest didn’t take the honor of the office to himself but received it from God when he was born into the priesthood, Jesus became a high priest also by birth and God’s appointment. God declared through David in Ps. 2:7, on the day He was brought forth (that’s the idea of begotten) that Jesus was His Son. Also in Ps. 110:4, through David, God swore that Jesus would be appointed a priest forever in the same way Melchizedek was appointed by God, which he explained that later in Heb. 7. The point was that Jesus was appointed by God to be His priest to act on behalf of His people. In this verse, we see that the author understood honor and glory to synonymous. Jesus didn’t glorify Himself by taking the position of high priest, rather God glorified Him by appointing Him to the esteemed office. What encouragement to live to love with Jesus can we derive from this verse? First, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has been glorified by the Father. We are identified with Him! We have confidence before God because we have been brought to God by Him. If God has glorified Him by appointing Him as our savior and high priest, then we know that God is for us. He won’t shut us out when we need help. We don’t have to overcome any reluctance on His part as we make our requests for grace to help in time of need. He wants us in His presence. He wants to help us. He desires to glorify His Son as He intercedes for us. Second, if Jesus did not glorify Himself, and He lives in us, then we won’t seek to glorify ourselves. I like the definition of humility that says, “Humility is recognizing that everything I have has come from God.” What do we have that we haven’t received from Him? asked the apostle Paul of the Corinthians. As we live to love with Jesus, we don’t boast in it. We have been honored by God to have the opportunity to glorify Jesus, through whom we have the wonderful privilege of loving in His name. So let us stand boldly before God when we need grace to trust and love Him as well as love whoever He places in our lives. May we recognize the privilege it is to love in His name, and glorify Jesus by enjoying all of the benefits given to us by God in Him.
Hebrews 5:4 And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.We are continuing to look at the writer of Hebrew’s description of the high priest’s ministry to which Jesus will be compared. Being a high priest wasn’t an office for which someone ran, like a politician runs for office. He received the position when he was called by God through his birth into Aaron’s lineage. Aaron received it because he was born to the tribe of Levi and then was appointed by God to the position. To the author’s point, Aaron didn’t take the honor of serving as God’s high priest to himself. I want to encourage you today with this reality. Being a Christian, a believer in Jesus, is an honor bestowed on you. You didn’t choose to be a Christian, you were born again by the Holy Spirit. Your faith and choice to follow Jesus are evidences that you have been born by God. He is your father, and Jesus is your brother. By birth, you have been appointed to serve God and those around you by representing Jesus to them. You didn’t take the honor to yourself. You received it when God called you into life in Jesus. That calling (as Paul wrote to Timothy) is “a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2 Tim. 1:9). So you and I have been called by God to be agents of love in this world, empowered by the indwelling Son of God. This is an important aspect of our identity in Christ. He has honored us by calling us in His Son. We have a sense of duty to love perhaps like the high priest did. I think of it as a duty to love since it is the guiding principle in our relationship with both God and others. It isn’t a burden, it’s an honor to love with Jesus. How blessed and honored we are to be His ambassadors in this world—representing Jesus to the world and giving them access to Him through our intercession for them and through our lives of love.
Hebrews 5:2-3 he (the high priest appointed by God) can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.Today’s verse describes the ministry of the high priest who was appointed by God to offer both gifts and sacrifices for the sins of the people to God. He was contrasting the ministry of the high priest to Jesus’ ministry as our high priest. His point was that since the high priest was also a sinner, beset with weakness, he could identify with those he served. He had to first offer gifts and sacrifices for himself before offering them for the people. This should naturally have produced in him a patience and gentleness in dealing with those who were ignorant or misguided. As we live to love with Jesus, we also are going to have in our paths, people who are ignorant or misguided. Since we are sinners like they are, and since we have all at one time or another been ignorant or misguided, we can deal gently with them. That’s how Jesus has been with us. He is a merciful and faithful high priest to us, and He is the same today as He has always been. In His compassion He has dealt gently with us, so we should reflect the same gentleness and compassion as we love with Him. We learn then from this verse what living to love with Jesus looks like. It is gentle, patient, and kind. The apostle Paul described love, the fruit of the Spirit, with these three qualities among others. In a sense, we have a similar ministry as a high priest in that we are God’s appointed people to bring God to those He puts in our paths and to bring them to God. Let’s be encouraged to be patient, kind, and gentle with them so they can see the love of Jesus.
Hebrews 5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins;It is helpful to remember that there was no chapter divide when the author wrote his letter. This verse begins with “for,” so he was bolstering his admonition to enter into God’s Sabbath rest by drawing near to the throne of grace where Jesus sits as their high priest, full of mercy and grace. He was building their confidence to draw near by highlighting Jesus’ humanity. He became a man so He could know intimately how to help them. This verse began a section where the author compared the Law’s appointment of a high priest and God’s appointing Jesus as their high priest. There are some similarities that we’ll consider over the next few days as we look at this section. Today, let’s be encouraged by this: God, against whom we sin, must love us greatly to appoint someone to act on behalf of His people to deal with our sins. Sins are the things we do that pertain to God. This reality is implied in 4:13 when he wrote about “Him with whom we have to do.” Everything we do pertains to God, because He made us, and it is to Him that we will give an account. In love, God appointed a high priest for His people, so when Jesus came, we could understand what He was sent to do. Look at the love and wisdom of God in providing a movie trailer, so to speak, to tell us of the good things to come in Jesus. The Levitical Law appointed priests to perform the duties of offering gifts and sacrifices to God on behalf of the people, and as the author later stated, was “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things (Heb. 8:5). The author will speak more about the priests’ ministry later, but we can be encouraged today that all of the gifts and sacrifices required by God’s Law pertaining to our sins has been completely and perfectly offered to God, once and for all. We also learn from this verse that Jesus was appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins on our behalf.We should be overflowing with gratitude to God that He appointed His Son to intercede for us. He has rooted us in Him, and as we live to love with Jesus, we are partaking in the benefits of His service to us. The apostle Paul connected living to love with Jesus and offering sacrifices to God when he wrote to the Ephesians, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Ephesians 5:1). Jesus is still offering gifts and sacrifices to God through us as we walk in love with Him.
Hebrews 4:16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.First, let’s remember, the author had been encouraging his readers to hold fast to what they believed about Jesus. He is the Son of God, our faithful, merciful, and sympathetic high priest, who after making purification for sins was raised and sat down at the right hand of the Father having finished His work on earth on our behalf. Through faith in Him we entered God’s promised rest. It is the boast of our hope that we hold firmly until the end of our lives. However, He has also encouraged them that there is a Sabbath rest that must be entered on a daily basis in our lives—a rest that comes from trusting not only in His work on the cross, but in His working in our lives presently. We enter that rest by drawing near to the throne of grace, which essentially is to abide in Jesus, Himself. Second, notice we are encouraged to draw near with confidence. We can do so because our reliance is not on ourselves, but on who Jesus is (the Son of God sent to save us and bring us to glory), what Jesus has done, (that is His atoning, sacrificial work) and His character (faithful, merciful, sympathetic) as our high priest. We reckon on the great reality that we are one with Jesus, given to Him by the Father, and therefore loved and accepted as His brothers and sisters of whom He is not ashamed. The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans in 8:32 about the confidence we have in God. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”Third, we draw near to a throne of grace—a source of undeserved favor and power in time of need. We know God will give us the mercy and help we need at just the right time. That’s literally what is in the Greek. The grace to help will come to us in a timely manner. It won’t be too early or too late. Fourth, there is a purpose clause in this verse. We draw near so that we may receive mercy and grace—meaning, if we don’t draw near, we won’t receive mercy and grace in the circumstances at hand. This drawing near isn’t referring to when we go to heaven when we die. It’s a daily, moment-by-moment drawing near, a continuous action that makes the mercy and grace accessible and empowering. If we don’t enter and draw near to the presence of God, there’s no rest, peace, mercy, or grace in the time we need help. So today, as you live to love with Jesus, you need God’s mercy and grace so you can love and trust God as well as love those God puts in your path. The Live to Love prayer is a prayer of drawing near to the throne of grace. Would you join me in that prayer? Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to live to know and love You and to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill us with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that we can love and trust You and love those you put in our paths today, for Your glory. Amen.
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.Today’s verse should encourage us to hold fast to what we believe about Jesus. The author had just called his readers to “hold fast our confession.” In this verse he told them why. Jesus has been tempted in all things as we are, and yet He did not sin. Therefore, He feels our weaknesses, which implies, He knows how to help us. The author had already made this point about Jesus in 2:17-18. “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”This should encourage us today to not harden our hearts when difficult things happen or when someone hurts or disappoints us. Instead, let us receive whatever happens as from God, through His word, as He sits on the throne in heaven. May we hold firmly to the reality of His life dwelling within us, and trust and love with Him, when we feel weak. No doubt about it, we are going to feel our weakness—the weakness of the flesh—brought out by the circumstances. We will face temptations to be unbelieving, hard, reactionary, bitter, or revengeful. That can happen when we feel weak. Today, be encouraged to look to Jesus. Instead of reacting in weakness, let the weakness drive you to Jesus and His love. Drink satisfyingly from Him as your well of delight, peace, joy, and strength. Run to Him because you know He knows how to help you. He’s OUR high priest, who sympathizes with our weaknesses, which is our confession regarding Him. Let us hold fast to our confession.
Hebrews 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.In chapters 2-4, the author had been telling his readers what a great high priest Jesus is. He has eternal life and loves righteousness. He partook of flesh and blood so He could make purification for our sins and bring us to glory. He was faithful in His temptations and suffering so He could be merciful and come to our aid. He was God’s appointed One to be our savior, therefore, we have heard this and God has united it with faith in our hearts. He has brought God to us and us to God through His intercessory work.The author wrote, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest.” What is the therefore there for? If God sees that He has granted faith in your heart to believe His Word regarding His Son, then you have entered God’s Sabbath rest, and Jesus is your high priest! And since He has passed through the heavens and has sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high in heaven, let us with strength, hold fast to, or cling to, our confession. Our confession is what we have agreed to be true regarding Jesus Christ, which is the description I just gave of Jesus, our high priest. How do we hold fast to our confession since we have such a great high priest? He’s going to answer that one in verse 16, but for now, I want to encourage you by highlighting the words with Jesus in our purpose for living—living to love with Jesus. As we read or hear these things about Jesus, our hearts should respond with love for God. Jesus is the Father’s provision to us. He gave Him to be our great high priest. That means God is for us! Today, let’s live with confidence in His provision to us as our sacrifice for sins. Let’s be amazed at Jesus as the author of our faith and salvation. And more, let’s hold on to our confidence that He lives in us to live His righteousness through us, which is love.
Heb. 4:13. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.What is truth? Is there really such a thing as “my truth” or “your truth”? This verse makes a stunning statement about God which is very relevant to these questions. First, we learn that God sees every creature all the time. Second, we live our lives before an audience of One—our creator God—which means that everything we have done or has happened to us is known by God. Additionally, He knows every motive of every word and action. Third, we are responsible to God for every word and action. In every circumstance and relationship, He should be our first consideration because He is the first agent. It is with God that we have to give an account. Let’s back pedal to chapter 1, verse 3. Speaking of Jesus, the Holy Spirit said, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” The Spirit meant the same thing when He inspired John to write, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being (John 1:3). Paul wrote to the Colossians in 1:17-18, “He (Jesus) is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” Nothing happens to us in which God is not the first agent with whom we have to do. He might use other agents to accomplish His purposes, but we need to have a firm grip on the reality that Jesus is first place in everything.So now let’s come back to the question, “What is truth?” The answer from this verse is clear. Jesus is the truth, and whatever He does and sees is the truth. There is no other reality than what He sees. When Jesus says or does something with regards to us, He obviously sees it. It is reality before Him. On the day that He speaks to you through His word (logos) and in the circumstances that He creates in your life, He sees His sacrificial work on the cross for you, the perfecting power of His righteousness lived on your behalf, and the Spirit’s work of faith in your heart which enables you to believe His word and obey it. He judges that your thoughts and intentions of your heart will be an expression of the life of Jesus within you, and it is! That is reality—the truth before God. Therefore, God gets all of the glory for your life. This is how Jesus is faithful over all His house, of which the author spoke in Heb. 3:6. “but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house — whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.”The only reason anyone intentionally lives to love with Jesus is that it is the work of the Spirit of God in them. If He does it; He sees it. The truth is what God sees. If He does and sees it, then it is the reality God knows. Jesus’ work for, in, and through us is our confidence before Him with whom we have to do!
Let’s look again at Hebrews 4:12-13. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.Today, let’s look at the two-edged sword metaphor. A sword can pierce the body, but it is powerless to pierce the inner man. Some commentators believe we should take the divisions given not as separate entities, but another way of communicating the whole being. I don’t disagree that it could be so. However, I suggest otherwise. The author may have identified the separate entities to communicate a fundamental truth about the power of God’s Word and its effectiveness. It is able to reveal where God unites His word (a work in the soul of man entailing thoughts) with faith (a work in the spirit or heart of man entailing intentions) as mentioned in vs. 2. The problem with the Israelites was that His word was not united by faith in them. The soul is the part of us that relates to others and to our outer world. The spirit refers to our spiritual capacity to relate to God. Let’s think about this and be amazed at the wisdom of God. The author was encouraging them that as believers they have open access into God’s rest. What remains is for them to enter it. These verses are supportive and encouraging to that end. The word of God reveals whether we are living in our outer world, reacting and governed by our culture, circumstances, and relationships with others (that’s soul) or out of our relationship with God (that’s spirit—with Jesus). On the day when God speaks, whether in print or in circumstances (remember, He runs all things by the word of His power 1:3), He speaks with perfect knowledge. There’s nothing hidden from His eyes. We often think of God seeing the bad things that are hidden, but the implication of these verses is that God sees where faith unites with His word in the heart (which is also hidden). When He sees the word powerfully work in both soul (which is where we first engage with His word) and spirit (where faith is produced in the heart), immediately, access to God’s rest is opened. This is our encouragement today. We live to love (which is a logos command) with Jesus by faith (which comes by a rhema of God). God accomplished it through His word both written (logos) and spoken (rhema).The rest of this chapter bolsters my interpretation because He follows these verses by urging his readers to draw near to the throne of grace with confidence through Jesus, which is the same as entering God’s Sabbath rest through the door He has opened by working faith in the heart through His Word.So I will now thrust His sword once again! First the logos. Jesus said to His disciples, “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you.” If you obey, and live to love with Jesus today, you’ll see faith at work through love. What a revealing exercise! The living and active word of God.
Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.Let’s begin today with a question. What is the word of God of which the author is speaking? Since the verse begins with for, we know he’s continuing a line of reason. In the previous verses he admonished them not to be unbelieving and hard-hearted when they hear “His voice.” God has called them to enter His Sabbath rest. So one thing the author meant was this: Anytime we hear God’s voice through His Word (logos) we ought to be diligent to listen and obey. He could also mean something else. If we go all the way back to 1:3, the author said that Jesus upholds all things by the power of His word (rhema). Rom. 10:10 and 17 give insight, “For with the heart a person believes…So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word (rhema) of Christ.” So we may conclude that God speaks to us through His logos in print or stored in the mind as well as rhema, when the Spirit of God applies the logos to the circumstance at hand. I hope you’ll read and meditate on what I’ve just said. A second question is answered in this verse. What power does the word (logos) of God have? We learned in chapter 4, verse two, that it has no beneficial power if it is not united with faith. Therefore, I think the context implies that when God speaks and His word is united by faith through the working of the Holy Spirit, His word is always living and active and produces faithful obedience. More to the point, it is actively working to accomplish God’s purpose of revealing what God knows about the hearer, namely, the person is justified through the finished work of Christ. In short, God knows what He is doing when He gives His word to us and unites it in our hearts with faith. We can confidently obey His word!This is why we live to love with Jesus. We’ve heard His command to love, and God has given us faith to believe Him and obey because we know He will give us the grace to do it. If He’s given us His Son, how much more will He give us the faith and grace that are in Him. We reveal the work of God and the living and active power of the word of God as we live each day to love whoever He puts in our paths, for His glory.
Hebrews 4:11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.Today I want to encourage you by focusing on the word diligent. It is a word that includes the ideas of haste or earnestness. The author called his readers to make haste with all earnestness to enter into the finished work of Christ on their behalf. We might visualize a man standing outside a hurricane proof structure with a powerful category 5 hurricane-force storm bearing down on him. As long as he stands outside, he’s in danger. If the door were locked and he had no entry, he should be frantic and scared. On the other hand, if the door to the building were unlocked, then there’s a safe place of refuge available. He needs to make haste to enter. It would be foolish to remain outside. So it is with Jesus. God has provided a Sabbath rest for all who believe—believe they are in danger of God’s wrath and believe Jesus is God’s provision of salvation. In believing, they enter the safe haven provided by God to escape the storm of God’s wrath against their sin. The author encouraged his readers to make haste with great effort to enter God’s rest in Christ.There’s another encouragement in this verse. It’s an encouragement to obey the gospel. Because God loves the world, He actually has commanded all to believe in Jesus and get out of the storm. Listen to these Scriptures from John, Peter, and Paul.John 3:35-36. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.1 Peter 4:17. For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?2 Thess. 1:8. (Speaking of Jesus when he returns) dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.Make haste to obey the gospel so you can freely love. The Israelites were disobedient. God told them to enter the Promised Land, and they disobeyed because of unbelief. They didn’t trust God to give them the help they needed to obey. We are encouraged today not to fall like they did and be disobedient. Have you entered into God’s Sabbath rest by trusting in Jesus? If so, let us believe in God’s faithfulness to give us the grace and power to love like Jesus, as He has commanded us. If He has given us faith to obey the gospel and trust in Jesus for our salvation, then we may expect Him to give us faith to walk in love with Jesus.
Hebrews 4:10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.Rest from your works to justify yourself before God. That’s the encouragement from today’s Scripture. He’s not suggesting that we rest from our good works or from living to love with Jesus. It helps to remember that the author was writing to Hebrews whose identity was with the keeping of the Law of God. The apostles Paul, John, Peter, and Jude dealt with the teaching of the Judaizers, a party of Jewish Christians in the early Church, who either held that circumcision and the observance of the Mosaic Law were necessary for salvation and in consequence wished to impose them on the Gentile converts, or who at least considered them as still obligatory on the Jewish Christians. God rested on the seventh day because His creative work was done. The Holy Spirit tells us in this verse that the person who has been given faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can rest like God did. He trusts that God’s work for His justification before God was finished through Jesus’ righteousness and death on the cross. This frees us from the burden of the Law which can be summed up in one word—love. Gal. 5:14. “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” When we live to love with Jesus, we are not only trusting in the work of Jesus through His life and death to satisfy the Law’s demands for us to love always, but we are trusting in His life dwelling within us to glorify God by producing the fruit of love in our lives. We have a heart now that we are born again to obey God’s commands, so work, but we don’t work under the burden of law-keeping and fear of punishment. We aren’t trying to get God’s favor or acceptance through our moral behavior. In Christ, we already have it! So now, that we have come to faith in Christ, everyday is a Sabbath rest—God’s work of salvation is finished. It is crucial that we realize the love God has poured out in our hearts by giving us faith to believe and trust in Jesus (see Rom. 5:1-5). We are perfectly and completely loved by God. So we can rest with Him as we love with Him. No unbelief. No fear. No burden. We can live in freedom and joy as we love with Him, knowing we are loved and accepted in Christ by faith.
Hebrews 4:8-9 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.It was Joshua who led the second generation of Israelites into the Promised Land, but the Spirit spoke through David about God’s rest afterwards. The author therefore concludes that God has another Sabbath rest for His people that is available “today.” He’s going to explain what he means by this Sabbath rest in the following verses, so I will resist the urge to do it now.The term Sabbath rest is actually one word in the Greek. Usually it is understood to be a time when one rests from his or her laboring to earn money. However, we are going to see that’s not the rest that the Spirit has in mind. There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God that is not a rest to be taken every seven days nor is it a reference primarily to heaven and the new world to come. The encouragement today is that there is a resting place available to us today. What does it have to do with living to love with Jesus? As we abide in Jesus, our lives are expressions of His faith and love. Our believing and loving doesn’t come from our strength and efforts. The rest we experience comes from the reality of our reliance upon what Jesus has done for us in His work on the cross and what He does for us on a daily, moment-by-moment basis. Are you living in God’s Sabbath rest? If so, there should be a peace, joy, and freedom in your heart because you are aware of Jesus’ presence and power working in your life.
Hebrews 4:6-7 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”The Holy Spirit fixed a certain day, today, when warning His people not to harden their hearts when God speaks. Today is an important day spiritually. It’s the only day we know for certain that we have besides the Day of Judgment. Yesterday is gone, and we can’t do anything about it. We don’t know for certain that we have tomorrow. So we need to realize the significance of being given another “today” by God.God is a communicator. The author began his letter saying God has spoken. He created the world through His word (11:3), and He runs the universe by His word (1:3). He also speaks through the Bible. When we read the Bible, we are hearing God’s voice. We have a responsibility to guard our hearts and make sure our hearts receive His word with joy and an intention to obey. The only way that is possible is if we humble ourselves and ask God to give us the grace to listen, hear, and obey. Jesus told His disciples in John 15 that if they would abide in Him, ask Him to bear fruit in them, He would do it so the Father might be glorified through the display of His fruit of love. That’s living to love with Jesus. The generation of Israelites of whom the Spirit of God spoke in this verse failed to enter God’s rest because of disobedience. We’ve learned they disobeyed because they didn’t believe God’s word. The word of God was not united with faith in the day God spoke. Our encouragement today is to believe or trust in Jesus to do for us what He commands us to do, namely, love one another as He loves us. He lives. We have eternal life dwelling within us, we only need to abide in Him. Receive what He gives us today in terms of our circumstances and relationships. Then receive His word to guide us in our responses to those circumstances and the people He puts in our paths. For this to happen, we must daily engage with Him in His word, meditate and remember it, trust the Holy Spirit to bring it to mind when we need it, and then be ready to apply it. As we live to love with Jesus, we love His word. We let it abide in us, as Jesus admonished His disciples, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). We “let the word of Christ richly dwell within” us, as Paul instructed the Colossians (3:16). This keeps our hearts soft and receptive to the presence and power of Christ so that His life may be manifested in us for the glory of God.
Hebrews 4:3-5 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.”We are encouraged today by the fact that there is a rest of God available today for us. The author has a rest, a place of peace in mind where we can retire from our labors. Notice that he wrote that those who have believed in Jesus enter that rest of God. He doesn’t say they have entered in the past or will enter it in the future. They enter it presently, today, now. The present, middle, indicative form of enter is used to show that the subject is acting so as to participate in some way in the results of the action. It’s communicates that once someone believes in Jesus, rest is the result of the action. When the Hebrews heard of the rest of God, they apparently thought of the Sabbath rest, when God rested from His labors because He was finished doing His work. Their weekly Sabbath rest was commanded by God based on His seventh day rest recorded in Genesis 2:1-2.By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. The author was intent on showing that God finished His works from the foundation of the world, however, for Him to say that there is a rest yet to be entered into signified that God has another rest available, which can only be entered into by those who believe in Jesus. Here’s the encouragement for us today. Faith is a work of God, and when we received that faith, it meant that God’s work of justification was finished on our behalf. There’s no more work that we have to do to justify ourselves. So when faith came to us and we believed in Jesus, at that point in time, we entered God’s rest. We not only rely on His work for our justification, but we rely on His work on a daily basis. We are living to love with Jesus. He is at work in us. Do you remember what Paul wrote to the Philippians? “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). He told the Colossians, “I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me” (1:29). Yes, we work, but we do so by the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 1:14). Do you get the significance of this great reality? Can you see why this would mean so much to the Hebrews who thought that they had to keep the Law to be right with God or else they were in danger of God’s wrath? We live to love with Jesus, resting in His works, not our own. We walk in His love for His glory. So today, you may rest in Him. Faith is the work of God signifying God’s work is done on your behalf. You live in His presence with all of His grace and mercy available to you. There is no fear of wrath because you have entered His rest in Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 4:2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.The author continued his comparison of the Israelites who came out of Egypt with his readers. Both had good news preached to them of a promised rest from their difficult sojourning. The Israelites failed to enter the Promised Land because of unbelief. They heard, but God’s words were not united with faith in their hearts. Instead, their hearts were hardened by unbelief as they looked at their circumstances instead of God’s faithfulness. We, like the Hebrew recipients of this letter, have heard the good news of the gospel revealed in Jesus Christ. The good news is that Jesus is God’s Son and our high priest who has purified our sins and has sat down at the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for us and runs all things by the power of His word. He has promised to preserve us by His grace and mercy and bring us to glory—to a world to come—where righteousness reigns and God’s love is our light. This good news is of no benefit to us unless we believe it. Today, you and I will have many opportunities to love and trust God with Jesus. We look to Him for grace and love, just like Paul encouraged in his letters. He wrote Timothy in 1 Tim. 1:14 about God’s choosing and saving him. He wrote that “the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.” In his second letter to Timothy he admonished him, “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.” Where does the faith come from when we hear the “sound words”? Both faith and love are found in Christ Jesus. It is His faith and love at work in our hearts when we hear God’s good news. That’s why all the glory goes to God through His Son, Jesus Christ. We believe and love in and with Jesus!So when we hear the good news that God has given us His Son so we might have His life and love as we have been commanded, we hear it and believe God will be faithful and give us what we need to walk in love. As you listen to my voice and these words of encouragement, expect God to keep His word and give you all that you need today to walk faithfully until the day you enter into the fullness of His kingdom. May God’s good news be united with faith in your hearts.
Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.We continue to follow the author’s line of reason in warning his readers to take great care that they not have evil unbelieving hearts or drift away from the great promise of Christ to bring many sons to glory in a new world to come—a promised eternal rest. He directed their attention to the Israelites, who fell short of entering God’s promised rest because of unbelief. He wanted to encourage the Hebrews of his day not to make the same mistake.It’s interesting that the Holy Spirit encouraged them to let fear motivate them to hold fast their confidence in Christ and the boast of their hope firm until the end of their lives. We usually don’t think of fear as a divine motivator, do we? But this is a good fear! Since the recipients of the gospel promise had not yet arrived at the eternal place of rest and this world is filled with daily testing and trials, there’s a strong pull to become hardened to God’s promises. They must not be afraid of the storms of life, rather they are encouraged to be afraid of not keeping their eyes fixed on Jesus and falling short of God’s promised rest like the hard-hearted Israelites did. I would like to encourage you in a similar way, but through the eyes of living to love with Jesus. Jesus invited His disciples to take up His yoke so they could find rest for their souls. Jesus’ yoke was to live to love with His Father, meaning He didn’t do anything apart from Him. He lived that way because He and the Father were one. We are one with Jesus, and as we live to love with Him, we don’t need to be afraid of drifting or falling away in unbelief. Our confidence lies in Jesus’ faithfulness, therefore we enter into His rest. Life isn’t burdensome, it’s a blessing and joy to love with Him. To the point of the author, if we live in Jesus’ rest now in life, we certainly will not fail to enter His Promised Rest in the new world to come.So, let us live today in the rest God has provided us in Christ. If we live intentionally to love with Jesus, we know we will receive whatever we need to love and fulfill His will for His glory. We will not fall short of entering into all that God has promised us.
Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.We have the author’s summary commentary on Ps. 95:7-11 and the primary point he wanted to make: Unbelief will keep you from entering God’s promised rest. That first generation provoked God. They sinned. They were disobedient. They died in the wilderness. However, the root cause was the sin of unbelief—they didn’t believe God when He spoke. I wonder if you see how serious the sin of unbelief is and why you should be so careful not to have an evil unbelieving heart. If you don’t believe what God believes, you will open the door to idolatry. You will live by what you believe. If you don’t believe God, then you will believe the thoughts and philosophies of another, which is to make them your god. If you have another god, then you will provoke and anger the one true God. He has sworn not to allow any idolaters into His Promised Land. On a practical, daily basis, unbelief impacts our lives. If we don’t believe what Jesus believes, we live out of another source rather than God—we commit the sin of idolatry. If Jesus is the only source of love, then loving for the glory of God is impossible. If we do not believe in Him, if we don’t live with Him, if we don’t think like He thinks, then we will not have the peace and rest that He promised. We will live our lives striving to control people and circumstances for our temporal happiness and significance. That’s what it looks like to not trust God. So unbelief not only undermines love, it also is the antithesis to faith, and without faith it’s impossible to please God. A person plagued by unbelief is a hardened, troubled, worried, fearful, controlling, and restless person. A believing person is characterized by faith, love, peace, and joy—even when enduring various trials and temptations. How is that possible? He believes Jesus is His life and is in the process of renewing his mind to think like Jesus thinks. I’ve talked about this before, but we can’t hear it enough. Jesus’ worldview rests on three foundational truths that when we abide in Him govern our lives. 1) There’s only one God from whom are all things, and He is love. 2) Jesus’ love is enough. He satisfies my soul above and through all things. 3) God’s purpose in all things is to reveal Jesus in me and prepare me for eternity—to enter His rest.If we do not believe that Jesus is God, that He lives in us, and His life is our lives, then we will not be able to love God and others or enter His rest. The Israelites were not able to enter because of unbelief, so neither can we. May we always remember that our greatest sin is unbelief. It is an evil weed which seeks to overrun and choke out the love of God and others in our lives. Living to love with Jesus is what repentance of unbelief looks like. If you think you need more encouragement and a deeper dive into understanding unbelief and idolatry, you can find it in my book Live to Love: Experience freedom and joy in relationships. It’s available for free at livetolovewithjesus.com. I hope you’ll visit and introduce this podcast and the resources to others.
Hebrews 3:18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?When the author used Ps. 95 to encourage his readers to be on guard against unbelief, he did so because he saw the analogy between the rest of the Promised Land offered by God to those coming out of Egypt and the rest of heaven offered by God through Jesus Christ. If God swore to Israel that if they were disobedient to His Law, they would not enter into the Promised Land, then has God changed? Will He allow those who disobey His Son, the living word of God, to enter into heaven’s rest? Of course the answer is absolutely not. Let’s not miss how seriously God views the sin of unbelief and the hardness which comes with it. It’s serious enough that God swears with an oath regarding its consequences. We can see the author’s line of thought on this all the way back to chapter 2, verse 1-3. Not believing God when He speaks is extremely serious and consequential. For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?We are encouraged today again by the negative example, but let me frame it positively. If we hold fast to and obey God’s revelation through Jesus, His Son, we will most assuredly enter into God’s promised rest. Dear brother and sister, abide in Jesus today and open your life to Him for His love to pour through you to everyone God puts in your path. You’ll enter into the rest God promises for the faithful heart. There’s a peace, a promised rest, that comes with taking up His yoke and working with Him in this world. If I may, let me remind you again of His promised rest in this life. Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matt. 11:28-30).
Hebrews 3:17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?How would you like to be someone with whom God is angry for 40 years? I’m not thinking that’s a very good idea. Don’t you agree? I hope you can see the love of God in reminding us of that generation of people who having sinned, died in the wilderness. The author turned to Ps. 95 to encourage his readers to hold fast to the gospel promise of entering God’s rest. He encouraged them to hold fast with confidence to Christ to the very end of their lives by citing the failure of the Israelites who came out of Egypt. Today’s encouragement from this verse is to remind us not to treat the sin of unbelief lightly. When our hearts harden, we will make excuses for sin. It’s amazing how we can deceive ourselves and rationalize sinful actions and words. All we have to do is look at the lies Adam and Eve fell for. “God didn’t really mean that we aren’t supposed to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Can it really be so bad? Eating of it won’t really kill us.” You can read about some of the same kind of deceptive thinking in the generation of which the author wrote in this verse. All of the verses after 3:12 warn us not to treat the sin of unbelief lightly, but rather take great care not to tolerate even the slightest vestige of it. “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” My recommendation and encouragement to you is to live for the same purpose Jesus did: to reveal the love of God, by the grace of God, for the glory of God. If you will live by the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus, you not only won’t be in danger of angering God, but you will please Him. You’ll also have assurance that you will enter into His rest, because if you are with Him now in life, you’ll be with Him when He comes. If you haven’t rethought about what you live for, then I encourage you to do so today. Are you living to love with Jesus for God’s glory as your purpose in life? Have you heard His word through His Son from John 15:5-11?I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.I encourage you to hold fast to Jesus’ words until the end of your life. Abide in Him, and let His words abide in you. He promises to bear fruit in you if you do so.
Hebrews 3:16 For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?One thing we don’t want to do is provoke God. Right? How did those who came out of Egypt provoke God? They didn’t believe God’s word to them and hardened their hearts. The Holy Spirit identified who is in God’s house in Heb. 3:6. “Whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” Let’s consider the complaining of the Israelites who came out of Egypt. Did they hold fast to the promises of God in the midst of their trials? Did they boast of their hope in God’s faithfulness firm until the end? No, in fact, they thought God was provoking them by giving them difficult circumstances. The trials brought out who was in God’s house. Those God justified by faith, believed and trusted God because they knew He had to be faithful to His promises. The Spirit’s commentary on that generation is that the entire generation of Israelites whom Moses led out of Egypt were unbelieving. Their unbelief, hard hearts, and disobedience provoked God. What has God promised through Christ? He promised to deliver us from sin and death and bring us to a new world where we will share in the glory of God. Through the cross, He delivered us from sin and death. As we live to love with Him, He brings us to the Promised Rest. He who is faithful must do it or else He is a liar. Our trials cannot prevent Him from being faithful nor us from arriving joyfully in glory. Holding fast our confidence and boasting in our hope firm until we get there is foundational to living to love with Jesus. We can’t love with Him if we don’t trust Him. His love can’t flow through a bitter, hard heart, (which by the way is the root word in the Greek word for provoke). We must not be like those who provoked God by not believing Jesus is faithful to keep His promise to bear fruit in our lives for the glory of God (John 15:4-8). If we have trusted in Christ, then we have come out of Egypt. Between the day we first believed and when we arrive in glory, we are sojourning through a wilderness where there will be many trials and temptations. This world is not our home. We are not pursuing or expecting to live the American dream (for those of you who live here in the US). We can expect tribulation and persecution. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” So remember, those who think God is provoking them when they encounter various trials prove that they are not in His house—yet. As Paul wrote, “Love is not provoked.” If we live to love with Jesus, we will overcome unbelief, repent of any hard-heartedness and bitterness toward God, and He will bring us to glory, for His glory. God is not provoked by those who believe in Jesus.
Hebrews 3:14-15 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.”The encouragement we derive from this verse primarily comes from the word “partakers.” It’s the same word the Spirit used in 1:9. “THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS.” In that verse it is translated companions. Again in 3:1. “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers (or companions) of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” If you are a child of God, then you are Jesus’ companion. You are not doing life alone. Jesus shares life with you. He partakes of everything you do and say. But let’s also think of it this way. You partake of His life. You share in His mission, sufferings, vision, faith, love, joy, peace, and ultimately, His glory. His life is your life! To get the essential sense of what the Spirit is saying, it helps to simplify it with a summary. From the beginning you heard that Jesus is God’s Son and He promises eternal life to all who believe. He promises a rest from your wandering and sojourning in this world in a new world to come, when you will finally be home with Him. You are Jesus’ companion if you hold fast to that promise, which is the beginning of your assurance, firm until you get there.Remember at the beginning of chapter 2 he said, “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it…After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard.” The author took his readers back to what they heard in the beginning and used Ps. 95 as his authority to encourage them to hold fast. While God said, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, for I swear you won’t enter My rest” therefore, (now I jump down to 4:1) “Let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.” Do you get it? God promises us His rest if we will hear His voice and trust in Him until the end. We are His companions if we don’t drift away or fall away in unbelief from what we have heard. I’m suggesting that the surest way to hold fast His promise until the end is to live to love with Him everyday of your life until the end. He not only will bring you to glory in His promised rest, but you can live in His rest and peace now while you are sojourning in this world. If you are His companion now, you’ll be His companion in the world to come.
Hebrews 3:13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.Today’s Scripture indeed encourages us to encourage one another daily. We can’t get enough of that, can we? We need it because so much of our lives is outside of our control. We are at the mercy of God as He works out His will in our lives. We have learned already from the Spirit in chapter 2, verse 8 that even though God has subjected all things under our feet and under Jesus’ feet, we do not yet see all things subjected to Him and to us. The moment “all things” happen and we fix our eyes on the circumstances, that’s the moment we need encouragement. Otherwise, we can easily obsess, ruminate, and rehearse the circumstances in our minds. Later in Heb. 12, the Spirit tells us about this sin of unbelief. He says it “easily entangles us.” Isn’t that the truth! When we are entangled in unbelief, our hearts harden. Unbelief deceives us. It tells us the lie that God isn’t living and active, that He doesn’t love us or these things wouldn’t happen the way they did, and/or that God must be angry with us. None of that is true! Can you see why we need to encourage one another everyday? That’s one of the reasons I was moved to produce the live to love with Jesus scripture encouragements podcast on a daily basis. I’m seeking to obey God’s word in a practical way. When I encourage you, I receive encouragement as well. I need to hear the truth as much as anyone. I hope you’ll team up with me and share the Live to Love Scripture Encouragement podcast with others. Each day, you could share it with a different friend than you did the day before. You might go through your contact list. Or perhaps you can share it with your friends on your social media platforms. You could encourage other listeners by commenting on our social media platforms as well about how the Holy Spirit encouraged you through the podcast. God will put people in your path today who need to be encouraged that Jesus lives, is active in the affairs of their lives, and offers grace and mercy in their trials if they will only believe and draw near to Him. Be on the lookout for those who seem discouraged, overwhelmed, and hurting. Today, they are in a battle with deception that comes from unbelief. Their hearts need encouragement, and Jesus wants to love them through you. You can be a channel of encouragement today.
Hebrews 3:12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.The Holy Spirit encourages us today to not be unbelieving, but rather believe God is living and active in all things. Faith is the critical operating power of God as we live to love with Jesus. We cannot love with God’s love without Him. He is the source of love. The moment we fall away or drift away (as warned in 2:1) from God, that’s when we disconnect from the source of life and love. Just to be clear, I don’t believe the Spirit is indicating it is possible for one to lose his or her salvation. The danger for the brethren is reacting to the circumstances of life and to people as if God is dead and uninvolved. That’s how unbelievers live. They don’t believe God exists or is alive and active in this world. So in their unbelief, they live and act as if they are god. Consequently, they live in insecurity and fear, trying to control life and secure as much happiness in this world as they can. In my book, Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships, I contrast unbelief and faith. “Unbelief focuses on what we see and experience in life, whereas faith focuses on Jesus, sitting enthroned at the right hand of God, having all authority over everything in heaven and on earth” (pg. 50). This verse encourages us not to have an unbelieving heart which focuses on all the things that don’t seem subject to us or to Christ—all the things that don’t go like we want them to go. We are to take care, be careful, take pains not to harden our hearts to God’s word about Christ. He lives! He is Lord over all in heaven and earth. He is faithful over God’s house, whose house we are if we don’t drift or fall away from our confidence and hope in Christ. I wrap up today’s live to love with Jesus encouragement with this: If we believe Jesus lives in us, then we have the foundation for powerful living. Love only flows out of a trusting heart—a heart that believes what Jesus believes. Bear with me as I repeat what I said a couple of days ago. With the faith and love that are in Jesus, we believe 1) There is only one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and He is love. 2) Jesus’ love is enough. He satisfies my soul when everything else in this world fails to satisfy. 3) God’s purpose in all things is to reveal the life of Jesus Christ in me and prepare me for eternity. With these sound words in mind, let me encourage you with what the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy. 2 Tim. 1:13. “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.” Watch out for unbelief!
Hebrews 3:11 As I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”We are looking at a quote from Ps. 95 where God warned Israel not to harden their hearts when God speaks. The author of Hebrews was also warning his readers not to drift away from what God spoke about Jesus (2:1) and to not harden their hearts to God’s word. This verse punctuated God’s response to those who harden their hearts. He swore that they shall not enter His rest. In Israel’s context, the “rest” was the Promised Land, where they would rest from their wandering in the wilderness and their day of trial. In our context, God’s rest is the promise of grace and mercy that God promises to those who hold fast their confidence and the boast of their hope firm until the end. What is the confidence and hope the author has been teaching? It is that Jesus is God’s son, appointed to come to earth and bring many sons to glory in a new world to come. He accomplished this great salvation by humbling Himself to become a man, giving His life to purify and sanctify us, and giving us access to God through union with Him. In short, we hold this confidence and hope by daily living with Jesus—abiding in Him through faith. That’s what living to love with Jesus is all about.As we abide in Him—hold fast our confidence and boast—we bear His fruit in our lives, which is love. His righteousness shines through our lives, and God continues His mission of drawing His sons to Jesus so He can bring them to glory. As we live each day to love with Jesus, we are entering His rest. The work has been done by Jesus and is still being done by Jesus. We live in a state of rest as Jesus promised to His disciples in Matt. 11:28-30. Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.You will find that when you journey through life on your own agenda, you will have no rest. God has sworn that there will be no rest for those who ignore His word, and His word has been clear. Jesus is life (John 14:6). He commanded us to love one another as He loves us (John 13:34), and He said it is only possible by our abiding in Him and He in us (John 15:5). When we hold fast our confidence in His life in us and the boast of our hope of fruitfulness in Christ for the glory of the Father, we enter into His rest. We can live in God’s rest as we live to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 3:10 “Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know My ways’”We can be encouraged today from this verse by learning from Israel’s bad example. They did not know God’s ways, so they went astray. God was angry with them because they did not believe God’s word to them. They wandered 40 years in the wilderness because they did not know God’s ways of giving them what He promised. After spying out the land, the report that it was a good land, but had walled cities and giants in the land scared and discouraged them. Only Joshua and Caleb believed God’s word and promise. Because Israel did not believe God, their hearts hardened and they refused to trust God to overcome their adversaries and the seemingly impossible obstacles to taking the land. They didn’t know God’s ways. It begs the question, “Do we know God’s ways?” Fortunately, we have much more revealed to us than the Israelites did when God brought them out of Egypt. We know what the Lord Jesus believes and thinks. He believes 1) There is only one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and He is love. 2) The love of the Father is enough for Him. The Father fills Jesus’ soul with His love. 3) God’s purpose in all things in Jesus’ life was and is to reveal the Father for His glory. With the faith and love that are in Jesus, we believe 1) There is only one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and He is love. 2) Jesus’ love is enough. He satisfies my soul when everything else in this world fails to satisfy. 3) God’s purpose in all things is to reveal the life of Jesus Christ in me and prepare me for eternity. If I don’t believe these three things, I will go astray in my heart. It’s impossible to live to love with Jesus if I don’t adopt His purpose for living, think like He thinks, and believe what He believes. So how are we to live when God has promised to subject all things to us and bring us to glory? What are we to think when the circumstances of life do not appear to be for our good and benefit? The author of Hebrews is leading us in God’s ways and encouraging us to believe the word of God regarding Jesus Christ and fix our eyes on Him. Every circumstance in life is an opportunity for us to love and trust God, to practice what we believe with Him. God is love. His way is love. His way is life in His Son, Jesus. His way is to glorify His name in and through His Son in and through every circumstance and relationship in our lives. This is the way of love. Walk in love.
Hebrews 3:7-9 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, and saw My works for forty years.”It helps to understand that verses 7-12 of chapter 3 contain another “therefore” after the author declared that Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brethren because we are all from the same father (2:10). From the beginning of chapter 2, he warned his readers not to drift away from what God has spoken with regard to His Son. This “therefore” leads into another warning to “take care” that they don’t let unbelief harden their hearts. Let’s remember what gives unbelief the opportunity to enter. It comes from 2:8 where the Holy Spirit says that all things have been subjected to man, “But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.” The sin of unbelief is opportunistic. All it needs is unpleasant circumstances, severe trials, pain, disappointment, suffering—a day of trial—and the devil can then accuse God, the Bible, and believers of being toxic, untrue, and untrustworthy. The author reminded his Hebrew readers of an important part of their history where the Holy Spirit spoke through the Psalmist in Psalm 95. The children of Israel went through a severe season or “day” of trials in the wilderness. They did not believe God’s promise to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. They did not believe God’s promise of blessing if they would love Him and obey His Law when the going got tough. Instead they provoked Him by trusting other gods.Here’s the point for us as we live to love with Jesus. Faith looks like trust, and God’s love only flows out of a heart that is soft and trusts God in every circumstance. God’s promise to Israel was to take them to a promised land. God’s promise in Christ is to take us to glory—to a new world—after this one is rolled up like a garment and cast away. We are supposed to learn from Israel’s story to expect “a day of trial” in our journey as well. How to do we survive? How do we make it to the final destination? When we hear God’s voice, do not harden our hearts. God speaks in the midst of our trials. When He says, “Trust Me! Remember My word, My commandments, My promises,” don’t harden your hearts. What is His word and command to us? Jesus commanded us to believe in Him as God and love one another as He has loved us (John 14:1 and 13:34). I interpret His command this way: live to love with Jesus for the glory of God. Living to love with Jesus is the journey we are on to the Promised Land—glory in the world to come.
Hebrews 3:5-6 Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house-whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.The author continued his comparison of Jesus and Moses by stating that Moses was faithful as a servant in God’s house. The explanation of his faithfulness was to come later in Christ. The author illustrated Moses’ faith in Heb. 11:23-29. Moses was faithful because God justified him in Christ by faith. Let’s note that a servant receives his wages and stewardship from the head of the house. The Messiah, the Christ, is more than a servant, He is the Son of the Master builder of the house. The Son is appointed or sent by God to care for His house, which includes all of God’s servants and family members. The author identified the members of God’s house: they hold fast their confidence in Jesus as God’s apostle and high priest sent to bring them to glory in the world to come. They hold firm the hope of glory until the very end of their lives. They have a hope worth boasting of which is anchored in Jesus as God’s Son and the work He has done for them. The author encouraged his readers that they were God’s house IF they too had an enduring faith in Christ like Moses did. There is our encouragement from this verse. Are you holding fast to your confidence in Christ? Is Jesus your hope of glory? What does that mean? How can we know if we are in God’s house? Do you remember Paul writing to the Colossians, “Christ in you, the hope of glory”? If you look at the first of Paul’s letter he told them how he knew they were in God’s house. He wrote, We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.Faith in Christ and love for the brothers and sisters who are on their way to glory with you is the evidence that you are in God’s family. You have the faith and love of Jesus dwelling in you, which is another way of saying you live to love with Jesus. You believe He lives in you and you know He is love, so you live for His life of love to flow out of you. Jesus is your confidence and the hope you boast in as you hold fast to Him until the end of your days. If that’s you, then you are in God’s house.
Hebrews 3:4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.Perhaps you are familiar with the story of Sir Isaac Newton, who designed a model of our solar system, and a fellow astronomer who was an atheist and came other visit him. From Newton’s plans, a very skilled craftsman build the model. The balls representing the planets were all geared together so that when a crank was turned, they all moved in their orbits around the sun. One day his friend visited Sir Isaac Newton, saw the model, and immediately recognized what it was. He said, “This is tremendous! Who made it?” Newton replied, “Nobody.” His friend turned to him with a confused look and said, “You must not have heard me. I asked, ‘Who made this wonderful model?’” Looking up, Newton said with a perfectly straight face, “Nobody made it. Those balls and gears just appeared and put themselves together!” His friend, now quite upset, said, "You must think I'm a fool! Of course somebody made this! He's a genius, and I'd like to meet him!” Newton’s reply stunned and convicted his friend. “This model is just a poor imitation of our wonderful universe. You know the laws and the precise order which govern our universe. I can't seem to convince you that this model, this toy, does not have a designer or a maker. However, you have said many times that the solar system, which this model represents, ‘just happened.’ Now tell me, is that the logical conclusion of a scientist?” His friend eventually believed in Jesus. Remember what the author said in chapter 2, verse 10? Speaking of God, he wrote, “for whom are all things, and through whom are all things.” Then in verse 11, he said that both Jesus and us “are all from one Father.” As sons and daughters of God, we are God’s house being built by Jesus Christ for His glory and honor. It should be self-evident that the church’s existence, geared together in love, cannot be explained naturally anymore than Newton’s model could be. By design, the church is a visible model of the interrelated individual members moving and functioning in their orbits around Jesus. It is love that makes His church go round. Now tell me, isn’t that a logical conclusion? Living to love with Jesus is the way the Maker designed the house to function. We are built by God, for God.
Hebrews 3:3 For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.Recently I visited a friend who is building a new house. It’s quite a house! Although I was impressed with the house, I was more impressed with my friend. He had thought through all the details of the house. Everything was first class. Just before I left, I praised him for the excellent job he has done. It never crossed my mind to honor the house. It wouldn’t exist without him. He is the builder. This illustrates what the author of Hebrews said in this verse. Jesus is worthy of greater glory because He is the builder of God’s house, and Moses is just a small fixture in God’s house. This truth is worthy of our consideration as we fix our eyes on Jesus. He’s not just a prophet like Moses. We are to be encouraged that Jesus is worthy of our living for His glory. We are here for Him. Paul echoed this truth when he wrote to the Ephesians saying that “we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (2:10). The builder of a house has a blueprint from which he works. Those plans are laid out beforehand for the construction crew to follow or “walk in.” We live to love by design and foreordination. We don’t live to love on the fly, doing whatever we want and asking God to bless it. We wake up each day with an awareness that we have been chosen to walk in His plans, His blueprint. He is already ahead of us in our day, moving people and circumstances to build God’s house as He designed it. His will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. Then as we walk by the Spirit, with the presence and power of Christ, we are walking through God’s house that He is building in history. It is impressive, excellent, first-class, and worthy of honor. But Jesus is to be counted worthy of more glory than we are, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. Today, all that we do in Christ, walking in love with Him, brings Him glory and honor. As He works in us, He is bringing us to share in His glory when the house is finished and God shows “the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” in the age to come (Eph. 2:7). Let us give Jesus glory by living to love with Him with a view to the open house showing.
Hebrews 3:2 He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.In yesterday’s verse, the author called his readers to consider Jesus, so let’s do that today. Let’s notice that Jesus was appointed by God, which is what it means to be an apostle. God appointed Jesus to come to earth on mission to bring many sons to glory, and He has been faithful to His mission. The author compared Jesus to Moses because the Hebrews considered Moses as the most honored prophet sent by God in their history. He is going to show that the new covenant in Christ is superior to the old covenant given through Moses. In this verse he begins presenting the superiority of Jesus above Moses. We may be encouraged today by this: We have the privilege and blessing of sharing in the life and mission of Jesus Christ. God loved the world so He sent Jesus into the world to reveal His love and bring His people to Him. The author used the metaphor of God’s house or temple. Jesus is still faithfully carrying out His mission by loving through us! As we love with Him, He is displaying His faithfulness to His Father. Our confidence in living to love with Jesus is that we know that He is going to be faithful to give us whatever we need to love those He puts in our paths. God’s name depends on it! So our lives are an expression of Jesus’ apostleship. If we have Jesus living in us, we are partakers of His mission. That makes our lives significant and meaningful. It’s part of what it means to bring many sons to glory. We don’t just show up for the celebration, we exist for His glory. We live to love with Him for His glory, so we are going to share in His glory. Doesn’t that encourage you today? There is no higher purpose in life than to live to glorify God by living to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;The encouragement of verse one of chapter three is to everyone who knows they are going to be in the great congregation in heaven with Jesus when He proclaims God’s name and sings praises with them. God sent His Son, Jesus (by the way that’s what an apostle is—a messenger or one sent on a mission) to bring many sons to glory. Those sons are the brethren of whom Jesus is not ashamed. Of course, brethren is used generally to include the sisters also. We are looking at the third “therefore” after the author declared that Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brethren because we are all from the same father (2:10). The first two “therefores” explained how and why Jesus had to take on flesh so He could come to our aid as a merciful and faithful high priest. In today’s verse, in light of what he has said about Jesus, who we are, and the privilege we have in Christ, the author calls his readers to consider, look closely at, and contemplate this incredible reality that God, our creator and sustainer, has sent Jesus on a mission to stand in our place before God and bring us to Him through the sacrifice of His own body and blood. He’s going to expound on both of these offices of Jesus as apostle and high priest in the following verses.Today, I encourage you first to consider who you are—Jesus’ brother or sister in a family given to Him by God the Father. You are holy—meaning that you are one with Jesus and one with each other. You did nothing to make that happen. It was determined in heaven in eternity before creation. That’s why you live to love all of your brothers and sisters in Christ with Jesus. Second, I encourage you to consider the hope you have in Jesus. You are on a journey to glory, which culminates in heaven, where you will join with Jesus and the rest of the family praising God and singing with Him. The faith God has given you is evidence that you have been called to glory with Him. It’s your ticket into the event, so to speak. You know you have the ticket because you have His love flowing through you. That’s how faith works—through love. Third, I encourage you to consider what you believe, your confession regarding Jesus Christ. You have agreed with God that Jesus is the one He sent to save you (He’s the apostle). You believe He gives you access to God and that glorious hope (He’s your high priest). This faith in Christ should fill us with love for God today. May we live in the reality of what we say we believe.
Hebrews 2:18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.Suffering brings temptation. Did you catch what the author said? Jesus was tempted in that which He suffered, but He did not fail to love with His Father when He was tempted. In verse 16 we saw that God helped Jesus. In this verse we learn that God helped Jesus so He could help us. How could He know our misery and know what help we need when we are tempted if He hadn’t experienced it Himself? He not only had to be made like us, but He had to be tempted like we are.As we live to love with Jesus, we can expect suffering. It’s necessary so that we can experience His help to trust and love in those circumstances. What we learn from those trials and temptations equips us to love others with His love. The same love we receive in our testing is the love we share with others when they are tested. We are equipped to come to their aid through our own sufferings. Jesus embraced the suffering He had to endure, with its temptations, because He knew it was God’s plan so He could be merciful and a faithful intercessor. Is that the way you look at your suffering and temptations? God isn’t being mean to you when suffering comes your way. He isn’t angry at you. Suffering is God’s classroom or training ground for you. We will learn later that Jesus learned obedience through suffering. Are we better than He? Can we expect to identify with Jesus and love with Him without going through the same sanctification program? If we are going to be equipped to love with Jesus, we too must embrace suffering with its temptations, and look to Jesus for help. He was tempted so He could help us. He knows what we need to love in those circumstances.How are you handling your circumstances? When you are tempted, to whom do you look? Do you look to yourself—your own strength to trust and love? Will that help you lead another to look to Jesus for His promised grace and mercy? I encourage you today from this verse, that sufferings with its temptations are part of life. You can’t escape them. Trust God to order your sufferings, like He did His Son’s sufferings—for the purpose of equipping you to love those He puts in your path more mercifully and faithfully. Get ready to come to their aid, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God.
Hebrews 2:17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.We learn from this verse that Jesus could not have made propitiation for the sins of the people any other way than His being made like us, taking on flesh and blood. God had promised Abraham that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed. Ever since that day, Abraham’s descendants were looking for that one descendent who would fulfill God’s promise. Jesus was that descendent. He had to be made like us. Now let’s notice why God did it this way. So that He, Jesus, might become a merciful and faithful high priest. Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, renowned preacher and pastor of Westminster Chapel, London, contrasted grace and mercy in a sermon on Matt. 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful.” “There’s an interesting distinction between grace and mercy. Grace is especially associated with men in their sins; mercy is especially associated with men in their misery. While grace looks down upon sin as a whole, mercy looks, especially upon the miserable consequences of sin. Mercy really means a sense of pity plus a desire to relieve the suffering.” Jesus could not be merciful without entering into our misery in order to help relieve the misery. He had to be made like us.The primary ministry of the high priest in the temple was to make intercession for the sins of the people. He took the blood of the sacrifice into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat to make atonement for the sins. If he lived and walked out of the temple alive, then God accepted the sacrifice and the people were set free from the fear of God’s wrath. It is the sins of the people that pertain to God. Our sins are against God. So God had to deal with them in justice. That’s exactly what He did in sending His Son. It is our sin that causes our misery and enslaves us to the devil and fear of death. He had to be made like us in order to deliver us from our miserable condition and its consequences. He was faithful to accomplish what He was sent to do as God’s high priest. He made the payment of the penalty of our sins in His death on the cross. One aspect of living to love with Jesus is looking on another’s misery, taking pity to the point of helping them. No, we can’t pay for their sin. Only Jesus could do that. However, we can be merciful and we can be faithful to love as Jesus gives us grace to love. Every relationship we have is an opportunity to love with Him. I hope we won’t miss those opportunities He gives us today. You and I are like our brothers and sisters. We are flesh and blood, so we know what it’s like to sin, fear, feel hopeless and helpless. He had to be made like us, so we could live to love with Him.
Hebrews 2:16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.In the last verse of chapter 1, the author remarked that angels are sent to help those who will inherit salvation. I cited some times when angels ministered to or gave help to Jesus so He could accomplish the task of saving us. He is the descendent of Abraham that the author has in mind in this verse. In verse 9, we read that Jesus tasted death for us by the grace of God. In other words, God helped Jesus die for us. The previous verses highlighted the point that Jesus had to be made lower than the angels and partake in flesh and blood in order to save us. A friend and mentor of mine texted me recently of something he had read about Jesus. He wrote, “Jesus was the most helpless man who ever lived because the Lord Jesus said of Himself. ‘The son of man of Himself can do nothing.’” Whatever Jesus did on the earth, He did it with help from His Father. The same is true for us. We can do nothing (that is nothing to bear fruit for God) apart from Jesus (John 15:5). The encouragement we derive from this verse is that Jesus lived to love with His Father. His Father was the Helper He needed. God bestowed the grace He needed, so that He could be the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature as He made purification for our sins (1:3). When we read the gospel accounts of Jesus, we see that God does give help to His Son, and we are to place our confidence in this reality. If God is for us and with us, He helps us like He did His Son by giving us His Son! We’ll talk more about this the day after tomorrow. Today, fix your eyes on Jesus, whom God has helped with His grace so you could be saved and freed from the fear of death and slavery to sin and its penalty. Walk in freedom and confidence that God will give you whatever you need to love with His Son those He puts in your path.If you are just beginning your day, I invite you to pray with me what I call the live to love prayer. Father, thank You for another day of life to know and love You and live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You, and love those You put in my path today for Your glory. Amen.
Hebrews 2:15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.Jesus set us free to live to love with Him, not out of fear of punishment, but out of joy. Let’s grasp what the author said in chapter 2. God has spoken: Every transgression and disobedience of His Law deserves the penalty of death. No one escapes the penalty…except for God’s children (Jesus’ brothers and sisters), those who believe in Jesus as the eternal living Son of God who became a man and tasted death for them and promises to bring them to glory with Him. Before a person trusts in Jesus, they are not free to love. They are the devil’s slaves, slaves of fear. One might try to love so they won’t be punished, but that motivation doesn’t glorify God, so it is useless. God isn’t interested in our loving out of fear. In fact, He’s not impressed or pleased with our trying to love for Him. He gave His Son to free us from the motivation of fear so we could love with Him for the glory and joy of God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Notice, Jesus became a man and died so that He might free the brothers He’s bringing to glory from fear which has made them slaves to the devil, sin, and death. When we live to love with Jesus, we do so out of joy, for the Father’s and the Son’s joy. In John 15:8-11 Jesus taught this. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.To abide in Jesus’ love is to live in and out of the benefits of His sacrificial, sanctifying, cleansing death for us. We are free from the guilt, shame, and condemnation of all of our transgressions and acts of disobedience through the work of Christ. Can you imagine our Father’s delight and joy in what He has accomplished? Also, from Jesus’ side, can you imagine the joy of His knowing He has obeyed and pleased His Father by His sacrifice on our behalf? Jesus kept His Father’s commandment and rested in His love through His life. Verse 9 says He tasted death for us by the grace of God. Jesus’ joy is the Father’s joy. So here’s the encouragement for us today. Our joy comes from abiding in the love of God through Jesus. He has commanded us to love with Him, so we know He will be filled with joy as we obey His commandment. When we know He is joyful over our obedience with Him, our joy is made full. Our joy is the Son’s joy. Jesus sets us free to live to love, motivated by His joy rather than fear. I hope you’ll be encouraged by the joy of Jesus set before you. It will cause you to despise, make light of, any suffering God allows into your life. You are being brought by the grace of God, through love, to the glory of God where you will enter into the joy of your master.If you haven’t read my book, Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships, I encourage you to do so. It is available for free at livetolovewithjesus.com in print, ebook, and audiobook formats.
Hebrews 2:14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,Having made his point that Jesus was sent from God, became a man, for the purpose of bringing many sons to glory through His suffering in the flesh, the author moved to his conclusions regarding this great salvation. We will see a series of “therefores” in the next few verses. This verse, vs. 17, and chapter 3, verses 1 and 7. Let’s worship God as we look at these conclusions. His first conclusion is that Jesus took on flesh and blood so He could be our deliverer. God begot Him in flesh. Remember God said in 1:5, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” Why was this necessary? Because at the moment of Adam’s sin, the devil held the power of death over all mankind. God said that every transgression and disobedience deserves the penalty of death. Gen. 2:17. “But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Ez. 18:4, “The soul who sins will die.” So God became a man, from the seed of Adam and seed of Abraham, according to God’s promise. He shared in flesh and blood for the purpose of becoming our substitute, our intercessor, our high priest, and the perfect sacrificial lamb. He is the only man in all of history who could suffer death and then conquer it. Death was rendered powerless the day Jesus died on the cross. God ripped the devil’s deadly weapon right out of his evil hands and gave it to Jesus as His crown and glory. The devil’s only weapon was permanently neutralized. Let me remind you of vs. 9. “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” God put death under Jesus’ feet as His footstool, just as He promised when He said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” Because Jesus partook of the same flesh and blood as we, the author concludes that through His death, He made the devil powerless. The devil has nothing with which to accuse God’s children who have been given to Him. Their sin has been made powerless. Our sins do not have the power to kill us eternally. Paul testified of this when he wrote to the Romans in 6:6. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with (made powerless), so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.So when Jesus died in our stead, we who were given to Him, were freed, not only from sin, but from death, sin’s penalty. He died and was resurrected in the flesh, therefore death is defeated and the devil has lost His one and only weapon against us. Jesus did that for you and me! He did that because He is love. He did that so we might be free to express His love in this world to His children as a sign and a wonder of God’s amazing, great salvation in Jesus Christ. So live to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 2:13 And again, “I will put My trust in Him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.”Notice that the quotes from verses 12-13 are from Jesus. These are His words to the Father showing that all things are for the Father and through the Father as stated in verses 10-11 of chapter 2. More than likely these quotes are from Isaiah 8:17-18. “And I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.” Wow! Isn’t this encouraging?! We, believers, the church of Jesus Christ are for signs and wonders for Israel. Let me remind you of what the author wrote in vs. 3. “After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.” Can you see the connection between the Isaiah passage and this second chapter of Hebrews? The biggest sign and wonder to Israel is that their God, the Father, who is love, has sent His Son into this world and given Him a people who have His love, a supernatural quality that only they possess and demonstrate. That love flows out in miraculous ways, as God works in the circumstances of their lives and gives them the gifts of the Holy Spirit so they can love with Jesus. That’s what the gifts of the Holy Spirit are. They enable us to love with Jesus. So Jesus says, “Behold!” Which means, “look at”, “see”, or “observe.” We have been given to Him from God, the Father, and He praises His God for us and sings with us because we are the work of His hands in this world and a witness to His people Israel, that He is their Messiah, and a covenant-keeping God of love.By the way, Mount Zion, is the place of salvation to the Jews. I’m reminded of Romans 9:30-31. Paul wrote, What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,just as it is written, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”I have a Jewish friend in South Africa who was converted when he heard these verses. As he heard them, the Spirit spoke, “Jesus is the stumbling stone and rock of offense” that God laid in Zion, the place of salvation. He believed and has not been disappointed. He is one of the children, with the rest of us, who are for a signs and wonders to Israel. Today, we live to love with Him because we are His for the glory of His name.
Because we are from God the Father as Jesus is, Jesus isn’t ashamed to call us His brethren, (Now we take up today’s Live to love scripture encouragement in Hebrews 2:12. “saying, ‘I will proclaim Your name to My brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.’”Ok, let’s see if this encourages you to love Jesus and your brothers and sisters in Christ. There’s a world to come of which the writer is speaking (vs. 5), when, if you are a believer in Jesus, you will hear Him proclaim the name of God to you. You are going to hear Jesus sing God’s praise. Pause for a moment and imagine that event. Don’t miss that this wouldn’t be the same without you and me, the “congregation” standing with Him. Jesus is going to praise God, the Father, for giving us to Him as His brothers and sisters by giving Him grace to taste death for us so we could be sanctified to God as testimonies of His glory. Remember, God is bringing many sons to glory. That’s the occasion for the Son’s proclaiming God’s name, His work, to us and breaking out into song with us. As you imagine that moment, can you imagine the love of God swelling up in you and pouring over you? Imagine being overwhelmed by a tsunami of the love of God. Or an eruption of a fountain of His love from within that you can’t contain and bursts forth from your mouth in never-ending praise and song. Dear friend, brother and sister in Christ, the author wanted his readers to see this with the eyes of faith so their hearts would not be afraid in this world. He wanted them to see the glory of Christ. What angel can offer such hope? What is there or who is there in this world that can satisfy the soul like Jesus?The Psalmist in Psalm 75:25-26 must have foreseen what the author of Hebrews wrote of in these verses. Join me in praising God and singing with me if you know the scripture chorus. “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon the earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart faileth, but Thou art the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” We live to love with Jesus because He is the strength of our hearts and our portion forever.
Hebrews 2:9-11 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He (that’s Jesus) who sanctifies and those who are sanctified (all believers) are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,The author was explaining how fitting or clear it is that God, contrary to the appearance of things, that all things are not subject to Jesus, would display that even death itself has been subjected to His Son. This, of course, required that Jesus suffer, but by the grace of God, the suffering of death was only temporary. He only had to taste death in order to complete the work God sent Him to do as the savior, sanctifier and glorifier of His brethren. God crowned Him with glory and honor as Jesus completed the work needed to save them. We are encouraged in this verse first, that God is the Father of Jesus as well as all who believe. We both, the One who sets His brothers apart to God and makes them holy, and the brothers, originate from the same source. Second, since we originated from the Father, we have confidence that ultimately we will be with the Father forever. Remember we just learned in the previous verse that all things (Jesus and His brethren and everything that pertains to them) are for and through the Father. Third, Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brethren because we are given to Him by the Father. We see this explicitly stated in the verse 13, “Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.” Jesus’ readiness to associate with us isn’t based on our performance or righteousness. He is with us now and in the forever future because we have been His from eternity. The apostle Paul wrote Timothy of this reality. 2 Tim. 1:9, speaking about God, “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.”We live to love with an awareness and faith resting on this great eternal love of God for us. We are from God, and so we find our life, satisfaction, and fullness in Him. May we live today in the security and confidence that we are loved by God as brothers of Jesus Christ, the Son, from all eternity. We don’t need others to give significance and meaning to our lives. We already have it in Christ! God is our source of being. Our source of identity. This is true biblical patriarchy. We are liberated to live, love, and give to everyone God puts in our paths each day.
Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.Wow! What a verse of encouragement. First, I direct your attention to God’s purpose for creating mankind: To bring many sons to glory. That’s our final destiny. In spite of all that we see in this world that looks like Satan, sin, and death are the victors, all who believe will be glorified with the Son. Paul declared this great truth in Rom. 8:28-29. “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” That’s worth celebrating!Second, let’s be encouraged by God’s sovereign and mighty power. All things that occur in the history of mankind are for Him (meaning for His purposes) and they occur through Him (meaning according to His will and power). All of things that occur in our lives are subsets of all things referred to by the Spirit in this verse. Nothing in our lives is out of control—that is out of His control. They definitely are out of our control, but we are encouraged that all things are subjected to God’s purpose to glorify us with His Son. That’s worth celebrating!Third, it was fitting for God to perfect Jesus, who is called the author of our salvation in this verse, and the author and perfecter of our faith in 12:2, through suffering. The word fitting, can be understood to mean proper or to be clearly seen. In contrast to what isn’t clearly seen, namely, that all things have been subjected to Jesus; it is clear why God orchestrated all things, or subjected all things to His Son—so that His Son might complete His work through suffering. It fit God’s purpose to bring many fallen, prodigal sons to glory. The next verses are going to explain how clear this is or how fitting it is for God to use suffering in our lives and in the life of His Son. Jesus’ victory over suffering and death shows us that being a victim doesn’t rule or control our lives. It doesn’t prevent us from expressing the love of God. That’s worth celebrating. People who don’t believe in Jesus celebrate being a victim. Their suffering, with its baggage, becomes their identity. They are slaves to unbelief, and therefore cannot love with Jesus. The only way to love with Jesus is to lay aside all that victim baggage. It’s like throwing away a worn out piece of clothing or a casting aside a backpack of bricks, we declare that we are not slaves or victims of our circumstances. By the way, B.F. Skinner’s “First Force” humanistic psychology states that we are defined by our problems created by our environment or society. If we are to live to love with Jesus, we must also lay aside the sin of unbelief by celebrating Jesus’ victory over suffering and death. Let’s celebrate Jesus today by living to love with Him!
Hebrews 2:9 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.This verse begins with a contrasting conjunction, but. Notice what the author has done. Instead of looking at the “all things” that don’t appear to be subjected to us, He looks to Christ. He lays aside unbelief with it’s encumbrances, and fixes his eyes on Jesus. He actually states that we must do the same thing in chapter 12:1-2. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.Can you make the connections? The crowd of witnesses of chapter 11 had to not look at their circumstances that all appeared to be testifying that God and His word isn’t true. They had to lay aside the baggage that comes with focusing on being victims of their circumstances, and instead fix their eyes on Jesus. That’s exactly what the author is doing in this verse in chapter 2. He said we see Jesus made for a little while lower than the angels. He appears to be less than God and inferior to the angels. Notice, by the Holy Spirit, the author saw that the Son of man talked about in Psalms 8 was Jesus, representing all of mankind. In sending His Son into this world as a man, He orchestrated suffering into His life and subjected all things to Him so that He might crown Him with glory and honor. He crowned Him with glory and honor by demonstrating His grace in Christ as he tasted death for men and women who were made lower than the angels also. Don’t miss this. He only tasted death. Death and all things did not overcome Him. He appeared to be subjected to them, but in reality, in truth, death and all things were subjected to Him. He rose from the dead, showing God’s glory and majesty. The suffering in this life that Jesus endured was for the glory of God. Love could not be stopped! Love could not be overcome by the sin and death in this world. The love of God subdued all of His enemies, just as God said in 1:14. The love of God was revealed to be everlasting and victorious through His Son, just as God said it would in 1:11-12. So we are encouraged by this verse 9 of chapter 2 to repent of looking at our circumstances, our victimhood, and the baggage that we carry—all the idols of unbelief—and fix our eyes on Jesus who has loved us, tasted death for us, and revealed that He is life and God is faithful to use all of our circumstances to crown us with glory and honor as we faithfully live to love with Him.
Hebrews 2:8 For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.Things are not as they appear. God gave to Adam (mankind) dominion over everything He created. We are told by the author of Hebrews that there were no exceptions to the realm of man’s dominion. However, man’s exercise of dominion hasn’t been a walk in the park. We don’t see all things subjected to man, despite our best efforts. In fact, it appears that all things rule over us! The circumstances seem to contradict what God has spoken regarding His Son and us. They do not appear to be subjected to us. Instead we seem mercilessly subjected to our circumstances. This is a paradox, a seeming inconsistency. How can man be crowned with glory and honor while seemingly, helplessly struggle to subdue creation and overcome sin and death? Unbelief easily entangles us, and we become burdened by weighty encumbrances and overwhelming baggage. The undeniable pain, failure, and trouble provides opportunity for unbelief to do its dirty work. When we look at things as they are on the earth, we are faced with a crisis of faith.We will learn a valuable lesson in Hebrews about unbelief. This verse informs us that unbelief focuses on the circumstances in life. We drift away from God’s word spoken in His Son as the author warned his readers about in vs. 1. We take our eyes off of Jesus and what God has said about Him. When this happens, living to love with Jesus is impossible. We need to remember that things are not as they appear. Jesus knew this great truth. He believed there was only one God from whom all things come, and He is love. He also knew that love only flows out of fullness, and circumstances and things on the earth cannot provide that fullness. The love of God flows out of a soul that believes God’s love is enough when all things do not appear to be as we wish or think they should be. Jesus also knew that suffering was God’s way to reveal Himself. Did you know that the apparent out-of-control circumstances in your life are a God-orchestrated opportunity for His Son to be revealed in you? We’ll look more deeply into this truth tomorrow, but today, remember your purpose in life is to live to love with Jesus. Things are not as they appear. They may appear to be out of God’s control, but they are not. They may not appear to be subjected to you, but they are. If you are His, God has subjected all things to you for the purpose of His glory, not your convenience, temporal happiness, or significance. Remember: Things are not as they appear.
Hebrews 2:7-8a You have made him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and have appointed him over the works of Your hands; You have put all things in subjection under his feet.Although man was made lower than the angels for a little while, God crowned him with glory and honor by giving him jurisdiction or authority over all of His creation. Genesis 2:15, 19 record man’s appointment by God over all things. “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.” After Eve was created from Adam’s side, in verse 23, we see that he named her Eve. Naming things is an exercise of jurisdiction. When God brought everything to Adam for naming, He crowned him with glory and honor and put all things in subjection to him. In this verse, the author is on his way to explaining how even though God humbled Himself by taking on the form of man, He is still greater than the angels. This highlights for us the relationship of humility to love. Jesus came into our realm because He lives to love with His Father, who is love. A proud person doesn’t lay down his life for others, especially for his enemies. You’re probably familiar with Paul’s explanation to the Philippians of Jesus’ humility as a motivation to love like He has loved us. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:3-8).Yes, we are the crown of God’s creatures on earth and we bear the valuable image of God in humanity, but we are not to be proud. We are lower than the angels and if we have Jesus dwelling in us, we have His attitude of humility as a fountain of His love. We observe from the passage in Philippians that humility produced obedience in Jesus. He obeyed His Father’s command to love not matter what the cost. This will be true for us today. As we humble ourselves, surrender our wills to God’s will, we choose to love others out of obedience to Jesus’ command to love. We don’t love in our own strength apart from Jesus. We love by the strength of Jesus’ humility, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. This is our calling as believers in Jesus Christ—humbly loving with Jesus.
Hebrews 2:6 But one has testified somewhere, saying, “What is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?”The Holy Spirit brought to the mind of the author of this book, what seemed like a rebuttal to the declarations about Jesus and the coming world. To get the full meaning of the author’s intent, I think we need to remember the reason for the question asked by David in Psalms 8:4-6. Psalms 8:1 begins with, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have (notice the plural verb form implying the Trinity) displayed Your splendor above the heavens! And in verse 3, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?” Do you get it? We can follow the reasoning. In light of the greatness and grandeur of Your creation, O Lord, why would you be concerned about mankind? Why would you even remember him or be concerned for him? The answer is that Jesus, the Lord and maker of it all, is to become a man in this present world. We learn in vs. 9 that the author applied these words to Jesus. He’s the man that God remembers and is concerned about. The encouragement I take from this is that God hasn’t changed. He still remembers Jesus, the man. He’s still concerned about His Son, whose favorite title for Himself was, the son of man. If we are living to love with Jesus, then we are swept into God’s concern for His Son. We are becoming what man was intended to be as we live to love with Him. We are Jesus’ inheritance. We are His companions and friends. We are His body. We are the apple of His eye. God remembered His Son in this world and gave Him to us and us to Him. What an amazing salvation! What glorious love He has for His Son. His love is being poured out on mankind through us, His body in this world. That was the plan from the beginning, and He is still working out His plan through us as we work out our salvation by obeying His new commandment to love one another as He has loved us. The apostle Paul said as much in Philippians 2:12-13. “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”Who are you that God would remember you or be concerned for you? United with the Son of Man, you are Him here in this world as His witnesses of a great salvation and the hope of the world to come. So live it up, and love it up!
Hebrews 2:5 For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.This verse gives us a great encouragement because it informs us that this great salvation that God has spoken of in His Son, Jesus Christ, is not concerning this world, but concerning the world to come. There’s a new world coming in which Jesus reigns in righteousness. The word of God to and about angels have been compared to the word of God about Jesus. Jesus did lay the foundation of this earth and made the heavens with His hands (1:10), but this present world will be rolled up like a piece of clothing is rolled up and discarded. In contrast, God said that Jesus’ years are forever, which means there’s a world to come where Jesus will be crowned with glory and honor and He will be celebrated with His companions. By the way, that’s us who believe. Consider how great is this salvation that we want to be careful not to neglect! It’s out of this world! Listen to John’s record of the revelation of Christ. Rev. 21:1-5.Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”If that doesn’t anchor your faith and bolster your love, then you have neglected God’s great salvation and are tragically in danger of being under the penalty for every transgression and disobedience in your life. This great salvation saves us from the sins of this life in this world, but also saves us for an eternal life of righteousness in the world to come. That is the hope into which we anchor our lives. The author writes later in this book in Hebrews 6:17-19 about this hope. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil.The hope set before is the promise of God’s great salvation: a share in the celebration of the Son in the new world to come. Our love for others flows out of that hope. Remember what Paul wrote to the Colossians? Christ in you, the hope of glory. How do we know we have Christ in us? Because we believe His word, we abide in His love so His love can flow through us for His glory. So look into the world to come, and let your heart be satisfied in Jesus rather than the things of this world, which is passing away. You will not regret it.
Hebrews 2:4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.Look at what God did to confirm the great salvation He accomplished through Jesus Christ. This author was an eye witness to the reality of salvation through Jesus. He heard from the disciples, those who first heard the Lord. But God didn’t just confirm the gospel of salvation in Christ with their words. He also testified to the veracity and power of the gospel with them by doing things natural men could not do, such as signs, wonders and various miracles. In addition to that, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the resurrected Christ, manifested His presence through giving them various gifts, not initiated by the witnesses, but bestowed as the Spirit willed them to be exercised. The point the author made was that the only explanation for what occurred through the lives of those first witnesses to the resurrection of Christ was this: God’s great salvation of sinners who believed what they heard from the Lord. Did you know that love is the greatest and only eternal gift, according to the apostle Paul? Did you know that all of the gifts of the Spirit are always an expression of God’s love? When Jesus loves with and through us, God is testifying to those in our paths of His great salvation. He is confirming the words of the Lord that He lives and is the savior of the world. It’s the fulfillment of Hebrews 1:1, where the author said God is now speaking “in His Son.” This is our live to love encouragement for today. I want to motivate you to live for this one overarching purpose, namely, to glorify God by loving with Jesus. If all believers realized the importance of living for Jesus’ purpose, imagine the impact of the church. Living to love with Jesus changes everything we do in our lives because it changes the purpose behind our talking, work, marriages, parenting, praying, serving, and giving in His name. When we love with Jesus, God confirms the gospel of His great salvation. Can you think of a higher, more meaningful purpose for living? I invite you to join me in this movement of God inaugurated by Jesus’ death and resurrection. He doesn’t save people so they can continue living their own lives for themselves and tacking on the Christian label. God didn’t intend for us to invite Him into our lives. He invites us into His life. Can you see the difference? He calls us to be His witnesses of His wonderful gospel as He testifies with us by loving through us—both by performing signs, wonders, and miracles, and expressing His love. Please visit livetolovewithjesus.com and begin this wonderful adventure with Jesus by praying what I call the live to love prayer daily. Tweak it to express your heart. There are also other free resources available to grow as a disciple of Jesus and to make disciples who live to love with Him.
Hebrews 2:3. How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,Look how good God is to provide confirmation of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ! This great escape from sin’s penalty was first spoken through the Lord. One of the first occasions was at His birth. In Luke 2:10-11, the Lord spoke through an angel of this great salvation. “But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’” And Jesus spoke of this great salvation when Martha came to Him about her brother’s death. John 11:25. "Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.’” The author informed his readers that he and his companions received confirmation of this wonderful salvation by what they heard from those who were eye witnesses and recipients of the Lord’s word. Our encouragement today comes from the fact that once someone hears the word of the Lord, they become a partaker in the advancement of the message of salvation. God sent people to you who, by their lives, confirmed to you that all that has been spoken by God about Jesus is true. You heard them. You watched them. You were convinced by them that Jesus lives and therefore saves people from their sins. God provided an escape hatch from the penalty of sins—that is Jesus’ life and death—and they took it. They live to tell about it, and as we’ll see in tomorrow’s verse, they live to show it. As believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are God’s testimonies to the world that Jesus Christ is the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of God’s nature, the savior of the world, and the Lord of heaven and earth. That’s why we live to love with Jesus. We live to confirm the word of the Lord about Him by expressing the radiance of His glory, which is love. We live, according to the grace given us, to represent Him. We confirm to others that God’s word is true—Jesus is God, Lord, and savior of the world. Now let’s bring it home. Who needs to have the word of God confirmed to them? Your spouse, children, parents, friends, neighbors, and work associates, just to name a few, need encouragement that God’s word is true. God is providing that confirmation to them through you everyday. Consider how meaningful your life is! Be amazed at God’s administration of His kingdom! You are an out flashing of His glory, confirming the word of the Lord.
Hebrews 2:2-3 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,We have the author’s continued reason for not drifting away from what God has said about His Son, Jesus Christ. Indeed, God did speak to His people in times past through angels. As I’ve said before, the Jews considered the Law, the Torah, to be spoken through angels. That word, the Law, clearly articulated how every transgression or disobedience was to be punished. The punishment proved that the Law was unalterable. The penalties established the Law of God. Here’s the encouragement. First the bad news. We have all transgressed the Law of God. Every time we have not loved God with all our hearts and every time we have not loved a person God put in our paths is a transgression of God’s word spoken through the angels. Death has been assigned by God as the penalty for every transgression and disobedience. It is unalterable. How shall we escape the death penalty?God has provided only one means of salvation from the penalty we deserve. It is through His Son, Jesus Christ. He made purification for sins by coming in the flesh to bear every breach of the Law by His people because He loves righteousness and hates lawlessness. As a result of His saving work, God has given Him the most excellent name above every name. Through Him, we have forgiveness of sins and are justifiably free from the penalty of the Law. What a great salvation! The encouragement in verses 1-2 of chapter 2 is to neglect the word of God through the angels or the word of God spoken in Jesus Christ. In Christ, we are saved from our inability to love and our hostility toward God. We are saved from all of His and our enemies as we hold fast to what God has said and anchor into Jesus. If you are intentionally living for the purpose of loving with Jesus, then you won’t neglect this great salvation. Instead, you will hold fast to Him and express His love in this dark world. As we love, we declare God’s great salvation of sinners.
Hebrews 2:1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.The author had a reason in mind for why he and his readers must pay closer attention to what they had heard about Jesus from God. In 1:4 the Holy Spirit gave the reason for us to pay close attention to what God has said of His Son. Jesus has inherited a more excellent name than the angels. From 1:5-14, we learn what God spoke about His Son that proves His greatness and gives us great confidence to believe in Him for salvation—He is the anointed One sent into this world to save God’s people.For this reason, we must pay closer attention to what God has said about Jesus than about the angels. What has been said has been heard, for it is written. It is for our greatest good to make sure we don’t drift away from it. The image here is that of a boat being carried by the flow of the current away from the dock. It’s a ship without an anchor. The positive point of the author is this: Anchor into who Jesus is (God’s Son), what Jesus is (our high priest), what He has done (made purification for sins), where Jesus is (at God’s right hand), His excellent name (Son of God), His character (loves righteousness), and God’s promise (to subdue all of His and our enemies). To anchor into Jesus is to do something with each of these foundational truths about Jesus. From this anchored position, we love with Him. He’s our source, our peace, our refuge, our confidence, our righteousness, our savior, and our hope. If we drift from this reality, we have nothing, for apart from Jesus, He said we can do nothing to display His fruit (John 15:5). But with Him, we can do all things. We can love whoever He puts in our paths, for His glory.
Hebrews 1:14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?This verse encourages us that we, who are to inherit salvation, are not alone in this world. The work of the angels is not greater than the work of Christ Jesus. His work secured salvation for us. The angels were created and are assigned the work of ministering to us. We know of their ministry to Jesus, and any ministry to Him is for our sakes. Psalms 91:11 “For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.” After the devil harassed Jesus in the wilderness, we read in Matthew 4:11, “Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.” Matthew 13:41 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness.” That’s for our sake that those stumbling blocks are removed. Michael and his angels are waring against the dragon, Satan, and his angels. Their ministry is primarily one of guarding and protecting us from the evil one and strengthening us in our walk. As we walk in love each day, we can trust God to care for us through the angels. No, we can’t see them, but they are our ministers. They minister to us so we can minister to others in Jesus’ name. Thank You, Father, for giving us salvation. We are amazed at your love and the inheritance we have in and through the work of Your Son. Thank You, also for sending out Your angels to help us fulfill your will. We are grateful today for the riches that are ours in Christ. Amen.
Hebrews 1:13 But to which of the angels has He ever said, “Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet”?We remember that the author was laying down the foundation for trusting in and relying on Jesus Christ and the new covenant He inaugurated. The old was given through the agency of the angels, but the new is given through the agency of the Son, who is greater and more excellent. Our verse today is a question, and the answer is obvious. God hasn’t said to any angel to take a seat at His right hand until I subdue all your enemies. He has only said that to Jesus, His Son.Here’s the encouragement I draw from this verse. Every enemy to my loving as Jesus loves will be subdued eventually. There will be a day when Jesus will have the total victory over every one of His enemies. His enemies are our enemies. We are also encouraged by the fact that God is for Him. It is God who will “make” His enemies a footstool for His feet. If God is for Him, who can be against Him? No one! The same is true for us. God is for us! Who can be against us? No one. Romans 8:32. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” This was the apostle Paul’s foundation for rejoicing in God’s inseparable and all-victorious love. Because He loves us and is for us, every enemy that could separate us and destroy our relationship with Him is His enemy also. That’s the love we have indwelling in our hearts. So that’s the love we have in us and is the same love with which we can love one another. One of the greatest enemies of our relationship with Christ is our own sin. Jesus has conquered it by His love. One of the greatest enemies in any relationship we have is the other person’s sins. Shall we let their sins have the victory? No! Never! Through the power of the cross and the indwelling love of Christ, we forgive, confront, communicate, overcome, and make those sins a footstool for His feet. In so doing, God fulfills what He promised to Jesus, “I make your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
Hebrews 1:10-12 And, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain; and they all will become old like a garment, and like a mantle You will roll them up; like a garment they will also be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end.”These words are again from God, speaking of the Son. He calls Jesus, “Lord.” Isn’t it encouraging to know that we have the Lord, God, who laid the foundation of the earth and created the heavens, living inside of us? And if that were not enough, His life is eternal! The earth and the heavens will age and be thrown away. The author imagines them as the Lord’s piece of clothing that is worn for awhile, but then He changes clothes. The Lord Jesus, however, isn’t temporal and isn’t like His creation. He is the same forever. He does not age or change. This crucial truth anchors us when everything around us ages and changes, even we ourselves in the flesh. Security comes from basing our lives on what cannot change. In this verse, we are encouraged to live to love with Him who is always love and who always loves us. The apostle Paul echoed this great reality and foundation in Romans 8 when he wrote that nothing can separate us from His love because He has decided to love us forever. He is for us.Consider for a moment what we read here. Look at everything around you, and imagine God rolling it up and casting it away. How much of your life and significance is wrapped up, no pun intended, in what is temporal? I am looking out the window at the expansive Atlantic ocean wrapped in the blue sky. I’m in awe of Jesus when I think of it as merely clothing Him for a short time. Yet, we have been united with Him in the heavenlies, and in a similar sense we are dressed in His righteousness. Our garment of righteousness will never age or need to be changed. We are encouraged today that our lives are anchored into Him who is always the same. He never changes. We love others out of the security of His love—a love that endures forever.
Hebrews 1:9. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions.”What an incredible compliment! Jesus loves righteousness and hates lawlessness. Such is the love we have in ourselves because we have Jesus living in us. Doing righteousness is the same as loving. Love is what righteousness looks like. We can also understand from what is said that love fulfills the law. If it didn’t, Jesus would hate it. The Holy Spirit contrasts righteousness with lawlessness. They are the antithesis of one another. If we abide in Christ, we abide in Him who loves to love and hates sin, for as the apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:4, “Sin is lawlessness.”God, the Father, now calls Himself, Jesus’ God. He, the Father, has anointed Jesus with the oil of gladness above His companions. The one who loves righteousness has companions who also love righteousness, but Jesus, is above them. He is the one leading the way, standing at the head of the class, so to speak. This reminds me of Isaiah 61:3. To grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.In this scripture we see a parallelism. Oil of gladness is the same as the mantle of praise. Jesus spoke Is. 61 of Himself in the synagogue in Nazareth. It begins, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to…,” and then there are several things God anointed Jesus to do. Those whom He gives the oil of gladness and the mantle of praise to are His companions spoken of in Heb. 1:9. His companions are the afflicted who have heard the good news, the brokenhearted who have been healed, the prisoners who have been set free, and mourners who have been comforted. That’s all who believe in Him!We are encouraged today by two pictures. One of Jesus, our head, sitting on His throne, pouring out His joy over us like a blanket is thrown over someone exposed to the cold elements. Two, we who have been delivered, healed, comforted, and saved are gathered with Him like a forest surrounding the King—oaks of righteousness in this world. We are oaks of righteousness because He loves righteousness, and we love what He loves. Does this describe you? Can you see yourself covered by His mantle of praise and standing in the forest of His righteousness in this world? What an encouraging scripture to live to love with Jesus. We love to love because He loves to love and we are with Him as His companions.
Hebrews 1:8 But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.”What a wonderful encouragement we have today from verse 8 of Hebrews 1. Remember the author was contrasting what God has said about the angels with what He has said about His Son, Jesus Christ. This verse shows us the union of the Father and the Son which is the source of our confidence in Him. Let’s not miss this is God speaking of His Son. The Father, God, calls Jesus His God when He declares that His throne is forever and ever. Let me remind you of where Jesus is right now, ever since He ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. We learn here that the “right hand” and the “throne” are one in the same. This means we are living to love with God when we are loving with Jesus. Stunning truth!What is a scepter? It is a staff or rod, held by a sovereign as an emblem of authority. A king or ruler rules with it. Perhaps you remember that the king of Persia extended to Esther the golden scepter which was in his hand. So Esther came near and touched the top of the scepter” (Esther 5:2). Esther recognized the king’s authority. We learn from Psalm. 45:6, quoted here, that Jesus rules in righteousness. It is the overarching foundation of His kingdom or rule. Psalms 89:14 states, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; lovingkindness and truth go before You. Jeremiah 33:15 “In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth.”Now for the encouragement from these Scriptures. Jesus rules His kingdom in righteousness. God has made us righteous in Christ so that we would live our lives boasting in Him, giving Him glory. 1 Corinthians 1:30-31. “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.’” We live to love with Jesus because He is righteous and rules our lives by righteousness, which is another way of saying He always loves. He always does the right thing before God. Our unrighteous deeds have been washed away by His blood, and the only deeds left standing before God are Jesus’ deeds of righteousness. As we love others, let’s remember that His love is His righteousness working through our lives. To Jesus be the glory forever and ever.
Hebrews 1:7 And of the angels He says, “Who makes His angels winds, And His ministers a flame of fire.”The author quoted from Psalms 104:4. But let’s read verses 1-4 to get the context and the full meaning of this verse.Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a cloak, stretching out heaven like a tent curtain. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind; He makes the winds His messengers, flaming fire His ministers.” We can see that the author is contrasting the position and ministry of the angels with the position and ministry of the Son. The angels are messengers or ministers, and God is so great, He uses both the wind and fire to speak His messages and serve His purposes. God can also make you and me His messengers and ministers. As God puts people in our paths today, we have His message to give and His ministry to perform. He hasn’t asked us to serve Him and them in our own strength. He has given us His Son, through whom we have confident access to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:14-16). Are you in need of help today? Are you facing some tremendous loss or trial that has you overwhelmed and troubled? Do you need help loving your husband or wife, parents or children, or work associates? Be encouraged today that God has called you, raised you up with Jesus, and has given you access to all that you need from God. You need only ask that He would magnify His name in your life and in those situations which the Lord has spoken into being. (Remember, He runs all things by the word of His power). He promises to preserve you with grace and mercy if you will draw near to Him and hold fast to what you believe about Jesus. He is the Son of God. He is your creator. He is seated in the place of all authority. He loves you and is with you. He can make you His messenger and minister.
Hebrews 1:6 And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “And let all the angels of God worship Him.”We have a great encouragement to worship Jesus Christ in today’s Scripture. The author continued his reason for worshipping Jesus by recognizing His superiority over the angels, whom the Hebrews consider the mediators of the old covenant. One of the primary reasons for writing this book was to show them that the new covenant, mediated by Jesus, is greater than the old covenant. The main reason the new is better is that the mediator is greater than the angels. Most commentators are agreed that Jesus’ second coming in judgment is in view when God commands the angels to worship Jesus, for he wrote, “when He again brings the firstborn into the world.” No where does God say that angels are to be worshipped. In fact, we have a record of them refusing to be worshipped in Revelation 19:10, “Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’” In Peter’s first epistle, speaking of Jesus wrote, 1 Peter 3:22 “who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.” We learn in the last verse of the first chapter that angels are servants of God’s children. When we think of living to love with Jesus, we usually think of loving people with Him. However, Jesus loves His Father, and His love for the Father dwells in us. Jesus’ love for the Father has become our love for the Father. In Him, the first and foremost commandment is fulfilled in us, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” As we live to love with Jesus, we love the Father with Him. One of the ways we love the Father is to honor His Son, as He does. If the angels are to worship Jesus, recognizing His glory when He comes, then certainly we will. We are going to worship Jesus and love God and the brethren forever. It seems to me that we ought to practice now what we know we are going to do when Jesus returns. We worship Jesus today by loving our Father and His children. As we look to Him to be the source of our lives, we worship Him as the angels do.
Hebrews 1:5 For to which of the angels did He ever say, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You”? And again, “I will be a Father to Him, and He shall be a Son to Me”?Do you get what the author of Hebrews is saying about Jesus? The name, Son, is a more excellent name than that of any angel. The two statements made by God, Himself, to Jesus emphasize that Jesus is His son, and in the mind of the Spirit, for God to call Jesus His Son is to exalt Him to the highest position. We also learn about the relationship between God Almighty and Jesus Christ. God is a father to Jesus, and Jesus is a son to God. There could be no one who has greater access to God than Jesus, His Son. He has bestowed upon His Son the greatest honor possible—to sit at the Father’s right hand, sharing His majesty. I’m reminded of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 6:18 “And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says the Lord Almighty.” And listen to what God’s grace has done for all who believe. Ephesians 2:5-6. “Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” We are seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high! We are living with Jesus, now in heaven. We have access to the Father, who is love. We have inherited a more excellent name than the angels. We are called God’s Sons. He has begotten us in Christ. We lack nothing. We are complete in Christ. Satisfied in Jesus. There lies our encouragement to live to love with Jesus. We live because Jesus lives. We love because we have been loved. We move into our days with our eyes fixed on Jesus, in whom and through whom all the love of God is available to us. So today, we won’t kinda get by, we will live in fullness. We are loved by God with the same love with which He loves His own Son. We are as close to God, the Father, as Jesus is.
having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.The author’s original readers were Hebrews who believed that the word of God spoken to their fathers and the prophets was mediated through angels. In fact, many worshipped the angels. Paul had to warn the Colossians about the Jews who were seeking to get the church to adhere to the Law as a means of justification. He wrote, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels” (Col. 2:18). One of the purposes of this letter was to show how the new covenant in Jesus is superior to the old covenant, and in fact has done away with it. With that in mind, we can understand why he says Jesus, who sits at the right hand of the majesty on high is better than the angels. He’s better because His name as the Son of God, the heir of all things, is a more excellent name than any angel. There’s more to be said on this in verse 14 where we read, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” But Jesus was sent to give salvation to all who were given to Him. They were given to Jesus by the Father as His inheritance. For this reason, Jesus is to be worshipped, and His word is to be received and obeyed.Everyone who believes in Jesus belongs to Jesus as His inheritance. We’ve been given to Him that we might know He and the Father (John 17:2-3) and love in His name. According to 3 John 7, we go into this world “for they went out for the sake of the Name.” That’s why we live to love with Jesus. We love live to love for the sake of His excellent name. As we love, we make His name great which is His glory. I hope you are encouraged today to give Him glory by proclaiming His excellent name wherever you go and to whoever He puts in your paths today.
Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,Jesus Christ is God’s Son. After He made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Father. That’s our confession of faith in Jesus. The author of Hebrews wanted his readers to place their confidence in Jesus Christ as their Messiah and great high priest. Unlike the priests in the temple, whose work was never finished, so they had to continually stand, serve, and make sacrifices, Jesus’ work on earth is finished. He can and has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, our Father’s right hand. This seat at the right hand is the place of authority and power in the kingdom of God. Having accomplished what the Father gave Him to do, God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name above all names. At His name, every knee in heaven and earth will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God. There is no greater name than the name of Jesus. The name isn’t primarily how the name is spelled or pronounced. There’s no greater work than the work Jesus accomplished on the cross. He sits now at the right hand of God because of the great work He has done, not because we call Him, Jesus. Although Jesus’ redemptive work on earth is done, we still have work to do with Him. We are encouraged today that the one who loves us and who lives in us has given His life for us so we could know Him and His love. Knowing Him, we understand why we are here in this world. We were made by the rhema of God so we could be vessels of His love and revelation. That’s our purpose in life—to live to love with Jesus.
Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,We are encouraged today by the amazing accomplishment of Jesus on our behalf. He made purification of sins, once for all, through His death on the cross. All believers in Jesus have been cleansed of their sins! It’s the only way we could live with Jesus. We could not live, much less live to love without this cleansing work applied to our lives. Jesus could not be with us, nor we be with Him as long as we are in our sins. But, everyone who comes to the altar of God, the cross, where the eternal sacrifice is made, immediately upon touching the altar, they become holy to God, cleansed and purified of every sin of their entire lives. In Ex. 29:37 we read, “For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it; then the altar shall be most holy, and whatever touches the altar shall be holy.” If whatever touches the altar becomes holy to God, how much more all who come to God’s altar where He gave His Son shall be cleansed and set apart to Him. Have you, will you, come to the altar of God, and become one with God’s Son in His life offered for your cleansing? It’s the only way we can live to love with Jesus. We can’t love if we are enslaved to sin. Jesus’ living water doesn’t flow out of a filthy vessel. Guilt and shame have been removed through the blood of the Lamb. We come to the altar and wash our garments in the blood of the Lamb, wrote John in the Revelation. Have you been cleansed? Have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb. He made purification of sins so we could be united with Him in His resurrection and walk with Him in love—forgiven, forgiving, loved, and loving.
Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, We are encouraged from verse 3 that Jesus is the source and sustainer of our lives—our circumstances and our relationships. He upholds all things by the word of His power. The word upholds is synonymous with carrying, bringing forth, or making all things. The idea is that everything is from and through Him. This isn’t the only place we learn that Jesus upholds all things. The apostle Paul wrote, “Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him” (1 Cor. 8:6). The apostle John explained Jesus this way. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:1-3). John called Jesus the word, the logos, which communicates what the author of Hebrews said when he wrote that Jesus is the exact representation of His nature. Jesus isn’t part of the Divine nature; He is the whole Deity according to W.E. Vines. However, in Heb. 1:3, Jesus brings everything into being by the rhema of His power. When Jesus, the logos, speaks, the Spirit of God makes things happen—brings forth what has been spoken into reality. Jesus has jurisdiction over all things. Because He created all things by His word as this author says in Heb. 11:3. “The worlds were prepared by the word (the rhema) of God,” He need only speak, and it comes into being. He told the wind and waves to be still, and they obeyed. He gave instruction to the demons, and they obeyed. He commanded the dead to rise, the blind to see, and the lame to walk; and they did. There’s nothing that occurs in the history of man that isn’t upheld by the power of His word. What does this have to do with living to love with Jesus? Because this is true, we believe there is only one God from whom are all things, and He is love. We filter all things in our lives through this incredible, unchanging, profound truth. Therefore, we believe He is the source of our love. He is able and willing to accomplish what He wishes through our love for His glory. The faith we need to live to love with Jesus comes through His rhema that upholds all things. We learn this from Paul in Rom. 10:17. “So faith comes by hearing, but hearing by the rhema of Christ.” This Jesus-generated faith works through love. Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words (rhemas) abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples” (John 15:7-8). Today, our confidence as we love with Jesus rests on the rhema of God abiding in us through whom the fruit of God in our lives is brought forth. He will do it!
Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,There’s so much in verse 3 that we’ll take a few days to get all the encouragement we can out of this verse. The word translated radiance is a compound word with a prefix meaning away or away from and a word that means brightness. Outflashing is a good synonym. The idea is that God is the glory like the sun; and the radiance, the rays of light streaming out from the sun, is Jesus. The writer continues describing the Son of God by using a term that describes an engraving tool that makes an exact stamp or imprint. The imagery the author used encourages me in my walk with Jesus. First, there is going to come a day, not in this age, that all of God’s children will be the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of Jesus. His life will be stamped on ours, and we will bear His imprint on our lives. There will be nothing about us that isn’t like Him. That’s true of Jesus now in His revelation of the Father. I can’t wait until that day! Once we are in that state, we will be the same forever. Second, it helps me to see Jesus at the center of my life and His love shining out of my life like the rays of the sun. I want that to be true of my life. Don’t you? As much as possible, may we be the radiance of His glory and the best representation of His nature by the grace of God, which is love. We have the Son of God living in us, so we can expect Him to be and do what He did when He walked in His own body of flesh. The more we abide in Him, the brighter and purer the radiance of His life. Just as God’s nature was imprinted on Jesus’ life, so we have His life imprinted on ours if we are believers. May this verse encourage us to let His light of love shine today.
Heb. 1:2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.There’s a basic principle. The one who establishes a corporation has the right to establish the purpose and the vision of the business. We wouldn’t even question his authority or jurisdiction because he created it. That same principle applies to Jesus, the creator of the world. His word carries authority. We’re going to see in the next verse that Jesus’ word upholds everything He’s created. Isaiah wrote in 40:8. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”The purpose of all creation is to glorify God. Our purpose, according to the Westminster Confession is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. I’m not sure who upgraded that answer, but it’s worth considering. We are to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. We are to find our deepest satisfaction in Jesus, our creator. Jesus came to earth, died for our sins, was buried and raised to life, ascended into heaven, so He could be our greatest satisfaction in life. We have Jesus’ life. He is totally satisfied in the love of His Father. That satisfaction dwells in all those who are His. If we are to live to love with Him, our starting point each day must be abiding in Jesus’ fullness, contentment, and satisfaction in the Father’s love and will. Out of His fullness, we have received grace upon grace to love, wrote John in his gospel. The foundation of living to love with Jesus is that He is the creator of the universe, the heavens and earth, and our very souls as well as those who walk into our paths each day. They are His. It is our duty, privilege, and joy to love Him by loving them with Him. God made the world through Jesus, and we love through Jesus.
Heb. 1:2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.Jesus is the Son of God, and therefore the heir. Everything that belongs to God, belongs to Him. The entire creation and history of the world belongs to Him for the purpose of glorifying His Father. That means every circumstance and relationship in your life is His. Abraham Kuyper, Prime Minister of the Netherlands and founder of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands said, “There is not one square inch in the whole domain of human existence as to which Christ who is sovereign over all does not cry out, ‘Mine!’ And if Jesus, looking at all of life, cries out, ‘Mine!’, the church’s task is to cry out, ‘His!’” Our lives are His. His purpose should be our purpose, and His purpose was to live to love with His Father for His glory. He came to reveal the Father, and we live to reveal Jesus. The apostle John’s conclusion about the nature of God from his 3 years with Jesus was that God is love (1 John 4:8). Our mission is to reveal to those whom God puts in our paths that God is love as we love with Jesus. Have you thought this through? Does it make sense to you? I hope so, because this is God’s plan—that the world would know that Jesus is God’s Son by the way His disciples love one another (John 13:35). As we live to love with Jesus, we are declaring Jesus to be the Son of God, and the heir of all things.
Hebrews 1:1-2 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.Sinful man should be greatly encouraged that God has spoken into our history. First, we are told in the first verse of this book that God spoke to the fathers in the prophets. He didn’t say through the prophets, but in them. What does the presence of the prophets like Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah say to the fathers? I don’t know for sure what the author had in mind, but as one reads through the Old Testament, there’s only one thing that God told to most, if not all the fathers. It is this: “I will be with you.” If God spoke through a prophet, He was declaring one thing for sure, namely, that He was with whomever He was speaking to. The only explanation for the faith of the fathers long ago and the works they did was the presence of God.One of those prophets, Isaiah, prophesied the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and what God was speaking to Israel and the world in His coming. Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” Of course, we all know what His name means because of Matthew’s gospel account. It means “God with us.”Jesus Christ is God with us. Everyone who believes in Jesus as “God with us” and trusts in His work on their behalf, has eternal life living within them. In giving them His Son, God is saying again, “I am with you.” We also learn from Isaiah that when God speaks to them in Christ, He does so because He loves them. “Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you,…do not fear, for I am with you.” If He is with us, He loves us!Living to love is only possible if God is with us. That’s why I add “with Jesus” to the phrase “living to love.” Having God with us is the confidence of all believers and one of the great themes of the book of Hebrews. The author laid down the authority for all that he writes: God has spoken, and in these last days, He has ratified a new covenant of love, grace, and mercy with His people in Jesus Christ, His Son. May we be encouraged by this great reality. We who believe in Jesus have Him living in us so we can love with Him.
3 John 15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.One of the greatest needs we have in a fallen and troubled world is peace. We need it, and so do our friends. Jesus’ last words to His disciples in the garden was “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” His first words of greeting when he first appeared to the disciples after His resurrection was, “Peace be with you.” Peace with God is possible to all who are friends of Jesus. He overcame sin and the world for them. The resurrection declares that peace with God has been secured in Christ. Therefore we can and should greet one another with these comforting words, “Peace be to you.” We know we are secure in God’s love. Nothing can separate us from His love in Christ, and if God is for us, who can be against us? That was the line of reason of the apostle Paul, who with Peter, closed their letters with the same words to their readers (Ephesians, Galatians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Peter).As we love with Jesus, we should be at peace with all of our friends in Christ because we all have peace with God through Him. When we abide in God’s love, we have peace in our souls and in all our relationships with those who also abide in His love. John’s description of the relationship between brothers and sisters in Christ is unique here. It’s the only place in the Scriptures where believers address one another as friends. However, we know where the idea came from . As I read this verse, John 15:13-15 came to mind.Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.Because we love with Jesus, we have the same basis for calling each other friends that Jesus did. Jesus laid down His life for us all, so we are all friends of Jesus, and thus any friend of His should be a friend of ours. We are united by God’s great love in Christ. Notice also John’s love for the individuals in Gaius’ church. “Greet the friends by name” is another way of saying, “Greet every single person.” This tells us something about the size of the church, and perhaps provides insight into what is best when it comes to church size. There comes a point where a pastor can’t greet everyone by name. Maybe we ought to ask ourselves what church structure provides the best channels for the love of God to flow unhindered, especially if our purpose is to live to love with Jesus. This isn’t a criticism, it’s simply an observation with a thought in regards to encouraging us to love well. May the peace of Jesus Christ be yours. Pass it on!
3 John 13-14 I had many things to write to you, but I am not willing to write them to you with pen and ink; but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face.We receive another encouragement about the advantage of expressing our love face to face. I say another, because of what we read in 2 John 12. “Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full.” John loved Gaius and wished to encourage and advise him more on many things. Sometimes, love demands an in person engagement. Texting, emails, phone calls—letters are insufficient means for discussing important topics and ideas. This encourages me to examine the means of communication that I use in my relationships. We want to love others for their highest good, and so it’s probably a good idea to question ourselves as to how best to love them. Not only is the means important, but so is the timing. Jesus told His disciples once that He had more to say to them, but He knew they were not ready to receive what He had to say because of the present circumstances. John 16:12-13 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.”We must be so dependent on the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom, discretion, and sensitivity as we love with Jesus. Apart from Him, we may communicate at the wrong time, in the wrong way, or say the wrong things. The only way we can love well as we relate to people is to love with Jesus. That’s how I view John’s comment to Gaius. He was being led by the Spirit in love for Gaius. May we be encouraged to walk in love with sensitivity to the Holy Spirit today.
3 John 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.Having addressed the problematic attitude of Diotrophes, we now learn why John was compelled to write this letter to Gaius. It is speculated that Demetrius was one of those sent out for the sake of the Name, who also carried this letter of commendation to Gaius. Gaius probably didn’t know Demetrius, so John introduces him by saying he had a good reputation among everyone, his love for Christ and others was obvious in his life, and last, but not least, John highly recommended him. Demetrius should be received, loved, supported, and sent on his way with blessings. Can this be said of you and me? Do we have a good testimony among everyone who knows us in our church community? Can it be said of us that our lives match our profession of faith and purpose in life? Are we known for practicing good works? If we will live to love with Jesus, I suggest that we will have a good testimony and give Jesus a good reputation among those who know us. Like Demetrius, we live for the sake of the Name. Doesn’t this encourage you today? It gives us vision for how we are to live our lives for the glory of God. We aren’t measuring ourselves by those around us, we are walking in a manner worthy of God. Expressing His love, generosity, and goodness through our words and actions testifies that Jesus has conquered sin and death on our behalf and abides in us. What a privilege and joy it is to live to love with Jesus!
3 John 11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.If we love one another, we encourage our beloved family to love and good deeds. According to the writer of Hebrews, that’s the objective for meeting together. “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.” That’s exactly what John did with Gaius, his beloved brother. What Diotrophes did by refusing to extend hospitality and support to the Lord’s servants was evil. He also demanded that everyone in his church imitate him. John concluded that Diotrophes had not seen God because he continued in his evil deeds even after John’s letter of correction to him. I am reminded of John’s words in 1 John 3:6. “No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.” John wanted Gaius to continue to show that he was walking in the truth by imitating God’s generosity and love with regard to the saints on journey for the sake of Jesus’ name. This encouragement to Gaius encourages us to imitate God’s love toward us as we live to love with Jesus. We should practice doing good, which is the sense of “The one who does good is of God.” That’s what God’s love does. I remind you of a definition of God’s love: The sustained direction of the will (practice) toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. That’s what John encouraged Gaius to do, and what I encourage you to do. The one who lives to love in this way is of God.
3 John 10 For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brethren, either, and he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church.To provide a little context, it is thought that this letter was written at the time in the history of the church where the church was transitioning from apostolic administration of the churches to post-apostolic, bishop-led oversight of the churches. Diotrophes apparently was sympathetic to the new system, and in fact, was ambitious to be recognized as an authority in the church. In the previous verse John cited that he loved to be first among the elders. However, Diotrophes’ ambition had led him astray and exposed his true character. He had slandered John and the other apostles with wicked words. And if that were not enough, he closed the door to John’s emissaries and furthermore shut out anyone in the church who didn’t follow his example and policies. Today, we would say he censored everyone who didn’t agree with him. What would love do in such a situation? John had learned from Jesus to expose the evil deeds and false words of wolves in sheep’s clothing. “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt. 7:15). So he promised Gaius that if he came, he would expose Diotrophes’ evil deeds. Sometimes as we live to love with Jesus, if we are in positions of authority, we will have to call attention to the destructive words and examples of false prophets or fellow brothers in Christ who have been led astray by them.Apparently, Gaius did not have jurisdiction over Diotrophes, or he would have recommended that he exercise that shepherding task. This reminds us that just because we see someone doing wrong that unless we have jurisdiction, it is not our responsibility to publicly denounce or correct them. John obviously believed he had the jurisdiction to speak to Diotrophes and to the church. He had written him to no avail, so he contemplated his responsibility to the churches and his little children. Let’s remember that this letter wasn’t to the church, but to Gaius, an individual. John wasn’t publicly judging Diotrophes. We are observing how leaders should or should not confronting problems. As we live to love with Jesus, let us remember to recognize who has jurisidiction, speak out to expose evil deeds if we have a shepherding responsibility, and be careful that our words and actions are not driven by self-ambition or jealousy.
3 John 9 I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say.We don’t know what happened to the letter John wrote to the church. It is surmised that Diotrephes was an elder in the church, probably a sister church in the same community as Gaius. So it is possible that Diotrephes destroyed it because he didn’t like it and rejected John’s authority as an apostle. Whatever the case, there is quite a contrast between Gaius and Diotrephes. Gaius, out of the love of God and love for the truth, received and supported the traveling ministers, and Diotrephes did not. Actually Diotrephes not only refused to receive the brothers, but as we’ll see in the next verse, he forbid anyone in his church to do so at the risk of being excommunicated from the church. He refused to accept John’s encouragement to receive and support these brethren in their mission for the advancement of the gospel.The encouragement to live to love with Jesus in this verse comes from the proud attitude John noticed in Diotrephes. He said, he loved to be first among them. That is he loved significance. He was jealous of these traveling missionaries because they were worthy of honor and support, and he wanted it for himself from the church. It’s impossible to live to love with Jesus when we want to be important or significant more than others. In this case, Diotrephes was in the ministry for the sake of his own name, not the sake of Jesus’ name. We are encouraged today to be on the alert for any form of self aggrandizement or self-significance as we walk with Jesus. Let’s not think this sin cannot rise up in even the most mature. Remember how the disciples argued about who was to be first or greatest among themselves? Jesus told them the first shall be last and the last shall be first. We are reminded again that we live to love for Jesus’ sake, for His glory, not for our own glory. We’re not seeking a good reputation as we generously love and give. We must examine ourselves to make sure we don’t love ourselves more than we love Jesus. We live to love with Jesus for the sake of the truth and the glory of God.
3 John 7-8 For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth.In John’s second epistle, he warned the church not to be fellow workers with the false teachers who were passing through. In this third epistle, he encouraged Gaius and the church to be fellow workers with the truth by supporting missionaries. He had already told them how to do that—give generously to the brethren who have given their lives to advance the name of Jesus. For the sake of the Name, of course is a reference to Jesus Christ—the revelation of Jesus’ divinity in human form and His saving work. John’s encouragement to generously support men and women who had gone out into the world for the sake of Jesus’ name and ministry was based on three things. One, they had no other support but from the church. He said they accepted nothing from the Gentiles, meaning the unbelieving people from the world, not to be confused with non-Jews in the church. Two, they were worthy of support because they had entrusted themselves to God for their supply and ministries. Third, we, we believers in the church, ought to generously support those whom God has called to full-time service in His name, so that we may enter into the work of the truth in the world. Through giving, we become fellow workers, allies, or partners in the work of God through them. Let’s not miss this connection. John considered their giving to the missionaries to be an expression of the love of God for them and their love for Christ. I get this. I was sent out by Coast Community Church, which a friend of mine and I planted in southern California. They provided our needs for two years to get Elijah Ministries started, with the belief that if God wanted the work to continue, He would supply our needs through the church at large. I was sent out with a specific charge, namely, to call men to turn their hearts to God and equip men to live the gospel. It was understood that this ministry was established for the glory of God, for His name sake. God has supplied all of our needs and many of our wants through the generosity of people who know their giving is the only source of support, who believe we are worthy of support because we have given ourselves to Christ for His name sake, and want to join us in the work of the truth. What a glory to God and a testimony of His love these beloved brothers and sisters are who have faithfully acted out God’s love and expressed His love to us and to those to whom God sends us! If you are one of those listening to this podcast, I thank you, and consider you my fellow worker with the truth. If you are listening and would like to become a fellow worker with the truth through us, I would be so grateful and consider it a privilege to serve with you. You can find a donation channel at spiritofelijah.com or livetolovewithjesus.com. We work together for the sake of the Name as we live to love with Jesus.
3 John 6 and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.Apparently another group of the brethren from John’s community were either headed his way or delivering this letter to him. John encouraged Gaius in his love, hospitality, and support for the traveling brethren. He knew Gaius was ready to do whatever he could to receive them and help them on their way. So John encouraged him in his love for the saints. The encouragement I draw from this verse is the measure of love John recommended as his guide for loving, namely, in a manner worthy of God. John’s encouragement is very similar to Paul’s encouragement to the church in Rome regarding Phoebe. He wrote to them in Romans 16:2. “That you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well.” The worthiness of our love is to be such that it makes much of the Lord and His love for us. Paul admonished the Thessalonians, Colossians, and Philippians to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord or the gospel. So the apostles all were concerned that God get the glory from the way, the manner, in which we love. I take that to mean generous. God is rich in mercy and love. Expressing generosity testifies to His character and the glory of God. I think of Paul’s encouragement to the Philippians in this regard when he wrote in Philippians 4:19, “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” That’s basically what John said to Gaius. Jesus highlighted this principle when He said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required” (Luke 12:48). So I encourage you today. God has generously supplied your needs by loving you well. You will do well to generously supply the needs of those God sends to you. Be generous in your hospitality, because of how God has loved you, and therefore, love in a manner worthy of God.
3 John 5-6a Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers; and they have testified to your love before the church.In 2nd John, John addressed the church regarding hospitality offered to false prophets. He warned them about participating in their evil deeds by welcoming them and blessing them on their way. In John’s 3rd epistle, he intended to encourage Gaius and the church in how they loved the brethren through their hospitality. More than likely, some of the brethren who visited Gaius were strangers to him. God put them in his path, and he acted faithfully in caring for them and helping them on their way. Where does such love come from? It is the love of Christ faithfully By calling Gaius “beloved” for the second time, John brought to Gaius’ attention that He was loved by God. He knew that was so because of Gaius’ love testified of by the brethren who had received his hospitality. In 1 John 4:19 John wrote, “We love because He first loved us.” So John knew the source of Gaius’ love was that he had been loved. That’s what “beloved” means—one who is loved.” Gaius is a great example and encouragement to us to live to love with Jesus. Out of the fulness of His love, we act faithfully by accomplishing whatever the Lord gives us to do for, whoever He brings in our paths, especially for those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
3 John 4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.We might draw from this verse that the apostle John was a spiritual father to Gaius. In the previous verse he expressed how glad he was to hear that Gaius was walking in the truth. To walk in the truth is to live to love with Jesus. The truth is that Jesus is God who came in the flesh, died for the forgiveness of sins, and was raised to life, ascended into heaven, and now abides in the souls of all who believe in Him. The evidence that He lives in His children is that they love as He loves. Only those who walk in the truth love like Jesus loves. There is a relationship to joy and living to love with Jesus. Not only does loving with Jesus fill us with joy, but it fills Jesus with joy. John had experienced this joy with Jesus, so he could write about it. Jesus had basically said the same thing, recorded by John in John 15:8-11. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.Jesus has joy when His children walk in love with Him, and His joy makes them joyful. John had joy when his children walk in love with Jesus, and surely he wanted Gaius to be joyful that he was glad, so he told him so. But John would not have had this joy if he hadn’t discipled Gaius. We cannot know this joy of which John wrote if we don’t make disciples who live to love with Jesus. Who are you investing in? Are you making disciples who walk in the truth of the life of Jesus and love with Him? I encourage you to take advantage of the free resources at livetolovewithjesus.com if you wish to enter into this joy of hearing of your children walking in the truth. You can go through Live to Love with a brother or sister in Christ. Or you can journey with them using the Live to Love Adventure Series available in streaming video. Jesus promised to be with us as we make disciples. I hope you are walking in the truth and will believe that Jesus can use you to call His disciples to live to love with Him.
3 John 2-3 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth.We are encouraged today to pray for those we love in the truth as well as how we might pray. Notice John prayed for Gaius’ well-being and health that they would prosper. The term prosper carries the idea of a journey. He essentially prayed that as Gaius journeyed in life with Jesus, his material well-being would mirror his spiritual well-being. John was sure that Gaius’ soul was blessed by God because he mentioned that Gaius was walking in the truth. Let’s remember that to walk in the truth is to live in the reality of the life of Jesus Christ dwelling in us. Our souls prosper solely because we are living with Jesus, who is true; with Him, who is real. The reality of walking in the truth manifests the love of Christ which is obvious and verifiable. John knew of Gaius’ walk because brethren had visited him and could testify about it. As we live to love with Jesus, in the truth, we testify to our soul’s condition for the glory of God and the gladness of our spiritual fathers and mothers. It may be implied that our material and physical well-being may be related to the prosperity of our souls in Christ. We learn from the medical experts that a peaceful, well-loved, loving soul impacts the body in a therapeutic way.We can learn from this that perhaps one of the first and easiest things we can do to express our love to our brothers and sisters who are walking in the truth is to pray for God’s blessings in their lives, both materially and physically. There’s no promise in this verse that God will give material prosperity to all His children, but we know it’s not wrong to ask God to bless them. We are encouraged also to live to love with Jesus for the joy of those who have invested in our spiritual growth and well-being. Notice how glad John was to hear of Gaius’ walk with Jesus. Beloved, may we walk today in love and in the truth. In all respects may you prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers in Christ.
3 John 1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.Although we don’t know for sure who Gaius is, we do know that he was a leader in a community of believers, he was hospitable, and he was loved by both God and John, the elder. John and Gaius shared the same faith that recognized Jesus as God, incarnate, savior and Lord, who was the source of the love they had for one another. Hospitality to traveling ministers of the gospel is a common theme in both 2nd and 3rd John. There were limitations as to who believers were to invite into their homes and churches. Apparently this became a divisive issue in the churches, so the Spirit of God, moved John through love to write to these churches and give direction and encouragement. We are encouraged again in today’s verse to love in truth for the sake of the truth. We live to love with Jesus because He lives and is presently loving His children through us as He did in John’s day. Here’s what pops into my mind when I think of loving my wife in the truth. Apart from the presence and power of Jesus, I can’t love her for the glory of God. So I love her in complete dependence upon Jesus’ love for her. His love is true, real, consistent, undying, and personal for her. As I think of Jesus’ love for her, I consider His love to be my love for her. Negative thoughts or feelings are not “in the truth.” He doesn’t have negative or hostile thoughts toward any of His children. Therefore, I consider those thoughts to be lies about Christ that I refuse to walk in. I love her in the truth that Jesus loves her in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. This is how we should love everyone who is a brother or sister in Christ. They are beloved of God and therefore we love them with the love of Jesus in the truth.
2 John 13 The children of your chosen sister greet you.The letter closes with a similar greeting as was given in the introduction. Remember, John called his recipients, “the chosen lady and her children.” The church where John lived was a chosen sister to the chosen lady. Each “lady” had children who were the elect of God. Their election united them as family with a common love for Christ and for each other. What a wonderful and amazing image we are given in the Scriptures of the universal church throughout history. God chose a family for Himself in Christ from the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:3-6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.John called these beloved children of God the chosen. It’s not like we might choose a handful of jelly beans out of a bowl, perhaps based on our favorite color or taste. No, before God created anything, in eternity past, He and the Son created a family, among whom Jesus would be the firstborn. Or we could think of it this way. God created a bride for His Son like He created a bride for Adam. We were chosen in love, adopted in love, and filled with love for one another to the praise of the glory of His grace. This great truth encourages me to honor my brothers and sisters in Christ as God honors them. They are each special because God set His affection on them and called them His own, even as He did me. Our being chosen wasn’t based on anything in us, but solely on His love for His Son through whom we were created and exist. It’s mysterious and glorious. I wish for everyone listening to my voice that they might believe in and know the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Listen to the Father’s call from 2 Cor. 6:17-18.Therefore, “Come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. and do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says the Lord Almighty.So he calls His chosen to leave the family of the world and come to Him. The world with its idolatries, controlled by an antichrist spirit, is unclean to God. He’s calling you to forsake your earthly gods and agendas, including yourself, and separate yourself from them and give yourself to Him—lock, stock, and barrel, so to speak. He promises to welcome you and be a father to you. You will experience His love and forgiveness for ignoring Him and living for yourself. He will give you the spirit of His Son to dwell with and in you. He will give you a new purpose and joy in life—living to love with Jesus for the joy of your Father in heaven. To all who respond, I greet you. Welcome to the chosen.
2 John 12 Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full.Face to face communication is certainly the best way to love someone. Don’t you agree? I’m glad we have telephones (John could not have imagined such communication) and texting, messaging, and emails. However, none of those methods of communication are more effective than face to face interaction. I’m sure John was grateful that he could write a letter to this sister church, but speaking with them in person was way better. Notice the reason John wanted to come to them and communicate more on this subject of the truth in Christ. It was that their joy might be made full. He was thinking of their highest good, wasn’t he? He loved them. He wanted them to experience their greatest satisfaction in life in and through Jesus. I think John wanted to share more about what Jesus had told them (the disciples) about living to love with Him. Listen to what Jesus said after giving them the new commandment to love in John 13:34, to believe in Him in John 14:1, telling them of His going to the Father and sending the Holy Spirit in John 14:16 so they could abide in Him and He and the Father could abide in them (14:23) so they could carry the fruit of God in their lives (John 15:8). “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11). John was expressing the love of Jesus to his readers. He was living to love with Jesus. There’s no better way to communicate the love of Christ and the promises of God than person to person. I don’t mean that we shouldn’t communicate the gospel good news in other ways, but John was prepared to expend energy, time, and probably finances for their sakes. Let this encourage us to, if at all possible, minister to people in person for their fullness of joy in Jesus.
2 John 10-11 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.After warning his readers not to be carried astray by the false teachings of the deceivers, John expressed his concern that they not participate in the propagation of this wicked agenda. John wasn’t warning his readers about people who differed with them on various doctrines or secondary issues. He knew of these false teachers. They had probably visited his city and church, and he knew they were headed toward other sister churches in Asia. Surely he hoped his letter arrived before the false teachers did. Also, these false teachers were on mission to destroy the faith. Their teaching undermined and refuted the truth that Jesus was God, incarnate. They wanted access to their pulpits, so to speak, in order to do their “evil deeds.” More than likely, the “house” mentioned in this verse referred to the house in which the church met. The idea wan’t to forbid hospitality, but to make sure these false teachers didn’t get access to the assembly of the saints. Furthermore, they were not to greet or welcome them into their assemblies nor bid them farewell in their journey like they would traveling ministers of the gospel. To do so would, from John’s perspective, be participating in their evil mission, essentially contributing support to the work of the evil one. Living to love with Jesus doesn’t mean we are always kind and gracious to everyone God puts in our paths. The loving thing to do is confront evil like Jesus did. Here are a couple of examples. Matthew 12:33-34 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” And Matthew 23:29, 33. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous…You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?”Notice John’s protective love for his brothers and sisters in Christ. That is the love of Jesus for His children. Since we love with Him, we can expect to see that same kind of love expressed when we become aware that someone is out to destroy the work of God, defame Jesus’ name, and lead people astray from the truth that Jesus is God, incarnate. We should expose those teachers as false, keep them away from those we love, and not do anything to participate with them in their evil deeds.
2 John 9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.This verse continues John’s thoughts about the false teachers, deceivers, antichrists who were a threat to the beloved. In verse 8, he warned them to watch out that they didn’t get hindered by their lies. In this verse, John circled back to the essential doctrine of the incarnation and its reward, namely, the abiding presence of both the Father and the Son. From John’s perspective, these false teachers had run right past the incarnation of God in the flesh with His teachings to believe in Him and love one another. He said in verse 7 that they didn’t acknowledge Jesus Christ in the flesh, meaning they passed over it. They ran past it. They went on to other teachings that were not founded and grounded in the life of Christ. That proved to John that they did not have God.Those who have the Father and the Son don’t run past the teaching that Jesus is God incarnate. They abide, dwell, and remain grounded in that great truth. They live in and through Him! That’s as far as their search needs to go. They’ve found the way, the truth, and the life. As His word abides in them, they abide in Him. Listen to what John heard from Jesus. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:7-10). The way we love God is to obey His command to love one another. Remember what John wrote in vs. 6? “And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.” Those who live to love with Jesus are abiding in the teaching of Christ. They know they have both the Father and the Son. May I ask you, “Have you gone too far? Are you satisfied with Jesus? Or are you searching for something or someone in this world to satisfy your soul? If you are, you have gone too far. Your continued search for something more indicates you don’t have the Father and the Son in your life. If you did have Him, you wouldn’t be searching for more. Those who abide in the teaching of Jesus Christ, know they are profoundly and eternally loved and have found life, life indeed, in Jesus. That’s the source of living to love with Jesus.
2 John 8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.In light of John’s warning about the deceivers who would not acknowledge that Jesus is God in a human body, he didn’t want the church to lose what had been accomplished by the teaching of the gospel, Jesus’ commands, and their loving one another with Christ for the sake of the truth. In this verse, John warned them to pay attention to themselves. He wanted them to make sure that they not be led astray by the false prophets, the antichrists. This warning is perhaps as needful today as it was in the first century. The church is experiencing an exodus of souls who have fallen for the same lies and deception. May I encourage you to watch yourselves to make sure you faithfully continue to live to love with Jesus until the end. Even if your children, who have been raised and taught the truth from birth, walk away, do not be deceived by their apostasy or falling away from the truth. Remain faithful to love with Jesus, believing He lives in you and will reward you in full. Jesus often spoke of rewards for faithfulness. In the Sermon on the Mount, He said, “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:11-12). No doubt the deceivers of whom John wrote attacked, persecuted, and insulted the Lady and her children. Jesus also encouraged His followers to be faithful until His return when He told the parable of the master’s rewarding his faithful slaves, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21). Some of John’s readers were walking in love with Jesus. They could expect a full reward for their labors of love.I hope this verse encourages you to live to love with Jesus until the end of your life. There is a rich and full reward for establishing a faithful witness in this world of the living Son of God with your brothers and sisters in Christ. We accomplish that work in the power of the Holy Spirit as we abide in Christ for the sake of the truth.
2 John 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.If Jesus Christ wasn’t God in the flesh, then His commandment to love as He loved wasn’t authoritative. In the community to whom John wrote, there were deceivers. These were perhaps itinerant false teachers. Perhaps John was alluding to a contrast between he and the apostles, who had been sent out by Jesus into the world and these deceivers who had been commissioned by the devil, the great deceiver. They simply would not acknowledge the virgin birth, the deity of Jesus as God’s Son, His atonement for sin, and the resurrection, all of which are essential doctrines of the Christian faith. There are those today who call themselves Christians yet who do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ was God in flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Certainly John’s readers believed what the apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians about Jesus. “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:6-8). This is the truth, and anyone who denies it is trying to deceive you or lead you astray. If Jesus Christ isn’t God, then there’s no need to heed Jesus’ commandments. However, if He is God, then His commandments are life-changing. They are life-changing because those who receive His commandments also receive His life for the enabling power to love as He commanded. Love characterizes their lives and thus their communities. As John wrote earlier, they love for the sake of the truth that Jesus Christ is God, coming in flesh. Their loves doesn’t only declare that He is God, but that He has risen and dwells within the body of Christ, the true church. That’s why all believers in Christ should live to love with Him. We are Jesus’ counterterrorism agents in this world. Exposing and casting down the lies of the deceiver, the antichrist.
2 John 6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.What a tremendous encouragement to live to love with Jesus! John defined love as walking according to God’s commandments (plural). Then John said, “This is the commandment (singular) that you should walk in it.” It seems obvious from the context that the commandment is the one mentioned in the previous verse, namely, that we love one another. The commandment from the beginning for all believers was to walk in love. So what is love? I am going to assume that John had love for God in mind rather than love for the brethren because it makes more sense. Doesn’t it make sense that if one loves God then he intends to walk according to what He knows pleases Him? Let me now connect this love for God to living to love with Jesus. Within minutes of Jesus giving His disciples the command to love one another as He loved them, He promised to be with them and enable or help them obey the commandment. He actually told them that all they had to do was ask Him, and He would do it for them! John 14:12-14. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”The reason we should live to love with Jesus is that we love God. We love the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is love, so what pleases the Father is for us to believe in Jesus and walk in love with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit. Is that your definition of love for God? How do you express your love for God? The encouragement today from this verse is to love God by living to love with Jesus. I invite you to visit livetolovewithjesus.com to learn more about what I call the live to love adventure with Jesus. Also, please share this podcast with others and invite them to join the journey of walking in love.
2 John 5 Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.I want to ask something of you. I ask that you join the live to love journey with me. That’s the idea of asking that we find in this verse. John wasn’t asking his readers a question; he was asking them to do something. He asked that “we love one another.” He also gave the reason for what he was asking them to do. They had been commanded to love from the beginning. I’m not sure what beginning John had in mind. It might have had in mind the commandment of God in Deuteronomy 6:4. “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Maybe he was thinking of Leviticus 19:18 “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” But more than likely, he was referring to Jesus’ commandment that He gave them in John 13:34. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” By the time of John’s writing, the commandment to love one another as He had loved them wasn’t new. It was what they heard from the very beginning of their walk with Christ. I believe that when the disciples were sent out by Jesus to make disciples as they went to the nations and teach what they had been taught, they taught Jesus’ commandment to love with Him. I think that the church has lost this message. It’s not something that is commanded of people when they first hear the gospel. Perhaps it’s not given because the full gospel has not been proclaimed. The gospel isn’t that we must accept Christ and then live for Him. The gospel is that God has accepted us in His Son and given us to Him so that He might give us eternal life. That life is in His Son, given to us, so that we might live to love through Him. The good news is that we died to living for ourselves in our own power when Jesus died. Furthermore, because we were raised up with Christ, we receive the life of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit who is given to us. His love then is poured out in our hearts, and we become instruments of His love in this world. May we walk in this truth, for the sake of the truth, for the glory of God.
2 John 4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father.It is obvious from this scripture that John had a personal relationship and interaction with this community of saints. He had found some of their members to be walking in truth, meaning they were walking with Jesus in love for one another. If I may make a few observations.First, when John came to this church, not everyone was walking in the truth. This is probably true of most church communities. Not everyone who attends church understands and lives in the truth. There will be some who, although they know they are commanded by God to love with Jesus, do not obey it. Their lives will not be characterized by grace, mercy, and peace. Let’s pray for them that the Father will bring them into the truth.Second, John found that there were some in their fellowship who were walking in the truth. For the sake of the truth, they loved one another. Let’s not miss this point. Such love flowing in one’s life is obvious. It’s noticeable. I visited a church recently which had experienced the live to love adventure and followed it up with a study of my book Live to Love. I met two couples who testified that the reason they came and stayed at the church was that it was obvious to them that there were many who loved Jesus and His love was flowing in the congregation. They could testify, like John, that they found some of her children walking in the truth. That’s the kind of church you should look for and with which you should fellowship. Hopefully that can be said about your church and yourself. Third, we learn from the next verse that the commandment John had in mind was the commandment to love one another. We’ll talk more about that tomorrow, but today let’s notice that this commandment is from the Father. So living to love with Jesus is how we express our love for our Father, God. We love His children for the sake of the truth that Jesus is God. His words and commandments are considered to be God’s words and commandments. I hope you will be encouraged today to love God by obeying His commandment to love your brothers and sisters in Christ for the sake of the truth. Not only will you make glad those who care for you, but you will, most of all, make glad our Father in heaven.
2 John 3 Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.I’m so encouraged by this verse today. What dynamics flow among believers who are in the truth and love with Jesus? John had just said that truth abides in them and will be with them forever. It follows then that when he wrote that grace, mercy, and peace will be with them, that he rightly assumed that those dynamics are present among them because Jesus, the truth, is with them. This is true of all believers in Jesus Christ. John understood that grace, mercy, and peace are with us because they are given to us from God, the Father and from Jesus Christ, His Son. He was compelled by the Spirit to state the fundamental truth that Jesus is God’s Son, who lives in us, and through whom we receive these tremendous blessings. A friend of mine from South Africa recently shared about the grace and peace of God that he experienced from God as he lived to love with Jesus. He had a series of important appointments in the day, and had the peace of Christ in a very full schedule. He was sharing the blessing that had come from starting each day praying this prayer.Father, thank You for another day of life to know and love You and to live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love those You put in my path today, for Your glory.If you haven’t already made this prayer a starting point for your day, I encourage you to do so. If it’s helpful to you, write it in your own words. I think you’ll find you are praying in the truth and love of God, which will open the channel for grace, mercy, and peace to permeate your life each day.
2 John 2 for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever:We are encouraged today as John shared why he and all those who love the truth love each other. The reason we live to love with Jesus is for the sake of the truth that Jesus is God and lives in us. Jesus is the truth, and He abides in us, dwells in us, and will always be with us. These words remind us of what our Lord Jesus told John and the rest of His disciples in John 15:5 and 8. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing…My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit (and the fruit is love), and so prove to be My disciples.” He had only moments before told them, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever, that is the Spirit of truth…I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (14:16-18).The truth that Jesus is God’s Son, who dwelled in human form, died for our sins, was buried, and raised because of our justification is verified by His presence in our lives as He lives to love in us. He loves His bride, the church, through all who know the truth, and we love for the sake of that truth. This means that our lives are not about us. Our conflicts and problems with each other are not about us, but about Him. They occur so we might glorify God by forgiving and loving one another. We love for the sake of the truth.This is our live to love encouragement today. Know and intentionally live today for the sake of the truth. Make your life about His life in you. It’s not you who lives, but Christ, who lives in you, as the apostle Paul wrote, describing himself in Gal. 2:20. What a privilege we have to love for the sake of the truth. Such purpose fills our lives with purpose, meaning, and joy. We love for the sake of the truth.
2 John 1 The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth,We begin our study through John’s second epistle today with a profound encouragement to live to love with Jesus. The elder is the apostle John and the chosen lady and her children are more than likely personifications of a community of believers who recognized his eldership. The letter has no personal addresses, and plural pronouns indicate John had a group of people in mind. With that said, we take our encouragement today from the relationship John described between he, other believers, and the church. He wrote that he loved them in truth, meaning in reality, but he used an article the truth at the end of this verse and beginning of the second verse, so he could have and probably was stating the quality that unified them—namely, the truth that Jesus Christ is God in flesh who has united them in love. We remember that John recorded Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” in John 14:6. Jesus is the reality of God in human form. All who believe are “in” that great truth—really. Not only are those beloved of Christ Jesus loved by John, they are also loved by everyone who knows Jesus in truth. It is the love for Jesus and the love of Jesus that unites all true believers. The community of believers should be known by their love for one another because they believe in Jesus as the Christ. John will state that explicitly in this letter, in verse 5. As we learned from 1 John 4:19. We love each other because He first loved us. The beloved of God love God by loving each other with Jesus. May we be filled today with the love of God for our brothers and sisters in Christ whom our Father puts in our paths. If you are married to a believing spouse, then he or she should be the first in the line of those you have the privilege to love. Do you have believing children? Then they are in the line. Hopefully you have work associates who are children of God who are loved because they also are in the truth. May we enjoy living to love with Jesus today as we remember: those who know the truth, love in truth.
1 John 5:21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.We read the last two days that Jesus is the true and eternal God and is our source of power in life. With that being said, John closed his letter with a warning. The Spirit of God calls them to be on guard against making any substitute gods or power sources. Are we on guard for idols in our lives? An idol is a false god—a person, object, or idea—that we treasure and serve more than the true God, our creator and sustainer. John Calvin wrote that the human heart is an “idol factory.” How often we search for love and satisfaction in what cannot satisfy. How often we seek to identity with someone or something in the world instead of with Christ. Consider why John may have warned about idols. First, there is only one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things (1 Cor. 8:6). To have another god is to scorn the only source of eternal life and love. Second, God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him, as John Piper has said. Finding satisfaction with anyone or anything more than Jesus is to commit spiritual adultery. Third, God’s purpose in everything is to reveal His Son in us. The moment we hook up with another god, we become antichrist. John had warned them of the antichrists that are in the world who were seeking to lead the unsuspecting, the unguarded astray. Nothing hinders the flow of love more than idolatry. It’s impossible to live to love with another god because an idol cannot be a source of the love of God. Instead it will be a source of the love of the world. The world’s kind of love masquerades as light and is not true life or love. With this warning, let us remember that the only way to live to love with Jesus is to look to Him as our sole source of life, love, truth, satisfaction, joy, peace, and hope. As we live and love with Jesus, let us guard ourselves from idols today and everyday. I invite you to visit our website, www.livetolovewithjesus.com to take advantage of free resources encouraging and equipping you to live to love with Jesus.
1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.Today we are encouraged by the third great reality the apostle John wanted to leave with his readers from the church in Ephesus. We know that the Son of God, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, has come to us. We have eternal life and have received understanding from and through Him so that we may know Him. John emphasized that Jesus is the reality of life and being in Jesus, we have real life. Jesus is the true or real God and is eternal life. What an encouragement to know that we as we live to love with Jesus, we are living in Him who is true. We live in a world of lies because the god of this world is a liar and the father of lies. All that we see around us in this world isn’t real, isn’t true. We cannot trust what we see in this world nor can we believe anything that comes from those who lie under the power of the evil one. However, there are shadows of reality in creation that point to Jesus, who is the substance, the fullness of real life. Let’s be encouraged today. We know Jesus has come in the flesh, and as we read about Him in the gospels, we have understanding to know Him because we are in Him and He is in us. One of the most encouraging things I have found about intentionally living to love with Jesus, is a deeper understanding of Him. As I experience His love for His Father and for others, His life becomes more satisfying and consuming. This anchors me more and more as I get older and face my mortality. He is true. He doesn’t change. He is eternal life. I know Him and live in Him. And so it is with all who believe in Jesus and love with Him.
1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.We are encouraged today to know that if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as God’s provision in the flesh for salvation and have the testimony of His love by the Spirit, that God is the source of our lives. He is our power source. If God, who is love, is the source of our lives, then it makes sense that faith and love would be the fruit of our lives. Being born of God, we abide in Him. It is a comforting truth that we lie in His lap, so to speak. We are protected by His power, and we can’t be snatched out of that place of love, safety, and comfort. In stark contrast, everyone who isn’t in Christ, lies in the lap, in the power, of the evil one. I’m reminded of Jesus’ scathing rebuke of the Pharisees in John 8:43-44. “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.Paul also verified this great reality when he wrote to the Ephesians in 2:1-3. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. The whole world lies in the power, under the influence of the evil one.The only power capable of rescuing or saving anyone in the world from the power of the evil one is Jesus Christ. God sent His Son as “the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” 1 Jo. 2:2. John didn’t mean Jesus would save everyone in the world, he was saying that Jesus, through His propitiation for sins, is the only one God has provided to save anyone in the world who lies in the power of by the evil one.The evil one can’t snatch us out of Jesus’ lap, but Jesus can snatch them out of his lap. Our living to love with Jesus on a daily basis is the way God snatches those laying in the lap of the evil one. His love reaches into their hearts through hundreds of small and big acts and words of love. Don’t underestimate the power of God in your life as you love with Jesus. Remember, your power source is God!
1 John 5:18 We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.In this verse, the apostle John stated clearly three undeniable realities that he wanted the church to remember. In vs. 18-20, joining with the believers, he wrote, “We know.” These truths are beyond question in light of who Jesus Christ is, what He has done, and what He is doing. The first statement has to do with recognizing and discerning those who are truly born of God. We know that no one who is born of God continually, habitually, practices sin. He wasn’t saying that the children of God don’t ever sin. He’s already made that clear in chapter 1, vs. 10. “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”The verb tense John used signifies a continuous, intentional, habitual action. We know that having the indwelling Christ is incompatible with habitual, unrestrained sinning. John introduced the reason for this conclusion with a contrasting conjunction, to emphasize the impossibility of a true believer continuing in sin. John strengthened the reality of this truth by describing both the believer and Jesus as begotten of God. Rom. 8:29 comes to mind where Paul referred to Jesus as the first-born among many brethren. Since both Jesus and the children of God were of God, Jesus keeps, guards, or watches over all of God’s children. He doesn’t let the evil one touch them. Touch seems a little weak for what the Greek word means. Hapto suggests more than a touch. It means to fasten on to, to lay hold of, or to snatch. Remember what Jesus said in John 10:27-29?My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch (a form of the same verb) them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. The children of God have a divine protector in Christ. Here’s the connection to living to love. Can you imagine someone who is living to love with Jesus, (intentionally abiding in His life, drawing from His life like the branches draw life from the vine), can you imagine the evil one taking him away from Jesus to live to sin? Unthinkable! This we know. Every child of God is safe and secure forever. They live with Jesus to express His love. It’s in their DNA. So live your life today with confidence in Jesus. If you don’t have that confidence, have you truly believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God? Have you surrendered your life in this world to God, trusting only in the work of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? If not, there’s no better time than now to repent of living for yourself and give yourself to God to live to love with Jesus for His glory.
1 John 5:17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.John obviously didn’t want his readers to think that since there was a sin not leading to death that they should take such sin lightly. I don’t know about you, but I so appreciate this verse. First, sin’s characteristic is so clearly stated. All unrighteousness is sin. If an action or word spoken isn’t right in God’s eyes, it is sin. Since God is love, we might also understand unrighteousness as any unloving action or word spoken. Let’s define love again. Love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. The highest good of any of Adam’s offspring is to glorify God by fulfilling the purpose for which he or she was created. I agree with John Piper when he says, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.” Let’s review chapter 3, verse 6. “No one who abides in Him sins.” This gives us further insight into 1 Jo. 5:17. When we abide in Jesus and love with Him, we won’t do any unrighteousness toward our fellow-men. When Jesus loves through us, God is glorified, and we are fulfilling the purpose for which we were created. We are displaying the image of God. That’s an amazing reality or truth.I appreciate this verse for a second reason. If all unrighteousness is sin, I’m so glad that they don’t all lead to eternal death, because I’ve committed many sins. Those who believe in Jesus as the Son of God, have washed their clothes in the blood of the Lamb. Jesus has destroyed the works of the devil and clothed us in His righteousness. He has given us eternal life. If He has done it for us, His work is available for all who have not committed the sin leading to the second death. So let’s pray with confidence in God’s mercy and great love as we intercede for all those who are unrighteous. He can save them because He has saved us! They too can be rescued, delivered, and transformed to live to love with Jesus. The movement has begun and is still powering its way through history.
1 John 5:16b. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.Yesterday we were encouraged by the confidence we can have in our intercession for sinners, but we find in this verse that there is a limitation to our confidence in intercessory prayer for unbelievers. He had mentioned in chapter 4 that there were some who once were in their paths in the assembly, but who had gone out. Certainly the believers would be concerned for them and want to pray for them. John apparently thought this church knew people who had committed or were committing a sin that leads to death. Since that sin isn’t specifically stated, we must let Scripture inform us. Do the Scriptures teach that there is a sin that will not be forgiven and thus leads to death? Yes there is. Jesus Himself, stated in Matthew 12:31 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.” Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the sin of ascribing the works of Jesus to the works of the devil (Matt. 12:28) like the Pharisees did. For such people, the church was not encouraged that they could have confidence in prayer for them. In fact, John said they should not make such requests of life for them.Many commentators believe these hopeless blasphemers were the false teachers, the antichrists, of whom John warned in the beginning of 1 John 4. In John’s view, they weren’t apostates who once had life in Jesus and then forfeited it. They were counterfeits. They were not true brothers in Christ. Since they denied that Jesus was God in the flesh, they not only didn’t have the Son, they didn’t have the Father. These people believed everything in the material world was evil and of the devil. So they believed all the works done in the body were of Satanic origin, including the works done in Jesus’ body. Such rejection of Jesus goes a long step beyond the typical sin of unbelief. It is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, because Jesus’ works were done in the power of the Holy Spirit. The blaspheming false teachers and their followers were once members of the visible congregation who had at one time passed as “brothers”, but their withdrawal and false teaching about Jesus made it evident that they were not of God. John knew the believers would want to intercede for those who had rejected Jesus, forfeited eternal life, and left them. However, he could not encourage intercession for them.As we live to love with Jesus, God will put the two kinds of people in our paths: some for whom we can pray confidently for God to give them life, and others for whom we cannot pray. Both are dead in sins and abide in death. The difference between the two is that one group may receive life through a believer’s intercession, while the other will die eternally. Let’s be encouraged that most of the sinners who cross our paths, we may have confidence to intercede for them and ask God to give them eternal life. This makes me think that while we live to love with Jesus, most days we will have the privilege to ask God to give life to the sinners He places in our paths.
1 John 5:16a. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. Having addressed a believer’s confidence when petitioning God for his own need of grace to trust and love, John thought it was necessary to give some instruction about intercessory prayer. First, he knew they would want to pray for people who they knew were dead in their trespasses and sins, as Paul described unbelievers in Eph. 2:1-2. The fact that they are encouraged to ask God to give them “life” indicates that these “brothers” are not believing brothers, but were brothers in a more general sense as used in 2:9-11 and in 3:16-17. If God gives them spiritual life, then their state at the time of intercession is a state of spiritual death. The multitude of sins committed in the flesh as a person indulges the lusts of the flesh and of the mind are not sins that lead to death. They may all be forgiven and the person may experience the mercy and love of God as Paul wrote in Eph. 2:4-5. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” So John encouraged them to intercede for those who were dead in their sins (brothers in general) who were in their paths, asking God to give them eternal life. Let us ask ourselves if we intercede with the confidence encouraged in this verse. John assumed that those who had been loved by God would not be so wrapped up in their own lives that they wouldn’t pray for those in need, both physically and spiritually. Notice the confidence in prayer that John also assumed. The intercessor may believe that just as God hears his prayers motivated by love for Jesus’ life to be manifested in his own life, He may also have confidence that God hears his love-provoked prayers that eternal life be given to those who are dead in sin. He said, “God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death.” I’m encouraged by this verse to intercede more and intercede more confidently for those God puts in my path, aren’t you? As soon as this podcast is over, let’s believe this verse of encouragement and pray for those the Holy Spirit brings to our minds that we know need His life.
1 John 5:14-15 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.The apostle John wrote something in 3:19-22 that help us understand these verses. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.Believers in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have a confidence before God. Our confidence is that all of our sins have been known and atoned for in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The resurrection is the proof of our justification wrote Paul in Rom. 4:25. “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.” We know it because He lives in us. We have eternal life!Having this confidence before God gives us another confidence, namely, that if we ask anything according to His will, we know that whatever we ask, we will receive from Him. Let’s not miss what John wrote in 3:22. We have this confidence because we keep His commandments, namely, to believe in Him and love with Him. Our requests are based upon His commandments. When we ask for anything to be able to trust Him and love with Him, we know He hears us and will give us our requests. The encouragement today is this: When we live to love with Jesus, we have confidence in prayer before God. We can ask confidently, believing that we will receive the grace to trust and love as He has commanded.So we pray with confidence, Father, that you would fill us with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of the risen, Son of God, in whom we have our lives so that we can love and trust You and love the people You put in our paths today for Your glory. Thank You for hearing us and giving us what we ask for in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. We receive your grace with thanksgiving and joy. Amen.
1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.In today’s verse, we learn why John wrote this epistle, namely, that those who believe in Jesus as the Son of God might know that they have eternal life. He probably had everything he had written in the letter in mind when he said, “These things”, but he had just told them that if they have Jesus in their lives, then they have eternal life. He had also told them the proof that they know God and have Jesus in their lives. The proof was that they believed Jesus was the Son of God in the flesh and they loved their brothers and sisters in Christ. Faith and love are evidences of new birth, the birth, so to speak, of the Son of God in their lives.This should encourage us who believe in the name of the Son of God. To believe in the name of Jesus is to trust in His work accomplished on our behalf— His righteousness performed for us, His body given as an atoning sacrifice, and His resurrection, signifying our being forgiven and raised to eternal life.If you are not living to love with Jesus, then may I encourage you to do so. If you believe in the name of the Son of God, then you have His life dwelling in you, and that was His purpose when He was on the earth. His purpose hasn’t changed. He’s still glorifying His Father by loving with Him through His children. If you aren’t living intentionally to love with Jesus, then, in the name of Jesus, I call you to repent of living for something other than Jesus’ purpose. As a believer, your life isn’t about you, it’s about Jesus. Your old life, with its worldly purposes died when He died on the cross. That’s believing in His name. Your new life is Jesus’ life—dwelling in you and expressing His love and righteousness through you. That’s believing in His name. Repent, believe, and intentionally live to love with Jesus—trusting in Him to be your life.I hope you’ll pause and meditate on the reality of having eternal life. When John wrote that they “may know”, he wasn’t implying that they could just imagine themselves as having eternal life. To know eternal life is to know a reality, something that exists and is true before God. If you are living to love with Jesus, you know you have Jesus in your life. You experience His love flowing through your life on a daily basis. You don’t find it burdensome to love, it’s a joy and a privilege to you. According to the things John wrote in this letter, you are a child of God and have eternal life. Rejoice in the Lord! Give God thanks, and give Him glory.
1 John 5:12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.It’s impossible to live to love without having the Son of God manifesting His life. Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). In this verse, John stated clearly the testimony of God concerning His Son. The person who has the Son dwelling in Him has eternal life, who is the witness to the world that Jesus lives and is seated at the Father’s right hand. Jesus is the life. What an incredible miracle it is for someone who once was dead in trespasses and sins, living according to the lusts of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and was by nature a child of wrath to be transformed by eternal life. While praying to His Father, Jesus described eternal life which He was authorized to give to everyone who the Father gave to Him. He said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3). If we connect some of the thoughts presented in the last two chapters of this letter, we can see clearly how this is an encouragement to live to love. If someone has the Son, then they have the life of God in them. Having the eternal life of God in them through the Son, they know both the Father and the Son, who is love. In knowing the Father and Son, they know and experience God’s love in which they abide. Therefore the love of God flows from the Father, through the Son, through the believer, to others. They love because they have been loved by God. Love, having finished its course through the believer becomes the testimony of God concerning His Son. He is revealed as the risen, Son of God, Lord of Life, King of Righteousness, and Giver of eternal life.
1 John 5:10-11 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.The testimony is this: God gave eternal life to the apostle John and the rest of His disciples through His son, Jesus, who indwelled them. They experienced the life of Jesus in them, and after years of observation and experience wrote what they saw firsthand: Everyone who has the Son living in them has eternal life. If anyone doesn’t have the Son living in them, they don’t have eternal life. So how do you know if you have the Son living in you? You have a heart to love and obey Him because you have been overwhelmed by His love. He is your greatest treasure. You know you have His life because you have been changed and set free to love others. Love the Son, and enjoy living to love with Him today. You have eternal life in yourself and are a living testimony of God in this world. God is calling His children to a life of living to love with Jesus. I hope you’ll visit www.livetolovewithjesus.com to intentionally join the movement God started when He sent His Son. I call it the live to love adventure. One of my friends calls it a Godventure. I like that, don’t you? Discover the only purpose in life that can’t be taken from you, won’t ever change, and will give you a wonderful reason to wake up each morning and launch into the day with Jesus.
1 John 5:9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son.We face today the same dangers to the faith as the first century believers. There’s the witness of man in contrast with the witness of God regarding His Son. The progressive so-called Christians today testify that Jesus was a normal man who lived an exemplary life because he truly understood how to live his best life. They testify that he and everyone in the world have the spirit of Christ, and that love is God. In stark contrast, the testimony of God concerning His son is that He, God took on human flesh through the virgin birth. He lived a perfect life and gave His life as a payment for sins, was buried, was raised by the power of God, has ascended to the right hand of God and has been given all authority in heaven and earth. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is the witness that Jesus is in God, that we are in Him, and that Jesus is in us (John 14:20).John stated that the testimony of God is greater than the testimony of men. Men can say anything, but have no authority. However, when God speaks or testifies, He speaks with authority, for His words are verified by actions and transformed lives. Remember when Jesus forgave the lame man and the Pharisees accused Him of blasphemy? He countered with a question (Luke 5:23-25). “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” — He said to the paralytic — “I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.The testimony of God was the healing of the lame man which verified that Jesus was the Son of God. Men who are transformed from selfish, self-glorifying, self-gratifying, self-centered living to God-glorifying, God-pleasing, Jesus-centered loving by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit are testimonies of God that Jesus is God’s son. Who can argue that man’s testimony is greater than God’s? It’s like saying a puddle of water is greater than the ocean. Or that a light bulb outshines the sun. It’s ridiculous and incredulous. The following verses will encourage us more regarding God’s testimony about Jesus. Today, be encouraged that your faith isn’t based on the ideas of man, but on the testimony and witness of God Himself regarding Jesus Christ. Your living to love with Jesus shouts that testimony loud and clear. It shines in the darkness like a beacon on a moonless night. Shout it loud. Shine it bright. Jesus is life. His life is light. And His light is love.
1 John 5:7-8 For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.These verses summarize the previous verses, so I’ll read it again beginning in verse. 6. 1 John 5:6 “This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.”We talked yesterday about how God provided a foundation for faith at two historical events: Jesus’ baptism (water) and His death (blood). Jesus, as the Son of God in a human body passed through both of those events according to the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit testifies in agreement with these two witnesses that Jesus is God’s Son. The writer of Hebrews echoed these things when he wrote in 2:3-4, “After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.” Let’s not miss the connection between this and what John wrote in this letter. The testimony of the Holy Spirit in the children of God is faith and love. This testimony agrees with the water and the blood. The water and the blood testify that God loved the world in sending His Son in human flesh to identify with us and lay down His life for us. The same qualities and characteristics of God’s love is completing its course through all believers as a testimony for others to believe. The three testimonies agree that God is love and has sent His Son to be the savior of the world by overcoming the world. Do you get it? Believers are baptized, united with Jesus’ death and life. Their faith and love for each other in Christ is a testimony that agrees with Jesus’ testimony as God’s Son. As you live to love with Jesus, you are a living testimony of the Holy Spirit in this world verifying that Jesus Christ, is the Son of God in the flesh, the savior of the world. This is no insignificant reality. It’s that for which we exist. It’s the primary reason we are saved and have His life dwelling in us. By this the world will know that God sent His Son and that we are His disciples. I hope this encourages you to take up the call to live to love with Jesus with all seriousness, intentionality, and joy.If the live to love scripture encouragements have been encouraging to you, would you please share it with your friends on social media and in your community? God’s Spirit is at work, and as we work together, we can plant the seeds and advance God’s kingdom on the earth. I hope you’ll visit www.livetolovewithjesus.com and share the resources there with those in your church and circle of relationships.
1 John 5:6 This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.Our faith is based on truth, on reality. John wrote this verse as a direct refutation of what the Gnostics were teaching, namely, that Jesus was naturally born to Joseph and Mary and that the spirit of Christ came on Him at His baptism (water) and then departed from Him before He died on the cross (blood). John wrote that the testimony of the Holy Spirit came through His baptism (water) when God testified from heaven, “You are my beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (Mark 1:11). The Holy Spirit also testified that Jesus was God’s son through His death (that is the blood). The meaning is that Jesus was God in a human body from the beginning to the end. He went through both baptism, God identifying Him with man as His Son, and the shedding of blood in His substitutionary death for our sins. John was writing to say that faith which is born of God and that overcomes the world is based on real world events. The implication is clear. Our faith isn’t based on man-made constructs. It’s not based on a myth or fiction. The Christ isn’t a theological idea or a spirit that descended on Jesus for a period of time.The Spirit has testified that Jesus is God’s human-born son. He is the reality of God in the flesh. The children of God not only believe because of the witness of God at His baptism and His death, but also on the testimony of the Holy Spirit within them regarding Jesus. That is the faith that overcomes the world and that empowers them to love in His name. I hope you know this experience, this reality. If you are living to love with Jesus, you believe that Jesus was God when He was baptized and when He bled and died on the cross. That reality is your hope of salvation and glory. Let us rejoice today that God has given us His Spirit so we could believe in Jesus and live to love with Him.
1 John 5:5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?As we have seen repeatedly in 1 John, the apostle emphasized faith and love as the evidence or assurance that one is a child of God. In these first verses of chapter 5, the spotlight shines on faith—believing that Jesus is the Son of God, who came in human form and flesh, to be the savior of the world. He asked a question: Who is the one who overcomes the world? We might take him to answer, “It’s none but those who believe in Jesus.” I want to encourage you today with this thought from this verse. If you are intentionally living today to love with Jesus, you are living with the very Son of God. He lived a perfect life, loving with His Father. He died for your sins, was buried and raised to life. He has been given to you, to dwell in your mortal body, by the power His Spirit, so you can love whoever He puts in your path and overcome the world. Through Christ, you can overcome the lusts, pride, temptations, and attacks from this world. You can overcome the hatred, persecutions, accusations, and lies by faith in His presence in your life—His life of love. Be encouraged! You are living today with the very Son of God. He is your life!
1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith.The world system is like an opponent who wants to beat, defeat, and destroy you. When you live to love with Jesus, you have a foundation and mindset that can overcome all the schemes and attacks the world has to offer. It counters the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life with humility and love. Where does this love come from? It comes from Jesus who dwells in you as you believe in Him. With your eyes fixed on Him, as the author of your faith, He lives His life in you and loves through you. That faith works through love, and you overcome the world by faith in Him as you live to love with Him. To those who overcome He says in Revelation 2:7, “I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.” In this verse, John said that our faith is born of God. John wrote about this in his gospel. John 1:12-13, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” God has given us to His Son (John 17:2), and Jesus has conquered the devil, sin and death, and the world system. He has overcome the world for us, and when the Holy Spirit opens our hearts and cleanses them by faith, Jesus’ victory becomes our victory. Peter described the work of the Holy Spirit in Acts 15:9, “He (the Holy Spirit) made no distinction between us (Jews) and them (Gentiles), cleansing their hearts by faith.” The new birth accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit in birthing faith in our hearts is the victory that has overcome the world. This means the world cannot keep the children of God from believing in Jesus Christ and loving with Him. We overwhelmingly conquer, as Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 8:37 “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” People in the world or the church can’t make us not love them because we choose to love them like God chose to love us—not based on what we have done or not done. Such love is how the faith of Christ works in us. We live to love with Jesus by the faith which God has birthed within us. This is the victory!
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.The encouragement today from 1 John 5:3 is that if we are living to love with Jesus, we are loved by God. We live to love with Him because He has commanded it. In 1 John 3:23, John wrote, “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” The fact that living to love with Jesus isn’t burdensome indicates that we have been loved by God. As John wrote in this verse, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ is not burdensome to us who have experienced God’s love through Jesus. It’s a privilege and joy because as John said in 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.” Having been forgiven of all of our sins in Christ, we celebrate God’s love with our brothers and sisters by forgiving, being patient, and serving each other. We know Jesus loves God’s children, for the joy and glory of His and our Father, so we consider it an honor and a privilege to love one another so we can experience the Lord’s joy together. This is a powerful motivation to commit yourself to live to love with Jesus for the rest of your life. Love intentionally. Love expectantly. Love freely with Jesus today and everyday. I invite you to visit www.livetolovewithjesus.com if you haven’t read my book, Live to Love: Experience Joy and Freedom in Relationships. It’s available for free in print, ebook, and audiobook formats. There’s also a video series, The Live to Love Adventure, which can be used in small groups or for individual discipleship. Please share this podcast and these resources with your friends and family. Let’s spread the word, plant the seeds, and watch God provide the increase in His kingdom, for His glory.
1 John 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.What commandments does John have in mind? Maybe it’s what he’s already said. 1 John 3:23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. So today we love Him by loving His children. We show our faith in Jesus, who commanded His disciples to love one another as He loved them, by obeying Him and loving with Him. How does observing God’s commandments help us to know that we love the children of God? The love of Christ for God’s children wasn’t based on feelings or on anything in them. His love is the sustained direction of His will toward the highest good of God’s children, no matter what the cost. It is a choice of the will to obey His Father’s command to lay down His life for them.Loving God and His children is commanded by God. It is in our highest good that we love out of obedience, trusting in the enabling power of the Spirit of the Son of God, whom we have received. In this way, God is glorified, and we fulfill our highest purpose, which is our highest and greatest good. We know that we love the children of God because our hearts have been changed by the new DNA implanted within us, and we love God and keep His commandments.As we live to love with Jesus, we know we love the children of God.
1 John 5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.Someone who has God’s DNA in him is one who has faith in Jesus as God’s son, who took on flesh and blood so He could be the savior of God’s family and the firstborn of many brethren. And being born of God, they love their Father by loving their spiritual siblings. The love of the Father for His children dwells in them. It is a part of their spiritual DNA. God is love. That means we have been called by God to live to love with Jesus as He loves His brothers and sisters through us. More than likely you will have opportunities today to love on Jesus’ brothers and sisters as an expression of love for our Father. The Father loves His children so much that He gave His Son to save them, and He raised His Son, Jesus, to life so that He would love them forever. As a reservoir of God’s love, filled with the love of Jesus, a child of God has more than enough love for the rest of His family. All who have God’s DNA will resemble one another in faith and love. I invite you to join the live to love adventure at www.livetolovewithjesus.com. I hope you’ll take the Live to Love Prayer Challenge to experience the joy of living to love with Jesus. Take advantage of the resources available for free to get equipped to live to love with Jesus and to make disciples who do the same.
1 John 4:21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.We continue to track with the apostle John in his reasoning for explaining that faith and love are the evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who are from God. In the previous verse, we were encouraged that to love our brothers and sisters is how we love the invisible God. John also made it clear that loving God and hating His people is an impossible contradiction. In today’s verse we learn why loving God and hating His people are not compatible. The one who loves God also obeys Him, and God commanded His disciples to love one another. Hopefully you remember John 13:34-35. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jesus repeated this commandment in John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” In John 14:21, Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.”Now we can easily make the connection that John made. Jesus, who is God, gave us a commandment to love one another. So if we love Him, we should love our brothers and sisters in Christ because loving them is to love Him. When we live to love with Jesus, we are loving Jesus by loving His own with Him. Bottom line: It’s all about Jesus! He has loved us so we could love Him and each other for the glory of God. Hopefully you will have opportunities today to love God by loving others. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you so you can live to love with Jesus for God’s glory.
1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.I want to encourage us today to live to love with Jesus by flipping this verse from the negative to the positive. See if this resonates with you. The one who loves his brother whom he can see, loves God whom he cannot see. This reality is echoed in a number of Scriptures such as Jesus’ parable about the sheep who ministered to “one of the least of these, my brothers.” They were, in reality, ministering to Jesus. Another example is when Jesus revealed Himself to Saul, later known as the apostle Paul. Jesus asked Saul, “Why do you persecute me?” Jesus wanted Saul to know that when he persecuted the members of His body, whom he could see, that he was persecuting Him, whom He could not see.One who loves God, loves everyone born of God. They have the same Father in heaven, therefore, they love each other out of love for their Father. Two verses from this verse, John wrote, 1 John 5:1 “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.” We’ll be encouraged more from that verse on Tuesday, but for now, let’s know for sure that someone who hates a child of God doesn’t love God. The two are incompatible. As the apostle John wrote, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.” How do you know you are of the Spirit of truth and not the spirit of error? How do you know if you love God whom you cannot now see? You love everyone born of Him whom you can see. You love your brothers and sisters in Christ with Him.
1 John 4:19 We love, because He first loved us.We are encouraged today from this verse as we learn why those who know God, love. They love because they have been loved first by God. It’s like the testing the wind as John mentioned in verse 1 of this chapter. Where is the wind blowing from and where is it blowing to? The wind of the Holy Spirit is love, and it blows from God. The wind of the Spirit blows through people who are His and moves them to love those who are His. Who are the “we” and “us” of whom John wrote? One possibility is that he had Jesus’ apostles in mind. He may also have had true believers in mind—those who know God. Both would be true, but since he had been equipping the saints to discern between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, and had been describing those through whom God’s love is completed, it seems to me we might best consider the subjects to be members of the body of Christ. If that is the case, then John was testifying about the love that flows among those who truly know Jesus and are born of God. The love of the saints for one another directly flows out of the love they have received from God. We love because we are reservoirs of love created by God for his glory. He loved us by coming to be with us. He took on our sin and removed its power to separate us from Him. And He sent us His son to dwell inside of us in the person of the Holy Spirit so that we would be caught up in the tsunami of His love. That’s how we know we are loved by God—He is with us! His purpose for living in us is to glorify His name through His Son, Jesus, as we adopt His purpose and live to love with Jesus for His glory.I use the phrase “live to love with Jesus” repeatedly because the love we have for one another comes from our relationship with God through Jesus who abides in us and we in Him. To be clear, we don’t love one another so that God will love us. We know God loves us because we have His Spirit abiding in us. We know His Spirit abides in us because we love. We want to love, we choose to love, we love to love. It’s why we live—why we were saved, why we wake up each day, and how we glorify God. We choose to live to love one another with Jesus because He chose to love us by laying down His life for us and becoming a propitiation for our sins. If we get this with the understanding of our hearts, we love all our brothers and sisters in Christ with the same sacrificial, self-denying, humble love with which we have been loved. Are you one of “us?” Has your purpose for living changed since you met Jesus? I hope you’ll check out www.livetolovewithjesus.com. I think you’ll be encouraged by the resources there. They are meant to help us be disciples of Jesus, love with Him, and make disciples who love to love with Jesus.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.What an encouraging verse. Let’s see if we can follow John’s reasoning. He had written that God’s love is perfected or completes its course when we abide in His love, He abides in us, and we love others. God’s love flowing through the lives of believers is the proof that they know God and is their confidence in the day of judgment. Before someone knows God, he lives in fear of death. But when he experiences His love through the indwelling Holy Spirit, believes in Jesus as the Son of God sent for the propitiation of his sins, and experiences the Holy Spirit enabling him to love with the supernatural love of God, that fear is cast out. He knows he’s forgiven and that there is therefore now no condemnation or punishment for his sins. Instead of fear, he has confidence before God. That’s what John meant when he wrote that perfect love, love which completes its course through us, casts out fear. John helps and encourages us greatly by telling us what God’s love accomplishes in His children. It casts out fear, and if fear of God’s punishment still exists, then love has not completed its work. This should encourage us to ask ourselves: Are we afraid of God’s punishment? If we are, then we haven’t really experienced God’s love and we aren’t living for the purpose for which God loves, namely, to transform us to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God. He bestows His love on His children so that they become expressions of His love in this world. They have no fear because they trust in the love of God, and therefore His love flows freely through their lives. May we live today without fear, loving with Jesus for the glory of God.
1 John 4:16-17 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.If God abides in His children and He is love, then the only thing that makes sense is that His love controls them and continues to move through them. Why? Because they live in His love. It’s central to their identity as children of God. Living to love with Jesus gives us confidence in the day of judgment because the only way love can complete its course through us is if we abide in God’s love. If we abide in God’s love, then God, who is love, abides in us and loves through us as we live through Him. Wow! What a comfort and assurance we have if we see the life and love of Jesus Christ manifested and completed in our lives. Abiding in God and He in us doesn’t happen as a result of our trying hard to live for Jesus, it is the work of the Holy Spirit as John wrote in vs. 13. “He has given us of His Spirit.” Having received the Holy Spirit, the true children of God believe and receive the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, which is the way God’s love is perfected with them. The person who experiences the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in his life does not fear death or the day of judgment. He knows God loves him, has cleansed him of all sin, and as Paul wrote to the Colossians, will be presented holy and blameless and beyond reproach before God (Col. 1:22). This is a great encouragement to live to love with Jesus isn’t it? Our confidence is that we are fulfilling our purpose in this world just as Jesus is. Jesus lives to love with His Father and with us. We live to love with Jesus. As John wrote, “We may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.” Jesus abides in the Father’s love, and the Father abides in Him. The children of God abide in Jesus, and Jesus abides in them. This wonderful work of the Holy Spirit that unites us in love with God and with each other is the essence of living to love with Jesus. These verses are meant to encourage us to make loving with Jesus the purpose of our lives each day. Everything else is subordinate to that primary purpose for life. We love and glorify God by living to love with Him in this world.
1 John 4:16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.After declaring the good news of the gospel that God sent His Son to be the Savior of the world, John continued explaining the work of the Holy Spirit which He had just declared as the proof that one abides in God and He abides in Him. There are two evidences that the Holy Spirit, the presence of Christ, dwells in you. 1 John 4:15 focused on the first evidence, faith. This verse focused on the second evidence that one has the Holy Spirit, the love of God. The person who believes that Jesus is God’s Son sent to be the Savior of the world also knows and believes God loves them. John wrote earlier in 3:16. “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us.” So we believe the love God has for us, and we abide in His love. I think that means that His love becomes the greatest source of satisfaction to our souls. He becomes our sole source of contentment, significance, joy, satisfaction, and love in this world. We are encouraged today by this verse that if Jesus’ love is enough for us in this world, then we are abiding in God and He is abiding in us. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the proof that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and He is God in us. As we will see in the next verse, the proof that we are abiding in God’s love is that His love makes its way through us to others. May we abide in His love today and always, finding in Him our greatest satisfaction in life.
1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.After declaring the good news of the gospel that God sent His Son to be the Savior of the world, John continued explaining the work of the Holy Spirit which He had just declared as the proof that one abides in God and He abides in Him. There are two evidences that the Holy Spirit, the presence of Christ, dwells in you. This verse focuses on faith and the next one on love. Lest we forget, I remind you of 1 John 3:23-24 which helps us see what was in John’s mind here. “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”The Spirit of God testifies to the deity of Christ and His love and salvation by giving us faith in Jesus. The real or true believer in Christ Jesus confesses that Jesus is the Son of God. That confession of faith is a definite outcome that will happen as a result of hearing the gospel. It is the work of the Holy Spirit and thus the proof of salvation. A continuous, enduring faith reveals the reality that God abides in the believer and the believer abides, lives in, through, and by Him.Please sit with this reality and let it encourage your heart, inspire greater love and gratitude for God today. If you believe in Jesus, it’s because God dwells in you and you in Him. Let the love of God for you swell within your soul until you don’t think you can hold it in any longer. Then you are ready for God to put someone in your path so His love can gush out of your soul like a geyser for His glory. That is the essence of living to love with Jesus. Faith in Jesus, working through love for the glory of God.
1 John 4:14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.We are encouraged today by the testimony of John on behalf of his fellow apostles. They are firsthand, eye-witnesses that God, the Father, sent Jesus to be the only Savior of humans in this world. These verses, according to C.H. Dodd, Weld h New Testament theologian and scholar, is “the high-water mark of the thought of the epistle.”One cannot separate the deity of Christ, the love of God, and our love for God and man. Any theology that denies that Jesus is God in the flesh “robs God of the glory of His love, and robs man of the one belief that generates a perfect love within him” (John Stott, Tyndale NT commentary on the Epistles of John). Our faith in Christ and love for Him are grounded in the testimony of the apostles. In vs. 6, John wrote, “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us.” In this verse, we have the heart of the gospel and the primary mission of the apostles, namely, to testify to, proclaim, and declare who Jesus is, the reason for His coming, and the hope of salvation to all who believe. He was the Son of God, sent to be the Savior of the world. He came to save us from our sin and from living for ourselves. Paul said it this way to the Galatians in Galatians 1:3-5, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.”This gospel is the power of salvation to all who believe (Rom. 1:16). It is the foundation given us by the great apostles, one of whom was John, and who penned this wonderful verse of hope. May we be encouraged today to live to love with Jesus as we anchor our lives into the gospel of God given to us by His chosen apostles.
1 John 4:13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.In vss. 13-16, John encouraged his readers (and all who are His) that they know if they are one with God. In this verse, we learn the proof that God lives in us and we in Him. That’s what John meant when he wrote, “By this we know.” Surely this proof echoes Jesus’ words to His disciples in John 14:20. “In that day (the day you receive the Holy Spirit) you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” John went one step further in this verse and vss. 14-16) by giving the proof that one has the Holy Spirit: They have the fruit or work of the Holy Spirit evident within them. What is that fruit? It is faith and love. Here’s the reasoning. If you have the Holy Spirit, then you know, or it proves three realities. 1). Jesus is in God. 2). You are in Jesus. and 3). Jesus is in you. The proof that you have the Holy Spirit is that you believe that Jesus is the Christ, sent from God in the flesh as a propitiation for your sins (vs. 15), and you love with Him (vs. 16). Faith and love are “of His Spirit.” It is only by the Holy Spirit that one believes in Jesus (vs. 2) and by the same Spirit that we are enabled to love (vs. 12-13). The natural man isn’t able to believe in Jesus to the glory of God nor is he able to love with God’s love, which is supernatural. Do you have the proof in your life that you abide in Jesus and He abides in you? John wasn’t suggesting that if you try to believe in Jesus and try to live to love you will earn union with God. He was saying that if you believe in Jesus and love your brothers and sisters in Christ, then it is proof that you abide in Jesus and He abides in you. You have the finished work of God’s love operating in your life to assure you that you are one with God. I hope this encourages you today, because if it does, then you are living to love with Jesus. If it’s convicting, because you don’t see His work in your life, then take heart. Repent of believing in yourself and trust in Jesus as God’s provision for your salvation and for the power to live for the glory of God. Receive the Holy Spirit to manifest and perfect the life, faith, and love of Christ in your life.
1 John 4:11-12 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.Let’s recall how God so loved us from vs. 10. He sent His s on to be the propitiation for our sins. In love, God took upon Himself the burden of justice that our sins deserve. The wages of sin is death, and we all owe a debt which we cannot pay and still live. The Father and Son justified us through His death as our substitute so we could live to love with Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit for His glory. Can you see how I came to that conclusion in vs. 12? Although no one has seen God at any time (and I think He was referring to God, the Father, the One and only, Almighty God), His presence in the lives of those who are His is revealed by His love flowing through them. His love is the light of His presence. As John wrote, “If we love one another, God abides in us.” The idea that God’s love is perfected in us as we love each other is insightful and instructive. The word connotes the completion of a course or the fulfillment of purpose. The love in the Godhead cannot be completed if it isn’t given, poured out upon undeserving creatures who in turn pour out His love to other undeserving creatures. So His love is literally perfected or completed in the body of Christ as one member loves another member of Jesus’ body with His love. So there it is: we live through Jesus as we love with Jesus. The body of Christ living to love with Jesus reveals God to the world. So love completes it’s course. It flows from God the Father, through the Son, and through His children as they love each other. Be encouraged by this great truth as you live to love with Jesus. You have God abiding in you, whose love isn’t finished accomplishing what it was sent to accomplish until you love someone by doing whatever it takes for their highest good, for God’s glory. As each person you love with Jesus receives His love, God’s love finishes its course so the world can see that God abides in you. And if He lives in you, He can also live in them, if they will believe that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, in the flesh to save them from their sins and fulfill His purpose to reveal Himself through them as they love with Jesus.
1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.We are encouraged today by an if/then statement. If God has manifested his love in us by giving us his Son so that we might live through Him, then we also ought to manifest his love to one another. It makes total sense that if God, who is love dwells in us, and we live through Him, that His love would be the outstanding dynamic among those who are His. Jesus said as much in John 13:34 and 35 when He gave them the new commandment to love as He loved and said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples.” And again in John 15:8, Jesus encouraged the disciples when He said, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit (and of course, the fruit is love) and so prove to be My disciples.” The very presence of the life of Jesus Christ in us is the proof that God loves us, and therefore we should be excited about loving Him by loving His children, our brothers and sisters in Christ. I hope you’ll pray now, and be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that you’re ready to love everyone God puts in your path today, for His glory.
1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.In this verse, we learn how God’s love is manifested in us as we live through Jesus. Our love for God isn’t the main show that the world needs to see. It’s God’s love for sinners that the world needs to see. It’s not possible for God’s love to be manifested in sinners unless their sins are paid for and they are redeemed and restored into a right relationship with God. Notice what Paul wrote to the Ephesians in 4:32. “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” Because we have been forgiven and have received God’s mercy, kindness, and forgiveness, we show His love to others. Our lives of love testify to God’s nature and love for His enemies, which we once were. This is the love of God manifested in us to the world as we live through Jesus.What a glorious privilege and hope we have to be vessels of His grace, mercy, and love. We want the world to see how glorious and wonderful God is. He is worthy to be made much of, and our prayer is that as we love with Jesus, many will be amazed at His love and drawn to Jesus through His love. May God glorify Himself as we make much of Jesus and live to love with Him today.
1 John 4:9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.The love of God is manifested to the world in us as we live through Jesus Christ. Jesus was sent into the world for the purpose of giving eternal life to those who are His. His resurrection proves that He is life, and our living in this world through Him shows the world that He still lives. When we stop and meditate on this truth, we should be awe-struck, amazed, and grateful. John continued the point that those who love with God’s love know Him. He said that those who live through Him, which is the same as living with Him, manifest or show God’s love. How do we live through Jesus? We live our lives through His purpose, which was and is to love with His Father. We live our lives filtering all of life through Jesus’ worldview. Every situation and relationship is filtered through 3 unchanging realities. 1). There is only one God from whom are all things and He is love. 2). Jesus’ love is enough. His love satisfies the deepest desires of my soul. If I have Him, I am content. 3). God’s purpose in all things in my life is to reveal Jesus and His love in this world for His glory.As we live to love with Him, we are manifesting His love, the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of those He puts in our paths, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for God’s glory. In so doing, God’s purpose for His Son and His purpose for us is fulfilled. This shows His love in us. Have you realized that living to love with Jesus is the proof that God sent His Son and that He lives? Do you realize the significance of your life in this world and in God’s administration of His kingdom? We are one with Jesus, with His purpose, with His mindset, and with His glory. Now that’s encouraging!
1 John 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.This verse answers a question. Is it possible for someone to know God and not be transformed by His love? No, it isn’t possible that someone knows God and doesn’t express that love to others. The reason it’s impossible is that knowing God isn’t simply having knowledge (which by the way was the belief of the gnostics who were causing the problems in the church at that time). One knows God only by the indwelling presence and power of the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said that He came to give eternal life to all the Father gave to Him and “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Jesus gives eternal life by indwelling those born of God. The Son is born in them, therefore they know God the Father and the Son. The divine nature of God that comes to live in believers is love. The spirit of error operating in John’s day still operates today. There are those who twist this verse and say that “love is god.” Their god is not one that is transformative, it leaves one to do what one feels is love without making any changes. John’s point was that God’s presence and love is transformative. If God bestows His love on a person, the person knows He is known by God. By the love which the person receives, he knows God. The response to knowing God is to love Him as the Son loves Him because the Son has come to live in him. To love Him is to love with Him just like Jesus loved with His Father. Those who don’t love with God’s kind of love, don’t know God, for God is love.What a wonderful encouragement to live to love with Jesus. We who have been loved by God and know God want to love with Jesus. We want to live our lives for His glory because we have the nature of God dwelling in our mortal bodies, filling our hearts with love, and satisfied in the fullness of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, God’s son.
1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.I would like to amplify this verse to encourage us to live to love with Jesus. Sometimes it helps me to study the verse and then say it in my own words with the ideas I gleaned from the study. Here goes. “Those whom God has chosen to love with the same love with which He loves His own Son, let us love one another with Jesus in and with the love we have received from Him. Everyone who loves like God loves is a child of God and knows Him firsthand.” What do you think? Let’s slow down and think about what John wrote and what an encouragement this is to us who live to love with Jesus.John used forms of the word agape in this verse. W.E. Vines wrote that this word is used to “describe the attitude of God toward His Son in John 17:26. “And I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” Vines continues, “It was an exercise of the Divine will in deliberate choice, made without assignable cause save that which lies in the nature of God Himself. Love had its perfect expression among men in the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:14. Christian love, whether exercised toward the brethren, or toward men generally, is not an impulse from the feelings, it does not always run with the natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon those for whom some affinity is discovered. Love seeks the welfare of all, and works no ill to any; love seek opportunity to do good to all men, especially toward them that are of the household of the faith. In regards to God, it expresses the deep and constant love and interest of a perfect Being towards entirely unworthy objects producing and fostering a reverential love in them toward the Giver and a practical love toward those who are partakers of the same, and a desire to help others to seek the Giver.”That’s why I described Beloved in this way, “Those whom God has chosen to love with the same love with which He loves His own Son.” Notice what Jesus said above. He made His Father’s name known so that the love the Father has for Him would be in them, and He would be in them. So I amplified that truth with “let us love one another with Jesus in and with the love we have received from Him.” I believe this verse calls all believers to live to love with Jesus. God has loved us as He loves His Son and has given His Son to be in us so that His love will make us one and bring glory to the Father. Have you grasped that this is a change of purpose for everyone who believes in Jesus? Love is the core of who we are.The definition of love that I have used in Live to Love is this: God’s love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. All of what Vines said is echoed in this brief definition of love. It is this love with which we have been loved, and therefore we are called and exist to express it our entire lives in any situation or relationship. With this love in our hearts and souls flowing to others, we know we are born of God and know God. God’s love is a reality, the truth, not merely a feeling. Love is the proof that we are born of God.
1 John 4:6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.In today’s verse, we learn another test by which we can discern or test the spirits to see if they are from God or not. Where does the Spirit blow from? The wind blows from the apostles of Jesus Christ, those who walked with Him and were eye witnesses. John said in the beginning of the letter, “What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” The apostles are from God. They confess that Jesus was God in the flesh sent to be the propitiation for our sins and the giver of eternal life. Those who know God, listen to the inspired word of God through Jesus’ apostles and believe it to be the truth. Those who are not from God do not listen to them and instead listen to those who are from the world. They listen to the spirit of error, the antichrist. One of the first things that those who apostatize or deconstruct their faith say is that they do not believe that the words of the apostles written in the Scriptures are authoritative. They say there is no objective truth. As one listens to them or reads what they write, it is clear that they are carried by the winds of our culture.The reason we live to love with Jesus is because we listen and obey what we find written in the Scriptures, the four gospels, Acts, and the letters of the apostles. We will be encouraged more in the following verses that love is the evidence of faith in Christ and knowing God. I hope that we will make reading the New Testament Scriptures a part of our daily routines. Be careful who you listen to as you walk through life.
1 John 4:5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.In the previous verse, we learned that the antichrist was foretold by Jesus and His disciples and is already in the world. People who are not from God, are from the world and look to the spirit of antichrist as their power source. In this verse John told his readers how to test the wind or spirit of these people by telling them where the wind comes from and where it’s blowing people. The wind comes from the world; “they speak as from the world.” And as you would expect, the wind blows in the direction of the world; “the world listens to them.” The discernment test is this: Where do you speak from and who listens to you?When we talk about living to love with Jesus, we aren’t speaking about a love that is from the world, a natural love. The world’s kind of love is all about feelings—making people feel loved and accepted no matter what they do. Self-expression is from the world and the world loves to hear that message. To the world, it is a message of freedom and is for the glory of man.When we talk about loving with Jesus, we are talking about a supernatural love that can only come from Jesus Christ. His love cannot come from those who are in the world—from the antichrist spirit. It’s not about feelings, it is a choice of the will toward the highest good of another in the power of the Spirit for the glory of God. We aim not to express ourselves, but to express the mind and love of Christ. Today, may we be encouraged to love with God’s kind of love. Let’s not think that we are loving if we make people in the world feel good and approved by their efforts in the flesh. That’s not in their highest good. Their highest good is to glorify God by being satisfied in the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ, who in His body, gave Himself for them, that they might live in Him and express His love and light.
1 John 4:3-4 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.There are two spirits operating in history: the spirit of antichrist, which is not from God, and the Holy Spirit, which is from God. They are both power sources to which people look to navigate through life. The power of the antichrist is based on lies, and the power of the Holy Spirit is based on truth. Those who are from God recognize Jesus as God in the flesh, who laid down His life in order to bring them to God and fill them with His eternal life. His life is their power source like the vine is to the branches. The fruit of the Spirit is love, God’s love, which is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another no matter what the cost in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. In contrast and in opposition, those who are not from God look to themselves, to the flesh, or to something or someone other than Jesus as their power source and satisfaction in life. They do not confess that Jesus is the only Christ, Messiah, Anointed One sent from God as the way, the truth, and the life. The fruit of spirit of antichrist are the deeds of the flesh: “immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these” wrote Paul in Gal. 5:19-21. John said this spirit was foretold, is already in the world, and will always be in the world because it is from the world.These two powers are at war with each other. As Paul wrote to the Galatians in 5:17, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another.” We are encouraged by John that the power source of the life of Christ is greater than the power source of the antichrist. He has overcome the world. He has won the victory by defeating sin and death at the cross and through His resurrection. Jesus in his last hour with His disciples spoke of this victory. John 16:33. “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”As we live to love with Jesus, we are walking in His victory over the anitchrist, the flesh and its idolatries. Our flesh was crucified with Him so that we might no longer live according to the flesh, and we were raised with Him that we might live to love with Him in the power of the Spirit. I encourage you today to walk in confidence with Jesus as your power source. In and through Him, you overcome everything that the world can throw at you. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;In the previous verse, John called the church to be careful to whom they listen. They were to make sure they only listened to those who spoke or taught by the Spirit of God. In this verse, today we learn another test by which we can know the Holy Spirit. Every person or spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Living to love with Jesus is the same as walking by the Holy Spirit. We believe the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:9, 11, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” It is the Holy Spirit who manifests the life of Jesus in and through us. It is the Spirit of God who will raise us up to eternal life even as it raised Jesus’ earthly body. The antichrists in John’s day did not believe Jesus came in the flesh, in an earthly body. They believed the material world, the earthly body, was evil, therefore they denied the incarnation. Today, the antichrists have repackaged the same lies of John’s day. They speak about “the Spirit,” but their emphasis isn’t on Jesus as the Christ, the atoning sacrifice for our sins, died, buried, and risen to give eternal life. They “believe that following the way and teachings of Jesus can lead to experiencing sacredness, wholeness, and unity of all life, even as we recognize that the Spirit moves in beneficial ways in many faith traditions.” (patheos.com).The spirit that generated those words is not the Spirit of God or Christ, but the spirit of antichrist. We will learn more about the spirit of antichrist tomorrow. Today, be encouraged if you confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh to atone for our sins and bring us to God, giving us eternal life, you are from God.
1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.One of the great challenges of living to love with Jesus is wanting to please people. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that love “believes all things.” This verse helps us understand that Paul didn’t mean that love is gullible or that it is loving to believe everyone or everything. The context of 1 Cor. 13 was love guiding their relationships with those who have differing spiritual gifts. Love is the way to navigate the differences and love believes the Holy Spirit is the source of every kind of spiritual gift. Scripture interprets Scripture. It’s a guiding hermeneutic as we read the Bible. This verse begins by addressing those who are loved by God. As we have seen in previous verses and in the verses to come in this chapter, the ones who are loved by God are those who love. We are encouraged in this verse that if we are to love our brothers and sisters well, we must be discerning. We are to test the spirits to see if what is being said is from God. The word for spirit is the same word meaning wind or breath. A word picture may be helpful. When we hear something, it is like the blowing of the wind. What direction is it coming from, and where is it blowing us? Is the wind coming from the love of God carrying us toward loving and obeying the Father and Son? Is it moving me into the path of loving with Jesus and fellowship with others who believe He is the Son of God in the flesh? So as we walk with Jesus, we can’t be naive and believe everyone who says they are Christian or says they believe in Jesus. They may have another Jesus. That why John admonished his readers to test the spirits—ascertain where the wind is coming from. True love that glorifies God can only come from the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the breath of Jesus, the Son.
1 John 3:24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.What an encouragement we find today in this verse. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit, which means that He receives us to Himself, abides in, and forever remains in and with us. There’s never a moment that we don’t have the life of Christ available to us, enabling us to keep His commandments to live to love with Him. If we hold fast to Jesus’ commandments, we abide in Him—we receive Him. Furthermore, we know Jesus lives in us and is with us by the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit. The apostle John surely wrote this because He heard Jesus say this, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day [in the day that Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to you] you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”Did you get that? The day the Holy Spirit is given to you, you can be assured that three things are true. 1. Jesus is in the Father. 2. You are in Jesus. and 3. Jesus is in you. The day you receive the Holy Spirit is observable and experiential. You know it has happened. You are aware that Jesus lives and is in you. How do you know? Because you love and keep His commandment. You intentionally remind yourself that Jesus called you to love with Him. Additionally, His presence in you is evident. Be encouraged today. God, the Father, and Jesus Christ, the Son are in you through the Holy Spirit who has been given to you.
1 John 3:23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.John had just said that we have confidence before God because we keep His commandments. In this verse, we have John’s live to love call explicitly stated. He stated Jesus’ commandment, then specified two commandments. So, in someway, in John’s mind, the two meld together as one. In John 14:1, Jesus commanded His disciples, to believe in Him if they believe in God. In the following verses of John 14, Jesus revealed that He and the Father were one—each abiding in the other. In short, Jesus said that He was God in the flesh. Three times in Jesus’ Olivet discourse, He commanded His disciples to love. In John 13:34, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John 15:12,“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” John 15:17, “This I command you, that you love one another.” How do these two commandments become one? Believing in the name of Jesus is to believe that Jesus is God in the flesh who obeyed His Father’s commandment to lay down His life for His own and then take His life up again in the resurrection. Jesus told His disciples how they were going to obey His commandment, through His resurrection life dwelling in them. John 15:4-5, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” In my words, Jesus commanded them to believe that He lives and dwells in them. He is with us. He commanded them to love as He loves. Living to love with Jesus is a matter of obedience. The only way we can obey that commandment is to believe that Jesus lives with us. So in short, we are called to live to love with Jesus. This is His commandment. So by the grace of Jesus Christ, believe He is with you and love with Him. Living to love with Jesus is our confidence in prayer and when we come to. stand in the judgment. Because Jesus is our life and He loves through us, we know we are loved by the Father. We know His love covers all our sins, fills our hearts to overflowing, and pours out on those He puts in our paths. We also know we are obeying Jesus to live to love with Him. It doesn’t happen by chance, we intend to obey His commandment. I hope this verse encourages you to obey Jesus Christ, and intentionally and prayerfully live to love with Jesus. If His commandment abides in you and you abide in Him, you will bring God glory and look forward to the day when you stand in the presence of God with His Son.
1 John 3:21-22 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.We can be very encouraged today if we are living to love with Jesus. We are doing what God commanded us to do and as we abide in Jesus and love with Him, our heart does not condemn us. This gives us confidence before God in prayer. As we keep His commandments to believe in Jesus (John 14:1) and love as Jesus loves (John 13:34), John wrote here that whatever we ask, we receive from Him since we are doing what pleases Him. Implied in this verse is that we are asking God for what we need to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We can expect God to be faithful and give the grace or material supplies to show His love. If we are intending to love with Jesus and ask along that line, we may be confident that we will receive what our brothers in Christ need. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians in his second letter that the believer’s ambition is to please God. He wrote in 2 Cor. 5:9-10, “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Do you see the connections between what Paul and John wrote? We have confidence before God when we come to stand in the judgment because we do what pleases Him, namely, obeying His commandments to believe in Jesus and love with Him. Paul later said that the love of Christ controls us in our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ (2 Cor. 5:14). That’s what John wrote in this chapter to encourage the saints. If you love your brother, you are doing what pleases God, and therefore you have confidence to stand before Him.I hope these words encourage you today to walk in love with Jesus, for His pleasure. When you need help loving, don’t hesitate to approach God’s throne of mercy and grace to ask for whatever you need to love whoever He puts in your path today. Whatever you ask so you can love for God’s glory, you will receive. Please join me in prayer. Father, thank You that we can count on Your faithfulness to supply everything we need to love with Jesus for Your glory. Fill us with Your Spirit so we can live out of His fulness, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
1 John 3:21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;We learned yesterday that believers in Christ have an antidote for condemnation, namely, that God knows all things and therefore when Jesus died for sins, He didn’t miss any. He saw them all, knew them, identified with them, and bore the full penalty for them. He laid down His life for us! That is love according to John in vs. 16 of this chapter. He called his readers “Beloved” again to emphasize the basis for their peace with God. Having an answer for our sins before God, our heart offers no more condemnation. John wanted his readers to know and the Holy Spirit wants all believers to know that they have a basis for confidence with God. They may come to Him boldly. This reminds me of Hebrews 4:14-16. “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”This is a great encouragement for us today to live to love with Jesus. We can and therefore should draw near to Him, abide in Him, for the mercy He gives to us as sinners and for the grace to love as He has commanded us. We know that God is pleased with the life and love of His Son being manifested through our lives. This is our confidence before God. He loves us, and we know He does because He has given us His Son to love through us is for His glory and pleasure. When we live to love with Jesus, our hearts have nothing with which to condemn us before God. I hope you realize what a privilege and honor it is to embrace Jesus’ life and purpose. Isn’t it wonderful to have confidence before God to come to Him for grace to be able to love people today for His glory?! Enjoy the day and the opportunities God gives you.
1 John 3:19-20 We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.In verse 16, John wrote, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us,” so we conclude that God’s love dwells in us if we love one another as He loved us. In this verse, he wrote that we will know that we are of the truth by how we respond to our sin, namely, we trust that there’s no sin that God didn’t know when He justified us through the death and resurrection of His Son. Before someone trusts in Christ, he has no way to quiet his heart. His heart knows some of his sins and rebellion against God, and he may have tried to cope with the conviction, condemnation, and guilt by medicating it, drowning it out with activity, blaming someone else, or simply denying it exists. However, his heart doesn’t become calm and peaceful, it actually becomes more troubled when contemplating standing before God with nothing hidden. Deep down, he knows the truth is what God sees and nothing can be hidden from Him. This verse testifies to a reality for believers that successfully quiets the heart. The reality is that Jesus is God in the flesh, and when He died on the cross, He died with full knowledge of all of their sins. He knows more about them than they do. When a believer sins and his heart condemns him, the witness of the life of Christ in him assures his convicted heart with this glorious truth: God is greater than his heart and knows all things about him. He loved him when he was a sinner, so now that he is His child and has the security of His life in his mortal bod, can’t he be even more assured of His love and acceptance? The Holy Spirit bears witness of this reality in the heart of the believer and the heart has a firm basis for peace and contentment. The love of God flows through a contented, quiet heart.Have you experienced this ministry of the love of God? Have you shushed your heart when it condemns you and recalls your sins? I hope so. It’s impossible to love when you feel condemned, guilty, and rejected. May we be encouraged today to quiet our hearts, find satisfaction and contentment in God’s knowledge and love, so we can love out of the fullness of Christ.
1 John 3:18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.John encouraged his readers, his little children, to put love into action. The gnostics, who believed that salvation came through the knowledge of spiritual truth, didn’t believe their deeds were of any significance because their deeds were done in the body, which in their minds, was of the material world and therefore evil. In stark contrast, the true children of God, in whom the Son of God dwelled, are known by their deeds done in the body. When John used the word “truth” he was referring to reality. So as Jesus loves through us, it will be more than just words, loving deeds flow out of the reality of the living, indwelling Son of God. John had just mentioned that the love of God is revealed through believers laying down their lives in this world and meeting one another’s needs through His supply. God is glorified as we express His love in tangible, real generosity and hospitality. God’s love is illustrated in His word to His people through Isaiah in Isaiah 43:4-5 “Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you.” Yes, God spoke to them in words, “I love you,” but they needed Him to be with them and help them. So God didn’t just love them in words, he loved in deed and in truth. He came to be with them and manifest His presence and power. When we put action with our words, the words have meaning and testify to the reality of the truth that Jesus lives in us. Today, as God puts people in our paths, may we be filled with the grace of Jesus Christ to put His love into action to meet the needs of others out of His abundance and riches.
1 John 3:17 But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?The context of this verse is the love of God. He had just described the character of God’s love, namely laying down one’s life for their brothers and sisters in Christ. There’s an assumption in this verse: The children of God have the love of God abiding in them. Remember in 3:1 he remarked about the love God has bestowed upon His children. Let me state this verse in the positive. John was specific about what it means to lay down one’s life—it’s having one’s heart open to his brother in need. The love of God abiding in him moves him to help his brother if he has the means to do it. How does the love of God abide in someone if it isn’t moved to help a brother in need? John’s reply would be, “It doesn’t.”Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones defined mercy. He said, “While grace looks down upon sin as a whole, mercy looks, especially upon the miserable consequences of sin. Mercy really means a sense of pity plus a desire to relieve the suffering.” The good Samaritan illustrated God’s mercy. He came upon the man who had been beaten and robbed and took pity on him which moved him to help the man. That was John’s point in this verse. God’s love has mercy on a brother who is suffering and in need which moves him to action.God may put a brother in need in your path today because He has given you what the brother needs and He wants to glorify His name by loving through you. The Live to Love prayer prepares you to love with Jesus. If you aren’t already praying it, I invite you to check it out at www.livetolovewithjesus.com. Let’s be ready to give to our brothers and sisters in Christ what God has given to us to meet their needs.
1 John 3:16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.What a contrast again John set before his readers. The one who hates is a murderer, one who takes life from his brothers. The one who loves doesn’t take life; he lays down his life for his brothers. We know this because that’s what Jesus did for us, His brothers. So it follows that everyone in whom Jesus abides and who abides in Jesus ought to lay down their lives for their brothers. When Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another as He loved them, He had just initiated the process of laying down His life for them. He had only minutes before told Judas to quickly go and betray Him (John 13:27). He was on His way to the cross. Obviously John didn’t miss the point. He made it here. Laying down our lives for those we love is like Jesus. In a sense, Jesus is still laying down His life for us as we die to ourselves in order to love each other. We should expect loving with Jesus to cost us something—our lives in this world. We should love our brothers more than we love our lives in this world. John unpacked this kind of love in a practical way in the following verses. Today, let’s be ready to die to ourselves, ready to lay down our lives, to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
1 John 3:15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.In this verse John taught that the presence of eternal life in an individual is incompatible with hatred and murder. According to the Holy Spirit, who inspired John to write, hatred of a brother makes one a murderer. This helps us to know that if we have any feelings of hatred for someone in our minds, it’s not from Jesus, but from the flesh or from the demonic realm. As I listen and read the news it seems that the spirit of murder is growing in the world. The content of the news often provides one example after another of hatred spewing forth from one ethnic group toward another, members of certain political groups spew out hatred toward people who disagree with them. There’s a growing hatred for believers in Christ in the world. We should not be surprised when that hatred manifests itself in the murder of Christians. We see it in other countries around the world, and we shouldn’t think that it can’t happen in the U.S. Hatred in the heart is murderous. John’s point was that hatred should never be expressed between brothers in Christ. It makes me think that at the time of John’s writing, there were some in the assembly that called themselves believers who did have hatred in their hearts toward others in the church. He wanted them to know that those people were devoid of eternal life. They were spiritually dead, and were not to be listened to. These things were written so that God’s children might not be deceived by the tares sown by the enemy in God’s field. He intended them to have discernment based on the spiritual DNA which produced visible qualities reflective of one’s father. Jesus taught His disciples that the devil was a murderer from the beginning. He hated God and he hates His children. So one would expect the children of the devil to also hate God and His children to the degree that they would murder them. The one with hatred in his heart needs to be warned that he is in danger of eternal destruction. Those of us who live to love with Jesus should show mercy to those who are held in the death grip of hatred and murder. They are in a miserable condition, but God is merciful. He sent His Son, to destroy the works of the devil and to set them free to love with Jesus. If God puts someone in our paths today who hate us, may He also give us grace to display His mercy to them. May He use us to rescue them from Satan’s grip.
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.What a powerful verse of encouragement we have today from 1 John 3:14. Living to love with Jesus reveals that we have eternal life. Let’s notice that everyone who is born into this world is born dead. We abide in and remain in a state of separation from God, death, until we are given eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Those who have eternal life, have Jesus, Himself, dwelling in them. Once God gave us the Holy Spirit, the very presence and power of Christ, to abide in us, we passed out of death into life—life eternal. John states very plainly how one knows he has passed out of death into life—he loves the brethren. He loves because Jesus loves the brethren in and through him. That’s the sign of life—loving with Jesus. Without the love of Christ evident in the life, we know that person doesn’t have life, they abide in death. They are literally, dead men walking through this world. That’s the state we all would be in if it were not for the great mercy and love of God. Those who experience God’s love are changed. The primary change is the implanted desire and ability to love their brothers and sisters in Christ. So if you are seeing Jesus love through you on a regular basis (not saying you love perfectly), then you have eternal life and have passed from death to life. That’s worth celebrating and rejoicing in today and everyday, don’t you think? Please join with me in doing so. Father, we are so grateful for the riches of Your mercy because of Your great love with which You have loved us, that has rescued us from death and given us life in Your Son. We love Your life and Your love. We love living to love with You. Thank you for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you for the opportunities you give us to share Your love for them. We are so blessed and give You glory. Amen.
1 John 3:13 Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.We learn from today’s verse that we can expect some flack as we love with Jesus. We are going to get push back from the world for the same reason Abel was killed by Cain. Abel’s deeds were righteous, and that really brought out evil, hatred, and murder lurking in Cain’s soul. Abel’s righteousness didn’t cause Cain to feel guilty, shame, and insecurity. He already felt those things because of his deeds. It’s just that Abel’s goodness provided an occasion for the evil to be expressed. John didn’t wanted his readers to think that the Christian’s life of love was going to be a easy road with no conflict and trials. Quite the opposite. Those who live to love with Jesus can expect people who are of the evil one in the world to at the least cancel them, and at the most kill them. John was teaching what he heard from Jesus just after receiving the new commandment to love one another as He loved them. Jesus said, John 15:18-19 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” When we live our lives with Jesus, we can know that the hatred we may experience from others isn’t primarily about us, it’s about Jesus. It’s His life and righteousness by which they are convicted. If we continue in His love, we can know God is glorified. This means that we are fulfilling our purpose in life, namely, glorifying God by being most satisfied in His love and will as we live to love with Jesus. We would hope that the people God puts in our paths will receive His love and give Him glory. However, we are not to be surprised if that’s not always the case. How is this encouraging? Jesus also said that we are to rejoice when that happens. “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:11-12). If we experience push back and cancellation from the world, we should rejoice. Because of Him, we suffer, and that means we have a great reward awaiting us in heaven. Now that’s encouraging! So let’s love on with Jesus for His glory and joy as well as our own joy.
1 John 3:12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous.In the previous verse, John told his readers that they were to love one another. In previous verses, he had declared that loving one’s brother is characteristic of all true believers. In this verse, we can see that John had a contrast in mind. The love believers have for their brother is like Jesus has for His brothers, not like Cain had for his brother. Although Cain and Abel came from the same earthly father, they didn’t have the same spiritual father. Cain’s father was the evil one, which was evident by his evil deeds. Abel’s father was God, which was evident by his righteous deeds. In this verse, John highlighted the jealousy, hatred, and murder expressed by Cain to his brother should never be expressed between brothers and sisters in Christ. Implied is this: As you live and practice righteousness (love) with your brothers and sisters in Christ, you are going to see people loving in ways that perhaps outshine you. It is evil to let your brother’s mature love make you jealous, envious, or angry at him. Without realizing it, you may find yourself putting your brother under microscopic judgment, hoping to find some fleshly weakness or fault, a discrepancy or compromise. We must be on the alert that because we feel guilty about some things we are or aren’t doing, due to our immaturity, that we don’t come under the influence of the evil one who was a murderer from the beginning. What is the difference in spirit from someone who cancels his fellowship with a brother because his righteousness convicts him of his immaturity and someone who takes his brother’s life? There is no difference.The love of Christ between brothers in Christ sanctifies us from that jealous, hateful, murderous spirit. As we practice loving with Jesus, let’s remember our love for one another has been purified so that we love like Jesus loves. In the the 3rd verse of this chapter John wrote, “Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” May we purify ourselves from all envy, jealousy, hatred, and murder. Let us love one another.
1 John 3:11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;Recorded in John 13:34, in Jesus’ last message to His disciples he gave them a new commandment that they love one another as he loved them. From this verse, it is apparent that the command to love one another was a message that was given at the beginning of one’s walk with Jesus. Those John wrote in this first epistle had heard that message from the beginning of their faith in Jesus. Love for one another, according to Jesus, was the proof to the world that a person was a disciple of Jesus. He was known for how He loved (with the Father), and His followers would also be known for how they loved (with Jesus). God’s strategy was not just that Jesus’ disciples would be known for loving, it was how they loved that would be unique and powerful. They loved with the same love that Jesus loved—the love empowered by God—a supernatural love. This is the message of the rest of my life—God has called His people to glorify Him by loving with Jesus. That is why I wrote Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships. If Jesus lives in His people, then they have the same purpose and worldview Jesus has. To believe in him is to surrender one’s life to Christ to be an expression of His life in this world. This verse encourages us that loving one another is the same as practicing righteousness, which has been the truth flowing through the previous verses in chapter 3. So be encouraged today to intentionally live to love with Jesus. It’s the message given to believers from the beginning of the church, and it is how we glorify God. Finding our satisfaction in life from the love and life of Jesus, we can live out of His fulness and love for His glory.
1 John 3:10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.This is now the third time John describes an outstanding quality of the children of God, namely, practicing righteousness. A few days ago I related practicing righteousness to living to love with Jesus. Please let me remind you. When I use the word living, I mean that the person lives or practices what Jesus is and does. In chapter 4, verse 8, John wrote that God is love. Now let’s apply the transitive property of equality. If A=B and A=C, then B=C. If God is righteous (A=B) and God is love (A=C), then righteousness=love (B=C). So I have found it helpful for me to think of living to love with Jesus as the primary quality of the children of God. It’s how they glorify God and show that they belong to Him. Jesus said as much when after giving His disciples the new commandment to love one another as He had loved them. He said the world would know they were His disciples by the way they loved each other (John 13:34-35). Then He promised them He would come be with Him forever to do in them what He commanded them to do (John 14:16; 15:4-5). He has kept His promise by sending the Holy Spirit, the seed of God, the anointing from God into our hearts. The point is that it is the love of Jesus, His righteousness, that makes the children of God obvious in this world. In this verse, John emphasized what is obvious about the children of God by highlighting that the children of the devil don’t do what they do. The children of God practice righteousness by loving their brothers and sisters. The children of the devil don’t practice either. So we who are His children have been called by the divine nature dwelling within us to a life of love and righteousness. This is the love of God bestowed upon us, and that love is obvious. It produces love. Take courage today as you live to love with Jesus. His life in you and all who are His is obvious. If someone isn’t practicing righteousness, don’t be deceived by them even if they are in the church. They are children of the devil and not children of God. They need to see and experience the love of Jesus in us that they might be saved and rescued from Satan’s domain of darkness. May the grace of Jesus Christ be with you that His light might shine in the darkness.
1 John 3:10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.This is now the third time John describes an outstanding quality of the children of God, namely, practicing righteousness. A few days ago I related practicing righteousness to living to love with Jesus. Please let me remind you. When I use the word living, I mean that the person lives or practices what Jesus is and does. In chapter 4, verse 8, John wrote that God is love. Now let’s apply the transitive property of equality. If A=B and A=C, then B=C. If God is righteous (A=B) and God is love (A=C), then righteousness=love (B=C). So I have found it helpful for me to think of living to love with Jesus as the primary quality of the children of God. It’s how they glorify God and show that they belong to Him. Jesus said as much when after giving His disciples the new commandment to love one another as He had loved them. He said the world would know they were His disciples by the way they loved each other (John 13:34-35). Then He promised them He would come be with Him forever to do in them what He commanded them to do (John 14:16; 15:4-5). He has kept His promise by sending the Holy Spirit, the seed of God, the anointing from God into our hearts. The point is that it is the love of Jesus, His righteousness, that makes the children of God obvious in this world. In this verse, John emphasized what is obvious about the children of God by highlighting that the children of the devil don’t do what they do. The children of God practice righteousness by loving their brothers and sisters. The children of the devil don’t practice either. So we who are His children have been called by the divine nature dwelling within us to a life of love and righteousness. This is the love of God bestowed upon us, and that love is obvious. It produces love. Take courage today as you live to love with Jesus. His life in you and all who are His is obvious. If someone isn’t practicing righteousness, don’t be deceived by them even if they are in the church. They are children of the devil and not children of God. They need to see and experience the love of Jesus in us that they might be saved and rescued from Satan’s domain of darkness. May the grace of Jesus Christ be with you that His light might shine in the darkness.
1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.John gives all who are born of God a great encouragement in this verse. In the previous verse, he described those who are of the devil. They practice sin. John wasn’t saying that a person who is born of God cannot sin. He’s already said in chapter two that if someone says he doesn’t have sin, he’s a liar. John’s focus was on those deceivers who say they have seen and know God, yet they continue in, persist in, and excuse sinful practices. John said that they are not born of God because no one who is born of God can continue practicing sin. To continue in sin is clear evidence that someone has never seen or known Jesus. Jesus came to destroy the devil’s work, but to continue in sin is to destroy Jesus’ work. Persistently practicing sin therefore is incompatible with the experience of having the divine nature of God dwelling within. John’s point is that we are children of God, and to us, sin is abnormal and unnatural to us. It feels out of place. We may fall into sin, but we cannot walk in it or if I may say it this way, we cannot live with it. I have found that the seed of God that abides in me produces the fruit of love. The Holy Spirit is the seed or sperm of God that once He is planted in us begins to manifest His presence through love. We will see John confirm this in tomorrow’s live to love encouragement. Today, remember that the seed of God abides in you, and your life is vitally joined to His life. The love you need today for those God puts in your path will come from the fruit of that seed—the life of Christ.
1 John 3:8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.John’s contrast is clear. We read yesterday that the one who is of God, practices righteousness because God is righteous. Today’s verse states that the one who is of the devil practices sin because the devil has always sinned. We notice that John’s insight comes from understanding that the root of the tree determines the fruit of the tree. Jesus taught this lesson in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 7:16-18. “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.” On another occasion Jesus spoke to some Jews in the temple. “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). We see the same understanding in John that there was in Jesus. The root of the life of a person cannot be hidden. The person practices what their source of life practices. If Jesus is the root, then the person practices righteousness because Jesus is righteous. If the devil is the root, then the person practices sin—he knowingly, intentionally, repeatedly, plans to sin because the devil does the same. John wanted his readers to know how to make sure they weren’t deceived by the false teachers and so-called Christians whose lives didn’t reflect Jesus. We can be greatly encouraged by his telling them why Jesus came to earth. It’s an overarching purpose statement. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. So what should they expect to see in the lives of those in whom Jesus dwells? We should expect to see them turning from practicing sin and instead practicing righteousness. The purpose and practices of life change in those who are born of God. They used to live to love self and the things of this world. After the new birth, they live to love Jesus and to love with Him. If we see Jesus leading us to put to death the deeds of the flesh and filling us with His love for God and others, take heart! You are born of God and are righteous in God’s sight. Wow! What love the Father has bestowed on us as His children.
1 John 3:7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;In 1 John 2:26 John wrote, “These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.” Obviously there were people who were trying to deceive his readers, and in this verse he puts the responsibility upon them to make sure no one deceives them. How does someone make sure no one deceives them?The answer lies in this: Look for and only listen to people who have the same purpose and practice in life that Jesus had, namely, glorifying God by practicing righteousness. Jesus’ purpose and practice was to glorify God by performing God’s righteousness. This verse echoes 1 John 2:29. “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.” The implication in both of these verses is that the person who is born of God has the life of God dwelling within them. We know God is righteous, and Jesus is God, so He is righteous. Therefore, it follows that the person who is born of God, having the life of God dwelling within him, will be characterized by practicing righteousness. Let me now relate this to living to love with Jesus. When I use the word living, I mean that the person lives or practices what Jesus is and does. In chapter 4, verse 8, John wrote that God is love. Now let’s apply the transitive property of equality. If A=B and A=C, then B=C. If God is righteous (A=B) and God is love (A=C), then righteousness=love (B=C). Therefore, if you want to make sure no one deceives you, then make sure you look for and listen to people who live to love with Jesus, for that is practicing righteousness just as He is righteous. It’s understood that the children of God live this way.God’s love is distinct from earthly love. God’s love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. If you live—practice— loving like that with Jesus, you won’t be deceived by the false teaching and deceptive philosophies of the world. You will be practicing righteousness just as He is righteous. You’ll also fellowship with and listen to people who live to love with Jesus. Such a person demonstrates to the world that they have been justified by God through Jesus Christ, which means He has declared them to be righteous in His sight. They are righteous before God just as Jesus is righteous. John wasn’t saying the children of God shouldn’t reach out to and build relationships with unbelievers. His point was this: Only listen to and fellowship with those whose source of life is Jesus Christ. This will keep you from being deceived and from deceiving others.
1 John 3:6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.The verb tenses are important to our understanding what John wanted his readers to understand. The first verb, abide is a present active participle which means the action is being done in the present. It helps me to understand John to say that no one who is presently abiding in Jesus sins at that point in time. The verb tense of sins is a present active indicative which is why I said, “sins at that point in time that he is abiding in Jesus.” Remember, he had just said about Jesus that in Him there is no sin. When we are drawing from Jesus and He is living and loving through us, there is no sin. It’s what Jesus meant when He said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Practically it means this: It is sin to not abide in Jesus. When you are not abiding in Jesus, you will sin. When you abide in Jesus and He loves through you, God gets the glory, therefore you do not fall short of the glory of God. You do not sin. When John wrote “no one who sins,” the verb is an active participle just as “no one who abides,” which means the action is being continuously done in the present. Again, it helps me to understand John to say that no one who is presently in a continuous state of sinning has just seen Jesus or has just known Jesus. The last two verbs seen and knows Jesus are both perfect active indicatives. These perfect tenses differ from the other tenses in aspect. If the aspect of a verb is completed (often with a sense of just now completed), then in a grammatical term that expresses the relationship between the action of a verb and the passage of time. In other words, this is a completed action that has lasting results. This aspect often reflects a state resulting from past action. In this case, the person who is continuously in a sinful state doesn’t show that the action of seeing and knowing Jesus had any lasting effect. Their seeing and knowing didn’t stick, so to speak, and therefore the encounter was and is powerless and fruitless.So our encouragement today to live to love with Jesus is this: When you are loving with Jesus, which comes from abiding in Jesus, you are not sinning in that moment. Your seeing and knowing Jesus has been a fruitful encounter, and it has produced action and real fruit for the glory of God. This should encourage us to make living to love with Jesus our purpose in life. We will sin less and less! It’s the means by which we demonstrate to the world that we have really seen and really know Jesus.
1 John 3:5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.Today we look at Jesus with John. There are two things we know about Jesus that apparently everyone else misses. Number 1: Jesus came to earth the first time to take away sins. Number 2: Jesus is sinless. Here’s today’s encouragement. Although in this life, we will never become sinless, we do sin less and less as we purify ourselves to reflect His life of love. If we experience the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, being led to put to death sin in the flesh (Rom 8:12-14), then we should be encouraged. That’s what Jesus came to do. If He’s taken away all of your sin, then He will lead you to continue to put it away. Furthermore, you know in Him there is no sin. He won’t sin and cannot sin. Besides taking away our sin at the cross, when He’s expressing His life through us, He’s also taking away sin. He’s overcoming the world and conquering our sinful natures with His love. We’ll receive more encouragement tomorrow along these lines, but for today, rejoice with me that Jesus has conquered our sin. He came to do it. He has done it, and He’s still doing it. Father in heaven, to You be the glory, that sin has lost its power to kill through the blood of Your Son, shed for us on the cross, and it has lost its grip on us, through His indwelling life and righteousness. We rejoice in You and in Your Son. What a great work of mercy and grace You have done for Your children. Thank You for Your love bestowed upon us today and everyday.
1 John 3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.In today’s verse, the apostle John contrasts the practice of the children of God with those who are antichrist. In previous verses he warned his readers not to be fooled by the gnostics who had once been in the assembly, but had left. He said they loved the world and the things in the world. They didn’t believe Jesus was God in the flesh nor that He had physically risen from the dead. Because they believed that the material world was evil, they didn’t believe they could do anything good in their bodies and all that mattered was that they had obtained a spiritual knowledge that Christ was in all and through all. Their ideas produced bad fruit—they practiced sin. They didn’t have the life of Jesus, therefore everything they did was sin. Let me recall to our minds the image of the painter who fixes his attention to the subject. The characteristics of the subject determined what was “right” about his portrait. In a sense, the image of the subject was the law of his actions. As long as he practiced the law of the portrait, he accomplished his goal. But the moment the artist decides to ignore the model and paint what he likes, at that moment he sins against the model and destroys the portrait. Everyone who practices sin, ignores the image of the model, Jesus Christ. To practice sin is to practice lawlessness because sin is lawlessness. Sin is doing that which falls short of the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ. Paul wrote to the Galatians (5:14) and the Romans (13:9) that the entire law could be summed up in love. So we could easily come to this conclusion. The one who practices righteousness, practices loving with Jesus. The one who practices sin, practices doing what he feels like doing. Everyone who practices doing what they feel like doing practices sin, and that’s not love. Our lives as God’s children are a direct contrast to those who are children of the devil and the world. In living to love with Jesus, we fulfill the law and practice righteousness by His presence and power for the glory of God.
1 John 3:3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.We are encouraged today from this verse as to the power of having the indwelling life of Jesus. John described the quality of life of God children. They practice righteousness because of the love of God bestowed upon them and because of the sensational hope that they will be transformed into Jesus’ likeness when He appears. This verse adds to the description of those born of God. They purify themselves, which further explains why they practice righteousness. The idea here from which we can draw encouragement is of an artist who is painting a portrait. The artist captures every detail of the subject. He endeavors to portray the model just as he is. If there’s anything in the portrait that isn’t true to the image of his subject, then he removes it or changes it.Do you have the hope of being transformed into Jesus’ likeness when He returns? If so, then you purify yourself. You remove the things in your life that hinder the true expression of His life—the things that are in the way of others seeing and experiencing His love. Sometimes I’ll come into the kitchen to help my wife, and without realizing it, I get in the way. Once I realize she’s having to work around me or that I’m hindering her, I get out of the way. That’s how it is in living to love with Jesus. Sometimes, we are in His way, so to speak. Our feelings, plans, ideas, and expectations are in His way. They block the view of Jesus in our lives, misrepresent Him, or impede His love. It’s in those times that we might hear the Holy Spirit say, “Would you please get out of the way?” and we do! We confess whatever it is that we are doing that isn’t a true expression of His love, stop doing it, and get out of the way so He can freely love through us. In short, we purify ourselves just as He is pure so the love of Christ may flow freely. Do you need to get out of the way so Jesus can love freely through your life?
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.I’ve read or heard it somewhere that Beloved refers to those who have been loved. The first encouragement from today’s verse is that we who practice righteousness and are born of God (vs. 2:29) are loved! The second encouragement is that the love is from God, our father. The third encouragement is that we have a glorious hope because of God’s love for us: He has promised that we will be like Jesus. The fourth encouragement fills us with joy: Jesus is returning, and we will see Him as He really is. What a transformative moment that will be! Apparently seeing the reality of Jesus’ sonship and our relationship to Him has the power to transform us into His image. I hope that today you will consider the blessing you have received through Christ. And for my listeners who have yet to believe in Jesus and trust Him with you life, consider the blessings of being a child of God. Loved forever by God, the Father. Children with sensational eternal benefits. Hope of seeing Jesus first hand. Transformed into His likeness. This hope of the gospel gives rise to faith and love. We want to love and do love because we have experienced so great a love from God. What an honor and privilege to be filled with His love and to share it with others. May this be your experience today. By the way, if you haven’t already visited the livetolovewithjesus.com website, I hope you’ll check out the free resources available to grow in love with Jesus and make disciples who live to love with Him.
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.I’ve read or heard it somewhere that Beloved refers to those who have been loved. The first encouragement from today’s verse is that we who practice righteousness and are born of God (vs. 2:29) are loved! The second encouragement is that the love is from God, our father. The third encouragement is that we have a glorious hope because of God’s love for us: He has promised that we will be like Jesus. The fourth encouragement fills us with joy: Jesus is returning, and we will see Him as He really is. What a transformative moment that will be! Apparently seeing the reality of Jesus’ sonship and our relationship to Him has the power to transform us into His image. I hope that today you will consider the blessing you have received through Christ. And for my listeners who have yet to believe in Jesus and trust Him with you life, consider the blessings of being a child of God. Loved forever by God, the Father. Children with sensational eternal benefits. Hope of seeing Jesus first hand. Transformed into His likeness. This hope of the gospel gives rise to faith and love. We want to love and do love because we have experienced so great a love from God. What an honor and privilege to be filled with His love and to share it with others. May this be your experience today. By the way, if you haven’t already visited the livetolovewithjesus.com website, I hope you’ll check out the free resources available to grow in love with Jesus and make disciples who live to love with Him.
1 John 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.We are encouraged today by the great love that the Father bestows on those who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ—they practice righteousness. I hope that is you! Those born of God delight in having God as their father, and it is a great love given to us that we are known as His children because that’s what we are! The children of God know each other because they have the same Father, experience the same love through Jesus, and have His life—the same spiritual DNA—dwelling within them. The strands of Jesus’ DNA is love—love for the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, and everyone in Jesus’ body. The entire family of God revolves around the glory of the Father revealed in His firstborn Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore, the children of God are Christ-conscious and focused on Him. That’s why the children of God are known for their love (John 13:35; 15:8; 1 John 4:8). Being children of God is the source of their identity and existence. Living with Jesus is their way of life, the satisfaction of their souls, and their eternal hope. How great a love the Father has bestowed on them!As John wrote in this verse, the world does not know the children of God because they have a different DNA, a different father. They are known for their love of the world and the things in the world. If one were to visit this family, they would immediately recognize that they love their lives in this world more than anything else—they live to love the world. That love, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is their spiritual DNA—from the seed of their first birth by their father, the devil. Everyone in the family of the world is self-conscious and self-focused. Their identity is determined by the things they have in this world and the significance and happiness they derive from them. Happiness in this world is their greatest goal, the subject of their discussions, and the treasure that they seek. Those of the family of the world do not know or understand the children of God.So what is today’s encouragement? I hope it is clear from what I’ve said. If you have been born of God, you know He has bestowed a great love upon you—Because Jesus is righteous and lives in you, you practice righteousness. His love moves you to share His love with the rest of His family. As you share His love together, you know the Father and the Son better, and you know each other better as well. I encourage you to enjoy His family today—and everyday.
1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.What a clear explanation of those who are born of God! They practice righteousness. John has said that those who practice obedience and love display evidence that Jesus is their life source. He wasn’t saying that they are perfect and that they always do the right thing. They practice righteousness like an accomplished pianist practices the piano, or a professional sports player practices his sport, or as anyone would who wants to master a skill practices that skill. John was saying that righteousness is a priority for those who are born of God because Jesus is righteous and loves righteousness. Because righteousness is a priority, they knowingly, intentionally commit to making time to learn about it and grow in it by reading His word, prayer, and learning from the Holy Spirit and others who are on the same spiritual trajectory. Since they are intentional, they take every opportunity to repeat doing what’s right in God’s sight, namely, in this context, abiding in Jesus so they can believe, obey, and love. They know where their righteousness comes from. It comes from the anointing they have from God, the seed of God which abides in them. Living to love with Jesus doesn’t just happen by accident any more than becoming an accomplished pianist or a professional at anything comes by happenstance. If we are to glorify God by being most satisfied in Jesus and loving with Him, then it must be intentionally practiced. From this and the previous verse, we are encouraged to practice righteousness. Righteousness has to do with right relating to our fellow man as the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit relate to one another. This is primarily summarized by love. Later in this letter, John wrote that love is the proof that one knows God. These things were written so that we might have confidence before a righteous God when He appears. On that day, everyone born of God will appear with Him in glory. If you know that Jesus is righteous, then practice living to love with Him for His glory.
1 John 2:28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.In the last verse, John testified that his readers abide in Jesus today. In this verse we are encouraged by the confidence and hope that abiding in Jesus provides. The way we live today should always be in view of “that day,” the day Jesus returns. Is that how we are living?Jesus’ second coming is as certain a historical event as was His first coming. We know from Scripture that when He returns, every eye will see Him (Rev. 1:7), every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father (Phil. 2:9-11). We know that everyone will give an account of his life to Jesus (2 Cor. 5:10). What will that moment be like for us? For His children, John wanted that moment to be a filled with hope and confidence—not a confidence in something they had done, but confidence in Jesus, the reality that their lives were testimonies of His life, love, and presence in this world. Here’s the truth and our hope: the one who abides in Jesus will not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If we abide in Him and live with Him in each of our todays, we will have confidence to stand with Him on “that day.” We know that if God is for us, nothing can be against us. Paul put it this way in Rom. 8:32. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” Have you experienced the reality of His giving you all things in this life as opportunities for you to glorify Him by finding satisfaction in this life only in the fullness of Jesus Christ, God’s Son? Your sins, all the days you didn’t abide in Him, your suffering, your blessings, your storms in life, and all your relationships—all things—were freely given to you so you could glorify God by loving and trusting Christ Jesus, our Lord. How often do you think about Jesus’ coming and appearance? Does it have an affect on your today? If you’re not thinking about it, I think you are missing out on one of the most powerful encouragements to live to love with Jesus. It will be a day when those who abide in Jesus will be established blameless before God. 1 Thessalonians 3:13 “So that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.” When He returns, those who abide in Him will give Him glory and marvel at Him. 2 Thessalonians 1:10 “When He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed — for our testimony to you was believed.” So today’s encouragement has “that day” in view. Abide in Him. Live to love with Him so you will be with Him when He appears instead of running away from Him in shame.
1 John 2:27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.Hopefully you remember that in verse 20, John wrote, “You have an anointing from the Holy One,” which referred to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In this verse, we learn that his readers actively received or embraced the Holy Spirit’s ministry. He said that this ministry abides and continues to abide in them perpetually. This anointing from God, the Holy Spirit, taught them to abide in, remain in, and receive life in Jesus in all circumstances and relationships. Living with Jesus is a reality. In Him is life. This is not a lie. Certainly John learned this from Jesus’ teaching recorded in John 14:15-17. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” Then verse 26. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”The apostle Paul put it this way to the Galatians 5:16, “Walk by the Spirit,” and in 5:25, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives reveals “the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Eph. 1:19b-23). Let me encourage us with this summary of the truth of what John wrote. We have the living and enthroned Son of God, Jesus Christ, dwelling within us who will teach, guide, and fill us with His life. We have everything we need in Him in any situation or relationship to trust and love with Him. We don’t need any other knowledge about this world to live in His purpose, fullness, and confidence. When we abide in Jesus and live to love with Him, we testify that He is the true and eternal life.
1 John 2:26 These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.We’ve learned some things to watch out for in John’s first epistle. How kind and loving it is for the Lord to give us guidance in a world that is antichrist. There are people out to deceive believers, trying to lead God’s people to wander off of the narrow way. Here are seven things John has written about to warn us about those who are trying to deceive us.1. Don’t let anyone who tells you that any book or passages of the Bible are not the uniquely inspired word of God. These words in 1 John as well as in all of the Bible were written under the authority of the Holy Spirit of God. Those trying to deceive you will tell you otherwise. We love and keep all of His Word.2. Don’t believe anyone who tells you that Jesus is not God in the flesh, the eternal word of Life. 3. Do not wander away from the exclusivity of the gospel. Jesus is the only way, truth, and the Life, and no one can go to the Father, God, except through Him. 4. Be wary of anyone who doesn’t believe that Jesus’ death atoned for the sins of His people—He made propitiation for sin once for all in shedding His lifeblood. 5. Know that anyone who says that Jesus was not resurrected in His body and has not taken His seat in the heavenlies as God’s appointed advocate for His people is trying to deceive you. 6. Don’t be fooled by those who say that God’s grace allows you to do whatever you want with impunity. If they say obedience to Christ is legalistic and unnecessary, then they are trying to lead you away from devotion to Christ. Obedience and love are the tests of a true disciple and follower of Jesus Christ. 7. You know that Jesus Christ lives in you, and His life is your life. You are living to love with Jesus. Don’t be deceived by those who emphasize knowledge about the Christ over knowing Him personally and having fellowship with the Father and the Son.Our encouragement today is to look back and examine ourselves to make sure we have not been fooled and wandered away from glorifying God by loving Him and loving those He puts in our paths each day. May this keep you from being deceived so you will continue to live to love with Jesus for the rest of your life.
1 John 2:25 This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.What encouragement the Jesus through the apostle John gives to everyone who believes that God sent Him into this world, in the flesh, to give eternal life to everyone who believes and abides in the Son and the Father as he wrote in the previous verse. “If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.” Jesus Himself promised eternal life to those who believe. Here are a few of those times when Jesus promised John and the disciples eternal life.John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.John 10: 27-28 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.We who live to love with Jesus, testify that we have eternal life by living with Jesus, abiding in Him and in the Father through Him. That’s why John wrote in chapter 4 that those who know God, love, and then in 1 Jo. 5:11 he repeats this great truth. “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”Everyday that we live to love with Jesus, our testimony to this world is that God gives eternal life through Jesus, His Son, and we have His Son and are experiencing eternal life. We love because He has loved us. To God be the glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us be humble and bold as we testify to this world that Jesus gives eternal life to all who believe.
1 John 2:24 As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.What you heard from the beginning is important. The apostle John told his readers the key to abiding in the Son and the Father, namely, believing and keeping the foundational truth which they heard from the beginning in the forefront of their minds. What did they hear from the beginning? John told them in the first three verses of this letter. “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life — and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”If we want to have fellowship with the Father and the Son, the apostle said we must receive and hold fast to the truth that Jesus was a real person in the flesh, who entered into the history of mankind. He was, is, and always will be the eternal life of the one true God. If you have the Son, you have the Father. You have eternal life. If this truth abides in you, then you also abide in the Son and in the Father.The order is important to John. Why not say abide in the Father and in the Son? Because Jesus, the Son, is the only way to the Father (John 14:6). Jesus also said that if they kept His word, He and the Father would make their abode in them (John 14:23). The word which He gave them was to believe in Him as God and to love one another as He loved them (John 13:34; 14:1). I have summarized this truth into a call to live to love with Jesus. That is what Jesus commanded in the beginning. Because we believe He is God in the flesh and the only way to the Father, we obey Him, and make glorifying God by living to love with Jesus our purpose in life. The result is? You abide in the Son and in the Father. What a great encouragement these verses are to live to love with Jesus! It’s how we have fellowship with God on a minute by minute basis—abiding in what we heard from the beginning.
1 John 2:23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.Obviously John wrote to expose false teachers and teaching in the early church. They were called gnostics. The gnostics denied that Jesus was God in the flesh, and therefore denied that He was the Christ. They falsely taught that God placed the spirit of Christ on Jesus for ministry and then departed from Him before He died. The present day progressive so-called Christians are spiritual descendants of the gnostics. They also deny that Jesus was God in the flesh and that He atoned for sins in His death and that He was physically resurrected. John’s statement here in vs. 23 is clear. If they deny the Son, they do not have the Father, meaning, they are not saved from their sins and do not know the true God. This verse encourages us who live to love with Jesus. We confess by living to love with Jesus that He lives. If we are loving with Him, then according to the apostle John, we also love with the Father. Isn’t that encouraging and hopeful!? If we treasure Jesus, we treasure the Father also. If Jesus is our life, then we know Jesus loves God with all His heart. If Jesus loves God with all of His heart, then we love God with all of our hearts as we abide in Him and live by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us today. If you have the Son, you have the Father. The ministry of the Holy Spirit brings the presence and love of the Father and the Son into our hearts and into this world.
1 John 2:22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.What a clear statement we have about the antichrist. Antichrist is anyone who denies that Jesus is the true Christ, the One sent to this earth into the history of mankind by the Father to make propitiation for sin. To deny that Jesus is the Christ is to deny both the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Such a person is a liar because the truth is that Jesus is the Christ sent by the Father. How does this encourage us who are committed to living to love with Jesus? We are not liars, but speak the truth in love—not only by our words and confession but through our actions. The very fact that Jesus loves through us testifies to the reality that He is the Christ. His loving through us reveals the work of the Father and the Son. In John 14, Jesus told His disciples that the Father was working in Him (vs. 10) and that He and the Father would make their abode in the one who loves Him and keeps His word (vs. 23). That’s exactly what those who long to glorify God by living to love with Jesus believe and experience. As John said in 1 Jo. 1:3, those who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Word of Life, manifested in the flesh, have fellowship with the Father and the Son. Those who live to love with Jesus and who have fellowship with the Father and the Son would never, could never, make the denials that the liars do. Let us realize today that living to love with Jesus is the most powerful and authoritative testimony that one can present to the world. It overcomes the world as Jesus is lifted up. He said that if He is lifted up, God will draw men from every tribe, tongue, and nation to Him, making Him a promise-keeping God. In God we trust as we live to love with Jesus.
1 John 2:21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.What is the truth that John’s readers knew? As we look back over what John wrote up to this point, it seems clear that the truth he had in mind is that Jesus of Nazareth is the true God, eternal life, in the flesh through whom the wrath of God was averted by giving His life (His shed blood) as a payment for sins. He was then raised from the dead and now lives to give eternal life (which is to know the Father and the Son) to everyone the Father gave to Him (John 17:2-3). John had just written that they had an anointing from God, and therefore they knew Jesus is life and that they have His life within them. The person who doesn’t believe these things lives by lies, and no lie is of the truth. If a person lives to love with Jesus, he understands and believes the truth that Jesus, the same person who walked on the earth and gave His life for him, now lives in and through him. That’s why he lives to love! He knows the truth like John’s readers knew the truth. Jesus lived to glorify His Father by carrying the fruit of His life. We live to glorify the Father by carrying the fruit of the life of His Son. I’m not saying these things because I don’t think you know the truth. My guess is that if you are listening to my podcast, you do know it. Therefore, I know you are encouraged by what John wrote about knowing Jesus. I hope you’ll rejoice in the Lord today because by His mercy and grace, you know and walk with Him who is the way, the truth, and the life.
1 John 2:20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.This verse begins with the contrasting conjunction, but to contrast those who are antichrist and have left their assembly and fellowship. Believers have an chrisma, an anointing from Jesus, the Holy One. W.E. Vines gives insight as to what John meant when he wrote that it “indicates that this anointing renders them holy, separating them to God. The passage teaches that the gift of the Holy Spirit is the all-efficient means of enabling believers to possess a knowledge of the truth.” The antichristos are those who oppose Christos, the Anointed One by assuming a guise of Christ boasted that they had the knowledge of the truth. This movement was called gnosticism. The gnostics or antichrists maintained that salvation could be gained through a special form of secret knowledge. They didn’t believe God could become flesh because the material world was evil. They believed Him to be a wholly spiritual being. These were the people who went out from the church because they were not of the body of Christ.Our live to love with Jesus encouragement today is that we believe Jesus came in the flesh, died for our sins, was bodily raised from the dead, was ascended into heaven where He sat down at the right hand of God, and as promised, sent His Spirit to His own that He might dwell in their bodies, and reveal Himself through them for the glory of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit is the anointing from Jesus that makes them holy. They don’t simply have a spiritual knowledge, they have the indwelling presence and power of Christ which produces the wonderful, glorious fruit of faith, love, and obedience. They don’t only know about Jesus Christ, they know Him because He and His word abides in them. Do you know what I’m talking about? Everyone who has the Son of God has the life, wrote John in 5:12. If you have Jesus, you are living with Jesus. You have an anointing from the Holy One that has made you holy to God. You recognize Jesus’ presence and power in your life. You have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. You are living to love with Jesus for the glory of God because you have an anointing from the Holy One.
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.In the previous verse, John addressed one of the signs that they were in the last hour or times—there were many antichrists. In this verse, he continued exposing them. These antichrists, although at one time were in their midst, because they were from the world, they left the fellowship of those who fellowship with the Father and with the Son. Remember what he wrote in vs. 3. “What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” We talked yesterday about the fact that this is also true today.This encourages us as we live to love with Jesus to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together for the purpose of stimulating one another to love and good works as we read in Heb. 10:24-25. We can expect that there will be some in our churches who will go out from us because they are not really of us. As I mentioned yesterday, there is a flood of people leaving the church today who say they are “deconstructing their faith.” That is exactly what they are doing—desconstructing their faith. They think and believe, “I am my life.” Their idea of Christianity is based upon what they think, believe, and do. That’s the essence of antichrist.For those of us who are living to love with Jesus, we realize that one can’t deconstruct the faith of Jesus. If Jesus dwells within us, we live by His faith. We believe what He believes. His life is our life. One can’t deconstruct the life of Jesus. Instead, one recognizes His presence and life and conforms to His life and thinking. As I’ve said in recent days, a Christian is one who experiences the satisfaction of his deepest desires through Christ. He knows he knows God and that God knows him. I hope this encourages you to seek fellowship with others who are in fellowship with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. We must remember, that the church is not life, Jesus is. Living to love with Jesus is not a solo exercise. We are the body of Christ in this world, and we need and desire fellowship together. We are “of each other.” Those who go out, go out because they are not of us—yet. We can leave the administration of them God as we live to love with Jesus.
1 John 2:18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.I think it is helpful to connect these verses to the previous verses about the love of the world. We learn from this verse how we know it is the last hour—many antichrists have appeared and the love of the world drives them. This has been true since the first century, so it’s been a long last hour or time period. The prefix anti conveys the idea of someone who is over against Christ or instead of Christ. When Jesus’ disciples asked about His return, Jesus replied, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many” (Matt. 24:4-5). They might be considered “false Christs.” The term Christ literally means anointed one which was understood as the Messiah. With these thoughts in mind, we can understand what the church was confronted with. We learn from the next verse that there were people who had gone out of the fellowship of the church because the “Christ” they followed was another “Christ” than Jesus Christ. Today, these people go by the title of “progressive Christians.” Some will call themselves “exvangelicals.” They deny that Jesus was God in the flesh who died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and after three days was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures. They deny the virgin birth, the miracles, and the resurrection, yet at the same time say they believe in or follow Jesus. This is from the progressivechristianity.org website. “Progressive Christianity is an open, intelligent and collaborative approach to the Christian tradition and the life and teachings of Jesus that create pathways into an authentic and relevant religious experience.” You can get an idea of what they think love is from their first three tenets.1. Believe that following the way and teachings of Jesus can lead to experiencing sacredness, wholeness, and unity of all life, even as we recognize that the Spirit moves in beneficial ways in many faith traditions.2. Seek community that is inclusive of all people, honoring differences in theological perspective, age, race, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, class, or ability.3. Strive for peace and justice among all people, knowing that behaving with compassion and selfless love towards one another is the fullest expression of what we believe. This is today’s version of what John warned about in these verses. Living to love with Jesus isn’t man trying to have selfless love in his own strength so he can be happy in this life and strive for peace and justice among all people. True Christians are those who have the life of Jesus dwelling within who loves through them for the glory of God. They believe Jesus is the only way, truth, and the life because they have satisfying fellowship with the Father, God, through Him. That satisfaction and fullness in God’s love is what overcomes the world with its antichrists. Let this verse encourage us to hold fast to the living Lord Jesus Christ and express His love to those God puts in our paths, knowing that the time of His return draws near. We are in the last days. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
1 John 2:17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.Do you remember in a previous verse, John said that for those who are in the light, the darkness is passing away. In this verse, he echoed that truth. The world is passing away for those who know God and have the light and love of God living in them. That’s us! We who live to love with Jesus experience the truth of this verse. The world and its lusts are in the process of passing away as far as we are concerned. As we start each day saying, “Jesus, you are my life. You satisfy my soul more than life itself. Thank you for another day to know You, love You, and live to love with You,” we are doing the will of God. As we do His will by trusting God and loving others with Him, the world simply passes by us with its lusts.In contrast, the one who doesn’t know God’s love and fullness in Christ, the evil one has something in them to snag and attract them: emptiness, lust, and pride. The world isn’t passing away, it increasingly becomes their life. It’s the only reality they know. Check out the end of this verse. “The one who does the will of God lives forever.” The one who loves the world only finds a temporal life—a life that will be lost when they die. And with that loss, he loses life forever. However, the one who finds life in Christ and lives to love with Him—out of His fullness, presence, and power—that person find life eternal. He will live forever, even when he leaves this world. So our encouragement today to live to love with Jesus is that we know it is God’s will and there’s a promise for us to embrace and rejoice in. We will live forever in the fullness of God’s love with Jesus if we are living today satisfied in His will with Jesus now.
1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.Today we see why glorifying God by living to love with Jesus is our purpose in this world. John had just told them that the world has nothing to offer them because the love of the Father dwells in them. The world targets the desires of the flesh and the eyes. The desires of the flesh and eyes are overcome by the deeper and more powerful desire in the person whose deepest desire is to do God’s will and glorify Him by being most satisfied in Jesus. One who has experienced the love of the Father, has experienced that deep and wonderful satisfaction. The glory, acceptance, and significance from men, and things of this world also greatly appeal to the man who hasn’t found life in Christ. Jesus addressed this when He said to the Jews in John 12:25. “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” Surely Jesus meant he who “loves his life in this world” loses it because He contrasted it with hating his life in this world. Only someone who has found that Jesus is life would hate his life in this world. He has found that Jesus is eternal life and satisfies his desires for glory, acceptance, significance, and amassing wealth in this world by filling him with His glory, acceptance, significance, and the hope of his future inheritance of the earth. The love of the world with its lies of satisfaction and its boast of accomplishment and significance have no appeal to the man or woman who has experienced the love of the Father and the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ. The love of the world cannot abide in the one who abides in the love of God and in whom the love of God abides.As we live to love with Jesus today, live out of Him who is the fullness of God’s love. Go into your day filled with the Spirit and the love of the Father. Expect Him to satisfy you and love through you for the glory of God. In so doing, you’ll overcome the world and its empty appeals and promises.
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.This verse begins a section of John’s letter that might look like a digression, but I suggest it is the natural progression of his encouragement to the young men, those who are working out their faith with fear and trembling against the evil one in this world. He admonished them not to love the world or the things in the world. One who loves the world doesn’t know the love of the Father by experience. Jesus told his disciples that they would overcome the world, and the evil one, the god of this world, because He had overcome them. The last words they heard Jesus say to them as a group before being arrested were these: “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). How did He overcome the world? When Jesus said, “the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30), He was testifying to the fullness of the love of God within Him. There was nothing in the world which Satan could offer Him to distract or draw Him off of doing God’s will, namely, revealing the ultimate expression of the love of God to the world.So today we are encouraged by John’s insight from the life of Jesus. If you have the love of the Father in you, you overcome the world. One thing living to love with Jesus means is this: those who live to love with Jesus don’t love the world or the things in the world. The world has no life in it. It has nothing to offer us that can satisfy the deepest desires of our souls and bring us ultimate, long-lasting happiness. The love of the Father revealed in Jesus Christ satisfies the deepest needs and desires of our hearts. When John wrote that Jesus is eternal life, he was declaring Jesus to be the lone source of life in this world—the only source of satisfaction. If Jesus lives in us, then we have the same fullness that He did, and that fullness of life came from the love of His Father. The children, young men, and fathers, regardless of their stage of spiritual development, all have the love of the Father in them. This is true of all who are His. We have the love of God in us, which overcomes everything the evil one and the world has to throw at us. This encourages us to glorify God by being most satisfied in the love of God revealed in Christ. By so doing, we are free to live to love with Jesus out of the fullness of the love of God.
1 John 2:13b I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. 14b I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.When John thought about those in the church who were still working out their faith, he thought of young men who typically are full of energy, tackling the difficulties of life head on, and out to conquer the world. Some of you are in that stage of your walk with Jesus. God grows your faith by trials and suffering. It seems the evil one has been given a long leash or let off the leash, and everyday feels like a battle between darkness and light. You are learning that the only way to overcome the devil and the temptations and trials in this worlds to hold fast to the word of God. May I make a suggestion to you? I suggest that the word of God that John had in mind was the command of Jesus to believe in Him as God and to love as He loves (John 13:34 and 14:1) and the promise to live in you as your helper and never leave you. I say this because Jesus said it in John 13-16, but especially in John 15:4-12.You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”Within minutes Jesus then let them know they were going to be in a fight for their lives as they abided in Him and His word abided in them. As they lived to love with Him, they would have to overcome the world and the evil one. He said,“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”So it is the those who are young men in the faith. They are in the process of overcoming the world with all of it’s temptations and trials. The honeymoon is over. As little children, when we first believe, the love of God fills us and we experience a spiritual high and protection so the young seed of our faith can get planted. Then comes the season for intense growth, and that’s the season that John has in mind when he wrote to the young men. Those of us who are seasoned in faith have the same trials and struggles, and in fact, they can be more intense, but by God’s grace and experience, we’ve learned to rest in Him who has been from the beginning. We let Him do the battle. Be encouraged by this. If you will let Jesus’ word abide in you—the call to live to love with Him for His glory—you will overcome both the evil one and the world. Find your satisfaction in Him. He is life. The world has no life. Your faith will grow and you’ll know Jesus and how He trusts the Father.
1 John 2:13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. 14a. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning.As I did yesterday with what John wrote to the little children, I’m combining the verses written to the fathers. Regardless of where we are in our spiritual growth, we can draw encouragement from these verses. If you are young in your faith, then as you continue to grow, you can expect John’s encouragement to become yours by experience. As your faith is seasoned with a lifetime of walking in love with Jesus, you too will know Him more intimately and fully. If, like me, you have walked with Jesus for decades, then these words will resonate with you and bring great encouragement.Let’s keep in mind that John cited two realities about those who know God. They keep God’s word and obey it, and they love their brothers and sisters in Christ. We who have a lifetime of obedience and love know that Jesus is God and has been God from the beginning of creation and human existence. This means we are grounded in Him who does not change. We have security and confidence because we have learned, believed, and practiced living the reality that Jesus is life—eternal life. We understand what Paul meant when he wrote to in Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” The life that dwells in us and in whom we abide and receive life is our hope of glory. He is the great “I Am”, the ever existent God of heaven and earth. We know now that no one or nothing can separate us from our Father’s love nor take away our purpose for living, namely, to love with Him as long as we have life and breath. This is the confidence of fathers (and mothers) in the faith. Are you encouraged by John’s words? I hope so.
1 John 2:12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name's sake. 13b. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.I have chosen to combine the two encouragements John wrote to those he considered children, fathers, and young men. First let’s understand that there’s no reason to think that what John wrote to them is not applicable also to the women. He seems to view the church as comprised of people who are in different stages of growth and development. He first addressed the children, and he used two different words to describe them. Teknia emphasizes a kinship relationship where as paidia (the second use) highlights the relationship of children to parents which involves subordination and discipline. A new believer, someone who has just experienced the new birth, finds great comfort and security in the discovery that God is a forgiving Father. John certainly wanted his readers to connect this aspect of their relationship to God with Jesus who revealed God, the Father, and purchased the forgiveness of sins. They know the Father because they know Jesus. They know they have been forgiven once for all for the glory of God through the work Jesus did by coming in the flesh to bear their sins. They have received Him and believed in Him as John wrote in 1:12-14 of his gospel. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”The first two tests of this letter are obedience and love. A child who has been forgiven much, loves much. A child who has been loved much by his father, wants to be attentive to his word and obey. So we can see how this address to those young in their faith connects with what John had said previously. To John, obedience and love are connected because that’s what faith looks like in real life. If you believe God loved you and gave His Son to do the work of redemption so you could be forgiven of all your sins, then you will obey and love Him for His name’s sake and for His glory and joy. This is the motivation behind living to love with Jesus. We are His beloved children and we love who He loves because He is our life. We love His children with Him. It’s why He saved us—so we could glorify God by loving His own until the end of the age. This is our purpose in life as children of God, loved by the Father. We have this purpose as our confidence from the beginning of our faith. Is living to love with Jesus for God’s glory your purpose in life?
1 John 2:11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.My guess is that most of us have tripped over something in the dark. That’s the scene John painted in this verse as he described those who have hatred in their hearts for a brother or sister. When someone walks in darkness, he can’t see where he’s going—namely, to Judgment Day when he will give an account of his life to Jesus. John said he’s not only walking in the darkness, he is in the darkness. Jesus described the person who walks in darkness as someone who also has the darkness in them. “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matt. 6:23). When we live for self, we are consumed with the darkness of unbelief—the lack of faith in God. That inner darkness is revealed on the outside by a hatred for one’s brother or sister. Jesus taught that those who live in the inner darkness will eventually be thrown into the outer darkness (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). Presently, we who live to love with Jesus as walking in the Light because we have the Light of His life dwelling within. With Jesus, we are the outer light to those who are in the darkness and therefore walk in darkness. As long as the darkness in them is the “light” or the guide to how they live, they cannot see His love revealed in Christ or in us. However, at any point, God can open the eyes of their hearts to see His light. There is still hope for them as long as the outer light shines. We pray for God to open their eyes to the Light of His love in Christ and in us as we live to love them with Jesus.
1 John 2:10 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.What a great encouragement to live to love with Jesus! To abide in love is to abide in the Light. When we walk in the Light, we can see where we are going, and therefore can avoid stumbling over people, circumstances, and ourselves. This verse should motivate us all the more to make glorifying God by loving with Jesus our purpose in life. If that is our purpose in all that we do, we always have the blessing to see things clearly. If our purpose is our own happiness, comfort, and convenience, we are blinded to the needs of others. In fact, we might not even notice them! Or we might stumble over them as we press on to accomplish our own desires, goals, and agendas. To abide in the Light is to remain, live in, and receive the Light of God revealed in Jesus Christ. He is the Light. John was saying that to love our brothers and sisters is to receive the light of His life and live in it. Another way to think about it is to think of the Light being the light of “that day” — the day we will all give an account to Jesus of our lives. Those who live today with “that day” in view are living in the Light. We live to love with Jesus today because when we give an account for today on “that day”, we know we will bring Him glory and joy if we walked in love today with Him. So today’s encouragement has “that day” in view, the day when Jesus comes to be glorified in the saints and marveled at by all who believe as Paul wrote in 2 Thess. 1:10. May we abide in, walk in, and receive the Light of Jesus so we can love those He puts in our paths today for His glory.
1 John 2:9 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.I have decided to make a change in my monthly blog program. I want to invite you to follow my daily Live to Love Scripture Encouragement podcast. The 2-3 minute podcast airs daily on Spotify, iTunes, and Soundcloud and is also posted on Facebook. I am presently going through 1 John, verse by verse. I am looking for how each verse encourages us to live to love with Jesus or live out the gospel. On the first of each month, I’ll send an email with the content and link to that day’s Live to Love Scripture podcast—just like today’s post.So if you haven’t already tuned in to my Live to Love Scripture Encouragement podcast, let me invite you to follow me on the platform of your choice by clicking on one of the following links. Welcome to today’s live to love Scripture encouragement from 1 John 2:9. I’m Norm Wakefield. I’m so glad you’ve joined me as we journey through 1 John to receive encouragement and inspiration to love with Jesus. John has been warning his readers not to believe or listen to everyone who says they know God or live in the Light. His warning certainly sounds similar to the Lord’s warning in the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 7:15-21. “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”Notice John’s warning that someone who says they have the Light, yet expresses hatred for his brother, is someone in whom the darkness is not passing away. They are still in the darkness. If they were living in the True Light, their lives would be filled with enough light and love to drive the darkness away. To John, hatred for a brother is the fruit of a bad tree, which is evidence that there is no light within. They are in the darkness. As we love with Jesus, we testify by our lives that the darkness is passing away and that we live in the true Light. I hope you don’t have any hatred in your heart toward any of your brothers and sisters in Christ. If you do, then I encourage you to heed what John wrote in this verse and 1:9. Please confess your sin and your need for the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood shed for you. Humble yourself. Seek His face, and turn from that hatred by looking to the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ who died that you might not only be forgiven, but transformed by His life of love. In that moment, the darkness in which you have been living will begin passing away.
1 John 2:8 On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.Greetings on this Easter Sunday, another day to celebrate the gospel and the transforming power of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The ultimate experiential power of the cross is to liberate from sin’s power and enable us to live with Jesus, expressing His love and light. Yesterday, we were encouraged that as we live to love with Jesus, we are fulfilling an old commandment, the commandment to love God with all of our hearts. Today, we learn from John that in some sense, the commandment to love with Jesus is a new commandment. It’s new in that Jesus commanded us to love one another as He loves. This is only possible or true with Jesus in us. He is the true light of the world. Prior to His coming, the world was in darkness. But when Jesus came into the world, darkness was put on the run because the light was shining. Jesus gave new meaning to loving God with all your heart. We love God by keeping Jesus’ word and loving others as He loved them. He also gave a new quality to loving God. We are commanded to love to the same measure as Jesus loved God by loving those the Father loved. Jesus revealed God’s love to be selfless, self-sacrificing even to the point of death. The love of God revealed in Christ extended past those who are like us to all those whom God puts in our paths. Race, status, or gender is overlooked when we love like Jesus. John’s readers understood that with the coming of Jesus, a new age began—a time when God no longer was revealed in types, shadows, and parables, but in truth. John uses the word truth or true, not in contrast to false, but to communicate reality. Jesus reveals the reality of God. He is God in the flesh. He’s the true light, the true bread, and the true vine. So what John was saying is that Jesus is the reality of all that the commandments of God require. That’s a new thing. The old commandments of God fulfilled in love through the Son of God, the true reality of what the commandments of God were meant to accomplish and reveal. Amazing! God is producing the fruit of love in His people for His glory. This is the true Light in the world—you and me with Jesus. This is what Easter is all about.
1 John 2:7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.From the beginning, John’s readers had a commandment. It was so understood by them that he didn’t need to cite it. From the beginning, God commanded His people to love Him with all of their hearts, souls, and might (Deut. 6:5; 11:1, 13, 22; 13:3; 19:9 just to name a few). So John wasn’t writing a new commandment to them. What he wrote sounded exactly like what Moses wrote in Deut. 11:22, “For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him” then God would bless them and destroy their enemies. In the previous verses, John had told them that if they know God and His Son, they will walk in His ways and hold fast to Him. That’s not a knew idea to them for the old commandment which they have had from the beginning was the same. As we live to love with Jesus, we are loving God and walking in His ways. We are obeying the old commandment to love God with all our hearts, souls, and might. I hope this encourages you as it does me. When I call you to live to love with Jesus, I’m not making up something that is new. It’s how we fulfill the greatest commandment given by God from the beginning.
1 John 2:5-6 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.Yesterday we learned from John that those who say they know Jesus, but don’t keep or value His commandments are liars. Today, we are encouraged to learn how one may know that they truly know Jesus and are in Him. We’ve seen already that John uses His commandments and His word interchangeably. In this verse we who are living to love with Jesus should be greatly encouraged. Jesus commanded us to love one another and to believe in Him as God (Jo. 13:34 and 14:1). His word tells us that apart from His life and word abiding in us, we can’t love and believe. But with Him, we do bear fruit for God’s glory (John 15:4-8). That’s exactly what John was saying in these verses. When God’s love is matured and completed in us, it shows us that we love and treasure His word like He loved and treasured His Father’s word. We are encouraged as we live to love with Jesus and see His life revealed as we walk through our days. We say we abide in Him, and we know that we are in Him because we love God, love His word, and love the people He puts in our paths each day, for His glory.
1 John 2:4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;It is apparent from these verses that the problem facing the church in John’s day was that there were people who said they were Christians, but their lives didn’t exemplify the presence of the life of Jesus. John called these people “liars.” He said they didn’t have the truth in them. We can understand why John would write this when we remember that Jesus declared in his last minutes with His disciples that He was the way, the truth, and the life. It makes total sense that someone who knows Jesus intimately and is in fellowship with Him would value His commandments. The one who knows Jesus lives with Him. Let me rehearse the gospel for our encouragement. God gave His Son, Jesus, to come in the flesh so that He might die for the sins of all who are His, as the Scriptures foretold. In dying as their substitute, He destroyed their sin and death. They died to their self-centered, self-conscious, self-glorifying lives and intentionally gave up their lives in this world. God put their sin out of sight, having paid the ransom to redeem them from the grip of the devil and death. After being buried for 3 days, according to His promise in the Scriptures, God raised His Son from the dead. Simultaneously, He raised them with Him, giving them the righteousness of Christ. Peter wrote that they were born again to a living hope the day Jesus was resurrected. Then, as promised, the Father sent the Spirit of Life in Christ, the Holy Spirit, who reveals Jesus’ righteousness in their lives through love and obedience. The world acknowledges these events on Easter, but those who are His celebrate this tremendous, glorious reality every day as Jesus lives in them. As He lives or abides in them, they know Him and love Him. They know the truth because He lives in them, and their lives reveal the truth that God is love. Anyone who says, “I have come to know Him,” or calls themselves “Christians” and does not keep Jesus’ commandments not only is saying a lie, but is living a lie. In contrast, when the truth of the gospel is known and believed, the living Truth, Jesus Christ, brings forth fruit for the glory of God. I hope this describes you, dear listener! We will be encouraged tomorrow as we see that the fruit is love.
1 John 2:3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.We are encouraged today that one can know that one knows God. Do you know that you know God? John had been proclaiming that Jesus is God in the flesh. To know Jesus is to know God. We don’t have to wonder where John got the insight contained in this verse. He got it from Jesus. Speaking to the Jews who were accusing Him of having a demon, He said, “And you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word” (Jo. 8:55). Like Jesus said, one sure indicator that a person knows Jesus as God is that the person keeps His commandments or values His word. If we want to get to know someone, we listen attentively to them and then keep or guard what we learn about them so we can love them. John remembered what Jesus told he and the rest of the disciples (who were the we of whom John was writing), “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word” (John 14:23). “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (Jo. 15:10). In John 15, Jesus switched back and forth between saying “words” and “commandments.” To Jesus, His words and commandments were synonymous. John’s point in this verse was to encourage his readers to have integrity. I want to encourage you to do the same. If you know Jesus as God, you will live to love with Him. He commanded His disciples to love as He loved (Jo. 13:34), He promised them that He would do it, He would love in and through them as they kept His word and asked Him to do it. I hope you will live to love with Jesus today by holding fast to His word, trusting Him to empower you by His grace to live it. In so doing, you will know that you have come to know Jesus personally and intimately. Also, everyone else who knows Him will know that you know Him.
1 John 2:2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.This verse is a continuation of John’s encouragement to his readers if they do sin. Yesterday we saw that when we sin, we have Jesus to advocate for us. He has provided His righteousness to be our righteousness as we stand before God. That’s comforting and encouraging isn’t it? Today we are encouraged by this great truth. Jesus, Himself, paid the ransom for our sins. We owed a debt we couldn’t pay. The payment had to be death. Only Jesus could give up His life (which had to be in blood, for life is in the blood). Because He was righteous, He gave up His life, knowing His Father would receive His payment as payment in full for all the sins committed by all those God gave to Him (John 17:2). However the payment made by Jesus wasn’t just for the Jewish disciples. The payment was also for people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation—the whole world. He didn’t mean Jesus advocated for and paid the ransom for every single person in the world. We know that’s not the case because Peter wrote, “But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Pet. 3:7). There will be a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. John’s statement was meant to give encouragement to all believers, both Jew and Gentile, if they sin. They have Jesus as their advocate before the Father and He has given His own life, at the command of the Father, to cover them if they sin. Here’s Paul’s version of this truth. The gospel is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). So it is true, that if we abide in Christ and Christ lives through us, we won’t sin. It is also true, that if we do sin, we have an advocate with God in Jesus who is righteous and has paid the ransom Himself to cover our sins. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Hallelujah! What a friend!
1 John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;We have a great encouragement today from this verse. The reason John was writing this letter was so that they may not sin. So there’s something in this letter that will result in our not sinning. Are you as surprised by this statement as I have been? Is it really possible for us not to sin? Let’s let John answer this question. Here’s the answer. It’s found in 1 Jo. 3:5-6. “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins.” John wrote that Jesus is life. In his gospel, John recorded Jesus’ story of the vine and the branches where Jesus taught them that if He abides in them and they abide in Him, they will bear much fruit, for apart from Him they could do nothing but sin (John 15:5-7). John’s point for them and for us is this. Jesus is life. When we abide in Him and He in us, He doesn’t sin. If we receive His life and give what we receive, it isn’t sin, it’s Jesus living in us. John wrote to encourage his readers to abide in Christ, who is eternal life. He wasn’t saying that they could achieve sinless perfection because he acknowledges that there will be times when we do sin. “If anyone sins.” John was encouraging them to rely upon the life of Jesus as their source of righteousness and love, AND rely upon Him as their advocate when they do not abide in Him. Jesus is the only righteousness we have. His life, His righteousness is our righteousness advocating for us as well as living and abiding in us.Today, I encourage you to abide in Jesus Christ as your life in every circumstance. Look to Him to love through you. Look to Him for wisdom and grace before you respond to the situations and people God places in your life today. God gave His Son to shed His blood so we could be washed and forgiven when we sin. Additionally He gave us the life of Jesus so we might not sin today as we abide in Him and receive our lives and love from and through Him. What confidence we have before God and in life. As we continue going through 1 John, remember, everything we read and consider was given to us by God through the Holy Spirit, through John, so that by abiding in Jesus and living to love with Him, we might not sin.
1 John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.How is it that someone who says they have not sinned makes God a liar? In sending His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for the sins of His people, God was saying that all have sinned. He was saying that the only way for them to be right with God, not die, and have eternal life in union with Him was for Him to forgive and cleanse them while still fulfilling the demands of righteousness. That’s exactly what God did in sending His Son. Listen to how Paul taught this same truth. Speaking of justification “as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:25-26). Thus says the word of the Lord.So we can see why saying we have not sinned makes God a liar and clearly reveals that God’s word is not in us. God’s word is the truth. He has said that only Jesus is life. Therefore, His giving His life for the sins of those who abide in death is what Light and Love must do. He has done it!These verses may not seem necessary to many of us who have plenty of evidence that we have sinned against God and know that our flesh is hostile to God. However, in John’s day, they were very necessary because of those who rejected God’s Word and Jesus’ having come in the flesh to take away sin. In our time, these verses are extremely relevant because the lies of apostasy have invaded the visible church denying original sin, that Jesus was God in the flesh, Jesus’ atoning work on the cross, and the miraculous resurrection of His body. This spirit of antichrist has been in the world since Jesus came and is still prevalent today. It is for this reason that I am calling you to live to love with Jesus. As we live to love with Him, we are testifying that we need His life given for us on the cross and His life given to us for our daily walk. Without Him, we sin, but abiding with Him, we love. When He leaves us to ourselves and we sin, that’s when we take responsibility for our sin and testify to God’s faithfulness and forgiveness that flows through His substitutionary death. When He gives us His grace and we love with Him, that’s when we give Him glory and testify of His redeeming, resurrected life dwelling in our bodies of flesh. In so doing, we show that God’s Word is in us and that He is the truth.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.Today’s encouragement comes from this very popular verse. My guess is that most of you have heard this verse since you were children. John wanted his readers to know of God’s character and faithfulness when we agree with Him that we have sinned. Let me remind you of what John wrote in verse 7. “If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” For God to send His Son to die for our sins on the cross is a declaration by God that we all have sin. Obviously, if mankind didn’t have sin, then certainly Jesus would not have had to come to die for them. Therefore one thing living in the light of the truth means is that I agree with God that I have sinned. Confession of sin is to agree with God about what He sees in us. He knows all things about us, much more than we know about us. That however isn’t a bad or discouraging thing, it is a wonderfully encouraging truth because God is love. Because God is love and light, His light by its very nature exposes sin and darkness, and then destroys it. That’s exactly what God did at the cross. He demonstrated His faithfulness and righteousness in Christ by taking upon Himself all the sins which He sees of His people. The blood of Jesus which was shed for them, the life of the Son, powerfully cleanses them of every unrighteousness in their lives because He forgives them. Who is God being faithful to when He forgives those who confess their sins? He is being faithful to His word and His Son. Here is the promise made to Jesus. Isaiah 53:10 But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.Isaiah 53:11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.Isaiah 53:12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.John didn’t encourage us to ask forgiveness when we sin so God will forgive. Rather, He encouraged us to agree with God that the death of Christ was necessary. Jesus died for sins because God is faithful and righteous to forgive and promised to cleanse us of them. This means that He doesn’t look at us and see our sins when we confess them. He looks at us and sees the righteousness of His Son! So when we become aware of our sins, let us be quick to agree that this is why we need Jesus, and it is why God sent His Son. Then may we receive the forgiveness and cleansing of our sins with great joy and gratitude.
1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. Can you imagine saying that you have no sin? At the time that John wrote this letter, there was a group of people who were called gnostics. They made a distinction between the material and the spiritual. They believed the material was evil, so they considered their bodies as part of this evil material world. However, they considered their spiritual selves, their minds and the knowledge they possessed to be free from sin and the corruption that is in the world. So they thought that what they did in their bodies did not matter. Of course, the material body was corrupt and full of sin, but it would pass away. As long as they professed the truth and possessed the knowledge of God their true spiritual selves were sinless. Today, in the 21st-century, there is another group of people who say they have no sin. They deny original sin and do not believe they have sin. Therefore they don’t believe there is any need for atonement. They don’t believe Jesus died for sins but believe that He was killed because He spoke truth to power. They believe that Adam didn’t sin—he took on shame from God that he shouldn’t have. They don’t redefine sin, they deny its existence and power. From this verse, we learn that both groups do not have the truth in them. He didn’t say they were deceived by someone else, he said they deceived themselves by thinking the way they do. When someone walks in darkness they can’t see the truth. The truth is evident: We all have sin because we are sinners. Everything we do apart from the life of Jesus falls short of the glory of God. If our actions flow out of the life of God in us, then He gets the glory. If our actions flow out of our own efforts or flesh, then God doesn’t get the glory and we fall short of the glory of God. That’s why Paul wrote in Romans that no flesh will be justified before God because we all sin and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). The truth is that without the life of God living in us, we have nothing but sin. For anyone (even those who believe in Jesus) to say they have no sin reveals self-deception. We cannot be the source of life. Only Jesus is life, and as John wrote in 1 Jo. 5:12, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” In the name of Jesus, I’m calling you to live to love with Jesus. That doesn’t mean that we won’t sin. We will. We learn later from 1 John that it does mean that when we abide in Jesus and His life and love flow through us to others, that we won’t sin. But what happens when we don’t abide in Him and we try to do life in our own strength and wisdom? We sin. The liberating encouragement today is that we are sinners. Apart from Jesus, living in the light is impossible. God isn’t asking us to try hard to love and walk in the light so He can get the glory. The good news is that’s not what God expects. He has promised to love through us for His glory as we live to love depending upon Him for everything in life.
1 John 1:7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. Yesterday, we were warned by the apostle John, not to lie about God but instead practice the truth that God is light. In today’s verse, John described the practice of a faithful, true believer in Jesus Christ. It seems so simple and clear. We prove that we have fellowship with one another and with the Father and the Son if we walk in the light. I think it’s pretty clear from the gospel of John and from this first epistle that in John’s mind, walking in the light is the same as living to love with Jesus. Jesus is in the light, and if He lives in us and we have fellowship with Him, we will walk in the light— we will walk in love. The last line of this verse is intended to give great assurance to those who have the life of Jesus revealed in them through love. As John described the Christian life of love, he assured those who live to love like Jesus that they are cleansed by the blood of Jesus from every sin. The practice of love in a life reveals someone who knows by experience the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. They know they are loved by God, and they can’t help but love those that He loves. Let’s notice, they don’t love so that they can be forgiven of their sins. This is not a verse of prescription, it’s descriptive of someone who has the life of Christ within them. That’s what a Christian is—a person who loves because the blood of Jesus has cleansed them from sin, and the life of Jesus shines in the darkness. We love because we have been forgiven much. Is this verse descriptive of your life? For those of you who answer yes, rejoice in the Lord! Give God thanks and glory for what He’s done for you through Jesus Christ. May this encouragement today stimulate you to love Him more and love with Jesus more. For those of you who know that this verse does not describe you, I encourage you, in the knowledge of your sin and powerlessness to change yourself, to look to the cross of Jesus Christ, where his blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins. Leviticus 17:11 says that the life is in the blood and Heb. 9:22 states that there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. This is how John knew that God is light and that His light is love. John wrote later in 1 John 3:16 “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” May the God who is light and love open your heart to receive his love and his life revealed at the cross. Be washed in his blood, so you can have eternal life—Jesus Himself—and live to love with Him. He will transform your life taking you from darkness into His light.
1 John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; Our encouragement today is not to be liars or hypocrites. If God is light, and Jesus is God, and Jesus is living through us as we abide in Him, there can be no darkness. Follow my line of reason. If God is light and walking in the light is walking in love, then walking in darkness is using God, this world, and people for selfish ends. We will see this more clearly as John contrasts darkness and light. When we act in unloving ways while saying that we are Christians we are lying about the life of Christ and not practicing the truth. John told us the truth about God. He is light. Knowing that God is light is an insufficient testimony and proclamation about God. Yes, we need to declare that we have fellowship with the Father and with the Son, but it is our walking in love with Jesus that proclaims the truth. It’s living to love with Jesus that proves that Jesus lives and that God is light. So today, I hope to encourage and inspire you to live to love with Jesus and walk in the truth that God is light. By God’s grace, let’s not live a lie, but let His light shine!
1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. Amazing! This is the life that lives in all believers – a life of light. John wrote that this is the message that he heard from Jesus. John wrote in his gospel, John 1:4 “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” In chapter four, verse 8 of John‘s letter, he said that God is love. This leads me to believe that the light of God is love. So when we live to love with Jesus, He is our light, and His light is the light of the world. Let’s consider what light does. It chases away the darkness. It reveals what was hidden in the darkness. It shows the way. It brings warmth and life into this world. Just to mention a few of the blessings of light. That’s what the love of God accomplished as it was revealed in Jesus Christ, and we can have the same impact in our world as we live to love with Jesus today.
1 John 1:4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. I think the encouragement from this verse comes from something John learned from Jesus. He heard Jesus say this very same comment after Jesus gave the disciples the new commandment to love one another as He loved them (John 13:34) and that they would know when they received the Holy Spirit that Jesus was in the Father, they were in Jesus, and that Jesus was in them (John 14:20). Jesus told them that without Him, they could not bear fruit for the glory of God (John 15:5). Then Jesus told them why He had said these things. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11). In this verse we understand the excitement and joy that comes with living to love with Jesus. In this first letter of John’s, he essentially encouraged his readers (and us) to obey Jesus’ commands to believe in Him and love one another in the power of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus dwelling within them. That quality of life can only happen in them if they believe in and abide in Jesus. John wanted them to know that their living to love with Jesus filled the disciples with Jesus’ joy. In his third letter he put it this way. “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth” (3 John 4).So the encouragement today should travel with us as we journey through these epistles of John. All of what he wrote was to encourage them to live to love with Jesus. He fully expected God, with whom they were in fellowship, to love through them. Nothing could complete his joy more than to hear that his brother and sisters after reading his letter, walked in love. This is why I am doing this podcast! I’m encouraging all who hear to live to love with Jesus for His glory. And if you do rise to God’s call to love in all that you do, nothing could make me more joyful when I come to stand before Jesus to give an account of my life. I invite you to fellowship with me by committing yourself to walk in love with Jesus, and indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and the Son, who dwells in us. We will not be disappointed on That Great Day, when Jesus comes to be glorified in the saints and marveled at by all who believe. We will be filled with joy if we are making disciples who live to love with Jesus.
1 John 1:3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.Hi, I’m Norm Wakefield. I’m so glad you’ve tuned into today’s Live to Love Scripture Encouragement from 1 John 1:3I hope you’ll be encouraged today by this amazing reality. If we have Jesus dwelling in our hearts, then we also have God, the Father, dwelling in us. As we live to love with Jesus, and fellowship with other believers, we are not only sharing life with our brothers and sisters, but we are sharing in the life of the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ! In Jesus’ last hour or so with His disciples He told them, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23). If we have the Son, we have the Father. The presence and fellowship we have with one another as we love each other is indeed the fellowship of the Trinity. Notice what Paul wrote to the Romans in 8:9-11. We have the Trinity dwelling in us! “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” What makes the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit one? It’s love. It is the perfect bond of unity in the Godhead and the perfect bond of unity in the believers. Be amazed today by these encouraging words from John. He wrote 1 John with this reality in mind. Everyone who experiences the love of the Father and Son as they fellowship with the eternal Word of Life has the basis for fellowship with each other. So the reason John wrote this letter was to provide the body of Christ with the truth of the gospel which he and the disciples had witnessed first hand so we could all enjoy sharing eternal life together with the Father and the Son.
1 John 1:2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us-Welcome to today’s Live to Love Scripture encouragement. I’m Norm Wakefield, and honored to have you tune in today for encouragement from God’s Word. Today, we’re reading and considering 1 John 1:2. “And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” The life of Jesus, eternal life, the living Word of Life could not remain invisible. By His nature, He had to be manifested. Jesus, being a person—not an idea, not a figment of someone’s imagination, not a phantom or ghost—in union with the Father, God, was manifested in the history of mankind. John, and those with him who saw Jesus testify or bear witness to the quality of life in Jesus. With their own eyes and ears they saw and heard Jesus talk with Moses and Elijah in the heavenly realm. They heard the Father, God, declare audibly from heaven to earth, His love for Jesus. God called Jesus, His Son. Jesus referred to Himself as “I Am.” The name of eternal life. And most of all, they saw Jesus killed and buried and raised to life. His life is indestructible. They saw Him. They couldn’t remain silent about the revelation of the eternal life in Jesus. This letter is one proclamation they made that Jesus is life which was with the Father in eternity and revealed in the body of a man in this world. There’s no one like Him in the entire history of the world. Round up all the names of founders of religions, prophets, and earthly gods, and you’ll not find one who or which has has anyone to testify or proclaim them to have eternal existence. They all entered into time and space at some point and exited at another. They were all created by God or by men. Not so with Jesus. Eternal life—uncreated, with no beginning and no end—manifested to John and his fellow disciples.Only eternal life could atone for all sins, once and for all. Only eternal life could bring us to God for eternity. Only eternal life could conquer sin and death. Only eternal life could create the world and work out His glory through all things from day one to the end of the world. And what does that eternal life look like when manifested in this world? It looks like the love of God revealed in the life He lived on the earth in those very short 33 years, culminated in His laying down His life so we might have eternal life dwelling in our bodies for the glory of God. Those who live to love with Jesus are testimonies and proclamations of eternal life, which was with the Father and revealed in them.
1 John 1:1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life-Welcome to today’s live to love scripture encouragement. I’m Norm Wakefield, founder and executive director of The Spirit of Elijah Ministries International and livetolovewithjesus.com. It’s joy to have you join me as we start a journey through the letter of 1 John looking for encouragements to live to love with Jesus.1 John 1:1. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life-Jesus is the Word of Life. He is life. He has been life from the beginning of the history of the world. The amazing encouragement from this verse is that it is the testimony of the apostle John. He testified that the Word of Life became flesh and blood and entered into history during his lifetime. His name is Jesus. John, speaking for the rest of the disciples, heard, saw, looked at, and touched the Word of Life. The importance of this statement is that Jesus Christ wasn’t just a fictional character, or more to their historical context, the Word of Life had a material body. John’s point was and is: God became a man in the flesh. This is foundational to living to love with Jesus. The Jesus who lives in us is God, and as John said later in this first letter, “God is love.” So the one who knows God, loves. We must be careful not to think everything is Christ (as some progressive “self-called” Christians) profess. We don’t believe the lie that an earthly love is God. The love that dwells in us is the love of God, the living Word of Life, Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of God’s people according to the Scriptures, was buried for three days, and who was resurrected according to the Scriptures. He then went in His material body into heaven where He sits with all authority over heaven and earth. Having removed every sin that could separate His people from God, He brings us to God, seating us with Him in the heavenlies where He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, most importantly revealed in His giving us the Spirit of life in Christ. It is out of the fullness of Christ that His love flows through us. It’s a love that can be heard, seen, looked at, and touched—living in our material bodies—God’s temple. Do you have the Word of Life living in you? Is Jesus your life? If so, your body is not your own. It is Jesus’ body. And every believer is Jesus’ body. As we love one another, we are living to love with Jesus.
Romans 16:27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.Paul’s letter ends as it should, giving all the glory to God for His wisdom revealed in the gospel through Jesus Christ. I’m reminded of those encouraging verses in 1 Cor. 1:30-31. “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.’” Who, but an all wise God, could flawlessly execute His purposes for and in all creation and history? God is for us! Nothing can separate us from His love in Christ Jesus. Having been loved by an all wise God, we have the resources we need to walk in His fulness and love by the grace of Christ who is with us. If God planned such a wonderful salvation for us and then has done all the work to establish us before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach forever, to Him be all the glory. Today, let us be encouraged to treasure Jesus above all things and all people on the earth. What a privilege we have to love with Jesus for the glory of God.
Romans 16:25-26 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;When Paul referred to the “revelation of the mystery” of God, he was referring to God’s plan to include the Gentiles in God’s promise to Abraham. Here’s how Paul described his ministry to the Ephesians. Ephesians 3:1-6 “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles —Ephesians 3:2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you;Ephesians 3:3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.Ephesians 3:4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,Ephesians 3:5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;Ephesians 3:6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,With the Romans, we receive this incredible encouragement from the gospel—through the Scriptures we have received perseverance and encouragement—to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God. Through the gospel we learn that we are loved by God, chosen from the beginning by Him, that we might be established—that we might be made to stand fast—in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul started this verse with “Now to Him who…” Let us be encouraged today to join the apostle Paul in sounding forth this tribute to God who has saved us through the gospel. He has justified us in Christ, through whom we have received our introduction by faith into the grace in which we stand (Rom. 5:1-2). We need to do this NOW! Having received the gospel, Paul called the Romans not to delay in giving God glory. As he concluded his letter, he led them to do what every recipient of grace from God through Jesus Christ should do upon the realization of what God has done for them—give God glory. We’ll focus on the glory of God tomorrow. Today, I encourage you to think back over all the encouragement you have received as we’ve gone through the book of Romans in the Live to Love Scripture Encouragements podcast. Consider all that God has done to establish you, to make you stand and love out of that place of grace. I encourage you today to worship God and pay tribute to Him for He predestined, called, justified, and glorified you in Christ. He is worthy of our daily obedience, praise, adoration, and thanksgiving.
Romans 16:24 [The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.]What an encouraging verse. Having the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ with us is simply another way of saying live to love with Jesus. Anyone who has the grace of Jesus with them will be characterized by love. Just four verses earlier, Paul encouraged them that Satan would soon be crushed under their feet by the grace of the Lord Jesus. Our encouragement today is that we can only love people “by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus taught His disciples that apart from Him they could not glorify the Father through their fruitfulness. As Jesus’ disciples, we are fruitful branches filled with the life of the Vine, Jesus Christ. We are so blessed! So remember that you are not alone as you go through your day. The apostle John wrote in 1:16 of his gospel, “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” We love out of the fullness of Jesus. The life of Jesus dwelling in us is one of fullness. In Him, we are complete according to Paul’s letter to the Colossians. The fullness of deity dwells in Him. This fullness of grace in Christ enabled Paul to be content in all situations. He was satisfied with Jesus’ love. His grace satisfied the deepest desires of his soul. The living Lord Jesus Christ that lived in Paul and the believers in Rome, lives in us. We live from His fullness and whatever grace we need to love for God’s glory is available. That’s why we pray, “Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to know and love You and live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill us with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that we can love and trust You and love everyone You put in our paths today, for Your glory. Amen!” Let it be!
Romans 16:23 Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer greets you, and Quartus, the brother.I’ve just spent the last three weeks on a ministry trip to South Africa. I had amazing hosts who freely offered their homes, cars, time, energy, money, and food to me. Besides giving me a place to sleep, they opened their homes for meetings and meals of the believers in their house churches. So perhaps you have also experienced such God-glorifying love and hospitality as Paul and Tertius experienced from Gaius. Paul’s commendation of Gaius for his hospitality reminds us first of what Paul wrote in Romans 12:10-13. “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” Perhaps when Paul wrote that, he was looking at Gaius, his host. Secondly, Hebrews 13:2 describes in a figure of speech what Gaius was doing. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.” The word angel literally refers to God’s messenger. Like my friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, Gaius, hosted Paul and Tertius, angels of the Lord. As we live to love with Jesus, may we be encouraged to open our homes and our resources to our brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s how Jesus loves His body. When we practice hospitality, we are loving Jesus’ body. From the Scriptures I just read, we learn this is both commanded and commended.
Romans 16:22 I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord.The Romans learn from this verse who has been Paul’s amanuensis, his secretary, so to speak, who put Paul’s words into print. Tertius felt that this was the place to add his own personal greeting with the rest of Paul’s fellow workers, so he did. In essence, Tertius wanted to express the love of Christ to them which is why he said he greeted them “in the Lord.” All of us who are “in the Lord” have a very real union with every single believer in Christ. We have a shared love experience with Jesus. As I meet people in one city or nation after another, from various ethnic groups and nationalities, I find that “in the Lord” we already know each other. It’s like meeting extended family who I didn’t know before. But we have a common ancestor, so we have an affection for each other due to that relationship. That’s how it is with everyone who is a member of Jesus’ body. We have affection and love for each other because we have a love bond through Jesus Christ. I, Norm, who writes and records this podcast greets you today “in the Lord.” This greeting comes out of the love of Jesus that abides in me for you. If He loves you, I love you, therefore I greet you with His love. Let us all be amazed at Jesus, in and with whom we share unfathomable riches.
Romans 16:21 Timothy my fellow worker greets you, and so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.We can draw encouragement to live to love with Jesus from today’s Scripture by the fact that God does not expect us to be lone rangers in His kingdom. In His love and by the grace of the Lord Jesus He provides others who work alongside us so that we are not overwhelmed or discouraged in our service to the Lord. God gave the apostle Paul some help—fellow workers—Timothy, Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater to walk with him. He sent the Romans their greetings as well as his own.This reminds me to recognize my fellow workers as well as God’s gifts of grace to me. I could not be and do the work to which God has called me without my wife, my children and family who support me, the board of directors who walk with me in the ministry, as well as the hundreds of people who give generously for our support and work to arrange speaking opportunities, one on one appointments, and opportunities to love with Jesus both at home and abroad. They are amazing people for whom I am grateful. Who are your fellow workers? With whom do you serve the Lord? Who has God given you to be an encouragement to you and to spur you on to love and good deeds? May we be grateful today for those with whom we work as we live to love with Jesus.
Romans 16:20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.What tremendous hope we discover today in Rom. 16:20. Let me remind us of a couple of verses. We are blessed by Rom. 5:1 where we learn that God has made peace with us through Jesus’ death and provided the grace of the Lord Jesus in which we stand. And by giving us His Spirit, we have His peace dwelling within us. In Rom. 8:31-39 we learn that God is for us and no one can separate us from His love in Christ. So God has taken on all of our enemies and made us more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. He has set us free from the law of sin and death which reigned in our fleshly bodies (Rom. 8:2). He has conquered death through His resurrection (Rom. 6:9-10). He has saved us from sin through His life (Rom. 5:10). Satan has been defeated and all of his weapons have been made powerless (Rom. 6:6). Therefore we are at peace with God and His love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. We live in His kingdom which consists of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). God is the God of peace!The only thing remaining for Him to do is to crush Satan under our feet by the grace of the Lord Jesus who is with us and in whom we stand before God. Paul promised the Romans that God will crush Satan under their feet. How does He do that? Through the grace of the Lord Jesus who is with us. As we walk in love with Jesus, God crushes Satan under our feet. Everywhere we walk in love, we walk on holy ground and Satan experiences our feet upon his head. He has no weapons that can succeed against us. He has no accusations to make that will separate us from the God of peace and love. The devil is defeated, and as we live to love with Jesus, he is crushed beneath our feet. Today, be encouraged. God will crush Satan beneath our feet as we live to love with Jesus by the grace of the Lord Jesus who is with us. Rejoice! Walk in victory! Walk in love for the glory of God.
Romans 16:19 For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.Apparently Paul had heard good things about the Roman believers and their response to the gospel. In the introduction to his letter he wrote of what he and his companions had received in Christ, “Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake” (1:5). One of Paul’s aims in his letter was to bring about obedience to the gospel truth. He told them in this verse that he had heard of their obedience to the gospel. He was rejoicing over them. However, they apparently didn’t understand how that gospel truth was to be applied to their daily walking with each other. So he wrote chapters 12-15 to give them wisdom in how that gospel was to be applied, namely, through loving and serving Christ by seeking the highest good of each other. The highest good was the building up of the body of Christ in love so that Jesus would be glorified as the firstborn among many brethren (8:30). This is being wise in what is good.He also wanted them to be innocent or pure in their relationships with one another. They were not to encourage or do evil, namely, stumble or destroy the faith of another because of selfish ambition or self-serving practices. What a good description of someone who is living to love with Jesus. The gospel makes us wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. In essence, we know how the gospel applies to their relationships. We have been loved by God. His love has been shed abroad in our hearts. His love has secured our standing and acceptance with God. Therefore, we express such supernatural, Jesus-generated love toward one another. That’s living to love with Jesus. May we be encouraged today to wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil, for His glory.
Romans 16:18 For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.If you remember the context of Rom. 14-15 was how members of the body were to love one another when they had differences of opinion on food and drink. When someone considers their own likes and dislikes with regard to food and drink over the well-being of another, they show that they are slaves of their own appetites rather than slaves of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we are slaves of righteousness, slaves of Christ, then we do whatever is necessary to love those He loves. We lay down our lives for others as He laid down His life for us. Honoring Jesus as Lord of every member of His body was one of the ways we recognize Him as Lord. In keeping their eye out for those who cause dissension and hinder the unity of the body of Christ, he warned them to look out for flattery and smooth talking. For someone to ignore what Paul taught, they would have to present a contrary argument for why they can eat and drink as they please. They might appeal to people that God would want them to enjoy all things and they might advocate for a lifestyle of freedom in Christ to do whatever they like since they live under grace. Can you see the deception in such foolishness? The words may sound good, even appealing to the unsuspecting—enjoy what God has made, freedom in Christ. But such speech betrays the true character of the person. They are not loving others. They love themselves and their appetites. So our live to love encouragement today is a negative warning. It’s what loving with Christ doesn’t look like. It doesn’t look like living for our own appetites. Instead let us walk as slaves of our Lord Jesus Christ, and serve Him by loving one another and doing nothing to hinder our brothers or sisters from walking by faith to please the Lord.
Romans 16:17 Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.After giving the Roman believers clear instruction as to how they ought to receive one another in Christ and serve the Lord by loving one another, Paul felt it was necessary to emphasize how important his teaching was to them. They were offering to God living, holy, sacrifices which were acceptable to God as expressions of their worship (Rom. 12:1). Chapters 12-15 show us what such worship looks like in the fellowship of believers. In this verse, we see how serious it was to Paul that they put these things into practice and that they not tolerate anyone who didn’t live to love with Jesus. They were to keep an eye out for anyone who caused dissension or hindered their accepting one another as Jesus had accepted them. If anyone didn’t apply what Paul taught, they were to be shunned and avoided. I think we ought to see such discipline within the body as an expression of loving with Jesus. It’s not loving to enable or tolerate someone who destroys the body of Christ, which is exactly what Paul called it in Romans 14:15. “For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.” I don’t think Paul was suggesting that they not call the divisive person to repentance. I think it is assumed that they do that. If the person refused to listen, then they were to turn away. That’s what Jesus taught His disciples to do in Matthew 18:17 when two brothers confront someone about their sin. “If he (the one confronted) refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”Hopefully, today such destructive, selfish people won’t cross our paths, but if they do, Paul’s advice is for us to turn away from them. Living to love with Jesus sometimes requires a tough love. In such cases, we do what is in their highest good, which glorifies God by preserving the unity of the body of Christ.
Romans 16:16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.Greeting one another with a kiss was certainly in the eastern tradition in Paul’s day. It still is common today in the middle east. Here in the U.S. or western world, if we see someone greet someone else with a kiss, we typically assume they must be family—they must be related to one another in some special way. That’s exactly what greeting with a holy kiss communicated. It was the way they said, “I love you. You’re one of my family members. You’re my brother or sister in the Lord.” Our encouragement today from this verse is this. How might we communicate to someone we love in Christ that we view them as special members of our family? Also, if we do it with one, we should do it with all. Otherwise special treatment, especially between men and women, can be misconstrued or interpreted wrongly. Have you ever given this familial greeting in the Lord much thought? I hope you’ll do so today. Let’s see what the Holy Spirit does in us as we seek to greet one another in love.
Romans 16:14-15 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brethren with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.This list of names are Greek names, which encourages me that Paul’s acquaintances were diverse. He was not hindered by race differences. The love of Jesus broke down those barriers. In Jesus, we are one body—many members in one body. This reality was declared explicitly in his letter to the Colossians. He told them they had “put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all” (Col. 3:10-11).As we live our lives to love with Jesus, we are encouraged to overlook race and ethnic distinctions. God’s love is the same for all of the saints. All who are in Christ are considered God’s holy ones. A saint isn’t someone who is outstanding above other believers. A saint is someone who has been set aside to God, holy and beloved, in Christ. It is the love of Jesus that holds us together and makes us one. May we be filled with His love today for His glory.
Romans 16:13 Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine.This Rufus may or may not be the same Rufus referred to in Mark 15:21. The setting was the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. He was carrying His cross to Golgotha. Mark wrote about the Roman soldiers. “They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.” Could this be the same Rufus? If it is, then being a “choice man in the Lord” might have significant meaning. Mark assumed his readers knew Alexander and Rufus, and therefore would know their father Simon. When Paul wrote to Rome, he assumed everyone knew Rufus and his mother. In fact, Rufus’ mother apparently had been like a mother to Paul.I’ll draw 2 encouragements from this verse. First, may we all love with such sincerity and devotion that our brothers and sisters would consider us to be favorites of the Lord, if that’s even possible. Saying someone is a “choice man” implies that he’s a favorite. If I ask, “What is your food of choice?” You would understand me to be asking about your favorite food. Paul’s greeting of Rufus as a choice man is to say, “Please say hello to Rufus. He’s one of my favorite people in Rome.” If we live to love with Jesus, hopefully, there will be some who will say about us that we are among their favorite brothers or sisters in Christ.Second, Rufus’ mother must have been one of those women who was a mother to many that she met. What a wonderful testimony from Paul that Rufus’ mother had “adopted” him as her own. If you are an older woman, this might be a good example for you. If you have a mothering instinct from the Lord, do it well! Jesus said that in the kingdom, we will have many mothers. Mark 10:29-30 “Jesus said, ‘Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.’” As you are living to love with Jesus, God may give you to be a mother to someone who has lost their mother for the kingdom’s sake. You may be God’s means of fulfilling His word through His Son. What a privilege and encouragement to be a mother in Lord to the younger generation.
Romans 16:12 Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, workers in the Lord. Greet Persis the beloved, who has worked hard in the Lord.It seems as Paul was thinking a bout who to greeting Rome, he couldn’t overlook some of them who were hard workers in the Lord. They weren’t merely hard workers—they were workers in the Lord. Being a hard worker in the Lord doesn’t mean he or they think that their works will earn salvation. For Paul, being a hard worker was a sign of the grace of God. Remember what he said about himself when writing to the Corinthians? 1 Cor. 15:10. “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” This makes me think that when Paul described Tryphaena, Tryphosa, and Persis as hard workers in the Lord, he was testifying of the grace of God that was evident in their lives.This encourages us to be hard workers in the Lord—working according to the grace given us by the Holy Spirit. One aspect of living to love with Jesus is working hard in our love for others. We don’t do it to impress our parents, pastors, friends, or anyone for that matter. We labor for the audience of One. We long for Him to be glorified in our lives. We are loving others in the Lord, and often that takes sacrifice and effort. It will appear that we are working hard, but we and God knows we are working hard in the Lord. He provides the strength, the wisdom, and the fruit in our labors. The teacher studies hard to encourage and teach the body of Christ by the grace he or she is given. The giver works hard to earn money so that he may have the privilege of being God’s conduit of material blessing to others. The man or woman full of mercy works hard to enter into the suffering and pain of others with the comfort God has given them. How about you? Would the Lord call you a hard worker in His grace? Is the grace of God hard at work in you for the glory of God? I hope the lives of these three, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, and Persis, speak to us today and encourage our hearts to glorify God as hard workers in the Lord.
Rom. 16:10b-11 Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. Greet those of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.I am presently coming to the end of a three week ministry trip in South Africa. I love this nation and these people. Just saying. I also feel like they love me as well. God has and is doing wonderful things in His people here. During my week in Jeffrey’s Bay, I had the privilege of building relationships with several house church groups which meet in homes on a weekly basis. As I’m writing, I can see their smiling faces and remember the encouragement we enjoy as we fellowship together in the Lord. I am aware of Jesus’ love for them when I’m with them, and I’m also blessed by the love of Christ I experience from them. When I read Paul’s greeting to the households of Aristobulus and Narcissus, I can relate to his experience. Paul may have had in mind all of the family and servants of each of these men or he could have in mind a certain group of believers who regularly met in their homes like I envision in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa. Irregardless of which is true, it is clear that the love of Jesus flowed between Paul and these two men and those who were connected to their homes. When we love with Jesus, we may expect to form love connections with families and groups of brothers and sisters who love Jesus. This is certainly true if you do much traveling and sharing with believers in various locations like I do. I hope you have fellowship with other believers within the context of the home where the love of Jesus flows freely and consistently. Everyone benefits from such fellowship in the Lord. It’s vital to growing in love and living to love with Jesus.
Romans 16:10 Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Our encouragement to live to love with Jesus today comes from Paul’s commendation of Apelles, the approved in Christ. The word translated approved comes from a word meaning someone who has been received on the basis of passing a test. Therefore, we might think of Apelles as a man whose faith Paul knew had been tested by God and who had passed the test with flying colors. Paul used the same word approved in his letter to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 11:18-19 “For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.” Paul’s insight into the purpose for divisions and conflicts in relationships is important for us all who wish to love with Jesus. God’s purpose in allowing divisions is that it tests the authenticity and source of one’s faith. Those whom God has approved of in Christ become evident as they are tested but still love. They demonstrate the realities of which Paul wrote in Rom. 14-15. If God has received a brother or sister through the work of Christ on the cross and on the basis of His righteousness, then they receive the brother or sister in spite of their differences of opinion. Their passing the test or trial reveals that they are approved of by God, in Christ Jesus. Apelles’ faith had been tested, tried, and proven. He had loved when the chips were down, when the going was tough, when others would have quit or caved. That’s what living to love with Jesus looks like when we’re tested. Remember this definition of God’s love: the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. Apelles had proven God’s love, and that’s why Paul greeted him. May we purpose in our wills to love whoever God puts in our paths today, regardless of how difficult it may be. In so doing we join Apelles as those who are approved in Christ.
Romans 16:7 Greet Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.Our encouragement today to live to love with Jesus comes from Andronicus and generally assumed, his wife, Junias. We know four things about this couple. 1. They were Jews. 2. They were fellow prisoners which could mean they were captured and at some time incarcerated with Paul or it could mean their hearts were captured by Jesus as was Paul’s. By the way, Paul referred to himself as a prisoner of the Lord (Eph. 3:1; 4:1). Aristarchus (Col. 4:10) and Epaphras (Philemon 1:9) were also fellow prisoners in Christ. 3. Their conversions preceded Paul’s conversion (they were in Christ before Paul). 4. They were outstanding among the apostles. The encouragement I draw from this verse and Andronicus’ and Junias’ example is that they were outstanding, but relatively obscure. If I asked you to name the outstanding apostles, you probably wouldn’t have mentioned them. You might have mentioned Peter, James, or John. Paul considered Andronicus and Junias to be outstanding apostles. Eastern Orthodox tradition places Andronicus as a Bishop of the church in Panonnia, which is in the region of present day Hungary and eastern Austria. They possibly were Jews from Rome who were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit swept through the crowd and captured their hearts. They were converted, and thus they were in Christ before Saul/Paul. For Paul to call them apostles means that they were sent out to proclaim the gospel and start a new work. Could they have played fundamental roles in the establishment of the church in Rome? Fourth century theologian, Ambrosiaster wrote, “It is established that there were Jews living in Rome in the times of the apostles, and that those Jews who had believed [in Christ] passed on to the Romans the tradition that they ought to profess Christ but keep the law … One ought not to condemn the Romans, but to praise their faith; because without seeing any signs or miracles and without seeing any apostles, they nevertheless accepted faith in Christ.” Perhaps they were in the first wave of believers in Christ sent out by the original apostles in Jerusalem. Here’s my point. The work and ministry of Christ in the world advances through millions of men and women like Adronicus and Junias through the millennia. They are outstanding believers whose hearts have been captured by Jesus and who have embraced His call to make disciples as they go on their way through life living to love with Jesus. They mostly go unnoticed because they aren’t trying to do anything big for Jesus. They are faithfully walking with Jesus in their everyday setting, trusting Jesus to love and build His church through them. May we be like Andronicus and Junias—faithfully carrying the gospel wherever Jesus takes us, making disciples who live to love with Jesus, for the glory of God. That’s what it means to be outstanding in God’s kingdom.
Romans 16:6 Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.I’m envisioning something like this in the Roman congregation being said. “Mary! Paul says, ‘Hi. He knows how hard you have worked for us, and wants to honor you in our midst. We agree with him. You are an incredible servant to us, Mary. Thank you so much for loving us and serving us as you do.’” The only think that might be added are the details of which we know nothing. Working hard for the body of Christ was worthy of Paul’s notice and greeting. It not only is worthy of our notice as well, but is also worthy of imitation by us. I doubt if Mary’s work was compensated with wages. She obviously was a hard worker and the congregation benefited from her labor. Maybe today, Mary would be a nursery worker, a bathroom cleaner, a children’s coordinator, or a meal organizer for the sick, troubled, and bereaved. Who is “Mary” in your church? Have you taken the time or trouble to get to know the Marys in your church? How might the Holy Spirit guide you to express gratitude and honor to “Mary” in your church? Surely, we can also draw encouragement to love with Jesus by Mary’s example. I can’t help but think that it was the love of Jesus that moved Mary’s commitment and hard work. What do you think? She loved Jesus, and because she loved Jesus, she worked hard to serve His body. I’m reminded of Martha who was busy preparing food for Jesus and the disciples. Or Dorcas comes to mind, whom Peter raised from the dead in Joppa, and honored her for kindness and charity. May God fill us today with the energy and love He gave to Mary to work hard for the body of Christ in Rome.
Romans 16:5, Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia.Romans 16:8 Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.Romans 16:9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.I chose to look at these three verses together today because Paul referred to Epaenetus, Ampliatus, and Stachys as his “beloved, or beloved in the Lord.” When is the last time you thought of someone as your “beloved”? And if you did, what led you to refer to them as “beloved”? The word Paul used is a form of the term agape. It’s one you love dearly, deeply, unconditionally. As we live to love with Jesus, surely Jesus will love some specially through you like He did the apostle John. John referred to himself four times in his gospel as the one “whom Jesus loved.” He knew Jesus loved him. This reminds me of something Jerry White, my beloved friend and mentor shared with my wife. It was something like this. “One of the most important questions I ask myself with regard to my relationships is this: Do they know I love them?” I might add, “Do they know Jesus loves them through me?” I’m sure that’s included in what Jerry meant. Imagine one event in eternity when you meet Epaenetus, Ampliatus, and Stachys in heaven. You ask them, “Did you know that Paul loved you dearly in Jesus and that Jesus loved you dearly in Paul?” It’s not difficult for me to imagine their heads nodding in the affirmative. If you asked Epaenetus how he knew Paul loved him, he would probably say that he shared the gospel with him and it led to his conversion. Let’s ask ourselves these questions to encourage ourselves to live to love with Jesus. Do the people in our lives know that we love them? How do they know we love them? And if we’re in doubt, Holy Spirit, what shall we do to communicate that we love them with Jesus? Father, anoint and fill us with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that we can love and trust You, so You will know that we love You. And so that we can love those You put in our paths today, to the degree that they know they are “beloved” by us, in Your name, for Your glory.
Romans 16:4-5 who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles; also greet the church that is in their house.There are two encouragements in this verse that I wish to draw your attention when it comes to living to love with Jesus. First, look at the example of Prisca and Aquila. Paul said they had risked their own lives for Paul. We aren’t given any details, but apparently Paul was in danger, and they in some way identified with him to the extent that their own lives were in danger. Their service to Paul impacted all of the Gentile churches. This encourages us that when we love and serve others, we aren’t just loving them. We are also loving those that they love and serve. There’s a ripple effect of which we should be aware. This makes me think of the people that invested their lives in my parents, my spiritual mentors, pastors, and others from whom I have or do draw spiritual encouragement. They are to me what Prisca and Aquila were to the churches of the Gentiles. Indirect blessings of God for whom we ought to give thanks.Second, let’s be encouraged today by the fact that as we love those God puts in our paths today, there are people “downstream” figuratively speaking who will benefit. Hopefully someday, they will give thanks and glory to God for His grace through us to those who love them directly. God’s administration of His love to the body of Christ extends way beyond what we usually see or are aware of. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Paul’s gratitude for Prisca and Aquila was drawn from a grand view of the grace of God poured out by the Spirit on a glorious scale. We live to love with Jesus to make disciples who live to love with Jesus, who make disciples who live to love with Jesus, who…well you get the idea. That’s how the kingdom of God rolls. One after another laying down their lives for those who they know are precious to the Lord and serving Him faithfully.Let’s pause before signing off today and give thanks to God for those whom God used to bless those who have blessed us. Father in heaven, thank You for those who laid down their lives to point those who have loved us to Jesus so they could be a blessing to us. You can see all of their lives as I’m praying. You knew You were loving us as You loved them and gave them grace to love our parents, mentors, coaches, teachers, pastors, youth ministers, choir directors, worship leaders, disciplers, and friends. We give You thanks for the many who have directly impacted our lives and for those who indirectly contributed to our blessing in Christ by loving them. Bless and encourage them today as you did Prisca and Aquila the day this letter was read in Rome.
Romans 16:3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,Those who work with us in the kingdom are special, are they not? Three times in Paul’s letters he mentioned Prisca and Aquila. Apparently the couple had occasion to be in Rome. They were co-workers with Paul in Corinth. Paul’s mention of them gives me pause to think about the people God has placed in my life with whom I co-labor. I’m so grateful for them! There are those who financially support or prayerfully support Elijah Ministries. I’ve ministered in some countries more than ten times and the same people host me and minister with me, so those fellow workers in Christ Jesus come to mind. God has raised up dozens of fellow workers who are leading Live to Love discipleship groups or men’s small groups using resources from Elijah Ministries. Additionally, there’s my board of directors, personal assistant, and our shipping and inventory manager. All of these people are fellow workers with me in loving the body of Christ with Jesus.I encourage you to pause today and give thanks to God for those He has given to you as fellow workers in Christ Jesus. In your own way, greet them in the Lord, give Him thanks, and let your heart appreciate God’s’ goodness to you through them. You and I would not be as fruitful or productive in the kingdom of God without them. Father, thank You for those You have given to encourage, help, and minister with us in Your name. Bless them today with the fullness of the blessing of Christ Jesus, Your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Romans 16:2 that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well.Have you ever considered that we are to receive one another “in the Lord.” So often our basis for our reception and acceptance of others is who they are in the flesh—naturally. We respond or react to them depending on how they treat us or how we feel about them. However, Paul shows us the impact of the gospel in the body of Christ when he told the Roman church to receive Phoebe as she has been received in the Lord. Because of what Jesus has done for us, that is, because He has removed our fleshly life with its sins and given us His righteousness, God receives us “in the Lord.” This reception is worthy of what Jesus has done for us. We give Him glory when we receive one another “in the Lord.” We are testifying that we are so satisfied in Jesus that we don’t need our brothers and sisters to do anything else to be received by us. Even though Phoebe’s service to the church was commendable, she was to be received because she was a saint, a holy one to the Lord. This encourages us to receive one another in a way that is worthy of saints and gives glory to God in Christ. We are to receive one another “in the Lord.” That’s the love of God at work in our relationships. Can you make the connection of this verse with living to love with Jesus? How has He loved us? He has received us on the basis of His glorious, redemptive, sanctifying work. When we receive our brothers or sisters based on Jesus’ work, we’re loving with Him.
Romans 16:1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea;As we read through Romans 16, we are going to draw encouragement from the people who were dear to Paul. In most cases he commented on them which gives us encouragement to love for the glory of God. As we read about them, let’s keep in mind that anything commendable flows out of the life of Jesus in them. Why Paul started off commending Phoebe is not known. But her servant’s attitude and lifestyle in the church in Cenchrea deserved mentioning. We can assume Phoebe was loving her brothers and sisters in Christ as she served the church. It’s not like they had a building and she had a position of service in the congregation when they met there. That might be how we imagine someone who is a servant of the church. Rather, she probably was like Dorcas, who is mentioned in Acts 9:36, 39. “Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which translated in Greek is called Dorcas); this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did. So Peter arose and went with them. When he arrived, they brought him into the upper room; and all the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing all the tunics and garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them.” Servants usually do practical things to help others out of love for Jesus and for those they serve. Does this encourage you like it does me? It makes me ask the Holy Spirit to help me notice practical, small ways I can serve others. Are we engaged consistently with others so that we know what the needs of our brothers and sisters are? I’m always impressed and inspired by people who notice what needs to be done before anyone else does, and then moves into action. I’m guessing that’s the kind of woman Phoebe was. The next verse tells us that she was a helper of many as well as Paul.I hope our pastors and brothers and sisters would commend us because we are living to love with Jesus and have a servant’s heart and ministry. It’s the least we can do considering how Jesus has served us. May it be said about you and me that we are servants to the body of Christ, for the glory of God.
Romans 15:33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.Four times in Paul’s letters, he refers to God as the God of peace. God isn’t a god of peace. He is the one and only God of peace. God, the Father of Jesus Christ, has made peace with sinners through the death of His Son so that He could be with us. What God does such a thing but our God? All the other so-called gods of this world are only at peace with men if the men do something to please them or appease them. But our God loved us when we were enemies. When we were dead in our transgressions and sins against Him, He made us alive together with Christ, raised us up with Him, and then seated us in the heavenly places with Him (Eph. 2:5-6). Our God is rich in mercy, and His love is so great that He gave His Son to bring us to Himself. Then in response to Jesus’ request, God gave His Spirit of life in Christ to dwell in us so we could live with and through Him. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved wretches like us!These words are a moving prayer for our brothers and sisters in Christ. If the God of peace is with us, then we become peace-makers in this world. James wrote, James 3:18. “And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” We are equipped to love others because we are at peace with God and are carried and moved by His love which has been poured out within our hearts. Because we have been loved, we love. The more we are aware of His presence and love, the more we treasure Jesus and long for others to experience the peace, love, and joy of Jesus for the glory of God. Now may the God of peace be with you today. Amen.
Romans 15:32 so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.We joyfully love with Jesus by the will of God. Paul’s prayer was that it was God’s will to rescue him from his enemies and prosper his way to Rome. I want to encourage you today with this wonderful truth. When you purpose to love with Jesus, He will fill you with His joy. Jesus promised His disciples that if they would love one another as He had loved them by abiding in Him, that His joy would be in them and that their joy would be made full (John 15:11). Paul’s vision in coming to visit the Roman church was that he would come in joy. That’s my prayer as well as I go into my day. I will be “coming” to many people throughout my day, and I pray that they will see the joy of the Lord in my life. I have found if I am abiding in Christ and in tune with Jesus’ purpose to love whoever He puts in my path, there’s a joy in my heart. I think you’ll find the same delight if you will purpose to live to love with Jesus. You can also have confidence that you are in the will of God as you journey with Jesus.Paul was also expectant that he would be well received by the church. He looked forward to a time of refreshment in their midst before continuing his journey to Spain. This also should encourage us to be the kind of brother or sister in Christ that others find refreshment. Fellowship centered on the love of God in Christ is always refreshing. Do you have such an expectation when you think about being with your brothers and sisters in Christ? And even more important, do your brothers and sisters in Christ know that you love them? Do they look forward to being with you because they are refreshed by the presence and love of Christ? May we receive this encouragement today by the will of God and the love of the Spirit.
Romans 15:30-31 Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints;I’ve heard it said that prayer is one of the first things we can do to love another person. In these two verses we gain insight into how we can live to love with Jesus—pray. Paul urged them to pray to God for him. The encouragement today is how he urged them to pray. Pray by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit. In my words, he appealed to them. “Love me with Jesus by the Spirit and strive with me in prayer for me.” We know there were Jews in Jerusalem who were out to get Paul. They hated him and were willing to not eat until they killed him. We can see why he felt he needed God to rescue him. Even though that was the case, Paul was committed to seeing his mission of delivering the contribution of the Gentiles through to the end. All of us have loved ones, friends, and acquaintances who are facing trials and suffering in life. To pray by our Lord Jesus Christ implies that Jesus is loving them in prayer as He intercedes for us. In Romans 8 Paul wrote this about prayer. Romans 8:26-27. “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” We see Jesus and the Spirit working together in prayer when we don’t know how to pray. In these verses, this reality is echoed.So we can conclude that one aspect of living to love with Jesus is striving together in prayer with one another in partnership with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit. Let us approach our Father through the intercessory work of our Lord Jesus Christ in the love of the Holy Spirit on behalf of our brothers and sisters.
Romans 15:29 I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.All believers in Jesus have the Spirit of life in Christ dwelling within them. Paul told the Romans in 8:9 “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” In Ephesians 2:22, speaking of Jesus Christ the cornerstone, he wrote, “in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” Let’s note the source of Paul’s confidence in life—the fullness of the blessing of Christ.I’m sure Paul had experienced the fullness of the blessing of Christ in his three missionary journeys, so he had learned to trust in the presence of Christ with him as he served Him. We also can have the same confidence in life, if we live to love with Jesus. We can know Jesus will bless our going and coming with His presence and power. He is with us! We can not only expect blessing, but we can expect fullness of blessing. We get this expectation from the Scriptures, Ephesians 3:14-21. Paul prayed…That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.We have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us through faith for the purpose of rooting us in the love of God, knowing His love in Christ, which fills us with the blessing of Christ on a daily basis. He will do far more abundantly beyond what we ask or think. That’s why Paul was and we can be assured of the fullness of the blessing of Christ as we love with Him. Be encouraged to walk in the fullness of the blessing of Christ as you live in His purpose of loving those God puts in your paths today.
Romans 15:28 Therefore, when I have finished this, and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I will go on by way of you to Spain.In this verse we learn that Paul was determined to put his “seal” on the material contribution of love before he could go to Spain. A seal is used as attestation or evidence of authenticity. When I get a document notarized, the notary places his seal on the document, which verifies to whoever receives the document that it is official and authentic. Paul did not think his ministry of service to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem was finished until he, himself, delivered the gift to the church in Jerusalem. In so doing, as the apostle to the contributing churches, he added his authority to this extravagant and out-of-the- ordinary act of love. This idea of a seal being put to a ministry of love catches my attention. This isn’t the only example of such a thing. Jesus said to a crowd of people who wanted to make Him king, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal” (John 6:27). God set His seal upon Jesus by proclaiming from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”(Matt. 17:5). Every sign and wonder performed by the Lord was God setting His seal upon Jesus. With this in mind, we can understand why this was so important to Paul. It was an act of love for both the Gentile believers and the Jewish believers whom he was seeking to unite in Christ. This was quite an act of love for Paul. He could have simply sent the gift by way of someone else. It would have saved him time, energy, inconvenience, and expense to do so. My point is that it cost Paul to love like he did. He surely believed the union of Gentiles and Jews as one in Christ glorified the Lord significantly. Enough so that it didn’t matter what it cost him. That’s exactly what living to love with Jesus looks like. Paul was committed to act in what was in the best and highest interest of both the givers and the recipients, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. Paul’s example encourages us to evaluate our actions in the same way. May we also commit ourselves to act for the highest good of those God puts in our paths, for His glory. Let’s trust God to set His seal on the love of His Son as we bear His fruit.
Romans 15:27 Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.The Jewish believers in Jerusalem first circulated the gospel in the Gentile world. Paul said the Gentiles were indebted to the Jews in Jerusalem because they shared their spiritual things with them. It seems that need is at the center of this conversation. The Gentiles were in need of spiritual things. Paul described their spiritual need in this way to the Ephesians in 4:17-19. “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” The Gentiles needed the good news of the gospel. God met their need by sending His Son through the Jews and then sent them out to the world with the promise that He would be with them to the end of the age. That ministry continues to this day. The Jews in Jerusalem were in need of material things. Earlier in this letter Paul wrote, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another” (13:8). Love, when it sees a need, leaps into action to meet it. In the case of the poor in Jerusalem, the Gentile believers were aware of their need for material supply and were indebted to them. In return for their spiritual needs being met, the Gentiles were indebted to meet the needs of the saints in Jerusalem.What an encouragement this is for us who live to love with Jesus. God met our spiritual needs by giving us His Son. We are indebted to Him. Since He now lives in His body on earth, when we see a need, whether spiritual or material, we are indebted to Him and should share what God gives us with them. When we love our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to share what God has given us to meet their needs, whether spiritual or material. Sometimes we don’t have what is needed. When that’s the case, we aren’t meant to be the supplier. Other times, the need is obvious and we have what they need, such as in the case Paul mentioned in this verse. May God glorify His name by inspiring us to love with Jesus. Let us be thankful for His abundant supply of grace through Christ, and may we be quick to share with others as we see their need.
Romans 15:25-26 but now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.There’s a lot more to this story than first meets the eye. Paul’s plans for Spain had to be put on hold so he could deliver the contributions of the churches in Macedonia (Thessalonica and Philippi) and Achaia (Corinth) to the saints in Jerusalem. Believers in Jerusalem and the surrounding vicinity were suffering famine conditions. It was a big deal for Paul that the Gentile churches were showing the love of Jesus to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. These verses lead us to 2 Corinthians 8 for our encouragement to live to love with Jesus. In Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth which was in the region of Achaia, he encouraged them to love like the Macedonia churches were loving. 2 Corinthians 8:1-8. “Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. So we urged Titus that as he had previously made a beginning, so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well. But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also.”Paul was confident that the Corinthians would give to the poor in Jerusalem because they had been inspired to love. Remember 1 Cor. 13, the love chapter? The encouragement today is this. We need to be inspired by our brothers and sisters to love. I want to inspire you, to urge you, to encourage you to live your life out of the life of Christ dwelling within you. He lives to love His own, and He loves through them. Do you know of a saint in poverty or in dire straights? Are you aware of someone who needs love and encouragement today? The Macedonians first gave themselves to the Lord and then they were moved to give. Let’s remember to give ourselves to the Lord so He can love through us today and every day.
Romans 15:22-24 For this reason I have often been prevented from coming to you; but now, with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you whenever I go to Spain-for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while-We make our plans, but God establishes our steps as Prov. 16:9 says. James wrote in 4:15, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” In these verses, the Romans learned why Paul hadn’t already been to Rome and why he hoped to visit them soon. Having fulfilled his ministry in the east, he had set his sights on the west. He hoped to go to Spain which in their time was the furthest western region of the world. Although there is no biblical evidence that Paul did make it to Spain, there are several dependable sources which indicate that he did.The encouragement for us to live to love with Jesus from this verse is to trust in God to establish our steps. If Paul indeed went to Spain via Rome, he did so because God had people He loved in Spain and locations between. He chose Paul to be the vessel of His love. This is also true for all believers. There are people He loves whom He will put in our paths as He directs our steps to them. Our part is to abide in Christ and be aware of everyone we meet. I was walking in our neighborhood one day when Carl, an elderly man stepped right in my path as he went to his mailbox. It couldn’t have been more clear to me that God literally put Carl in my path at just that moment. I would have had to walk around him to miss him. We greeted one another, introduced ourselves, and I took the opportunity to tell Carl that I had prayed for him that morning, but didn’t know it was going to be him. I shared the Live to Love prayer with him then encouraged him that God knows him and loves him. I asked if he knew Jesus, and he said he did. We prayed together and I finished my walk. God was establishing both our steps to intersect so Carl might be encouraged that God was thinking of and loved him. So be encouraged today to be on the lookout for who Jesus wants to love through you. They might actually, literally be in your path. That’s no coincidence. God is at work as you live to love with Jesus.
Romans 15:21 but as it is written, “They who had no news of Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand.”We have another encouragement to live to love with Jesus from the Scriptures, which Paul said earlier in this chapter was given for our instruction. Paul’s philosophy of missions apparently was derived from this passage in Isaiah 52:13-53:1. “Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. Thus He will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand. Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?”God prophesied that He was going to reveal Christ to the nations. For the nations to see and understand a message that they had never heard before, meant that someone had to go and tell them. No doubt, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Paul knew he was chosen to be one of those sent by God so this prophecy would be fulfilled. That’s how Paul lived to love with Jesus. Jesus sent Paul on mission to preach the gospel, to love the Gentiles, to fulfill His Word. As a believer in Jesus in the 21st century, you may not realize that Jesus is still fulfilling this word from Isaiah and Romans. God will probably put people in your path who have not heard nor have they ever been told who Jesus is and why He came. They have no idea what life is about. They are dead in their trespasses and sins—children of wrath—just like you were. He will love them through you. He will then perform His Word, open their eyes and ears to hear and see Jesus in you as you love them with Him. Thus, you will become the fulfillment of this Scripture along with the apostle Paul. Can God use you like this? Of course He can. You have the life of Jesus Christ in you. He is revealing the love of the Father as He did when He came to earth in His human form. Now, we are His body, and you are a member of His body. Let’s be ready today to love with Him those He puts in our paths for the fulfillment of His Word and for His glory.I hope you’ll visit livetolovewithjesus.com to receive more encouragement to live to love with Jesus through my book, Live to Love, and the other free resources that are available. And would you please share the podcast with others? Thank you so much for partnering with me in sharing these encouragements from God’s Word.
Romans 15:20 And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man's foundation;Paul’s letter to the Corinthians gives us more insight into Paul’s ministry philosophy than what we have here in Rom. 15:20. He wrote, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:10-11). Paul’s mission was to go where no one else had preached Christ before him so that he could be sure that the foundation that was established was Jesus Christ, and not some fleshly, man-centered, man-made religion. It’s very difficult to preach the gospel where someone has already preached. If the previous men didn’t lay the foundation of the life of Jesus Christ, then people will think they must live the Christian life. They won’t build on Jesus as the foundation, they will build on themselves. The truth is, one can’t build on the foundation of self-accomplishment. The building will crumble and collapse. It certainly won’t be able to stand the fire of God’s judgment of which Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 3. Let us be encouraged in our living to love with Jesus, that we really get this in our hearts and minds. Jesus is the foundation of our lives and ministries. We live out of His truth, His purpose, His worldview, His presence, and His Spirit. What flows through us is His love and wisdom. Unfortunately, there are very few places that we will go today where the name of Jesus hasn’t already been named. He’s already been defined. It’s important for us to preach in, boast in, and love in Christ. Let’s make sure we are not building on another man’s foundation, but on the one and only foundation, which is Jesus Christ. He is our life!
Romans 15:18-19 For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.In these verses, we unpack more of what Paul meant in the previous verse where he boasted in the things pertaining to God which came to him in Christ. These verses encourage us that in Christ, we have everything we need to minister to those God puts in our paths. Like Paul, we must realize that all that is done in our lives to bring glory to God is done by Jesus Christ in us. Paul told the Galatians that it wasn’t he who lived, but Christ who lived in him (Gal. 2:20). He told the Corinthians that the only way to describe his ministry among the Gentiles was to say it was the grace of God working in him (1 Cor. 15:10). When we live to love with Jesus, we recognize that Jesus is accomplishing His ministry through us. We love with Him, and He bears the fruit in the lives of those He puts in our paths for the glory of the Father. When Paul considered the obedience of the Gentiles to the gospel—their words and deeds of faith, the power of signs and wonders operating in them by the power of the Holy Spirit—he knew they were God-things. The fruit of his ministry from Jerusalem to Illyricum (which is just north of Macedonia, the province in which Philippi and Thessolanica are located) was the work of Jesus with him. That will be the description of our lives and ministries when we stand before Jesus on Judgment Day. After the fire of God’s judgment burns through our lives, there will be nothing left to stand but the work of Jesus Christ in our lives. He was ministering and preaching with Jesus. That’s why I say we are living to love with Jesus. It’s another way of saying the same thing Paul. Today, be encouraged! Jesus Christ is accomplishing His ministry in us today as we share the things of God that He has given us and love in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:17 Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God.We are encouraged today by Paul’s boasting in Jesus Christ when it came to things pertaining to God. All that Paul knew about God, the mission God gave Him, the grace given to Him by God to fulfill that mission, and the hope that filled Paul’s heart were found in Jesus, God’s servant to the Jews on behalf of the truth. All that Paul wrote about the gospel in the book of Romans from which we have drawn months of live to love encouragements came to him because of Jesus. So as he wrote to them what he discovered in Christ Jesus he said he boasted in things pertaining to God. But that’s just another way of saying he boasted in Christ. Let’s not miss this incredible truth. When it comes to God and things pertaining to God, Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God. God, Himself, declared that Jesus was His Son (Matt. 3:17), and who would know God better than the Son of God? Jesus went a huge step further when He declared that He and God were one! To know Jesus was to know the Father (John 14:7). Jesus said in Matthew 11:27 “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” That’s exactly what Paul was saying to the Romans. Jesus had revealed to him everything that he had shared with them about God in the gospel. Therefore, Paul could boast in things pertaining to God because he had received them in Christ Jesus.The same is true for us who believe in Jesus. If you have any understanding about God, if you believe in Him, if you love Him, if you stand justified in God’s presence, if you have had the love of God poured out in your heart, then you can boast in those things because they are gifts from God through His Son, Jesus Christ. This encourages us to not be shy in speaking about the things of God that have been given to us. We should not be ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes as Paul wrote in Rom. 1:16. The very faith that we have in Jesus is one of the things pertaining to God of which we boast. We don’t boast that we believe, that we chose to accept Jesus, that we are saved because of something we have done. That’s boasting in ourselves, and that would be anathema to Paul. The very faith we have comes to us in Christ. It’s how we know we are loved by God, and knowing we are loved by God is the fountain out which we drink. I hope we will have an opportunity today to boast in things pertaining to God so that we can speak and love in His name for His glory.
Romans 15:15-16 But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.We also learn from Paul the source of His confidence in ministry. This should be a great encouragement to us as well. He wasn’t confident in himself. He knew the grace of God was working with him. Paul understood who he was and whose he was. His mission was to minister the gospel among the Gentiles and offer that work of Christ back to God as a living, holy sacrifice acceptable to God.Here’s the way Paul described his ministry to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” I love this. Don’t you? Paul’s ministry was accomplished by the work of the Holy Spirit in him. As the Holy Spirit worked in the lives of the people God gave to him, he considered them his offering to God. Here’s how we can be encouraged today to live to love with Jesus. God is going to put people in our paths each day. He is giving them to us so we might have an offering to give back to Him. As Jesus loves them through us, we are loving with Him. This is 100% the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is God’s grace with us. When Jesus returns, our offering to Him will be the people He has given us to love. For Paul, the Gentiles were his offering to God. Who is your offering to God? Can you see yourself giving them to God on that Great Day when Jesus comes to be glorified in the saints and marveled at by all who believe? Because of the grace that was given us from God, may we be ministers of Christ Jesus to those He puts in our paths. May we minister as priests the gospel of God, so that our offerings of the souls of men and women given to us by God be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:15 But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again…These verses encourage us of our own great need to be reminded on some points as we live to love with Jesus. It’s easy to forget, even when we are filled with goodness and have full knowledge of the gospel. We can get so consumed with conflicts, differences of opinion, and selfishness that we don’t think to apply truths we say we believe. Therefore, I want to remind us again of the call of God upon our lives? If we have been raised up with Christ, we were given His life so we might live through Him and He through us. He came to live to love with His Father. The Holy Spirit has been given to us that we might live to love with Jesus. We have His righteousness by God’s grace, so we stand before God in His righteousness and therefore we have peace with God. We have His love poured out in our hearts so we can love with Him. Because of these mercies, our loving with Jesus is a living, holy offering of worship which we know is acceptable to God. Jesus glorified His Father by laying down His life for us. We glorify our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ by laying down our lives for Him. The way we do that is by laying down our lives for one another. We are His body, so when we receive and love each other, we are receiving and loving Jesus. In this way, we become a brilliant testimony in this world that Jesus lives and is the Lord of Life.
Romans 15:14 And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another.The believers in Rome must have had a brilliant testimony in the city. If you remember in the introduction to Paul’s letter, he mentioned that he was excited to see them so that they could encourage each other by one another’s faith. In this verse we learn what Paul thought about the character and spiritual maturity of the church. They were full of goodness, which I take to mean that goodness spilled out of their lives to others. They were also filled with knowledge applicable to various situations, which means they were knowledgable of God’s Word, His promises, and the gospel. This goodness and knowledge gave them the ability to admonish one another when needed. He was convinced that they cared for each other enough to confront each other when they were acting contrary to the truth. This is a brilliant testimony of God’s grace and mercy. We might ask ourselves if these things could be said about our churches, about ourselves. These qualities flow out of the life of Jesus within believers. He is full of goodness. He is full of knowledge. He gives us the grace and love to admonish one another. That’s the reality of living to love with Jesus which gives us a brilliant testimony in our community and cities.
Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.Let’s draw our first blast of encouragement today from the fact that God is a God of hope. He is a God of hope because He keeps His promises and watches over His word to perform it. God gave us the Scriptures to instruct us, and He gives us perseverance and encouragement through them so we might have hope. The hope stems from God’s character, His faithfulness, His love to all those who believe. So in believing in God’s faithfulness, which is according to His mercy, we may be filled with all the varied dimensions of joy and peace. As the Holy Spirit fills us, He applies the promises in God’s Word to our lives which causes our hope to abound or grow exceedingly. Now let’s connect hope with love for our live to love encouragement. Paul’s letter to the Colossians illustrates what Paul understood about the relationship between hope and love. He wrote in 1:3-6, “We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; 5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel 6 which has come to you.” Hope produces faith and love. The more we treasure God’s word with its promises in the power of the Holy Spirit, the more hope grows. As we see the beauty of what God has promised and done for us in Christ, the more we trust and love Him. The more we trust and love Him, the more we are filled with joy and peace. That’s what Paul prayed for the Roman believers, and what I’m praying for you today. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:8-12 For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, “Therefore I will give praise to You among the Gentiles, and I will sing to Your name.” Again He says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.” And again, “Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise Him.” Again Isaiah says, “There shall come the root of Jesse, and He who arises to rule over the Gentiles, in Him shall the Gentiles hope.”These verses are so encouraging! They show us God’s character and give us, and especially the Jews, a basis for trusting in Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Lord. If God doesn’t keep His promises to the fathers, meaning Abraham and on, then He is not The Truth. When Jesus accepts the Gentile on the basis of the mercy of God, He is serving the Jews who were promised that they would become the channel through whom God would bless the nations. Abraham was promised that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in his seed. That seed was Jesus, the Christ. Instead of using Jesus’ name, Paul called Him, “Christ.” This highlighted His relationship with the Jews, the circumcision. “Christ” means “anointed one.” One who is appointed for a specific service by God, in the case of Jesus, He was the one appointed by God to be the savior of the world, the Redeemer, God’s servant. Paul declared to the Romans that Jesus, in accepting both Jew and Gentile, serves the faith of the Jews in God’s Word. His death and resurrection confirm God’s character. Paul, like every dependable Bible teacher, proved his point from the Scriptures. Remember what he wrote in vs. 4? “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” These verses instruct us to glorify God for His mercies. My guess is that most of you who are listening are Gentiles. You have experienced God’s love because of His promises made to the fathers, the Jewish fathers. He had us in mind all along as He worked to bring Jesus Christ into the world. He continues His faithfulness to His word through us as we persevere and encourage one another to live to love with Jesus.
Romans 15:7 Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.We are encouraged today to accept our brothers and sisters with their weaknesses as one aspect of living to love with Jesus. “Therefore” means that this encouragement reasonably flows out of our glorifying God with one voice. We might think of it this way. Since we have as our ambition to please the Lord and glorify God, because we are all members of the body of Christ and of one another as a result of His great mercies, and since Jesus accepted us to the glory of God, we accept one another. Thinking of this truth of accepting one another this way is encouraging. Jesus is accepting us all for the glory of God, and we accept one another with Him. We are in this purpose of glorifying God together with Him. That’s why I think our purpose in life is living to love with Jesus. Accepting us on that basis of God’s mercy and grace is how Jesus glorifies His Father, so we also accept one another as the outworking of the gospel. “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”
Romans 15:6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.Yesterday I concluded from Rom. 15:5 that we are to all have the same mind toward each other in Christ—to persevere and encourage one another by bearing the weaknesses of others for the glory of God until the end. That conclusion is affirmed today in this verse. God’s purpose in giving perseverance and encouragement through the Scriptures is so that we may unite our voices to glorify our God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. The way we glorify God is that we declare and affirm that we are one because of His mercy and grace through Jesus Christ. We know we love each other with Jesus, meaning that apart from Him we know we can’t do anything that bears fruit for God. Our love is His love. Our faith is His faith. Our perseverance is His perseverance. Our forbearance with one another is His forbearance with us. Therefore, we forgive each other as we have been forgiven. God gets the glory. We love each other as we have been loved. God gets the glory. We persevere bearing the weaknesses of each other as He has borne our weaknesses. God gets the glory. So join me today as we pray. Father in heaven, thank you for another day of life to know and love you and live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill us with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that we can love and trust you and love those you put in our paths today, for your glory. Amen.
Romans 15:5 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,We are encouraged today to give glory to God for His amazing love and grace toward us in Jesus Christ. Not only are the Scriptures given to us by God for instruction, but He also gives perseverance and encouragement so we might have hope. God is meant to get all of the glory!That’s why we exult in hope of the glory of God as Paul wrote in chapter 5. Don’t these verses in Rom. 12-15 encourage you to live to love with Jesus until the end of your days so God will be glorified in your life? If so, that is the work of God in your heart and life. If He does the work, He gets the glory. That’s what is so exciting about the gospel. We learn from the gospel that all things are from Him, through Him, and to Him as Paul wrote in 11:36. He gave the Scriptures to let us know He was sending His Son, Jesus. Then He sent His Son to accomplish righteousness and bring us to God. Then He sends His servants to share the gospel and write more Scripture. And He gives His adopted children the faith to believe and apply the gospel as Paul wrote about in Romans 5:1; 10:17, and 12:3. He gave them faith and grace because He chose to be merciful to them according to 9:16 and 11:32 so He alone would receive all the glory for our salvation. So in light of this, we are to all have the same mind toward each other in Christ—to persevere and encourage one another by bearing the weaknesses of others for the glory of God until the end. Are we doing what the Scriptures have instructed us to do? Do these Scriptures encourage you today to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God? If so, God has given His grace to you. You may rejoice and give Him glory both today and throughout eternity.
Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.We not only gain encouragement from this Scripture, but it indicates that all Scripture was written for our encouragement. Paul cited Ps. 69:9 in the previous verse because of His view of Scripture. It was written for our instruction by the Holy Spirit, as is the entire letter to the Romans! Being instructed by God is the means by which God gives perseverance and encouragement (we’ll see that in the next verse tomorrow). And what does perseverance and encouragement bring? It brings us hope! Hope of what? Hope of glory! Let me read Rom. 5:1-5 so we can see that Paul has had this great truth in his mind the entire time he was writing to the Romans. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”Tribulation—bearing the weaknesses of others rather than pleasing ourselves for the glory of God brings about perseverance. And perseverance builds up our faith, or in Paul’s words in chapter 5, proves the character of our faith. How does that perseverance and encouragement come to us? Through the Scriptures which were written for our instruction in how to love with Jesus. Seeing the Holy Spirit at work in our lives in this way produces hope in us that God will be glorified in our lives and on that Great Day when Jesus returns to be glorified in His saints and be marveled at among all who have believed.Here’s the take away today. Be encouraged by the Scriptures today. They were written for our instruction so through perseverance and encouragement we might have hope that our lives will bring glory to God.
Romans 15:3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”This is an amazing verse. First, let’s notice that Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, believed Ps. 69, written by David, referred to Jesus. Second, let’s notice what we learn about Jesus, the life of God who dwells in us who believe in Him. He did not please Himself when He walked on this earth, and He still doesn’t as He walks with us. Three, Jesus, who is the strong One, bore our weaknesses. Reproach has to do with shaming or despising. As He died on the cross, which certainly wasn’t for His temporal good or pleasure, He bore the shame of the very ones who were shaming Him! There may come a time when you are in a situation where you receive some shaming for not doing something almost everyone is doing. You know if you do it, it will stumble a brother or sister. In that instance, you will have to not please yourself (which would be having the acceptance of the group), carry their shame, and love your brother by pleasing him. You are doing him good and building up your brother. By the way, that’s what edification means in the previous verse. That’s living to love with Jesus. He did not please Himself, and we will not please ourselves. He bore our weaknesses, and we bear the weaknesses of others. All for the good of others and the glory of God.
Romans 15:2 Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.Yesterday, we were encouraged by the first verse of Rom. 15 to take every opportunity we are given to please others when it comes to debatable issues. Today, we learn from Paul what he meant by “pleasing others.” He wasn’t giving them a blanket principle to always make others feel happy in the flesh. At the end of chapter 13, Paul told them not to make provision for the flesh to satisfy one’s lusts. If I’m to apply that admonition to myself, I am certainly also to apply it to my neighbor. It might please my neighbor if I give him $50 to buy a lottery ticket, but is that in his best interest? Is it for His good and edification? This gives us a great opportunity to define what is good for our neighbor. Remember that in Rom. 8:28 Paul wrote that God works all things together for our good. The highest good for everyone is that they bring glory to God, their Maker. Our being most satisfied in Jesus glorifies God. Our being transformed into the image of Christ glorifies God. God is working everything for His glory. So when we are faced with situations like the ones mentioned in Rom. 14, we are to act in such a way that our neighbor gives glory to God. Remember also that Paul said in Rom. 13:9-10 “if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” As we wrap our minds around what it means to love with Jesus, as we relate to those He puts in our paths, our neighbors, we do well to ask what we can do to encourage them to be most satisfied in Jesus, to become more like Jesus, to build them up in their faith, and to bring Him glory. Our answers to these questions will certainly please our neighbor when he comes to stand before Jesus at His return, and it will also please us in that day.
Romans 15:1 Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.In Romans 14:1 Paul wrote, “Now accept the one who is weak in faith.” As you read chapter 14, it is clear who Paul considered weak. It was the one whose faith did not permit him to eat meat. He wasn’t saying they were inferior because they were weak in faith in regards to eating meat. As he came to this point in his encouragement to the Roman congregation, he laid down an important one another principle about love. For the strong in faith, the one who was free to eat meat without condemning himself, not eating meat was not a sin. Therefore, the ones with the stronger faith were to carry or bear the weaknesses of their brothers and sisters who were weak in faith in that situation, and please them by not eating meat in their presence. There are going to be times when we are with someone whose conscience doesn’t permit them to do one thing or another. In those cases, since we are living to love with Jesus, since we are firm in our faith as to what we are to do, namely love for their highest good, we should do what pleases them. Paul’s greatest ambition was to please the Lord (2 Cor. 5:9), and he made it clear to the Romans what pleased the Lord in cases where there was a difference of opinion on matters of conscience. It certainly pleases your brother for you not to put pressure on him to do something he isn’t free to do before the Lord. This applies to so many relationships and circumstances. This obviously applies to eating and drinking as mentioned in Rom. 14. In the sexual area of marriage, one should never manipulate or put pressure on a spouse to do something he or she doubts is pleasing to the Lord. This may also apply to vocabulary, entertainment, or music choices. Let’s take encouragement today from this verse to not please ourselves when we have the opportunity and freedom to please someone else for the glory of God.
Romans 14:23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.To get the most out of today’s verse, we need to back up and get the last sentence from vs. 22. “Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.” Today’s verse explains how a person condemns himself? In the context of the Roman situation, when faith worked, there was no doubt because he clearly sees how his actions are loving both God and others. He knows Jesus’ mindset and disposition toward his actions, (revealed in God’s word) so there is no doubt. He knows he is loving with Jesus.In contrast, when a person has some doubt that what he has done or is about to do is good or approved by God, he should not do it. The absence of faith reveals that God isn’t working, and if God isn’t working in and through the action or words, then it falls short of the glory of God. We’ve learned from Rom. 3:23 that any action that falls short of the glory of God is sin. Therefore we can draw this conclusion: If our actions are not from faith, not from our relationship with the Holy Spirit in submission to Jesus as Lord, then for us, that action is sin. We must remember what Paul wrote earlier in this chapter. Each person is accountable to the Lord for what he does. The Lord is the one he serves and to whom he will give an account. We are not to judge our brothers and sisters according to our faith on issues that are not clearly stated in God’s Word. Let’s say that one brother is not free before God to drink wine. Since he is convinced in himself, he’s not tempted to drink wine if another brother does. Then both are free to act according to faith, and thus they glorify God together, even though they differ. However, if one brother is weak in his stand and is tempted to drink when he doubts that it pleases the Lord, then it is a sin for the other brother to drink in his presence. His drinking cannot be from faith because God’s Word clearly tells him not to drink if it stumbles his brother. In the presence of God and in the presence of his brother who is weak in his stand, faith can only stand on the grounds of love. He cannot drink freely without condemning himself because his brother might be led into sin.Understanding this encourages and guides us in our living to love with Jesus. My highest good is to walk by faith out of a relationship with Jesus through submission to the Holy Spirit. My brother’s highest good is the same. Therefore, the loving thing to do with anyone is to encourage them to seek the Lord’s will and walk by faith, treasuring Christ above all others, including ourselves. We rejoice with whatever our brother chooses if we know he thinks he is walking by faith. Whatever they choose to do is on them, and not us. Before I close, let us ask ourselves, are we doing anything in our relationship with God and with others that we doubt pleases the Lord? If so, will we repent today and make it right as an act of love to Christ and whoever is involved? Have we honored the Lord and our brothers and sisters by recognizing their faith before God as holy to the Lord? If we have, let us rejoice in the grace God has given us. In so doing, we are treasuring Jesus Christ as Lord. We are loving Him and loving with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:22 The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.Today, let’s consider the attitude we are to have regarding the faith God has given us. First, faith is God-given. If we believe in Jesus, thanks be to God! He has justified us in His presence in Christ. Paul wrote of this in Rom. 5 where he said believers, through Jesus Christ, have been introduced by faith into the grace in which they stand before Him. Faith is the means by which we stand before God. In this verse, Paul has one’s standing before God in view. As we live with Jesus, our faith is tested on a daily basis with one situation and relationship after another. We learn what pleases the Lord and what grieves Him as we walk with Him. In that process of testing, our convictions on various matters are established. Our convictions are established in two ways. First, we stand on issues about which God’s Word is clear exactly where God’s Word stands. For instance, God’s word clearly states that lying, stealing, fornication, adultery, and homosexuality are sins and displeasing to the Lord. So, before God, we have His word as the basis of our convictions. Second, on issues where God’s Word is silent, we stand where the Lord wants us to stand by testing to see if our consciences condemn us or don’t condemn us on those issues. We know that the Bible tells us clearly to love our brother for God’s glory. We also know that faith works through love. So we ask ourselves on these issues, “Does this action result in the highest good of my brother—which is his glorifying God by loving Him and others in the power of the Holy Spirit?” If as I think of doing the action in the presence of God I find nothing to condemn, then I’m happy.Paul told the Corinthians that the Holy Spirit is Lord, and where He is Lord, there is liberty (2 Cor. 3:17). Peter understood that it is the Holy Spirit who cleanses the heart with faith (Acts 15:8-9). Rom. 14:22 ties these two truths together. The Holy Spirit gives us faith to do certain things and faith not to do certain things. He is Lord. He is able to make us stand where He wants us to stand, to have the convictions He wants us to have before God. The person who is led by the Holy Spirit will put to death the deeds of the flesh because his faith in Jesus won’t allow him to practice them. He learns by testing what pleases or displeases the Lord, the Spirit, and that’s what Paul meant when he used the word approves— Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. Today’s encouragement from this verse is this: You’ll be happy if you walk by the Spirit, living by what you’ve learned from the Holy Spirit pleases Him. This is another way of saying, living to love with Jesus brings joy.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:20-21 Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles.Apparently, Paul had heard that there was a problem among the brethren in Rome. When eating with one another, there were some whose faith did not allow them to eat meat, and others who saw no problem with eating meat. The one’s who ate meat in the presence of those who believed that the meat was unclean were offending those who could not eat meat. The offense probably was that they were were being made to feel that they weren’t spiritual or were inferior in their faith. Paul wanted them to realize how selfish or evil it was for them to tear down the work of God, the faith that their brothers or sisters had for the sake of eating what they wanted. He called the things that they do which stumble each other evil things if doing them gives offense. That’s not walking according to love. In contrast, he said it is a good thing to refrain from eating or drinking something that causes a brother or sister to stumble and do something that they don’t have a clear conscience doing with Jesus.Let’s be encouraged that whatever position of faith a brother or sister has on any given issue where the Scriptures are unclear is a work of God. We want to do all that we can to encourage and build up our brothers and sisters in their walk with Jesus, even when they differ from us. We don’t need to or want to control them to be like we are. They are not being conformed to our image, but to the image of Jesus, their Lord. Their faith is God’s work and is all about their relationship with the Holy Spirit. Their highest good is to do what as best they believe to be the will of God. Our highest good is to encourage them to walk by faith with Jesus. I encourage you today to honor the work of God in the lives of those God puts in your paths. That’s living to love with Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:19 So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.Today’s verse presents the conclusion to Paul’s encouragement to his readers about how to relate to one another when there’s a difference of opinion on disputable matters, issues where the Scriptures don’t give clear direction. Therefore, this verse is a perfect live to love scripture encouragement. Let’s read it again. “So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.”We can draw two goals for our relationships in such circumstances. First, pursue whatever will make for peace. Imagine a lake, the surface of which is very still. There are no waves. If you throw a rock into the lake, it disturbs the surface of the water and creates a ripple. The Holy Spirit is telling us that we are to relate to one another in such a way that there is no disturbances in our relationship with Jesus on an issue where we differ. Sometimes this is obvious if we simply pay attention to another person’s countenance. Other times it’s not quite so obvious and we might need to ask questions to find out where the Lord has them on an issue. Then we can do all that we can to encourage them in what they believe is pleasing to the Lord. So first, we pursue peace as we live to love with Jesus.Second, we pursue whatever builds up our brother or sister in their faith, their relationship with Jesus. The word for build up is a compound word in the Greek. oikos which is home or house, and dome which is to build. The idea is that we are to do whatever we can to edify our brother. Paul wrote to the Ephesians. Ephesians 4:29 “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.” Remember that we believers are God’s household “in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:21-22). So second, we pursue whatever edifies and builds up the faith of our brothers and sisters.Living to love with Jesus is pursuing peace and edification among our brothers and sisters in Christ. Think how this might apply to you and your spouse or you and your parents, if you are believers. These differences of opinion on these issues more often than not occur among family members. Think back over times when you have gotten in a debate or argument over some thing that hasn’t been specifically addressed in Scripture such as music, food, and entertainment preferences. Did you pursue peace and edification in those occasions? If not, it might be a good idea to repent today to them, just to plant these words deep in your heart. I hope we will also purpose going forward to take to heart Paul’s encouragement from this verse. Pursue peace and edification.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:18 For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.In Rom. 12:1, Paul urged his readers by the mercies of God, to present their bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is their spiritual service of worship to Jesus. In this verse, he clearly was tracking along that same line. When we consider our brothers’ opinions on issues that are not clearly addressed in God’s Word as more important than our own, we are serving Jesus. Our love in that case is a living, holy, acceptable service of worship, but it is also approved by men. The word translated approve in this verse is another form of the word prove in Rom. 12:2 where Paul urged them to renew their minds and not be conformed to the world so that they may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. When we serve Christ by regarding the opinions of others above our own, we are proving something to to the world and they will receive it. It helps to think of approved action as something men will receive or consider to be good, acceptable, and perfect. As we live to love with Jesus, God’s kingdom advances through us, and it will be received by men. Righteousness, peace, and joy are appealing. It makes us the light of the world. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:16-17 Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.I love these verses because they clearly teach us the fruit of the kingdom of God as God works by His Spirit. Paul warned the Romans to protect what is a good thing for them by not doing it if it hurts a brother and causes him to act contrary to where his faith has him standing. If that were to occur, then the good thing would be spoken of as evil. What we need to keep in mind as we relate to one another in the kingdom of God is that the things we love to eat and drink are not the kingdom of God consists of. Eating and drinking are temporal activities. Where and when God is working, righteousness, peace, and joy are the fruit rather than an evil report.This helps us because we can ask ourselves in a situation, such as Paul brought up in this chapter, what action will be the highest good for my brother? That’s righteousness. What will result in peace in this situation in both of our lives? What can I do that will make our time together enjoyable with Jesus? Those three questions should help us as we live to love with Jesus. So let’s remember, righteousness, peace, and joy are evidences that the Holy Spirit is at work and the kingdom of God is present.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:15 For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.In today’s verse, I’m struck by Paul’s choice of the word destroy. That seems like a strong word to describe what occurs if a brother eats something that to another brother would be a sin. Paul told them that if your eating something hurts, that is causes some pain of mind or distress or grief, your brother, then you are causing destruction. What is being destroyed? Your brother’s faith is being destroyed. The idea of destroy is to bring something to an end or to cause your brother to lose something. It’s not bringing the food to an end. It is his faith that comes to an end if your brother eats when he is convinced he should not. He suffers loss in his relationship with His Lord who has him standing in that position on the issue. Remember what Paul wrote in vs. 4. “To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” So if you or your brother is moved from his position of faith on an issue by another’s actions or persuasion, then you or they have suffered a loss in your relationship with Jesus. Now we look at perhaps the most important thing Paul said in this verse. To hurt your brother in this way is grievous because Jesus died for him. That means this brother’s standing with Jesus is precious and valuable to Jesus, and of course, precious and valuable to the brother. This takes us back to the main point of chapter 14 when it comes to how we love one another when we differ on issues that are not clearly addressed in Scripture. Our relationship with Jesus governs our relationships. If we love and treasure Jesus, we will love and treasure who He loves. We owe our brothers and sister agape love. Period. May we be encouraged today to love those whom He loves and puts in our paths for His glory. Paul encourages us to walk according to love.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:14 I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.We can gain insight in how to love with Jesus from today’s verse in Rom. 14:14. The general principle is one that Paul specifically wrote to the Philippians. Philippians 2:3-4. “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” We can see Paul’s personal application of this principle in this verse. In regards to food, Paul was convinced in his own mind with Jesus that there are no foods which are unclean. He believed that there were no foods which defiled him. However, if his brother or sister in Christ believed that a certain food would defile him or her, then he considered their opinion as more important than his own when it came to what he ate and what they ate. They should not eat what they believe to be defiling to their relationship with Jesus. As we read in verse 5, Paul believed each person was to be governed by their own convictions on these matters that were disputable such as eating or not eating meat offered to idols.Our encouragement today is that there will be times when although we may be free to do something, but if someone we are with is not free, then we should not do what we have freedom to do. Or if someone we are with is free to do something that we are not free to do, we must not do it because we are convinced it is wrong for us. In either case, we are not to judge or hold contempt toward those with whom we differ. I hope you are convinced in the Lord Jesus that your purpose in life is to glorify God by loving with Him. By the way, that’s not a disputable matter. Many Scriptures clearly state that He is our life, and He is love. We live with Him, and He with us. Jesus is Lord. In the next verse we will see that having this attitude of considering our brother’s or sister’s interests as more important than our own is what love looks like in instances such as this. Living to love with Jesus, we will regard one another as more important than ourselves.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this-not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way.I love that God has clearly told us the way of love when it comes to relating to one another in the body of Christ. In light of what we have been reading and meditating on in Romans 14, Paul told the Romans and the Holy Spirit tells us, don’t judge one another on issues that are not clearly defined in the Scriptures, and make it your aim, your goal to not hinder your brother as he lives for the Lord nor create an occasion where he might stumble over what you are doing. It’s clear. Stay out of his way as long as He is doing what he believes pleases His Lord. That is the highest good for your brother.That’s what love does. God’s love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. We are living to love with Jesus, so that’s the kind of love He has for our brother. Perhaps today, God will put someone in your path who has become convinced that to please His Lord, he is not to drink wine, so consequently when he drinks at a meal, he orders iced tea and gives thanks to God. You on the other hand, are free to drink wine, giving God thanks for the grapes that God made and the wine derived from them. However, you know that your brother once was an alcoholic, and that it could be a stumbling block to him if you ordered wine. Not so much that he would think less of you, but that he might be tempted to order wine, thinking he might be more acceptable to you. The loving thing to do before ordering wine might be to ask if your drinking wine would be tempting to him. If he says, “Yes,” then you order something else. If he says, “No,” then you’re free to order the wine. And if to please you, he changes his mind and starts to order wine, you would lovingly suggest the he not order wine. You encourage him to stick with what he knows pleases the Lord.That’s an example of not judging your brother and being determined not to get in his way as he walks out the faith God has given him with regarding what he can and cannot drink. You’ll have to perhaps resist the thought that your brother is legalistic or being overly religious, and your brother will need to resist thinking that you are not sold out to Jesus. That’s the kind of judgment we are to flee from. I suggest that if your purpose in life is to live to love with Jesus, you’ll take into consideration these things when faced with similar circumstances. “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this-not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.This verse starts with “So then” in the English translation. Consequently might another rendering, both of which communicates that what is to be said next follows the line of reasoning that has been established. In short, Paul has heard that some of them in the church have been judging the food and day choices of those who disagree with them. Who do they think they are? Are they God’s appointed judge of their brothers and sisters? Absolutely not! Jesus has been appointed Lord of all through His death and resurrection. Consequently, look to Jesus, and examine yourself! Each of us is going to give an account of his or her deeds to the Lord.What will you and I have to account for when Jesus returns? Every word and every deed will be accounted for. Either it was done by us in the flesh or it was done by Jesus in us. How can the difference be distinguished? Easy. The flesh is selfish and the why behind what was said and done was for self. That which was done by Jesus in us is characterized by love, what brings God glory in Christ and was in the highest good of others. Our account will be in truth because then we will see things as He sees them. As each word and deed is presented, I will say, “I did that for me.” or “Jesus, You did that in me for the glory of God.” Every self deed will be our loss. Wasted moments. We will see that all those deeds are taken away because of our union with Jesus. He will get the glory because of the power of His propitiation and His righteousness in judging those sins and exercising God’s zeal for justice and righteousness. Then the only deeds left will be those loving deeds which flowed out of His life in us through which He will receive the glory and we the reward of being united with His life. What hope we have in Jesus! Listen and be awestruck by the glory and beauty of what Paul wrote in Romans 8:31-34. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” Our judge is our Redeemer! Intercessor! Lord and Master. And if He is mine, He is also my brother’s and sister’s. This understanding that we are each to give an account to Jesus on that Great Day should powerfully motivate us to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God and for our greatest joy.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:10-11 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.”Paul helped the brother or sister who was judging, despising, or viewing with contempt a member of the body of Christ who wasn’t in agreement with his view of what days to celebrate or what food to eat. He helped them by showing them that in judging a brother or sister, they were exalting themselves as Lord. If Jesus is every believer’s Lord and master, then He is their judge. And if you are judging one of His servants, then you have supplanted Him. Are they going to stand before you to give an account when Jesus returns? Absolutely not! It has been revealed that we will all stand before the judgment seat of God upon which Jesus sits. Paul quoted from Isaiah 45:23. “I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.” This encourages us not, I repeat, not to put ourselves in the seat of judgment on our brothers or sisters in Christ. Our time for participating in Jesus’ judgment will come later. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:2-3, “Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Do you not know that we will judge angels?” But that’s once we have been revealed with Him in glory and have become like Him. Until He returns, we do not have jurisdiction to judge the fellow members of the body of Christ where God hasn’t clearly revealed His will. Quite the contrary, our sin and our brother’s and sister’s sin has been judged at the cross (8:3) and the Spirit of life in Christ is working in us so that Jesus may receive glory in us on that great day of judgment. What is sin? Sin defined in His Word is not debatable. God has judged and condemned certain specific deeds in His Word. If God’s Word is silent on a deed, then what makes it a sin is that the act wasn’t an expression of the faith of Christ which works in love. To put it another way, if we don’t live to love with Jesus, and we try to live or love in our own strength, it is sin, for apart from Jesus, we can do nothing that bears fruit for God or is righteous in His sight.Therefore, dear friends, let’s be on the alert not to judge or look down on anyone who is in Christ who has a different opinion from us on matters that are disputable. As we live to love with Jesus, we exalt Him and honor Him as our Lord and theirs. Let us encourage them to walk by faith, to follow the Holy Spirit, and do the will of God which is revealed in His word. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.What a great encouragement we have in this verse. Jesus’ death and resurrection had a purpose according to Paul. One purpose or end was that He might be Lord of when, how, and why we die or live. From one perspective, we are the dead. We died when Jesus died. From another perspective, we are living. When Jesus was raised, we were raised to live with Him. In either condition, Jesus is Lord. In Romans 1:4, Paul introduced Jesus, “who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.” In Peter’s sermon at Pentecost he proclaimed,“Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). Do you see the beauty of what God did in Jesus’ death and resurrection? Paul alluded to it in Phil. 2:8-11. “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” How much do you treasure what God did in uniting you with Jesus’ death and resurrection? May the eyes of our hearts be opened to see “what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”Our encouragement today is to recognize that God has made Jesus our Lord, the master of our living and dying. He directs each of His own as He pleases to accomplish the will of His Father and glorify His name. He will do that with us today as we surrender to His will and live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:7-8 For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.Paul gave a description of a believer. We should not take this as prescriptive—something we should do to be Christian. I take this to be a description of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Before the Holy Spirit works in the heart, a person lives for himself. Every concern is with his own will, desires, happiness, and convenience. The “why” behind all of his actions is self. When he does something good, it’s because the deed gratifies self in some way. His chief motivation is self pleasure and glory. The Holy Spirit makes deep changes in the person’s life. He is the spirit of life in Christ (8:2). He changes who we live for. Paul taught the Roman believers that not one believer lives or dies for himself for or because we are alive to God. Paul wrote about what happened to Jesus and His impact on those who are in Christ in Rom. 6: 10-11 “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Being alive to God, changes our purpose in life. We live for the Lord, which I think means our greatest concern in everything we do is what pleases and glorifies the Lord. I say that because of what Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 5:9. “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.” As we love with Jesus, there will be times when we live for Him. We express His life in our relationships. There will also be times when we die for the Lord. We put to death the deeds of the body or the flesh with its desires as Paul wrote in 8:13. When we do that, Paul said that’s living with Jesus. In the context of Rom. 14 and relating to a brother or sister who has a different opinion than you do, your main concern is the name of the Lord, not yourself. So we are encouraged today to do all that we do for the glory of God and for the glory of His name as we love one another. We exalt Him when we receive one another as God has received us in Christ. We express His love when we encourage our brothers and sisters to walk according to the faith God has given them to love Him and others. We glorify Jesus when we trust Him to make them stand where He wants them to stand as we love them with Him. Bottom line, we all belong to the Lord, so we are responsible to Him and He is responsible for all of us. This line of thinking flows out of a heart transformed by the spirit of life in Christ who has poured out His love in our hearts. This is what living to love with Jesus looks like in the context of differences of opinion on matters where God’s Word is silent.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:5-6 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.If we are to live to love with Jesus, we must view all of life from His worldview. For myself, I’ve outlined 3 foundational truths by which Jesus lived His life while on the earth and today as He lives in us. 1. There’s only one God, My father, from whom are all things, and He is love.2. The love of my Father is enough. He satisfies the desires of My soul. 3. My Father’s purpose in all things is to reveal Himself in Me for His glory in eternity.These are all supported very clearly in the Scriptures and if you want to investigate these points more, you can do so in Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships available at www.livetolovewithjesus.com. The resources are free.When we consider these three foundational truths from our perspective, they can be said like this:1. There’s only one God, our Father, from whom are all things, and He is love.2. Jesus’ love is enough. He satisfies the desires of my soul.3. God’s purpose in all things is to reveal His Son in me and prepare me for eternity.The reason I mention these three truths is that they are inherent in what Paul wrote in these two verses. Why do the ones who either do or don’t observe certain days or the ones who eat or don’t eat meat give thanks to God? It’s because they believe everything comes from God who loves them. Paul admonished each one to be fully convinced in his own mind as to what he’s to do to please Jesus, His Lord. Why is this important? Because every believer is to be most satisfied in the will of the Lord, receiving and doing what pleases Him. Everything in life is determined by their relationship with Jesus. Everyone also does what they do “for the Lord.” This means that they recognize whatever the issue is, their purpose in life is to reveal Christ, the Lord, and make His name great, not only in this life, but on that Great Day when Jesus is revealed in glory. Do you give thanks to God for what He has provided you to eat or do you just eat it without thanksgiving? Apparently, among the early believers, food on the table was never taken for granted and God was not despised when they put food in their mouths, regardless of whether it was meat or vegetables. The issue here is faith. What do you believe? Paul was encouraging them to love each other because their faith in God was the same. They all looked to God as the provider of their food and all of life. When we live to love with Jesus, we have this same attitude toward whatever happens in our lives. We live with Jesus, and we live for Him. If we believe in Him then everything is about Him—even down to what days we celebrate and what food we eat. We treasure Jesus more than life itself. Through His love, we love one another.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:4 Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.What a great question Paul asked his readers! I hope you can see the underlying assumption by Paul that anyone who believes in Jesus is His servant. Every believer who has received the abundant mercies of God knows Jesus is his master and he or she is His servant. In Romans 6:18 Paul wrote, “And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” And in Romans 12:10-11 he wrote, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” Is that your understanding of your and your brother’s and sister’s relationship with Jesus? You are Jesus’ servants. He is your master, and therefore He does with you what He wishes.We are encouraged by this verse to never harbor attitudes of pride, superiority, or judgment in our hearts toward another believer when it comes to matters of opinion on debatable issues. What makes an issue debatable? If there is clarity in God’s Word on a matter, then God has made the judgment about it, then there is no debate. Our master has told us what is righteous and loving. We trust Him. However when there is no clarity from God’s Word, then the loving thing to do is leave it to God to deal with it through the faith He gives each individual. In other words, we trust Him to govern His servants in wisdom. The lesson to learn: the love of Jesus can only flow when we trust Him with all things. We love our master. We trust Him. We know He is able to make all of His servants stand or walk by faith on any issue. On debatable issues, what our master is most concerned with is not where one stands on the issue, but that one stands where he stands by the faith He has received from His master.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:2-3 One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.In these verses, Paul illustrated, by naming what was probably a real debatable issue in their fellowship, how believers were to receive and love one another. The issue was eating meat and/or vegetables. Notice that Paul mentioned that the real issue was faith, which is another way of saying, that the issue is related to what God has or hasn’t done in one of His beloved. God has given to one person the freedom of conscience to eat both meat and vegetables. This means that the person recognizes God has given both to Him for his sustenance and answer to prayers. Another person has some question about whether meat will defile him. This probably was because he either knew or didn’t know if it was meat which had once been offered as a sacrifice in a pagan temple to an idol. Paul brought up the idea of “unclean” meat in vs. 14 and it was a problem believers were facing in Corinth as well. Paul urged them not to judge, disregard, despise, or treat with contempt someone whose faith isn’t like theirs. Instead they were to receive each another because God received them on the basis of His mercies and the righteousness of Jesus. They know that God has received them equally because they each were given faith to believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection. He did not receive them because of their opinion regarding the food they can eat. Therefore, if God loves them in Christ, they are to love them in Christ. God has made the judgment that food choices will not be the basis of fellowship with Him or among believers. Since we are renewing our minds to think like God does instead of continuing to think like the world does, we agree with God’s judgment and love one another in spite of our differing opinions on these debatable issues. This is what living to love with Jesus looks like when God puts someone in your path who is your brother or sister in Christ but has a differing opinion on a matter upon which there’s no clear direction in God’s Word. If our purpose in life is to glorify God by loving with Jesus all those He puts in our paths, then let us be encouraged today to love others as we have been loved by God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 14:1 Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.As we begin Rom. 14, I want to remind you of where Paul has come from. In Rom. 12:1-2 He wrote, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Recognizing that this verse is a continuation of how being recipients of the mercies of God should impact our lives keeps us in the flow of the mind of the Holy Spirit. First, our believing in Jesus is one of many mercies. God gives to each one a measure of faith and that drives the use of the grace gifts He gives us to minister to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to be devoted to loving one another without hypocrisy. Second, Paul addressed how, in light of God’s mercies, we are to love our enemies, and third, our faith in God should impact our relationships with the authorities He places over us. At the end of chapter 13, Paul summarized what he said, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love” them. Now, Paul returned to a common problem among believers, having to do with the differing measures of faith that God gives related to food, drink, and certain days. Paul was urging his readers to consider their responses to one another as an aspect of their worship with their bodies which he entreated them to do in 12:1. Now we are ready to be encouraged from 14:1. Since “God has allotted to each a measure of faith” we ought to “accept the one who is weak in faith.” The word translated accept is rooted in the word most translated receive. John 3:27 is a good example. “John answered and said, ‘A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.’” So perhaps we get the most encouragement out of this verse when we take it to mean that we are to realize God has given to us members of our body whose faith is weaker than ours on various issues. He didn’t give them to us so we could practice being their judges. We are to love and trust God, who in His wisdom gives faith to each of us according to how He wants to glorify Himself in His body.So today, I encourage us to remember that God is the Great Giver and we are merely unworthy, undeserving recipients of His mercies. Those mercies were given to us when we had no faith at all! We were enemies, in fact. In light of those mercies of God, we should view our brothers and sisters as gifts to us from God. We are to receive those people in the condition God has given them to us, and as we will learn in the next few days, leave their opinions on disputable matters in God’s hands. Today, if God puts a weaker brother or sister in our paths, we are to receive them as someone Jesus intends to love through us. They belong to Him, and therefore belong to us so we can bring glory to God as we worship Him by offering ourselves as living, holy sacrifices of love. What a good encouragement this is for us!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.This verse starts out with “But” so we have a contrasting conjunction. In the previous verses, Paul had called them to wake up, get out of bed, take off their ugly raggedy pajamas which were the deeds of darkness, and put on the armor of light. He called them to behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. That’s how they weren’t to behave, and in this verse we learn exactly what Paul had in mind as to how they were to behave. They were to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. Let’s dive into this. To put on Christ, is to put on His life. It is to identify ourselves with Him. Let’s remember what Paul taught them in Rom. 6. When Jesus died, we died. Our fleshly life, all our efforts in our own strength without Jesus, to be righteous and bear fruit for God died with Him. When He breathed His last breath that old man died. When Jesus breathed his first breath in the tomb, our life in Christ was born. His purpose became our purpose. His worldview became our worldview. His beliefs about God and man became ours. His love is our love. He is I AM. We are who He is. That’s the truth that Paul taught the Roman believers to dress themselves in every morning when they get out of bed. When they are dressed in the armor of light, they will make no provision for the flesh because their hearts’ desire is to treasure Jesus and glorify God by living to love with Him.Jesus indicated this truth when He told His disciples that the god of this world was coming, but he had nothing in Him. Jesus was dressed in the righteousness and purpose of His Father. He came to live to love with His Father, and with that as the prevailing inclination of His heart, Satan had no trigger to pull. That is what Paul was saying to his readers and that I am encouraging you with today. If the prevailing inclination in your heart is to glorify God by living out of the life of Jesus and trusting and loving with Him, the flesh has no provision, no fuel. When we live to love with Jesus, our desire is for Him more than anything Satan, the world, or the flesh has to offer. His love is enough and His love will satisfy my soul more than life itself. It won’t work for you to have your work pants on but still be wearing your pajama top. One who does that has gotten up and then gone back to bed. He’s not really awake, sober-minded, and dressed and geared up for action. So dear brother or sister, because of the mercies of God which you have received, I urge you to offer yourself to God as a living, holy sacrifice, acceptable to Him by putting on the life of Jesus Christ as your armor today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 13:12-13 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.What do you do when you wake up and get out of bed? My guess is that you get dressed for the day. You think about what is to come, and you dress accordingly. We can tell that is what Paul had in mind as he was encouraging the Romans to owe love to everyone and love their neighbor as themselves as a result of receiving the riches of the mercies of God. The night referred to the time in their lives when they lived in darkness, when they were asleep to God, and were wearing night clothes—the deeds of darkness—partying, drunkenness, sexual promiscuity and sensuality, strife, and jealousy. All of these were self-gratifying sins that were common to their culture. When they were asleep in the dark, they treasured being happy in this world more than being happy and satisfied with Jesus. They didn’t know Jesus was even an option at that time in their lives. But the night was almost gone. It wasn’t totally gone. There was still enough pre-dawn gloom to lure them to stay in bed, but they knew the day was near.So what were they to do? Stay in bed a little longer, dressed in their ugly pajamas? Or, get up, get dressed, and get to loving with Jesus? Paul admonished them to put off the deeds of darkness (their sleeping clothes) and put on the armor of light. Apparently, they were to expect some pressing and squeezing, some tribulation, a battle. They needed protective dress, armor of light, he called it. The armor of light referred to their behavior. They were to behave properly as in the day. In other words, once a person is dressed for the day, they know they only have so much daylight to work with. They don’t want to waste precious daylight, so they do the honorable, proper thing, and get to work. In the next verse, Paul specifically stated what armor of light he had in mind. We’ll talk about that tomorrow. I hope you’ll be encouraged to wake up each day and get dressed to live to love with Jesus. I suggest that living to love with Jesus will protect you from the deeds of darkness. You can’t stay in bed and be dressed for the day at the same time. Let’s get up, get dressed in our armor of light, and get with it—with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 13:11-12a Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near.“Do this.” What is the “this”? What had Paul written for his readers to do? “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another…love your neighbor as yourself.” In this verse Paul zeroed in on the reasoning behind loving with Jesus: Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed in Him. It’s like you’ve been asleep all night and as the day dawns and the light increases in the room, you know it’s time to get up and become productive. The night is almost over and the day is near. We are encouraged by this verse that before we were converted, we were spiritually dead which in this verse Paul used the analogy of being asleep. When you were asleep, you were inactive, unproductive, and unfruitful. You had no awareness of God’s Law or His love. But now that you have received God’s grace according to His mercies, the hour has already arrived for you to wake up! Get out of bed, you sleepyhead! Your salvation or deliverance from this dark world is nearer than when you were converted. The word for nearer literally conveys the idea of to press or squeeze. It’s the same picture Paul drew in Rom. 8:22-23 when he wrote, “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” The picture is that the time of the birth or delivery of the body of Christ, which is being prepared in the womb of creation is near. All creation and history is pressing and squeezing upon us with the birth of the body of Christ in view on that Great Day. It is nearer than when our spirits received the Holy Spirit and new life was conceived in us. In a sense, Paul was encouraging them to move toward the light, the day, like the infant in the womb moves through the birth canal toward the light. Your deliverance from the pressing and squeezing of this world with its darkness and tribulation is near. So do this: love one another! You’re about to be born together as one. I hope this encourages you as it does me. Hope rises in my heart even as I think on these things, write them and speak them. Our delivery date is near. Wake up with excitement and a God-glorifying sense of joy and expectation! You have another day to live to love with Jesus. I invite you to share the Live to Love scripture podcast with your friends and family members who you know are looking forward to that Great Day of redemption. They need encouragement just like you do. If the Live to Love scripture encouragements have been encouraging to you, please pass on the encouragement to those you love. Also, please introduce them to livetolovewithjesus.com.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 13:10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.What the apostle Paul was saying in this verse is like when you were in school and the teacher gave you an assignment. The teacher had the authority to assign whatever was best for you, and you had an obligation to do the assignment. God, of course, is the ultimate authority in our lives, and He has given all of mankind the assignment to keep His Law perfectly. In the previous verses, Paul wrote, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet' and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Vs. 10 continued Paul’s point that agape love for one’s neighbor will do no wrong to them. Therefore, when we love with an agape love, a love that does good, we fulfill the assignment.This should be a great encouragement to live to love with Jesus. We know Jesus never did wrong to anyone. He always did what was in their best interest, thus fulfilling what His Father assigned Him to do—namely, live to love with Him for His glory. We are not trusting in our ability to love our neighbor, but in Jesus’ love them. We love because He has first loved us. If we treasure the glory of God above everything and everyone else in this world, especially above ourselves, we will treasure Jesus. If we treasure Jesus, meaning the indwelling ever-present life and love of Jesus, we will desire to abide in Him more than doing anything else in life. Living to love with Him by abiding in Him becomes our purpose in life because in so doing, God is glorified by Christ in us. This treasure is what we sell everything for. He is the pearl of great price. Therefore, the more we treasure Jesus, the more we fulfill the Law. Love flows only out of those whose ultimate treasure is Jesus Christ. Is this greatest desire of your heart—to treasure Jesus? That question has stimulated me to make treasuring Jesus the aim of my heart in 2024. I’ve treasured other things more than Christ way too much in my life. I am convinced that if by the grace of God I treasure Jesus more this year and every year until that day when Jesus returns or I go to be with Him, I will not be disappointed. I want to read and study God’s Word, pray, and minister in His name because knowing and pleasing Him is the greatest desire of my heart. I want it to be the “why” behind all of my words and actions, not so I can feel like I’m a good person, but so God can be glorified in Him in me. I’ve got a long way to go, and maybe you feel like I do. Let’s not be satisfied with just being okay, let’s desire that Jesus be the treasure in all that we do, and thus we will live to love with Him and fulfill the Law for God’s glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 13:8-9 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”What a clear encouragement to live to love with Jesus! Believers have Jesus living inside them. His righteousness fulfills the law of God. Heb. 1:8-9 records what the Father says about His Son. “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.” Fulfilling the law is the definition of the righteousness God. In Rom. 6:13 Paul wrote, “Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” We might consider this command to owe nothing to anyone except to love them as Jesus’ attitude toward His Father’s heart expressed in His Law. Notice that believers owe love to “one another.” When we live to love with Jesus, we are also displaying the mercies of God toward Jesus in our brothers and sisters. So verses 8-10 of Rom. 13 summarized what Paul urged them to do as recipients of the mercies of God, namely, to present their bodies to God a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God as an act of worship. His application followed with love for fellow members of Jesus’ body, love for enemies, and love for governing authorities.This isn’t the only time the Scriptures teach that loving your neighbor is a summary statement of all the commandments. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, Matthew 7:12 “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Paul wrote the Galatians in 5:13-14 “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’” If you love someone, you won’t commit adultery with them or against your spouse. You won’t murder, steal, or covet. You certainly wouldn’t want someone to do that to you, would you? Another understanding of who is your neighbor is this: it’s the one God puts in your path each day. That’s why in the Live to Love prayer you can find at livetolovewithjesus.com you’ll find this prayer. Would you join me in prayer? “Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to live to know and love You and to love with Jesus. Please anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love those You put in my path today, for Your glory.” Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 13:6-7 For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.Our encouragement today comes from the apostle Paul’s teaching to the Roman church about the importance of arranging oneself under the governing authorities to be a support and blessing to them for conscience sake. In Romans 13:5, he wrote, “Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake.” So what Paul wrote in these verses is the outworking of a good conscience in regard to the state. Since rulers are servants of God devoting themselves to serving God in the jurisdiction God has given them, then we arrange ourselves under them to support them (that’s the meaning of submit) by paying taxes. Paul used the same word translated render in Romans 12:17 “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.” where it is translated pay back. The word carries the idea of paying back something in return for a service. You are receiving something good, such as the service of the ruler, therefore, the loving thing to do is give to him what support he is due for his service. The principle is: Give back to all kinds of men what is due them. Paul then gave some specific relationships where our consciences as believers should guide us. Give back through taxes what is due to the public servant. Pay customs to whom custom is due refers to tolls being paid at the end of a service rendered to you. Give fear to those who have authority to punish evil by doing good. And lastly, give honor to whom honor is due. The word honor conveys the idea of valuing the price of a service or position. If the service rendered to us is of value to us, then we ought to show that value. The encouragement today for us is that as we live to love with Jesus, our consciences will guide the way in how we as Christians are to relate to the state. It is an institution established by God for good. Our consciences teach us that love recognizes that all good comes from God, and the agents through whom God blesses us are a due a return as an expression of our submission to His authority. Whether taxes, tolls, fear, or honor, our support of them is an expression of our love for God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 13:5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake.Since the purpose of governing authorities is to bring wrath on evil doers, and since God has appointed governing authorities, it is necessary for believers to put ourselves into a place where we can love and support them. We know we are on this planet to love in His name, therefore our consciences can only be clear if we are in subjection to them as Paul has taught in the previous verses. This highlights an important aspect of living to love with Jesus. Why is loving with Him so important as to be our purpose in life? It’s for conscience’s sake. God is love. He commanded us to love. His abundant daily mercies make loving our reasonable service of worship. In short, our consciences testify to us daily that in all our relationships, we are to love—love God by loving others. When we don’t love, our consciences record it and convict us. The only way for our consciences to be unstained when we give an account for what we have done in our lives is for us to agree with God’s Word, which informed our consciences, and repent for when we haven’t loved—whether that’s in relationship to others or to institutions like government. Our consciences tell us that when we come to stand before Him who is the eternal expression, embodiment, and judge of love, we won’t regret having loved.That’s why Paul taught that we should submit to governing authorities and love the saints and our enemies—for conscience sake. What does your conscience tell you today about all of the days of your life? Has God’s love been the guiding principle and power in your relationships? I hope you’ll start off this new year with a clear conscience toward God and others by agreeing with your conscience where you have have not loved, and purposing to submit yourself to Christ to be His agent of love in this world. I also hope you’ll strive to live with a good conscience this year, confessing sin, correcting unloving patterns and attitudes, and returning to the way of love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 13:3-4 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.In verses 3-4, Paul continued his admonition to relate to authority on the grounds of the mercies of God and His love by explaining God’s purpose for governing authority. God ordained governing authority for the purpose of good. “It is a minister of God to you for good.” So if we live to love with Jesus and do good to all, we need have no fear of them. However, if one returns evil for evil, one should fear because God has given it authority to avenge—exact a penalty from, bring wrath upon—the one who practices evil, that is, doing what harms or destroys. Apparently that’s what it means to “bear the sword.”You may live in a country, state, or city where the governing authorities are hostile to you and your beliefs. I want to encourage us all today as we begin a new year to purpose to live to love with Jesus. These verses teach what the apostle John taught in 1 John 4:18. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” If we love, we don’t need to fear the governing authorities or be afraid of God. We know He will not destroy us, because we know He loves us. He is with us; loving through us. I invite you to ask the Holy Spirit to help you fulfill a New Year’s resolution—to pray what I call the Live to Love prayer every morning as you start your day. “Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to know You, love You, and live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You, and love those You put in my path today, for Your glory. Amen. I hope you’ll visit livetolovewithjesus.com and take advantage of the free resources available to encourage you in living to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 13:2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.The encouragement we receive today still is with reference to those that God has set over us for our good. The words of verses 1-2 in the Greek are interesting. The root word tasso is the word translated subjection in vs. 1, established in vs. 1, and then again in the word resists in vs. 2. Subjection (hupo tasso) is to arrange oneself under God’s appointed agent. Established (tasso) describes God’s appointment of an agent to a place of authority. And the word resist (antitasso) is to arrange oneself over against God’s appointed agent. When our goal is to love everyone God puts in our paths with Jesus, our relationship to the government agent or agency is to love them for their highest good. That means we must not obey laws that hurt or harm others or obey rulers who advocate actions that are detrimental to others. In situations like that, love makes an appeal based on the truth revealed in God’s Word. We not only show what is the loving thing to do, but also how it will be good for them when Jesus returns and they are to give an account for the administration of the jurisdiction to which they are appointed. This fulfills Paul’s admonition to submit to the governing authorities. Paul suggested that those who love in this way will not be condemned by God or by those authorities. There may be times when we are called by God to suffer at the hands of evil authorities. In such cases, the last verses of chapter 12 are to be applied. “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,’ says the Lord. ‘BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” This is not resisting or setting ourselves against God’s agents, in fact, quite the contrary. We are living to love with Jesus those God has placed in our paths with a view to His receiving glory on the day of His coming.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 13:1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.Let me give the sense of Paul’s admonition regarding submission to authority from the concepts contained in the Greek words. Every person is to arrange themselves under those God has placed over him or her as an act of service to God for the good of the person in authority. Paul was telling the Roman believers to recognize those to whom God has given jurisdiction—those who have been given the right to speak—over your lives. We should still consider this as an outworking of the mercies of God and their application to our lives. It is a continuation of what a living, holy sacrifice, that is acceptable to God, looks like. There may be a continuity of thought from the previous verses regarding how believers are to do good to their enemies or those who persecute them. As we live to love with Jesus, we are to recognize and honor those God has placed over us by arranging ourselves under them for their highest good. What is their highest good? To bring glory to God through their service to those God has placed in their jurisdiction. The only way God gets glory is for them to arrange themselves under His jurisdiction. They glorify God by loving their subjects, that is, exercising authority for their highest good. So today’s live to love Scripture encouragement speaks to both those in authority and those under authority. We might ask ourselves two questions as we relate to others. What is their highest good, and how can I bless them in such a way that they give glory to God? Paul later commented in Romans 13:8, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” More than likely we will all interact with governing authorities either directly or indirectly today. May living to love with Jesus be the goal of our interactions.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:20-21 But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.Today’s verse answers the question we asked yesterday. How are we to love our enemies? The first part of the verse is very helpful. It’s straight-forward. Be kind to your enemy by meeting his or her physical need if possible. Paul had already hinted at this previously in his letter. In chapter two, Paul explained that God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. In Romans 11:22, Paul encouraged them to continue in kindness. “Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.” Instead of taking revenge upon their enemies, believers are to show kindness. For those of us who are committed to living to love with Jesus, we receive clear encouragement again from Paul and the Holy Spirit to show kindness to our enemies. The second half of the verse is puzzling at first glance. The “for in so doing” is introducing an explanatory phrase. It’s the why behind being kind to our enemies. It doesn’t make sense if by heaping “burning coals on his head” he means you are making them angry or hurting them in some way. That would actually be taking revenge in a way. It doesn’t make sense that Paul suggested that when people hurt or antagonize you, be kind to them and hurt or cause them pain in return. In light of Paul’s statement in chapter 2 that God’s kindness leads to repentance, it seems most consistent with the context to interpret “heaping burning coals on his head” in a positive way. Consider the head as a figurative expression referring to the person’s mental processing center where actions are being evaluated and judged. The kindness shown fuels the thinking process that leads to repentance. Repentance begins with one having a change of mind on a matter. Our kindness is meant to fuel that change of mind. When we are kind to those who do us harm or evil, their thinking is fueled like burning coals on a fire. Their thinking is redirected by your kindness from an angry, hurtful direction to a peace-making attitude. The good you do them overcomes the evil. The kindness they experience from you hopefully will cause them to rethink what they have done and are doing. That’s repentance. Your kindness leads them to repentance, just as God’s kindness led us to repentance when we were His enemies.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord.Is there ever a time when revenge is an option for a believer? According to the apostle Paul, “No, there is never a time to take revenge.” Why? Because we are beloved of God, and He will not sit idly by and watch His beloved mistreated with impunity. Because we know we are loved, we can trust God to take up our cause. God has said that vengeance is His. He will repay those who do us harm. Paul encouraged the Romans to literally “give space for” God’s wrath. We learn from Rom. 1 what God’s wrath is—it’s when God gives people who suppress the truth in ungodliness over to themselves. When God puts people in our paths in whom God is revealing His wrath, we must give space for God to work. That means that these people will probably persecute us or do evil. When this occurs, we need to remember that God is working His vengeance against them and repaying them for rejecting Him and for their ungodliness and unrighteousness.What are we to do? How are we to love? Paul gets very specific in the next verse as to how we are to respond, so we will wait to answer these questions tomorrow. Today, be encouraged to trust God as He works in everyone’s lives. Give Him room to work by not reacting in a negative way, returning evil for evil. You can be sure that restraining the natural reaction to treat others as they treat you and by maintaining peace in your heart toward them by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you are glorifying God and offering a living, holy sacrifice acceptable to God. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.Our encouragement today continues to be in light of the mercies of God which have been lavished upon us in Christ. In this section of his letter, he urged the believers to offer themselves as living, holy sacrifices, which are acceptable to God, in relation to those who persecute them or do evil to them. Unbelievers, not having peace with God, only view the circumstances of life from their personal, selfish perspective. To the degree that they live for themselves, their willingness to lay down their own desires and aspirations for the sake of others is hindered. Therefore, it may not be possible with some people to be at peace. In contrast, having been justified in Christ, believers in Jesus have peace with God (5:1). Because we have peace with God, we have a basis for peace because we want to forgive for the glory of God. We forgive as we have been forgiven. The Holy Spirit encourages us to be at peace with all kinds of men—that is, as far as it depends on us. I say all kinds of men because of the context—he has mentioned those who persecute us, those who are rejoicing and weeping, and in the next verses those who are our enemies. Also, the Greek grammatical structure indicates “all kinds” and not “every without exception.” As we live to love with Jesus, God is going to put all kinds of difficult people in our paths. As far as we are concerned, let our peace with God bear fruit as we mercifully remove those things which stand between us and them. Love confronts when it's in the best interest of another. Love also ignores offenses when it is for the other person’s highest good. Forgiveness covers a multitude of sins for the glory of God. Let’s remember Paul’s encouragement today. “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.Paul continued giving them advice as to what pleases the Lord with regard to relating to those who persecute them or do them harm. The natural reaction to those who hurt us is to treat them as they treat us. However, living to love with Jesus is responding to evil as He did, or I should say, does. Believers are not to give back (which is the word used), or pay back in return, the evil they receive from anyone. Instead, we are to show respect for what is generally considered the right thing to do in any given situation. We should think, (by the way, the word respect has a form of the Greek word think in it), we should think about what others think is the right thing to do as we consider how we are to respond to those who do evil toward us.In the following verses, Paul continued unpacking a believer’s response to those who do us wrong, but for today, let’s be encouraged by what the Holy Spirit gives us in this verse. It may be, if God so wills, that we may be mistreated or receive evil from someone. We can know with confidence that Jesus would not pay them back with evil. If we are going to love them with Him, we know He will show them respect and do what is for their highest good, no matter what the cost. We can do this in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God because according to His great mercy, He lives in us. This makes our offering a living sacrifice acceptable to God. Father of mercies, God of all comfort, fill us with Your Spirit today, so we might do what is right in Your sight and in the sight of all men should you choose for us to glorify You in suffering evil today. By Your mercies, we offer ourselves to You as sacrifices of worship for Your glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.Today’s Scripture highlights for us how important humility is in loving others. I have suggested that God has called all believers to live to love with Jesus as their purpose in life because that’s how God is most glorified. God is love, and since we are united with Christ, we are fundamentally united with love. Here in vs. 16, Paul again brought up the issue of humility to the Romans. One definition of humility really stands out to me. Humility is recognizing that all that I have has come from God. That humility undergirds Paul’s thinking when it comes to pride. In Romans 11:18 Paul wrote, “Do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.” Again in Romans 11:25 Paul warned, “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery — so that you will not be wise in your own estimation.” Then Paul bolstered his argument against pride when he told them in Romans 11:32 “For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” Finally, in Rom. 12:3 he admonished each one “not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.”So whatever we have, we have received it from God according to His mercy. The humility of Christ lives in us, and his mindset is clearly articulated in Philippians 2:5-8. “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”If we are living to love with Jesus, then we will have His attitude of humility undergirding all our relationships. We must not think that our wisdom or our position in life is a result of anything but God’s mercies. That means we are all to be of the same mind. We are on the same level as everyone before God—we are all sinners. Our only boast is in Christ, Him crucified for us, and His life in us. This should free us to love everyone with Jesus with an attitude of humility. Therefore we should not be haughty or think we are above anyone. May this Scripture encourage us to not be selective or partial in who we respond to as God puts people in our paths to love with Jesus. Father, thank You for reaching down to us so we might be Your vessels of love to all those You put in our paths today. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.I wish that you all would experience a Christmas full of rejoicing, but you might cross paths with someone today who isn’t rejoicing, but weeping. In that case, may your weeping with them be a living, holy sacrifice to God as you live to love with Jesus. Today’s Scripture encouragement from Rom. 12:15 is a general encouragement that can be applied to both believers and unbelievers. Paul encouraged the Romans to relate to all people as God gives them to you. If they are rejoicing in something good, then rejoice with them. However, if they are weeping over some misfortune, suffering, or loss, then join them in their pain. More than likely, on Christmas, which typically is a day of rejoicing, we love people by rejoicing together over God’s love in coming to be with us in the person of His Son. Luke recorded the angel saying, Luke 2:10-11 “But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’” This good news is the cause of great joy. I hope you and your loved ones will be intentional today about loving Jesus by rejoicing greatly in God’s provision of a Savior. Perhaps we’ll have opportunities today to share about the great hope we have in Jesus as you share the good news of a great joy which is for all of us. Not only was the Savior given to the world on that first Christmas, but He has accomplished what He came to do. He died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried for 3 days, and then raised by God according to the Scriptures that He might bring us to God. He did this for us so we might live to love with Jesus for the glory of God. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.At this point in Paul’s application of receiving the mercies of God, it seems his mind turned to how those mercies should impact our relationships with those who cross our paths who are outside the body of Christ. It’s not that some of the following verses might not at times apply to other believers, but he turned to those who persecute you in this verse, and he’s still has our enemies in mind in verses 20-21.So today’s Scripture encourages us in how to love those who do us harm. Since we are living to love with Jesus, offering a living, holy sacrifice acceptable to God so that He can be glorified, we shouldn’t be surprised if Paul taught his readers to love their enemies like Jesus did. Let’s draw some added encouragement from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. I am assuming Paul learned this from Jesus, Himself. Matthew 5:43-44. “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Peter echoes Jesus in and from Peter’s letter. 1 Pet. 2:20-23. “But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you can example for you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;”We may feel like cursing rather than blessing those who harm us, but let’s think about what we have done to Jesus and what He has done for us in return. Our sins are certainly destructive to His name, and if we have ever caused harm to one member of His body, then we have persecuted Jesus. Yet, we have received abundant mercy—new mercies every morning. Do we need to repent of persecuting Jesus because of how we have treated someone who is a part of His and our body? The best way to repent is to bless those who persecute us like He has blessed us. Furthermore, let’s remember that such love for our persecutors is what living to love with Jesus looks like. It proves what the will of God is—that we bring Him glory by offering ourselves to Him according to His great mercy. So from today until “that day” let us bless those who persecute us; bless and do not curse.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.Today’s live to love encouragement comes from Paul’s last thoughts regarding loving the saints—our brothers and sisters in Christ. An important aspect of loving with Jesus is meeting the needs of the members of the body of Christ. When Jesus separated the sheep and the goats, the sheep ministered to the needs of the body of Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 25:40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’” One of the things Jesus said that the sheep did was hospitality. “I was a stranger, and you invited Me in.” Anytime we share what God has given us to meet the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are serving the Lord. Paul obviously didn’t want the Roman believers to miss out on the blessing of loving in a way that clearly is acceptable to God according to His own words. Let’s also not miss that there’s a connection between prayer and contributing to the needs of the saints. We should not be surprised when we pray and ask God how He wants us to love Him, that the needs of our beloved family members would come to mind. As we hear these words, does the Holy Spirit bring someone’s needs to mind that we have the means to meet them? This verse encourages us that such an act of love with Jesus is a living, holy, sacrifice of worship that is acceptable to God. In light of the riches of mercy that we have received, we should consider it a privilege to open our homes to others who are in need of shelter and provision. This is another aspect of loving Jesus, exercising the gifts we have been given according to His mercies to the building up and benefit of the members of His and our body.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,I want us to revisit Rom. 12:12 and focus on Paul’s admonition to be devoted to prayer. There’s a connection between loving with Jesus and being devoted to prayer. If you are serious about being a consistent revelation of the love of Christ as your purpose in life, it makes sense that prayer would become a constant aspect of your relationship with Jesus. Jesus told His disciples in John 14-15 that if they abide in Him and He in them, they would bear much fruit for the glory of the Father—the Father of mercies. In fact, He told them that apart from Him, they could not bear fruit. In this context, Jesus promised, John 14:13-14 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. John 15:7-8 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” The encouragement Jesus gave to His disciples was this: To bear fruit for the glory of God, you need the help of the Lord Jesus. Just ask for it. Paul’s way of saying the same thing was, “Be devoted to prayer.” The live to love encouragement from this Scripture today is be devoted to prayer so you can live to love with Jesus. You aren’t living to love for Him, He’s living to love for you! This happens as you believe He lives inside you and you walk in intimate fellowship with Him. That intimate fellowship takes place as we pray constantly, asking Him for the grace, wisdom, and provision to know how He wants to love in any given circumstance with the people He puts in our paths. So today, be encouraged to devote yourself to prayer, asking whatever you need to be able to love with Jesus, offering to Him a living, holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,The mercies of God give us incredible hope. Remember that all of Paul’s admonitions here in Chapter 12 are based on the mercies of God that we have received. He urged them by the mercies of God to present their bodies to God as a living, holy, acceptable sacrifice. Paul blessed the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort in 2 Cor. 1:3. Connect the dots between mercies, hope, and rejoicing as we consider 1 Pet. 1:3-6. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice…” According to His great mercies…born again to a living hope…in this you greatly rejoice.As we experience the Holy Spirit at work, motivating us by faith to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, we have every reason to rejoice in hope as Paul has encouraged the Romans. That’s one of many reasons to reconsider what purpose you live for. Have you submitted yourself to Jesus’ purpose for living—to reveal the love of God for His people for the glory of the Father of mercies on the last day? Or are you still living to fulfill your own purposes, agendas, and desires? We were saved to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God. His life dwells in us by the mercies of God through the Holy Spirit so that we may live each day rejoicing in hope as we persevere through the tribulations of life. Let’s remember what Paul wrote in chapter 5. Having been justified through faith in Jesus, which is according to the great mercies of God, we not only rejoice in the grace in which we stand, but we also “exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”Paul also encourages us to not only be devoted to love, but be devoted to prayer. I’m not going to comment any more on the connection of love, rejoicing, and prayer until tomorrow. For today, if you haven’t already, I hope you’ll receive Paul’s and my encouragement to renew your minds and devote yourselves to living to love with Jesus so that rejoicing in hope of the glory of God becomes a constant in your daily experience.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Rom. 12:11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the LordIn today’s live to love encouragement from Rom. 12:11, I want to turn the spotlight on the phrase “fervent in spirit.” As Paul thought about the Roman’s service to the Lord, he was moved by the Holy Spirit to encourage them that their service of worship to God should be fervent in spirit. The idea conveyed in the word fervent is that of a pot of boiling hot water. You’ve seen this, haven’t you? The water starts boiling and the surface is moving as the bubbles rise to the surface and steam bursts up. It’s the exact opposite image of the idea conveyed in “lagging behind” or lacking spirit. Our love for God and for others is to be burning hot because it is from our spirits which are joined to Christ. I am calling you to live to love with Jesus. Apart from Him, certainly we will lag behind in diligence. We get tired of loving. We lose our motivation and fall short of the glory of God. Jesus told us this would happen when He told His disciples they could not bear fruit for God’s glory apart from Him. Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus lives in us. His love for God and for His body is boiling hot. That fervency drove Him to heal, comfort, teach, give, serve, and finally to the cross so our flesh and lack of spiritual stamina would be put to death. When He was raised, He rose like the the bubbles rise in boiling water. It was the boiling hot love of God that raised Jesus so that His fervency would be expressed in our lives as from our spirits, united with Christ, we receive a love for God and others that explodes with the fire of the Holy Spirit. How would your love for God and others be described? Is it cold? Is it luke warm? Would you like for it to boil for the glory of God? If so, then look to Jesus in you and consider His love that lives in you. When you meditate on His word, like this verse in Rom. 12:11 and offer yourself as a living, holy sacrifice to God for His glory, the Holy Spirit will turn up the heat in your spirit, and you’ll experience His boiling love for others.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:10-11 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;In verses 9-13 Paul urged the Roman believers to offer a living, holy, sacrifice of worship in the way they love one another. We read in Romans 12:9 “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.” In today’s verses 10-11 he continued encouraging them by unpacking what living to love with Jesus looks like. Being devoted to one another in brotherly love simply is showing family affection. Twice in this exhortation a form of phileo is used, which conveys a friendly, family relationships. What does that look like? It’s valuing others above yourself, which is what the word honor intimates. Paul used the same word in Romans 9:21 “Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?” They were not to be slacking in their exercising love for one another. They were to be diligent, fervently loving with the understanding that as they loved one another, they were serving the Lord. Remember what Paul had written in vs. 1 of this chapter? “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” In Paul’s mind, believer’s loving one another is how they love and serve Jesus. It’s another aspect of living to love with Jesus. When we intentionally, diligently, fervently prefer others’ interests over our own personal interests, we are expressing the love of Jesus in and to His body, His bride. Paul put it this way when he wrote to the Philippians. Philippians 2:3-5 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.” Peter wrote the same in 1 Peter 1:22. “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.”We need this live to love scripture encouragement everyday! God probably is going to put Jesus’ brothers and sisters in our paths today. We may have many opportunities to offer living, holy sacrifices of love and service to Jesus. It’s our reasonable act of worship since we live and breathe by the riches of the mercies of God. Let us devote ourselves to diligently, fervently living to love our brothers and sisters with Jesus for His glory and joy. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.Today’s scripture encourages us further in how to offer to God a living, holy sacrifice that is acceptable to God. Paul had been urging them to exercise their faith in ministry to one another since they were members one of another in the body of Christ. We consider three more aspects of spiritual faith: love, hating evil, and holding to what is good. The love we have for one another is to be genuine or as Paul said, “without hypocrisy.” The apostle Peter said something similar when he wrote in 1 Peter 1:22, “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.” Sincere and hypocrisy are the same Greek word translated differently in these verses. We are to let love flow unhindered by the flesh. That’s why we purify our souls of worldly thinking. God wants our love to be living and holy to Him.Since God’s kind of love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, we do not tolerate evil in our relationships toward one another. There’s no place for evil to exist because of God’s mercies toward us. He has wiped away all of our evil transgressions, forgiven us our debts, so that we can abhor what is evil. We understand how God hates evil when we look at what Jesus suffered on the cross. He conquered evil, justified us, so He could overcome evil with good. We are to do the same thing. There will be opportunities today to hate evil. It’s not enough to simply be non-chalant toward it. When faith is operating, evil is hated. Lastly, we are encouraged to cling, to be glued to good. Jesus loves righteousness, so as we live to love with Him, it makes sense that we will rejoice in good, stay united with the highest good for one another, which is to bring glory to God by being most satisfied with God’s will than our own. As we live to love with Jesus, Paul said earlier that we prove that God’s will is good, holy, and perfect.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.Did any of those gifts relate to you? If so, then today’s live to love scripture encouragement is for you. When we exercise the grace gifts given us through Jesus, we are living to love with Him. We’ve been learning from Paul what makes our love acceptable to God. It’s acceptable when it is received by the Holy Spirit and given by faith. Exhorting, giving, leading, and showing mercy when driven by faith have a quality that exceeds the normal. The qualifier for all the gifts is that each is to exercise them according to the proportion of the faith allotted to them by God as Paul said in verse 7. One who exhorts is one who is called to walk with or walk beside someone. We all have Jesus as our exhorter, so when He exhorts you, pass it on. Encourage others with the encouragement you’ve received from Jesus. The giver who gives generously because Jesus has given to him or her generously offers an acceptable, living, holy sacrifice. So if you’re blessed by God’s generosity, be ready to give liberally. Leaders who lead in the flesh may do so with reluctance and complaint. But when they are empowered and led by the Spirit, they lead with diligence, joy, and love. Paul said that those who show mercy with cheerfulness exemplify how God shows mercy. Cheerful mercy glorifies the Lord.Can you think of some other additives to these gifts that you have experienced when you are exercising them by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit? Today as we live to love with Jesus, let’s not be satisfied with offering a natural offering to the body of Christ. Rather, let us exhort, give, lead, and show mercy with excellence for the glory of God. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching;In today’s live to love scripture encouragement, those of us with grace gifts to serve and teach are spurred into action along with our brothers and sisters in Rome. What is it that moves us? It was stated in the previous verse. It is the faith allotted to us by the mercies of God. We can best discern what we are to do or teach based upon if it is an expression of God’s love for His people. We can ask ourselves as we give what we have received, “Is this for the person’s highest good, namely, that they will glorify God by being most satisfied in Jesus? Will the service or teaching I have received to give encourage and edify them to reveal the life of Christ? Will it encourage and equip them to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God? That’s the bullseye at which faith aims. It s eye is fixed on Jesus. God is working all things together so that we may be conformed to the image of His son (Rom. 8:28-29). Many of you who are listening will experience these two gifts today as you live to love with Jesus. May you exercise them with joy and hope. You can expect Jesus to be glorified on that great day of the Lord because today’s offering is a living, holy sacrifice, an expression of spiritual service, which is and will be acceptable to God. Isn’t that encouraging?! Receive from Jesus, then give it generously and freely.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;Today’s verse reveals how we are to think about how we are to love each other. Our minds are being renewed so we can prove how good, holy, and perfect God’s will is in putting us into His Son, Jesus Christ. The gifts we have to love each other with flow out of the grace given us by the mercies of God. We might think of each gift as an expression of God’s mercy to us. We learn with the Romans that our gifts differ because God wanted them to differ. If in mercy, He gives grace to each member, then when they love each other, He gets the glory both today and on that day when Jesus returns to be glorified in the saints and to be marveled at by all who believe (1 Thess. 1:10). Through each member of the body, Jesus is preparing His body for that great day when He presents us holy, blameless, and without blemish. His body, His bride, dressed in a white garment, the righteousness of Jesus Christ.The encouragement today is to those of us who prophesy. Prophesying entails speaking forth to someone what the Holy Spirit gives you to encourage and edify. This gift was (and I believe is presently) to be exercised according to the faith allotted or given to you. Paul said this and all gifts are grace gifts, which means they are expressions of Jesus’ love for us. Does it make sense or is it sound judgment to think that Jesus has restricted the expressions of His love for His body since the Scriptures were canonized? Once God’s Word became canonized, did God scale back His mercies to the members of His body? If so, then these verses are muted. It is clear from experience, that the mercies of God still flow among us for His glory today and on that day.If faith rises in your heart to speak words of encouragement and edification, we are not to think that those words rise with the same authority as Scripture. Yes, they are spiritual words from the Holy Spirit, but they were not given to establish a rule or standard by which we are to judge. That standard has been clearly established in the canonization of Scripture which is infalable and sufficient for our faith. It is that very standard that encourages us that these grace gifts are meant to be exercised in loving with Jesus. Give what you receive after testing it by the Word of God, our rule of faith. This is how living to love with Jesus looks in our lives.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:4-5 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.As we consider today’s scripture, let’s remember that in the previous verse, Paul called his readers to have sound judgment regarding the body of Christ and the faith operating within each one of them. Apparently this was important to Paul because he understood how important it was to judge the body of Christ rightly. When he was Saul, he persecuted believers and had no idea that he was persecuting Jesus until Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus. He called the Corinthians also to exercise sound judgment about themselves when he wrote, “But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged” (1 Cor. 11:28-31). The Roman Gentile believers needed to be warned just as did the Corinthians. Perhaps we need it today. They were failing to love each other as Jesus loved them because they were not thinking of God’s mercies by which they were made into one body. When we live to love with Jesus, our minds need to be renewed to think like Jesus thinks—to judge His body as He does. That’s what the Holy Spirit in Paul is helping us do. Notice he wrote, “we have” many members in one body, not “Jesus has many members.” This means that I have you, and you have me. We have each other, because by the mercies of God, we have all been placed together into Jesus. So we, who are many, are functioning members of each other in one body. Jesus has not made us all the same, but given us an assortment of functions which operate according to the measure of faith He has given each one. It is not our place to judge our brother or sister. That’s Jesus’ place. Our place is to love them with Jesus. We are now the body of Christ in this world. What a glorious mystery! So today’s encouragement is to grasp and apply this wonderful reality as we think about ourselves and each other. When God places someone in your path, He may be giving you a member of your body in Christ so that He can love them through you for His joy and glory. Receive what Jesus gives you to love them, and you can know that your spiritual service will be holy to the Lord and accepted by Him—regardless of how great or how small.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.This isn’t the first time Paul warned the Roman Gentile church about pride or thinking more highly of themselves than they ought. It’s another application of the mercies of God in our lives. He told them in chapter 9 that being in the Israel of God doesn’t depend on the man who wills, but on God who has mercy. For this reason, he urged them not to get big-headed about their being justified by faith as if they were superior to the Jews. He was a Jew and had received grace and mercy like they had. This kind of humble thinking, recognizing that the faith that each of them had came according to God’s mercy, was where the Roman believers needed to renew their minds. This is relevant today as well. The world’s pride focuses on individual performance and comparison. You know, my church is bigger than your church. The charasmatics are more spiritual than the Baptists. Our worship music is more spiritual and better because we have a talented worship leader and don’t sing hymns. One aspect of living to love with Jesus is walking in humility toward one another. We recognize that the love that flows in our lives is a result of an allotment of faith by God according to His mercies. Sound judgment protects us from thinking like the world does. It recognizes that our faith doesn’t originate in us, but is a gift of God, so He gets the glory. Remember, if God doesn’t do it, He doesn’t get the glory. Our faith is God’s work. That’s how we know God has been merciful to us in Christ. If we are justified by faith, then we live to love with Jesus by faith as well. That’s sound judgment. The result: God is glorified because all of our love flows out of His provision and love for His body. It’s Jesus loving Himself as He allots a measure of faith in each member of the body. Remember what Paul wrote to the Ephesians in Ephesians 5:28 “So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.” Of this, Paul wrote, “This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.” Living to love with Jesus is the application of this mystery that when faith works through love in us, Jesus is loving His bride. So let us not think more highly of ourselves than we should, rather, let us have sound judgment and glory in the faith and love of Christ making us living, holy sacrifices, acceptable to God, which is our spiritual service of worship.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.In verse two of chapter 12, Paul added to his call for application in light of God’s abundant mercies. He had urged them to present their bodies to the Holy Spirit for His use so that they might offer a living, holy sacrifice which is acceptable to God. We were encouraged that living to love with Jesus is what makes our love acceptable to God. Then Paul urged them further to bring about transformation by renewing their minds according to God’s mercies rather than being conformed to this world. Paul said that the renewing of their minds by the mercies of God, may prove what God’s will is, namely that they offer themselves as a living, holy sacrifice. Such an offering of love is good, acceptable, and perfect because it expresses the mind of the Holy Spirit. This is our encouragement today. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, and we know that loving with Jesus is God’s will. Jesus commanded His disciples to obey a new commandment to love one another as He had loved them. Furthermore, we are encouraged that God accepts such a living offering because it is good and perfect. It comes from and through His Son just as Paul exclaimed in the last verse of chapter 11. All things are from Him, through Him, and to Him so that all the glory may be His forever. If we are going to live to love with Jesus and prove the will of God, it is imperative that we think like Jesus thinks. If our thinking doesn’t change, nothing of significance will change in our lives. If we think like the world, which looks to self or the flesh as the source of love, there’s no way God will accept a worldly love. It’s not good, acceptable, and perfect. In chapter 7-8, Paul already told them that the flesh cannot please God. I have summarized the mind of Christ with three points in my book, Live to Love which you can see are confirmed in Romans. 1. There’s only one God from whom all things come, and He is love. (Can you imagine Jesus thinking otherwise?) 2. Jesus glorified His Father by being most satisfied in His love. 3. God’s purpose in all things is to glorify Himself by revealing Himself through His Son. That is God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will. By giving us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of His Son, according to His great mercy, God has given us His mind. What must we do? Learn how Jesus thinks and renew our minds accordingly so we can live to love with Him, thus offering an acceptable, living sacrifice, for His glory. I urge you to memorize the 3 foundational truths and apply them to every situation and relationship so you can live to love with Jesus and offer an acceptable sacrifice.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Oh the riches of the mercy of God! All the mercies we enjoy are from, through, and to the glory of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. They are all undeserved because “God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” How should those who stand in grace before God, dressed in the righteousness of Jesus, by His mercies live? In this verse, Paul urged each of them to present his or her body as a sacrificial offering of worship to God. First we should not miss that the offering we have to give is a living one. The readers were quite familiar with sacrifices made to gods, they were all dead when they were offered. Our God is not interested in dead offerings in the flesh. As Paul wrote earlier, our mortal bodies which are dead (8:10) have the Spirit of life in Christ dwelling within (8:2). Our spirits are alive because of righteousness (8:10). The Spirit of life in Christ is none other than the Holy Spirit, by which we live, so the life animating our spirits which controls our service in this world makes the sacrifice living and holy. Therefore the deeds which flow from the life of Christ in us are spiritual. When what we do is united with Jesus, it is living, holy love. According to Paul, His love flowing through us is the only offering that God accepts. Living to love with Jesus is the only offering God accepts.I hope you can see how this encourages us in how we love. God is not interested in acts of love offered in our own strength. Those acts all fall short of the glory of God, for God only gets glory if He does the work. As Paul wrote to the Colossians, “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (2:13). What makes our love acceptable? As we live to love with Jesus in our bodies, we do so by the mercies of God. I urge you each morning to give the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ in your body, give Him access to all that you are as an instrument of His love to whoever He puts in your path today. Know that such an offering is holy, accepted by God, and will bring glory to Him on that “great Day of the Lord.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.This verse tells us the mind of Christ regarding all things. They come from His Father for His glory. This is a foundational truth if we are going to love God and love others. We can’t love with Jesus if we don’t think like Jesus. This is a huge worldview tenet for all believers in Jesus Christ. Paul stated the same truth to the Corinthians when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 8:6 “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” We can be encouraged that there is nothing that has occurred or will occur that God is not going to receive glory, and that is true forever! He is the ultimate source of all things, and He administrates them in perfect wisdom, knowledge, judgment, and love. Our problems, anxieties, and difficulties arise when we don’t believe this great truth and view things from our idolatrous, self-centered perspective. I encourage you today to humble yourself and intentionally embrace this grand statement of the sovereignty of Almighty God. We are His creatures, created for His glory. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:35 Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again?Today’s verse strikes at the sense of entitlement that so easily can grip our hearts. It encourages us not to think that we deserve anything from God, but to recognize that everything we have is a gift from God. God isn’t responding to us. He is the first giver. We are the receivers. This is important because we don’t want to think that the reason we ought to love others is so God will be kind and good to us. It’s important for us to understand that we love because He first loved us. We love because God has given us a heart to want to love. We give because God has given to us, and we want to glorify Him by receiving His gifts and enjoying Him with them. That’s how God’s gifts of grace, faith, and love work in all who believe. This also encourages us to not expect a pay back from those we love. As we love with Jesus, let us love open handed. May we give His love to others for the sheer joy of pleasing our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope this encourages us to not withhold the love of God to any who have offended, hurt, or disappointed us. Father, there are times when we have expected you to pay us back for our giving or service. You know our hearts. We confess it is sin when we do that and that it doesn’t please or glorify You. Thank you for cleansing us of that self-centeredness and pride through the shed blood of Your Son. Sanctify us by the Holy Spirit that we might love like You love, give without expecting anything in return. May we find our full satisfaction in what You give us so we have the heart, strength, and wisdom to love with You.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:34 For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?These last three verses of Rom. 11 are powerful and convicting. Have you ever thought you knew better than God how to run the affairs of your life in this world? Have you ever thought you were sure about what God thinks about a person, a series of events, or yourself? Have you considered yourself to have a right to speak to God and advise Him in any matter when you thought He needed help? Of course Paul’s questions in this verse should be answered, “No one has known the mind of the Lord or been His counselor because we are not capable of even beginning to understand his wisdom, knowledge, judgments, and ways. One of the foundational truths about loving God and others is that it’s impossible to love Him and love with Him if we don’t trust like Jesus trusts. Jesus trusts the mind of God and is completely surrendered to the will of the Father. His life is in us. He is the vine, and we are the branches. As we trust God’s wisdom and knowledge, we are free to receive what He gives to Jesus in us and respond in faith and love with Him. Additionally, the humility of Christ which submits to the counsel of the Holy Spirit in any given instance or in a relationship, will enable us to experience and express His love more freely. Let this verse encourage you to trust the Lord more and receive His guidance more fully as you live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!Do you not agree with Paul’s conclusion about God after reading and listening to Paul’s explanation of the gospel from Rom. 1:16 through 11:32? What a glorious praise about God. God’s wisdom, knowledge, judgments, and ways are beyond our capacity to understand and comprehend. This is meant to shut the mouths of all who think they could tell God a better way to run His creation or to orchestrate their lives. And at the same time it calls them into worship. It’s meant to humble the proud, but at the same time offer them hope of forgiveness and righteousness. The Holy Spirit inspired this verse so that we all, Jew and Gentile, male or female, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, might accept and love one another with Jesus. All who believe in Jesus stand in grace on level, holy ground. Let’s offer our praise by the Holy Spirit with the apostle Paul. It is a call to worship.Father, the depths of the riches of Your wisdom and knowledge are stunning. We praise You and surrender our lives to You in worship and trust. We humble ourselves and agree with Paul that Your judgments about mankind, about each of us specifically is right. You have used perfect judgment in Your dealings with us. Thank You for being merciful to us when we have questioned Your judgments and complained about Your ways. Forgive us for Jesus’ name sake. Help us live in awe and respect for You, Your Word, Your wisdom, knowledge, judgments, and ways. Fill us with Your love for each other according to the mercies You have bestowed on us. Amen. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:30-32 For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.Do you remember what Paul wrote in Romans 9:16? “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” God shut up all in disobedience when Adam and Eve fell. Yes, it was Adam who sinned, but it was God at work according to His eternal will and purpose so that Jesus might be glorified in the saints and marveled at by all who believe (2 Thess. 1:10). All mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, came from the same lump of clay. The mystery of the gospel is that God saves disobedient sinners to the praise of His glorious grace and mercy, and He is great in mercy. Paul’s point was that since salvation depends on God’s mercy, He can bestow it as He wishes according to His wisdom. His wisdom is the cross, foolishness to the natural minded Gentiles and a stumbling block to the natural minded Jews. This was so He could bring in the Gentiles through the disobedience of the Jews and then bring in the Jews through the mercy shown to them by the Gentiles. Would any man think of such a plan? Consider that all of us who are Gentile believers are so because God did what He did historically and supernaturally with the Jews and early Gentile believers. The gospel first spread and got its launch around the world through the Gentiles, and it has reached as far as you and me as God has included us in His calling unto eternal life. He is still reaching through us as we live to love with Jesus and share about the mercy we have received. What great mercy we enjoy again today! His mercies are new every morning toward us. Great is His faithfulness. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.Today’s verse encourages us that once God bestows His gifts upon His children He will not take them back. What gifts did Paul have in mind? If we think back through his letter, there are many. He has mentioned the gifts of righteousness in justification, the grace in which we stand, faith through hearing, and the Holy Spirit who pours out God’s love in our hearts, sanctifies us, intercedes for us, and gives us life in our mortal bodies. This verse also assures us that our salvation cannot be lost or taken away any more than we can be separated from the love of God in Christ. These gifts constitute the calling of God that flows out of the eternal fountain of God’s election, foreknowledge, and predestination that we be conformed to the image of His Son so He might be the firstborn among many brethren. God isn’t going to recall His gifts and calling because there’s nothing wrong with them. When something is recalled, it is recalled because it is broken or fails to work as it was designed. God’s salvation of the people whom He foreknew in Christ isn’t broken nor has it or will it fail. That was Paul’s point regarding God’s promise to Abraham who believed God’s gifts and calling. Romans 4:17 “(as it is written, ‘A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.’” If someone could lose their salvation, then it would mean God’s gifts and calling are not irrevocable. We certainly are broken, but God’s gifts and calling to the broken are not, and our salvation does not depend upon anything in us. All who are given the gift of righteousness through faith and are called by the Holy Spirit from life to death continue in faith and love to the very end of their lives due to this great truth revealed in Rom. 11:29. What motivates us to continue in faith and love isn’t the fear of losing our salvation, but the grace of God and the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Our calling is to live to love with Jesus to the very end. He will never revoke that call because we cannot be separated from His love. So let us rejoice in our assurance in Christ today and bow in humility and awe at God’s faithfulness to us in Christ.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:28 From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers;Paul continued unpacking the mystery of God concerning Israel and the Gentiles. How can it be that Israel could be at one time an enemy of the gospel and at another time beloved of God? That is a mystery. From the standpoint of the gospel, Israel at the present time is an enemy. But from the standpoint of God’s choice, they are beloved because of God’s promise to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Even though the nation of Israel in part has been hardened, God has not completely abandoned them as a whole. God is keeping a remnant for Himself to fulfill His word so the world will know that God is faithful and dependable. If we are believing Gentiles, then from the standpoint of the gospel, we are beloved and from the standpoint of God’s choice, we are beloved. There was a time when we were not a people at all from the standpoint of God’s choice. We had no claim upon God. He only chose Israel with whom and through whom He revealed Himself to the world. Now, we are beloved of God, and because of His love, we have received God’s call to live our lives walking in love with Jesus. Thank You, Father, for choosing us in Christ. Thank You for opening our hearts to hear Your word. Thank You for sending the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life in Christ, to dwell in our mortal bodies. We are in awe of Your grace and love. Spread Your love through Your children today for Your glory. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:26-27 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”When Paul wrote that all Israel will be saved, He was referring not to all of national Israel, but to the Israel of God that consists of those foreknown and called as descendants of Abraham and those also foreknown and called who are Gentiles. Again Paul based his statement, his beliefs, on the authority of Scripture as we all should. All those God has foreknown and predestined to be beloved and called to be Jesus’ brethren among whom He will stand as the firstborn at His coming, will be saved by Christ, the Deliverer. He will remove both ungodliness as well as all their sins that issue out of that ungodliness. God’s plan from the beginning will be accomplished. His word will be fulfilled. It has not and will not fail. Today we rejoice in God’s love for us and may we pray that we will be strengthened with power by the Holy Spirit so that His love will flow freely from the life of Jesus Christ dwelling within us. In this way, we will be able to comprehend how vast the dimensions of God’s love is toward us so that we, the church of the living God, can be filled with the fullness of God. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery-so that you will not be wise in your own estimation-that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;Since the beginning of this section in chapter 9, Paul was sharing why he is so concerned about his Jewish brethren. He longed for their salvation even to the point that if he could he would sacrifice himself. He began with questioning whether God’s word, His promise to Abraham had failed. Romans 9:6-7. “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: ‘THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.’” Then he showed them that God had chosen Jacob and not Esau. From there he cited Scriptures that clearly indicated that the Israel of God included some Gentiles. In the previous few verses and today’s verse, we see that Paul didn’t want the Gentile church in Rome to think more highly of themselves for being accepted by God while it appeared the Jews were being overlooked by God. He explained the mystery to them—God has hardened part of the descendants of Abraham for a period of time. The purpose for the partial hardening was so that He could bring in the fullness of the Gentiles. They needed to know this so that they wouldn’t think that they were wiser than the Jews.Have you ever thought that because you have accepted Jesus that you are wiser than those who have not? If so, then you understand the mystery. In between every word is this great truth: salvation is 100% of the Lord. We have been grafted into Israel by God’s kindness, not because we are better or wiser than others. God has given us to His Son and given His Son to us “according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:5-6). The presence of the Holy Spirit, faith, and love verify the grace in which we stand. This should be as humbling to us as it was to Paul’s first readers. We enter into this day not trusting in our wisdom, but in God’s wisdom. He will guide us to those He wishes to save until all the fullness of the Gentiles is come in, and then we will see an incredible harvest among national Israel. May we be on the alert, abiding in Christ, and expecting God to do great things as we live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?Paul used an illustration from horticulture to encourage his Gentile readers to have a heart for those among his Jewish brethren who were yet to believe in Jesus. First, he showed them that their inclusion in the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham was miraculous and unnatural. God graft a wild olive branch into a cultivated olive tree? Unheard of. Second, and on the other hand, he argued that if God were to graft/save a natural branch into the original tree, it would be not only be natural and logical, but it would be the best thing to do. It’s what any wise horticulturist would do if he wanted good fruit. Paul’s point was that God is going to do just that. We can expect, if it pleases Him, to graft a large remnant of Jews back into the promise made to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and that all the families of the earth will be blessed in him. Abraham is the root of the tree. God grows the tree, and produces the fruit—all for the glory of His name.This is our confidence and joy as we live to love with Jesus. We know God is always at work with His tree. We are merely branches. We don’t produce the fruit, we simply receive the life from the tree and display the fruit. God gets the glory. Jesus said, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” But as we abide in Him and He is us, we bear (display) much fruit. It is through our fruit bearing that the Father is glorified. So live to love with Jesus today with confidence and with great joy, knowing that whatever fruit God produces, the Keeper of the Tree will be glorified.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:22-23 Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.I want to direct your attention today to the word “continue” in these two verses. If they continue in His kindness of if they continue in unbelief. If they don’t continue in His kindness or don’t continue in unbelief, God works accordingly. Which comes first? God’s work or our continuing or not continuing? I suggest from Paul’s use of this word to the Colossians that whatever the current spiritual condition is of the person, it reveals what God is doing. Colossians 1:21-23 “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach — if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard,” Those who continue in the faith and don’t move away from the gospel are the ones God has reconciled in Jesus. He has firmly established them in Christ. They show what God has done. If one doesn’t continue in the faith, then it shows what God has not done. Those who continue in kindness are the ones God has justified, and those who don’t continue in kindness are those God has not justified. But if someone doesn’t continue in unbelief, it is clear that God has worked in a redemptive way. He has placed them in the root of His Tree, Jesus Christ. This encourages us as we continue living to love with Jesus, we demonstrate God’s kindness to us and testify of our salvation. We show the gracious work of God in our lives for His glory. That’s why I say we have been called to live to love with Jesus—it’s our purpose in life. It’s how God is glorified through Christ in our lives, and it’s a continual lifestyle for all who are His. Faith always acts through love, and it never fails if it is a life and a love born of God. Are you encouraged by this? I hope so. Let’s give God thanks for his keeping power at work in our lives. If you are continuing in faith and holding firm to the gospel another year, give God glory by thanking Him for this kind work of grace in your life.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:22 Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.God has been kind and severe. His severity is shown in those who fall and are cut off. His kindness is shown in those who continue in His kindness. Today’s encouragement comes from the words, “but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness.” Implied is that those who continue in His kindness express His kindness, namely, to the Jews, but I’m sure it’s also true to say those who express His kindness to all. We live to love with Jesus because He has loved us, and we have received His kindness. Everyone deserves God’s severity. Paul wrote to both the Ephesians and the Colossians that we all once walked in the lust of the flesh and deserve His wrath. If God has given you the Holy Spirit, then He has been kind to you instead of severe. He has poured out His love in your heart. If you abide in His kindness, you will be kind, patient, and loving with those whom God puts in your path. As we have seen, this verse was certainly a warning to the Roman Gentile church to not be arrogant toward the Jews or think that they were better than others, deserving the kindness they have received. They didn’t earn it. They simply received it from God, who has chosen to love them in Christ. And so it is with us who enjoy God’s kindness today. May we continue in His kindness for His glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:19-21 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either.Paul was concerned about the attitude of the predominantly Gentile church in Rome toward the Jews. He warned them about being arrogant toward the Jews, thinking that they were superior to the Jews since God had cut His own people off and grafted them in. In these verses, Paul basically accused them of the same arrogance in the Jews that got them cut off. The Jews thought they were superior to everyone else, that only they were accepted by God because of who they were and what they knew. Now, the Gentile church was in danger of thinking they had been accepted because they were superior to the Jews and were accepted because of who they were and what they knew. Paul reminded them that their standing before God was based solely on the fact that they believed in Jesus. Yes, they were right to conclude that God cut them off, but not for the reason they thought it was. It was because of unbelief, and if they were arrogant, thinking that they stood because of who they were and what they had done, then they were in the same position of unbelief and arrogance. Why should God not cut them off as well? The solution to this danger was to fear, to take heed, that they not give any room for that attitude in their hearts. If we really understand the love of God and the gift of righteousness in Christ is the basis for our relationship with Him, we won’t allow any room for arrogance or pride in our hearts toward others who are not saved. We are not better than they. We stand by faith in what God has done, not reliance upon what we have done or our knowledge of spiritual things. As we live to love with Jesus, that is our message. God is love, and His plan of salvation is that whoever believes on the name of the Lord Jesus and trusts in His work on their behalf, will be saved. Being satisfied in the love of God in Christ more than in ourselves, we glorify God and proclaim Jesus Christ to those He puts in our paths.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:17-18 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.How easy it is for pride to show itself. Paul didn’t want his Gentile readers, who had the riches of God’s grace bestowed upon them to think too highly of themselves. Yes, the Jews were being broken off, and yes, grafting a wild olive branch into a rich root is unnatural. It’s not the way it is done. One grafts a good branch into a wild root, and it will produce good fruit. That’s natural. But God’s plan isn’t natural, and God works in mysterious ways. Paul intended his readers to understand that God has done a miracle, He’s done something entirely unnatural, by bringing in the fullness of the Gentiles before the fullness of the Jews. We are justified in Christ through faith, but Abraham was the first, He was the root of the tree of God’s salvation which includes both Jews and Gentiles. Thus, our very salvation which we enjoy today was birthed in Abraham when he believed God’s promise. He was the first fruit, and everyone else is the fruit of God’s work in him. Indeed, justification by faith is a rich root!Your very spiritual life breath has been coursing through history from Abraham to you. You are a miracle—a miraculous work of God. May you live today in the awareness of this miracle of grace. Enjoy His love and pass it on for His glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:16 If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too.Paul reached back to Numbers 15:20-21 for his first illustration of holiness. “Of the first of your dough you shall lift up a cake as an offering; as the offering of the threshing floor, so you shall lift it up. From the first of your dough you shall give to the LORD an offering throughout your generations.” His point was that if a portion of a lump of dough is dedicated to the Lord, then the entire lump is also dedicated to the Lord. Then in his second illustration he used the easy to understand picture of the root of the tree and the branches. What is their relationship? The root and the branches are one, holy, dedicated to one purpose. Most commentators agree that the patriarchs are in view as the “first fruits” of the dough and Abraham is the root that Paul had in mind. Gentiles and Jews were set apart to God from the beginning in the promise made to Abraham and the forefathers. All the nations would be blessed in him, and he would be a father of many nations. Paul began showing his Gentile readers their relationship to the great harvest coming among the Jews. The ultimate message here is a warning not to be proud about our acceptance with God, but realize that God set us all apart to Himself from the beginning when He began unfolding His wonderful plan of redemption. We are holy to Him. We are one with each other through our inclusion in the fulfilled promise of God. Living to love with Jesus is the expression of holiness—our oneness with Christ, who is God, who is love. He lives to reveal and glorify the Father, so therefore we are holy to Him and live to reveal and glorify the Father through the Son who dwells in us. Have you realized that living to love with Jesus is what it means to be holy? We are to be holy as Jesus is holy, wrote, Peter. Jesus was one with the Father, and we are one with Christ. Let us live in that reality today for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:15 For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?Can you recall a time when you were thrilled by the salvation of someone you loved? Your heart filled with joy, and you gave glory to God. This verse is so encouraging because it foretells what Paul later speaks about in vs. 25. “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery-so that you will not be wise in your own estimation-that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” This helps us see the line of reason in Paul’s letter. We know where He is going. He’s an apostle to the Gentiles and as yet, the fullness of the Gentiles incorporated into the body of Christ isn’t complete. Until then, the Jews as a nation, seem to be dead, rejected, and hopelessly lost. However, there is coming a day, a time before Jesus returns, after the fullness of the Gentiles is complete, that the bulk of the nation of Israel will be converted to Christ and come into the church. It will confirm our faith because it is a glorious proof that the Scriptures are inspired by God. We, as God’s people, the body of Jesus Christ, have been believing this and waiting for it to happen. We believe that nothing is impossible with God. In spite of all the appearances that national Israel is hopelessly trapped in their unbelief, we look to this great fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. When we witness this incredible event where God pours out His Spirit in and upon the nation of Israel, it will be so wonderful, incredible, and miraculous as someone being raised from the dead—like Lazarus. I hope this encourages us all to hasten this day by loving with Jesus both Jew and Gentile. Our calling is to love with Him in faith, trusting in God’s great plan to bring in the fullness of the Gentiles and then fulfill His word and bring in the fullness of the Jews. Let’s look forward to that day! In fact, Peter wrote that we are to hasten that day’s coming by how we live with Jesus (2 Pet. 3:11). Just imagine hearing in the news of this great move of God in Israel and around the world in Jewish communities. Millions of Jews being accepted into the church as their eyes and ears are opened to the gospel and they behold their Messiah, surrender their lives to Him, and join us, Gentiles, at the foot of the cross in worship. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:13-14 But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.This was the first time in this letter that Paul specifically indicated to whom he was speaking. It makes it clear that the church is Rome primarily consisted of Gentiles, and Paul wanted to make it clear to them that God had called him to be an apostle to the Gentiles. He preached the gospel to them and couldn’t wait to see them in person (1:9-12) because they were in the bulls eye of God’s calling for him. Then a question arises. If he was sent by God to the Gentiles, why spend so much time addressing his concern for the Jews? His hope was that as God worked His wonderful grace in the lives of the Gentiles in Rome and all over the world, God might somehow, serendipitously move among his own people and save some as they became jealous of God’s salvation of the Gentiles. In Paul’s mind, this would increase God’s glory in his ministry.Here’s our encouragement today to live to love with Jesus. As Jesus’ disciples and members of His body, we are integral to His name being glorified. We are privileged to all be called to the ministry of the gospel. For God to use us for His glory in saving those whom He foreknew in Christ magnifies our ministry. When He gets the glory, the ministry is magnified. As we live to love with Jesus, it is Jesus who lives and loves through us therefore God is glorified in Him. This is what makes our ministry magnificent! It’s not us who live, it’s Jesus who lives. That’s why we want to be alert to whoever God puts in our paths. He’s giving them to Jesus so that He loves them for the glory of God through us. What a plan! What a privilege! May God magnify our ministries today as we live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:12 Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!From these verses we see that God has had a plan. He knows what He is doing. Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones articulated it well in his commentary on Rom. 11. “As a result of Jewish unbelief two apparently impossible things follow, namely that the Gentiles should hear and believe the gospel and, through that, the Jews might be made desirous of receiving it.” We also learn from Paul what God’s plan is for the Jewish nation. He’s going to fulfill His promise to Abraham so the world will know that God is faithful to His word and is able to fulfill it. God is not finished with them and there is a time in history where God is going to bring the fullness of Israel to salvation, into the church, so God’s ultimate promise to Abraham will be wonderfully fulfilled. This has to be the explanation for why Israel has been preserved when enemy after enemy has sought to wipe them off the face of the earth. Since 1948 they have been reconstituted as a nation in the holy land, and we see them again suffering under Satan’s assault to prevent the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. He will not be able to do it. God has a plan, and He is working the plan. He has a remnant of Abraham’s descendants who remain to be brought into the Israel of God.What does this have to do with us? It shows us the attitude Christians ought to have toward the Jews. It’s the attitude Paul wanted the Roman Gentiles to have toward the Jews. Their fulfillment ultimately verifies the faithfulness of God upon which we depend. Jesus love His people Israel and plans to use us to make them receptive to the gospel. How will that happen unless we demonstrate how satisfied and fulfilled we are in Christ? Unless we reach out in love and proclaim the wonders of God’s grace revealed in Jesus? Perhaps today, someone of Jewish descent may be in our paths so we can love them and share with them how God has graciously accepted us as beloved and fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham that he would be a father of many nations. Wow! What a privilege we have to reach out to God’s people with the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:11 I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.God’s wisdom is a mystery! If God had not given national Israel a stupor at the time of Jesus’ coming, they would not have crucified Him. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 “But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”Paul’s point to the Romans was that even though Israel stumbled, they didn’t fall down. Implied is that they fulfilled their role in God’s plan of salvation for the world. Yes, they transgressed when they crucified Jesus, but it was necessary so that salvation could come to the Gentiles—to us who are not descendants of Abraham in the flesh. God did this to make the Jews jealous of the love He has poured out on the Gentiles. As we live to love with Jesus, rejoicing in His love, declaring that we belong to God and are His children, His chosen people, God’s plan was and is to stir a remnant in Israel to jealousy. We are to walk in the promise to Abraham that we are a blessing to the nations as we love with Jesus. May God be glorified today and everyday in His church. Father, fill Your church with abundant grace and abounding love as You accomplish Your will in the lives of those You put in our lives.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:8-10 Just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day.” And David says “Let their table become a snare and a trap, and a stumbling block and a retribution to them. Let their eyes be darkened to see not, and bend their backs forever.”From the day Jesus arrived on the planet until the day Paul wrote to the Romans, God blinded and deafened national Israel to the truth that Jesus is God in the flesh, sent by Him as their Messiah and Savior. Paul said that God gave them a stupor, in the Greek form it is a word literally communicating according to violent piercing. In English, the word stupor means a suspension or great decrease in sensibility. God put them into a senseless state so that they could not see or hear the truth. Another implication from the word stupor is apathy. Paul added David’s prophetic declaration against Israel to support Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jer. 5:21).As we live to love with Jesus, we can also expect that there will be people placed in our paths whose attitudes toward Jesus and thus the gospel and our witness range from apathetic to being violently senseless. Nothing you can do or say will change them. We must be careful not to listen to Satan’s accusations that the reason they aren’t believing or seeing God’s love in us is because we are doing something wrong. Since we are human and aren’t perfect, it is highly possible that we are not loving or sharing perfectly. However, that’s not why they can’t see or hear. It’s because God, for purposes only He knows in His wisdom, has put them in such a senseless state. When this happens, we should first realize that it could have happened also to us. Second, like Paul’s concern for his senseless brethren, we should be concerned and pray for them. Because salvation is by grace through faith that He gives by the power of the Holy Spirit, He can and may open their eyes and ears at any time—just like He did ours. Today let’s walk with compassion and grace toward everyone God puts in our paths as we live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:7 What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened;Paul’s explanation of God’s plan for national Israel is stunning. He gave Israel the Law, and they sought to be righteous on the basis of their works. The result: They did not obtain a righteous standing before God. But those in Israel who were chosen by God did obtain a righteous standing before God in Jesus Christ by grace. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul deduced that the unbelieving in Israel were hardened. What encouragement is there for us to live to love with Jesus in this verse? First, the love we have received from God that has captured our hearts is a love from which we cannot be separated because of His choice. He chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless before Him. He has chosen to set His love and affection upon us. We are loved by God. Because we are loved by Him, He has given us His Spirit, who has poured out His love within our hearts. This love is dynamic. We have an indwelling superpower that is directed toward everyone with whom we come in contact. We can see this same electing love at work as we live to love with Jesus. He is still giving His righteousness to all who believe as an expression of His love. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.What makes grace, grace? Paul told his readers that if the righteousness the Gentiles and the remnant of Israel obtained is by grace, then it is no longer on the basis of works of righteousness according to the Law. So that’s what makes grace, grace. The righteousness of God is given as a gift, not as something that is due because of our efforts. He had already said this back in Rom. 4:1-5 “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.’ Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.”So Paul wanted his readers to learn that the righteousness of God was never a law of righteousness whereby one who performed what God required in the Law would be rewarded with life and right standing before God. Right standing before God was and always has been based on grace through faith. We want to be careful to note that Paul clearly taught in Rom. 6 that because our relationship with God is based on grace, it doesn’t mean that we can sin so that grace can increase in glory. The evidence that someone is under grace is that they believe Jesus is life and Lord. They have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them to put the deeds of the flesh to death and to witness to the righteousness in which they stand by giving them a heart to do what is right. If we have a heart to love God and love others with Jesus, then we know we both stand before God and live by His grace. Today, we live to love by God’s grace. We abide in Him, receive our lives from Him and live through Him, for the glory of God because it is His power at work in and through us. Thank You, Father, for the grace in which we stand. Thank You, Jesus, for the righteousness you performed for us that we might stand clothed and unashamed before God. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for manifesting the life and righteousness of Jesus in our lives as we walk in this world. Give us the love we need today as we meet the people You’ve placed in our paths. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:5 In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.Paul’s point in this verse explains the answer to the question he posed in vs. 1. “God has not rejected His people, has He?” Paul’s answer: “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.” The explanation was that God’s people, the 7000 men that He kept for Himself in Elijah’s day, weren’t His because they were descendants of Abraham, but were His because He chose them from before the foundation of the world. They were a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. He didn’t have to set them apart and keep them for Himself. He did it because it pleased Him. He was for them. They were foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified before time began as Paul wrote in Rom. 8:29-30.We learn in this verse that just as there was a remnant in national Israel in Elijah’s day, there was a remnant in Paul’s day—God had chosen to save for Himself a remnant from national Israel even though He also had extended His grace to a “nation without understanding” and to manifest Himself to people who did not seek Him or did not ask for Him. Do you think there has also come to be at the present time a remnant in national Israel to whom God will be gracious because of His choice? I think so. This should give us a heart for national Israel, not because they are national Israel, but because we have brothers and sisters in Christ who as yet have not come to believe in Him. Jesus loves them, and we live to love with Jesus by praying for them during these days of great anguish, fear, and suffering. As we watch the tragic current events in Israel unfold, let’s pray that God will draw His remnant to Himself, both Jews and Muslims. “Father, in heaven, maker and Lord of heaven and earth, we plead with You to use these circumstances to draw all of those whom You have foreknown in Christ to Him. Give believers in Israel and Gaza boldness and power as they love and witness. Use the gospel-bearing relief ministries to open their eyes to the light and the truth that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. Anoint those who love and witness in Your name. Amen.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Rom. 11:4 But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”I doubt if many believers in the west have ever felt as if they were the only ones left who were devoted to Jesus. However, it may be possible that many of our brothers and sisters in countries where believers are killed or imprisoned could relate to Elijah. In Elijah’s day, it appeared to the prophet that the nation of Israel had rejected God and His prophets, thus Elijah concluded God had rejected the nation and he alone was left. When Elijah thought he was alone and that God had rejected Israel, God told Elijah that He had kept 7000 men for Himself. This was Paul’s answer to the question had God rejected Israel, God had kept for Himself 7000 men from national Israel who had not bowed the knee to the gods of the culture. The number 7 signifies belonging to God or perfection and the number 10 or any multiple thereof signifies the power of God. These men who have not bowed the knee to the idolatries of their culture have been chosen of God and protected by the power of God. This verse should be encouraging to all of us who have not bowed the knee to the gods of the culture in which we live. The glory belongs to God because He has chosen to save and protect us by the faith He has given us. In 1 Pet. 1:5, Peter echoed Paul’s point here in Rom. 11:4. Speaking of the chosen, Peter said they are “protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We live to love with Jesus by faith. That’s how faith works. It keeps us from misplacing our worship and committing spiritual adultery and idolatry. Elijah’s heart as well as the other 7000 was turned to God. When the purpose of our lives is to love with Jesus, it changes everything. That purpose keeps us humble and submitted to Christ, abiding in Him, and useful for bearing fruit for God’s glory. I hope you can thank God with me for His powerful, preserving, grace. “Father, thank You for protecting us from the corruption that is in this world through lust by giving us a heart to believe in Your Son, by giving us faith by the power of the Holy Spirit whom You given to us, and by giving us grace to love You and others in Your name for Your glory. May we be faithful today to walk in the grace and faith You have given us. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:2-3 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.”I couldn’t help but notice that Paul said that God had not rejected His people whom He foreknew rather than simply saying He had not rejected His people. If you remember, in Rom 8:28-29, Paul wrote, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;” God’s people are all those whom He foreknew and predestined before the foundation of the earth to be Jesus’ brothers and sisters. Regardless of how dark the times are in which we live and how hostile our culture is to truth and Jesus Christ, God has His people. We may, like Elijah, plead with God against the godless people in our nation and feel like we are alone. Paul’s point of encouragement for us from these verses is that God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew in Christ. Paul had told them that God is for them, and there are none who are against them who can separate them from God’s love in Christ. We will be encouraged more by the following verses where Paul encouraged his readers with God’s response to Elijah, but for today, be encouraged that regardless of how hostile and antichrist our world is, God’s program of salvation continues to advance. We are His people, the Israel of God’s foreknowledge, and if we have His Spirit and have experienced His love, we are participating in the advancement of God’s saving work on the earth. We belong to Him and He may put people in our paths today who are His, but have yet to believe in Christ. Let us love them with Jesus and share the gospel with boldness and confidence, knowing that whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 11:1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.To refute the idea that God has rejected His people when He says, “All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people,” Paul cited his own testimony. God has accepted him, an Israelite, descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. Paul did not want his readers to think that there was no hope for his Jewish brethren. If God saved Paul, then God’s righteousness is available and handy to the Jewish people. Let’s remember that Jesus is a Jew. He lives to love His people Israel. Paul had been promoting the idea that the Israel God has in mind is not just the descendants of Abraham, but includes Gentiles as well. Because we have the life of Christ within us, we are expressing His love to everyone so that God may save whoever He wishes. Would you join me in asking for the power of His love to flow in our lives today? Father, glorify Your Son in our lives by empowering us with Your superpower, Your love for Your people. Bring them into our paths and give us the boldness and grace to reach out to them in love. We ask this is Jesus’ name. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:21 But as for Israel He says, “All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”Remember a couple of days ago we read Rom. 10:19 where Paul raised the question, “But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they?” In this verse, he may have been referencing Isaiah 65:2 “I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts,” Not only did they have the voice of God speaking to them in the heavens, and had prophets sent to tell them good news, but He had shown them His works, and they still did not believe. Of course Paul is referring not to all Israel, but to those descendants of Abraham who were not recipients of God’s righteousness on the basis of faith and thus were not saved. These are the ones Paul was concerned about and for whom he would be condemned if it could lead to their salvation. Have you ever thought that you might be one of those through whom God stretches out His hand to show His mighty works? Sure, some of the ones you reach out to that God puts in your path may be disobedient and obstinate, but there may also be some that God wants to surprise. Like the woman who was homeless and seeking shelter in a YWCA. A Christian went to the YWCA to love and share Christ. When he saw her walking in the lobby, he approached her and asked if he could share with her about Jesus. She blew him and off and walked away. He was not to be denied, and followed her and continued to reach out. She turned around and headed back the other direction seeking to escape, but he still followed her and continued sharing. She went back and forth trying to get away, when he made a comment about Jesus and she stopped in her tracks, turned, and asked, “What did you say?” In a heartbeat God surprised her, opened her heart, and she heard the gospel and believed. Let this encourage us to be God’s hands and heart reaching out to those He puts in our paths to see if He wants to surprise them with His love and the gospel. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:20 And Isaiah is very bold and says, “I was found by those who did not seek Me, I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”Today’s live to love scripture encouragement comes from Rom. 10:20. Paul had been showing his readers in Rome that God’s inclusion of Gentiles as recipients of His free gift of righteousness in Christ had been predicted by Israel’s prophets. First he reminded them of Moses and then mentioned Isaiah. Surely this was shocking to the Jewish community in Rome, but it should have been astounding to the Gentile believers. And it should also be to us. Before Christ came, no one other than the Jews sought after God. The Gentile world was lost and without hope. But when Jesus came, with one righteous act, as Paul described it in Rom. 5, he justified the many from both Jews and Gentiles, and opened the door of heaven to a people who were not seeking Him nor asking for Him. This means God surprises people with His grace. He may want to surprise them through you and me as we live to love with Jesus. We pray for God to put them in our paths so Jesus can love them through us, so He can reach out to them as He gives us opportunities. First, recognize that we are miracles, testimonies, and the fulfillment of this verse. Second, we should be on the lookout for God to surprise more of His children as we love and share Christ with them. We shouldn’t be surprised that God can do this. In fact, we should expect it because of this verse. Who else would God use to manifest Himself through but those who are intentionally living to love with Him? So be ready and filled with His love today. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:19 But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation, by a nation without understanding will I anger you.”Is it possible that somehow Israel missed God’s good news that whoever, Jew or Greek, calls upon the will not be disappointed and will be saved? Paul indicated that as early as Moses, God informed them that He would love a people who were not descendants of Abraham with a love that would make them jealous. He would love a people who didn’t have the understanding they had of Him. This is encouraging as we love with Jesus. We aren’t responsible for making people understand the gospel. That’s God’s job for His glory. God is still making national Israel jealous by pouring out His Spirit on those who are “not a nation” and are “without understanding.” That’s me and all of you who are not of Jewish descent. Thankfully we can love whoever God gives us each day without wondering if they qualify for or deserve God’s grace. The word is out. God’s righteousness is not far off. It is near. It is not based on works of righteousness which we have done, but on God’s grace so that He receives all the glory. Enjoy looking for where and in whom the Spirit of God is working. It could be anyone. A neighbor, a cashier, a work associate, someone sitting by you on a plane, a policeman who pulls you over, a service technician. Today, Jesus wants to love through us. Let’s do this with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:18 But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”Paul asked a question again that he thought his readers would pose after he explained how the righteousness based on faith is given. It illustrates for us how easy it is to lean toward reliance again on man for the administration of the gospel. What about those who have never heard? Has everyone really heard the good news? Paul turned to Psalm 19:4 to answer the question. Yes, God has made Himself known through the heavens. Psalms 19:1 “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun,” Paul repeated what he had written in chapter 1. Romans 1:19-20 “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”God has spoken and is speaking. Everyone has heard God’s revelation. Those under God’s wrath, do not hear or acknowledge God. The “whoevers” believe in God as the Spirit opens their hearts to hear and believe. Are you one of those who have ears to hear? Have you recognized the love of God expressed to you? You could not hear if the Lord Jesus had not spoken to you and given you a hearing heart. When your heart heard, you knew you were a “whoever” and you called on the name of the Lord and were saved. Knowing it was by God’s grace and power that we believe is what gives us confidence that God is able to save anyone He places in our paths. We love them with Jesus by speaking the good news to them and trusting Him to give them the ability to hear, understand, and believe unto salvation. Today, may be the day of salvation for someone you meet. May we be filled with the love of Jesus as we live to love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.This verse encourages us to proclaim the gospel boldly and unapologetically as we live to love with Jesus. We can know that God is saving all Israel, all the “whoevers”, as we go in His name. As God’s Word is lived and proclaimed to those He puts in our paths, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the “rhema” of Christ, grants the ability to hear and believe. Jesus speaks faith into the heart of all the “whoevers.” When He grants faith, it isn’t based on any effort or ability like the righteousness based on the Law requires. It is purely the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ.I hope this encourages you to walk by the Spirit and with confidence to share the good news of God’s righteousness given as a free gift to whoever believes. I also invite you to make the Live to Love prayer a daily expression of your devotion to God. You can find it at livetolovewithjesus.com. Would you join me now? Let’s pray. “Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to know You, love You, and live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love all those You put in my path today, for Your glory.” Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:14-16 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!” However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”The apostle apparently knew his readers would be asking how the “whoevers” could believe and call on the name of the Lord and be saved if they haven’t believed in Jesus. Won’t they have to hear Him. How will they hear unless someone tells them about Him. Furthermore, someone will have to be sent to tell them the good news because didn’t Isaiah praise the prophets whom God sent? It’s a logical line of reason, but then Paul dropped the bomb: Not everyone is Israel believed even though they had the prophets sent by God. Notice how easy it is to rely on our logic when it comes to evangelism. We think God must work in human terms with human effort. It is true that God works through His ambassadors to bring about salvation in the lives of those He loves, but Paul’s point all the way from the beginning of chapter 9 when he expressed his concern for his Jewish brethren was that God’s plan to save Israel had not failed. God has and is fulfilling His word. That’s the confidence we must have as we live to love with Jesus. We must be careful not to rely on human reasoning and resources when it comes to the gospel and loving the people He puts in our paths. Yes, we have been sent to bring good news, and we are to preach it boldly and confidently. We believe God’s word will not fail, and He will save all Israel, that is, everyone He foreknew, predestined, justified, called, and has glorified (8:30). These are the “whoevers”, and God is putting them in our paths as we go on our way. Living to love with Jesus is God’s way of advancing His kingdom and saving all the “whoevers” in the Israel of God. We can be encouraged by these verses to live in constant reliance that God is at work as we love in the power of the life of Christ, the Holy Spirit. Your feet are beautiful because your feet are the feet of the Lord Jesus on the earth bringing the good news of the gift of God’s righteousness in Christ!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:12-13 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”Paul’s main point in this verse is to zero in on “whoever” will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. For God to say, “whoever” broadens the scope beyond national Israel. For God, there’s no distinction between Jew and Greek because Jesus is Lord of all kinds of people and is abounding in riches for all kinds of people who call on Him. Understanding the all as “all kinds” rather than “every one without exception” is gained from both the context as well as the syntax. Paul used the word for “all” in the Greek without an article which makes it clear what he meant. When he uses an article, it means every without exception, but without the article, it means all kinds. He did the same thing in 1 Tim. 2:4 when he wrote about God, “who desires all (all kinds of) men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”Paul continued bolstering his case that not all Israel is Israel which he wrote in 9:6. God’s riches are available to all kinds of men, Jews and Greeks, men and women, old and young, rich and poor. God has made it clear when He said, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”This encourages us today that we can offer the good news to people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. We can tell them that the riches of God’s grace are available to them without having to do the impossible to reach Him. Jesus is here. He is near. He is love. We are testimonies of this great truth that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Living to love with Jesus is advancing the kingdom of God by loving whoever He puts in our paths. That “whoever” might be the very “whoever” God had in mind when he gave this wonderful promise. Remember the live to love prayer. Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to know and love You and live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the power the presence of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love everyone (whoever) You put in my path today, for Your glory. Let’s be ready to give all those “whoevers” the glorious good news of the riches of God’s grace available in Jesus Christ.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”In this verse, Paul reached back to a quote from Is. 28:16 to support what the righteousness based on faith has said. In Paul’s mind, to say one who believes in the stumbling stone (namely Jesus) that God laid in Zion (the place of salvation) will “not disappointed” is the same as saying that the one who believes in Jesus will be saved. Let’s remember why Paul wrote this. He wrote it out of love and concern for his fellow Jews who were trying to obtain righteousness based on their work and efforts to keep the Law. What good news we have to tell our friends, family, work associates, and acquaintances! Trust in Jesus! You won’t be disappointed. Rely on yourself and you will be disappointed. Trust in Jesus, and you’ll be saved. Rely on your own understanding and good works, and you will be disappointed. The implication is that the believer in Jesus won’t be disappointed in this life and won’t be disappointed on “that day” when Jesus comes to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at by all who believe. I hope this verse encourages you today to live by the righteousness of Christ instead of your own efforts. His life is in you, and He loves to do righteousness, which always looks like the love of God: doing what is the highest good for another no matter what the cost by the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.The righteousness based on faith has been speaking the last few days as we’ve been encouraged by Rom. 10:6-9. Today, that righteousness of God tells us that faith in the heart is how God gives the righteousness of Jesus. When the Spirit produces faith in the heart of a person as they hear the gospel preached as Paul had been preaching to them, they know in their hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead and they know His righteousness is theirs as a gift of grace. Based upon faith in the heart, the person confesses that Jesus is both Christ (God’s provision of a savior) and Lord of life. They are saved! Over the next 7 verses Paul supported his soteriology from the Scriptures. Our encouragement today from this verse is that it gives us a description of all who are saved. It’s not a prescription, telling us what to do to be saved. It is a description of how God works in the heart of all who are His. Have you believed in Jesus? Then you are righteous in God’s sight. Do you testify that Jesus is your righteousness rather than trusting in your own works before God? If so, then you are saved!Let us who believe in Jesus, rejoice in God’s grace and the wonderful gift of His righteousness. Find satisfaction in His love above all else in this world. Drink repeatedly from this infinite well of love, and share it with those He puts in your life today. Father, thank You for giving us the gift of righteousness in Your Son and for giving us His life. You have loved us well, and we ask that Your love consume us and fill us so that we can make Your love known through our words and actions today. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;In this verse, Paul gave his readers a summary of what he had been preaching in the first 9 chapters. It’s what the righteousness based on faith speaks to us. You have heard that God raised Jesus from the dead. He lives. You have heard the Jesus is therefore Lord of the heavens and the earth. God raised Him to give His righteousness to all who believe. Do you believe that Jesus was proclaimed by God to be Lord of all and the Christ when He raised Jesus from the dead? Do you believe He is the end of the law for righteousness? Then look how simple and available this righteousness is. Simply quit trying to obtain a righteousness based on the law. Quit saying you have to be perfect or accomplish something to impress God to accept you. Instead, confess with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord, your righteousness, your peace—if you believe it— and you will be saved. Paul, loving with Jesus, expressed to the Roman church and to us the immeasurable, steadfast, undying, available love of God. Paul’s concern for his Jewish brethren that they not miss the gift of righteousness available in Jesus Christ illustrates for us the same concern we should have for all whom God puts in our paths. They are more than likely searching high and low to find satisfaction in life and an answer to their emptiness and fear of death. Like Paul, we have the concern and the answer. God loves the world through Jesus Christ, whom He gave to be savior and lord to all who believe. Father, fill us with the same concern you have for lost souls and give us the love and boldness of Your Son, so that we can be instruments of Your love. Save many as we live to love with Your Son. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:6-8 But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart"-that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,”We learned verse 5 what the law of righteousness speaks to us, but in this and the following verses we learn what the righteousness based on faith speaks to us. Let’s notice Paul didn’t say, “Moses wrote.” He’s drawing this Scriptural support from Deut. 30, which Moses wrote, but this time Paul said it was the righteousness of faith speaking. There’s not time in this podcast to fully unpack what Paul said in these verses. I direct you to Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones for a full explanation. I’ll just summarize it today for our encouragement. What the law of righteousness requires is impossible to reach. It’s impossible to obtain due to the weakness of the flesh and indwelling sin. In stark contrast, the righteousness based on faith doesn’t require that you need to search in the heavens or plunge into a deep discovery exercise or perform some stupendous endeavor to stand righteous in God’s sight. Don’t say that righteousness is an impossible feat or far away. Paul said to the Romans that the righteousness based on faith was as near as the words coming out of their mouths as they read his letter out loud to the congregation. It’s what he had written to them in this letter that they’ve been reading from the very first. They had been reading of this gospel good news that God has a righteousness to give through Jesus Christ, His Son. He is here. He has done it. It is available as they read and listen to it.And so it is this very moment as you are listening to this podcast. Salvation is as near as the words you are hearing. You don’t have to search far and wide, high and low, to be right with God, to know His love, and fulfill His Word. You don’t have to do the impossible. Jesus is here. He is alive. He lives to love you and live in you. That’s why we live to love with Jesus. As we love with Him, we are bringing the gospel near. The words we speak in love, telling them about His righteousness that enables us to love and pray for them, testify that Jesus and salvation are at hand. Indeed, the salvation of God is as near to those in our paths as we are to them. We have the privilege of simply telling them the good news as we love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:5 For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness.In the previous verse, Paul told the Romans that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for those who believe. His Scriptural support for that statement came from something Moses wrote in Leviticus 18:5 “So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD.” Paul wrote that God has said that there was no end or completion of the law of righteousness for those who live by the law. To “live” by the Law means to perform all of the Ten Commandments, all the time, until the day you die without breaking even one. To break one, is to break them all according to James. The Law says that it is you, without help or strength that has to do all of the laws of God. That’s what the law of righteousness speaks to every person alive. Can you feel and see the hopelessness of being saved and to stand blameless before God based on what the Law speaks to you?But Jesus brought the law to an end by fulfilling all that the Scriptures required. John wrote in chapter 19 of his gospel. John 19:28-30. “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” Jesus used a form of the same word Paul used in the previous verse when He said, “It is finished.” He had performed a perfect righteousness for His people. All who believe in Him are dressed in His robe of righteousness and stand before God righteous in His sight. We’re told in Hebrews that Jesus loves righteousness. He loves us.It is out of this steadfast, unchangeable love that we live. And there is no end to His love—nor ours for that matter. We have been saved to live to love with Jesus. Is that your purpose in life? Have you surrendered yourself to Jesus to be an expression of His life? I hope and pray that today, you’ll live out of the fullness of God’s love in Christ.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.God, in His love for us, has provided the righteousness of His Son for our justification before Him. In Christ, God completely justified Himself as well as all who believe in Jesus for their standing before God. Paul’s Jewish brethren failed to obtain righteousness because they pursued righteousness by trying to keep the Law of God. There is no end to man’s efforts to be righteous enough to please God or keep the Law. Paul wrote in Romans 3:20 “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” and in Romans 8:8 “and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” So how do we please God? How is a man justified before God? By the righteousness of Christ. He is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes—that’s trusts in His works instead of their own works. This truth frees us to live to love with Jesus. We don’t live in fear of not measuring up or not loving perfectly. We trust that Jesus loves us perfectly and is able to take the weakness of our flesh and by the power of the Holy Spirit make us fruitful for God for His glory and pleasure. It’s the life of Jesus shining through us that pleases God, not our efforts to live for Him so he’ll be pleased with us. God is pleased in His Son’s work because the Son glorifies Him as He works in all who believe.Today and everyday, let us believe Jesus’ righteousness is ours. His love is ours. His life is ours. His glory is ours. This is how we please God and bring Him glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:2-3 Having told his readers of his love for his brethren Paul continued to say, “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”We learn from Paul that it is possible for someone to have religious zeal, but be ignorant of God’s gift of righteousness. In fact, often it is the case that those ignorant of the gift of righteousness available through Jesus Christ, are more zealous than those who have Jesus’ righteousness. When you think you have to establish your own standing with God by what you do and don’t do, you’re motivated to make impressive sacrifices. As we live to love with Jesus, we are not seeking to establish our own righteousness before God. We live because Jesus lives. We have submitted ourselves to the humble position of being recipients of His love and the gift of righteousness, not based upon our hard work for Jesus, but based upon the love of God revealed to us in Him. When we have the knowledge that God never intended for us to be accepted by Him on the basis of our works, and that our mortal flesh was assigned by God to be weak and helpless, we are in a position to receive His love and the gift of righteousness by faith. Not only that, but having received God’s love as a gift, we are also prepared to live to love with Jesus. We recognize that we live because He lives. His life is in us. His righteousness is ours. We are full and lacking nothing. Therefore, we have His life as a source of love for everyone He puts in our paths. May we live out of His fullness today, knowing and applying the truth of the gospel to our lives. Let’s also be on the lookout for opportunities to tell those we love of God’s righteousness, given as a free gift in Jesus Christ to those who believe.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 10:1 Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.After explaining how his Jewish brethren failed to obtain God’s righteousness because they sought for it according to their own works instead of through faith, Paul wanted his readers to know his own attitude toward them. He longed for their salvation, and prayed according to the desire God had placed in his heart.We may derive great encouragement from the apostle’s love for his brethren, many of whom were hostile to him just as he used to be to followers of Christ before he was saved. So he certainly knows what he’s praying for when he says he’s praying for their salvation. Paul’s desire and prayer didn’t come from Paul himself. They came from the life of Christ within him. Remember he had said that it was not he who lived, but Christ lived in Him. That’s in Gal. 2:20. He was expressing the heart of Jesus for His own people. My guess is that many of you who are listening know exactly what Paul felt for his brethren. You have people you love for whom you are praying. You know they have yet to see the glory of God revealed in His giving the righteousness of His Son as a free gift. They still want glory for themselves. May God stir our desire to see our friends and family members come to a saving, life-transforming, peace-producing, God-glorifying faith in Jesus Christ. I hope when this podcast finishes, you’ll take a few minutes and lift up a prayer for those you desire to see saved. I’ve heard it said, it’s the first and easiest thing we can do to love them. It certainly expresses what we mean when we say that we live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:32-33 (Paul had just written that Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law) Now he asks, “Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.’”This past March, I made a new friend in South Africa, who grew up in a Jewish home where the name of Jesus was not to be spoken. He became a believer in Jesus when someone read this verse of Scripture to him. Immediately, the Holy Spirit revealed to him that Jesus was the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense. God had put Jesus in Zion, the place of salvation on the earth, and he, his parents, and his relatives had all stumbled over Him. He told me that He has believed in Jesus and has not been disappointed. The reason the Jews stumbled over Jesus was and is that He ushered in a new covenant based on His righteousness and work instead of a covenant based on man’s righteousness and work. What is implied in Paul’s conclusion is that people who trust in themselves and their efforts to live for God will be disappointed. They will not achieve right standing with God and have nothing to show for their pursuit of a self-made righteousness except guilt, condemnation, and bitterness. I hope you have discovered what my friend in South Africa discovered: satisfaction and fullness from believing in Jesus Christ, trusting in His work on your behalf in dying for your sins, and being raised for your justification. I hope you have pursued righteousness before God by faith rather than by works. If so, your heart has been filled with the love of God. You know He loves you because He wants to, because He’s chosen to. And having known such an enduring and steadfast love, you have the privilege today to testify to His grace by loving others through Christ. I’m sure you will not be disappointed in believing in Jesus. His love has satisfied your soul for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:30-31 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.Paul’s way of drawing a conclusion was to ask the question, “What shall we say then?” Then he stated his conclusion. God gave the Law to Israel, and they tried to do it (attain a righteousness), but failed. On the other hand, God didn’t give the Law to the Gentiles, yet He gave them His righteousness, and therefore they attained without effort what the Jews did not attain with effort.People who have grown up in church and have heard the word of God may face the same dilemma that the Jews faced. They know how they are to behave, and may show great effort to do the right things and avoid the wrong things. Yet, their efforts fall short because they are trying to live for Jesus in their own strength. Then in contrast, there are people who are biblically illiterate, who when they hear the gospel of the free gift of righteousness through faith in Jesus, simply acknowledge they are hopelessly doomed without God’s mercy. They receive His mercy and grace and enter into peace with God through the righteousness of Christ. What shall we say to what Paul has written? What is our conclusion from Rom. 9:1-29? We should be amazed and stunned at the love and grace of God revealed through Jesus Christ to those who believe in Him. We should give God thanks for the free gift of righteousness that enables us to worship, pray, and live through Jesus. What tremendous, glorious grace we stand in which offers us peace with God. There we stand, uncondemned and blameless in His presence. From this place of grace, in Christ, we live our lives out of fullness. We can live satisfied in His love and comforted by His will and purpose for us. We are expressions of the love of God in this world. Be encouraged today by the gift of God’s righteousness which you have attained, not by your efforts, but by His grace.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:29 And just as Isaiah foretold, “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity, we would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.”Again, Paul turned to the words of the prophet Isaiah to glorify God’s mercy poured out upon vessels who should have been destroyed by God’s wrath and power. The title, Lord of Sabaoth, referred to the armies of God. He acknowledged that the Lord’s armies were the invading armies of the Babylonians. Isaiah 13:4 A sound of tumult on the mountains, like that of many people! A sound of the uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathered together! The LORD of hosts is mustering the army for battle.” Isaiah 37:32 “For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” Paul’s and Isaiah’s point was that Israel, the descendants of Abraham, should have been completely wiped out like Sodom and Gomorrah due to their moral and spiritual corruption. The only reason they were saved was because God desired to show His mercy upon people, both Jew and Gentile, who deserved His wrath. This is also true of us all. We all deserve the wrath of God for our sins, idolatries, adulteries, and corruption. The Lord’s armies should sweep across the entire earth and reduce it to ashes, and we are told by the apostle Peter, that this is going to occur at the return of Christ. However, this passage fills us with hope. God has set His love upon a remnant on the earth, and nothing can separate them from His love. He is for them, and no one can be against them. Are you numbered in that remnant? You are if the life and love of Jesus dwells in you and is flowing through your life to those around you. Living to love with Jesus marks you as one of God’s posterity. Rejoice and revel in His love. If God puts someone in your path who you think deserves the wrath of God, remember God’s love and mercy shown to you. He was merciful to you when you deserved no mercy. They may be one of God’s remnant whom He wants to save as you express the love and mercy of God to them.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:27-28 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved; for the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly and quickly.”For us to understand this verse and draw encouragement, we need to remember something Paul wrote in Romans 9:6 “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” From that verse to these verses, Paul had been showing his readers that God’s promises of salvation were for those to whom He chose to show His mercy from both Jews and Gentiles. The Israel of God, the redeemed children of God, the beloved of God, did not include everyone who was descended from Abraham. In this verse, Paul cited Isaiah’s prophetic declaration that God has chosen only a remnant from Abraham’s descendants to be saved. Yes, God may bless the nation of Israel with many offspring—as many as the sand of the sea, figuratively speaking—but not all national Israelites are included in the redeemed Israel of God. Paul reemphasized that God’s word has not failed toward Israel when he quoted Isaiah’s word to Israel, “the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly and quickly.”Everyone who has experienced the grace of God in Christ, who is not of Jewish descent, should rejoice in God’s mercy and love demonstrated to them. And even more to the point of this verse, every descendant of Abraham who has experienced the grace of God in Christ should also rejoice in God’s mercy and love demonstrated to them—they have been chosen by God as members of the remnant of Israel to be saved.Here’s our encouragement to live to love with Jesus today from this verse. The Lord’s word will not fail and is not failing. He is executing His word in the world, even as I speak and you listen. He is saving all Israel as His beloved, filled with the life and the love of His Son, love and testify of the power of the gospel. That’s what we were saved to do. May we be filled with the Spirit and empowered by the presence of Christ to advance the fulfillment of God’s word for His glory. May we be filled with great joy for the privilege we have received to be expressions of the love of God today. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:26 “And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.”In these verses of Romans 9, from vs. 25-28, Paul shouts out to the Gentile believers in Rome (and to the rest of us who would not be considered God’s people because we are not of Jewish descent) that God had prophesied that the Israel of God would include them as well. Where is the place where it was said to the Gentiles that they were not God’s people? It seems reasonable to assume Paul had Jerusalem or the nation of Israel in mind. In his day, no Jew would consider a Gentile to be one of God’s people, unless they had been transformed by the grace of God and their eyes opened to see the scope of redemption accomplished by God through Jesus Christ. I’m sure there are some places where it would be said of everyone who isn’t of Jewish descent that they are not God’s people. As of the time of Paul’s letter to the Romans and even now, there are many Gentiles, (and I’m one of them) who are called sons and daughters of the living God. God has called us out to Himself by the Holy Spirit and we have the living God dwelling within our mortal bodies. We have experienced His love and have the witness of the Spirit crying out, “Abba, Father” in our hearts. We are the beloved of God. We have been justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So today, let’s be encouraged to keep His love flowing through our lives to everyone God puts in our paths. He continues to pour out His love on those who would not be considered God’s people or beloved of God by the Jews. Isn’t it amazing that God’s word and love never fails? It is still being fulfilled today in our lives!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:25 As He says also in Hosea, “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’ And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”We learn from Paul to base our lives and our doctrine on the Scriptures. In this verse, Paul bolstered his point from the previous verse by quoting the prophet Hosea. He had said that God endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to “make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.” God spoke to Hosea and told him that He would love a people who were not descendants of Abraham in the flesh. They were not God’s people, otherwise known as Gentiles, but they would become His people. He calls them out to Himself like He did Abraham. They were not a people who were loved by God, but through Jesus Christ, they would be loved as His own.I call this podcast the Live to Love Scripture encouragements because we believe God’s word is the light to our paths. Jesus is the living word, the light of the world as John wrote in 1:4. “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” Jesus’ life is the source of our lives, and as we live to love with Him, we shine forth His light in a dark world of people who were not His people and who have not been loved. God has chosen to call some of those “not my people” and “not beloved” to Himself through us as we love in His name. May we let His light shine in the darkness so that Hosea’s prophecy may continue to be fulfilled in our lifetimes. I hope you’ll visit www.livetolovewithjesus.com to find more encouragement to live to love with Jesus through the free resources available. I also ask a favor of you. If you have benefitted from the daily Live to Love Scripture Encouragements, would you please share the podcast with your family and friends on social media? Thank you so much.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:22-24 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.Today we learn why God didn’t pour out His wrath on sin when Adam and Eve first sinned. He could have, and we’re told by the Spirit through Paul that He was willing to do so, but God is love, and love had a plan from before the foundation of the earth. Before Adam and Eve sinned, before the heavens and the earth were formed, God had prepared some vessels from the lump of clay for honorable use. Paul stated plainly what that honorable use was. It was to make His glory known by displaying His mercy to those vessels who were prepared for wrath by the Fall. And who are those vessels of mercy? How does one know if he or she is a vessel of mercy? You are a vessel of mercy if God has called you out from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son as Paul wrote in Col. 1:13. You know you have been called out if you see the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in your life, leading you to put to death the deeds of the flesh and crying, “Abba, Father.” Everyone that He foreknew, predestined, called, and justified, as he wrote in 8:29-30, are also glorified. God purposed that His children, heirs of glory, would be populated by Jews as well as Gentiles—their inclusion being determined solely by the riches of His mercy, poured out upon them according to His will. All of this display of glory was prepared beforehand with a view to the last day when Jesus “comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed” (2 Thess. 1:10). If you are a vessel of mercy, then you have been called to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God. God is love, and we know that because Jesus revealed His love. We who have been called are called by the deposit of the life of Jesus in our mortal bodies. Through His life, we love, and that’s how the world knows that we are His disciples and that He was sent into this world to be savior and Lord. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?Have you ever considered how patient God is with the human race? In the previous verse, Paul had said, “Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?” In other words, we are to think of the whole human race as one lump of clay. We learn in this verse that the entire lump was prepared for destruction. Did God prepare them for destruction? No. Paul explained how the human race was prepared for destruction through the sin of Adam and through our sin in Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” At the moment of Adam’s and Eve’s sin, God was willing to demonstrate His wrath and power. He had promised they would die the day they ate of the forbidden fruit, and they did. They were separated from God’s presence, but God decided to be patient in His expression of the wrath and power sin deserves. We will learn the reason why God chose to endure us in the next verse, but today, we can take great encouragement from the fact that even though God was justified in pouring out His wrath and power against sin, He chose to be patient for 4000 years when He demonstrated His wrath upon His own Son, Jesus Christ, and at the same time His powerful love. Now that’s an enduring patience, isn’t it? How patient are we with those who sin against us? As we live to love with Jesus, we can know from this verse that His love not only is an enduring love, but that His love expresses an incredible patience. 1 Cor. 13:4. “Love is patient.” 1 Thess. 5:14 “Be patient with everyone.” James 5:7 “Be patient brethren, until the coming of the Lord.” In Gal. 5:22, patience is one of the expressions of the fruit of love. Today, let your love for others be filled with patience. I’m sure we will have many opportunities to express patience in our speech, our facial expressions, and our responses to those God puts in our paths.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?Yes, He does! Certainly at some point in your life, you have played with play dough or drawn or painted a picture. You could do what you wished with it, and you did. That’s what was expected. That was the plan. Do what you wish to express yourself. Paul appealed to his readers’ common sense reasoning. The molded thing has no rights. Period. The molder, the artist, the maker can do whatever he decides with the clay. I made two different clay mugs in Japan years ago. As yet, neither of them has had anything to say to me about their design or purpose. They didn’t exist—except in my imagination. I was given a blob of clay, which I divided, then formed into two mugs, according to my own purpose as the potter. The mugs have never and won’t ever question me about their purpose or my dealings with them. Nor will Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Esau, Pharaoh, or you or me. My, how important we think we are. How entitled and self-important sin has made us. If God has revealed Christ to you and through you, then you have been created for the purpose of glorifying God by being satisfied/filled with the love of God so you can live to love with Jesus. Let us be encouraged that although we are nothing more than clay in His hands, we have been created for honorable use. Here’s how Paul said it to the Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 4:7, 10-11 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” Father, thank You for placing the life of Your Son, Jesus, in our weak bodies, that the surpassing greatness of Your power might be seen today. Magnify Your name!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:19-20 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?That’s quite a question, isn’t it? It’s the natural question based on what the Scripture said to Pharaoh. God’s purpose was for hard-hearted Pharaoh to resist the immediate will of God to let God’s people go out from Egypt so God could work out His ultimate will of demonstrating His power and making His name great through His hardened-hearted resistance. So the question was: How can God still hold Pharaoh at fault because ultimately God’s will was done?Paul’s answer shows how we are all at fault for arrogantly placing God on the stand as if He, the molder of all creation, owes us an explanation. Have you ever been guilty of questioning God’s will, character, justice, and righteousness? Who is Pharaoh (the man in Paul’s example) that He would say to His maker, “Why did you make me like this?” First, Pharaoh would not say that because from Pharaoh’s perspective, God didn’t make him do it. Pharaoh did what he wanted to do. He hardened his heart purposefully and willingly against God and His people. Exodus 8:15 “But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.” Exodus 8:32 “But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go.” Second, our hearts are incredibly deceitful and proud on this side of the veil. We are blinded to the omnipotence, ultimate purpose, glory and power of God. If we could see Him clearly, as we will on that great Day of judgment, we will not open our mouths to accuse God of anything. As Paul wrote in chapter 3. “let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “that You may be justified in Your words, and prevail when You are judged.’ ” The only time God will ever be judged is now on this side of “that Day” by His creatures who think they are god. Every man will see the “why” or purpose of his life. He will see his part in His story, and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.As for us, be encouraged that even though you do not see completely all that God has planned in Christ, you do know why God has molded you the way He has molded you. He is molding you into the image of God through everything in your life so that on “that Day” He may be glorified by His Son revealed in and through you as you live to love with Jesus. Wow! What a purpose! What a blessing! What glory to God!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.And He can choose to show mercy at any time upon whom He has hardened. Consider the author of Romans, Saul of Tarsus who was so hardened that He persecuted Jesus and His followers. This same Saul became the great apostle Paul. So we cannot conclude that because God chooses whom He is merciful and whom He hardens that if someone is hard of heart that they are hopeless. Paul wrote to the Galatians that he had persecuted the church of God and wanted to destroy it. He was hard! Galatians 1:15-16 “But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me,” everything changed. There is always hope for the hardest of hearts because God’s love isn’t based on them, but on His mercy. He has mercy and hardens based upon what He desires to do in any and all of His creatures. As we love people today and watch them respond, we are watching at that moment what God’s desire is for them. Our job is to love with Jesus, and it is God’s job to work in their hearts. This gives us confidence to be bold in our love for them and in proclaiming Christ. Thank you, Father, for this encouragement today from Your word. We trust in You to do what pleases You in those you send our way. Fill us with Your love for Your glory as You work to magnify Your name.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.”In today’s verse, Paul underscored his previous statement that salvation doesn’t depend on anything but God’s purpose and choice in who and how He glorifies His name. The Holy Spirit brought Pharaoh to Paul’s mind as an example. It was God who raised Pharaoh into his position in Egypt, and He did it with a specified purpose, namely to demonstrate His power in him and that His name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. Pharaoh was only an agent in God’s grand plan to glorify His name. So it is in all of our lives. What Scripture says to Pharaoh, it also says to the children of God. “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” Let’s do this! God has a plan, and it is being revealed on a daily basis as He works out His purpose and plan. God’s plan for His children, the Israel of God, is for them to be channels of love through whom He glorifies His Son and makes His name great on the earth. I hope you’ll continually drink from the eternal fountain of the love of God in Christ. Drink until you are full to overflowing with the awe and wonder of being a recipient of His love—according to His purpose and choice. Receive, embrace, and then release His love for His glory today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.What is the “it” that Paul has in mind in this verse? Paul has been working out that the word of God has not failed to Israel because the Israel God has in mind with regard to His promise of salvation isn’t limited to descendants of Abraham. So we might say it this way: “So then, being a child of God doesn’t depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” Paul had hinted at this great truth in Rom. 9:11. “For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger.’” The apostle John, in John 1:11-13, clearly stated that the foundation of our salvation is God’s choice and not ours. “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Ultimately, the confidence of Israel, the children of God, is that He has chosen to love them because of His eternal purpose to glorify His Son in them by conforming them to the image of His Son as stated in Rom. 8:29.The wonderful encouragement we can embrace in this passage is that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus because His affection toward us is dependent solely on the sustained direction of His will toward our highest good. If God has not spared His Son, but delivered Him up for us, will He ever let His love fail toward us? Absolutely not! We are loved because God is love and He has chosen to love us, not based on anything in us, but entirely on His love for us in His Son, Jesus Christ. There lies the basis of our love for others as we live to love with Jesus. We who are His children, have the life of the Son of God dwelling in us. He chooses to love all whom He puts in our paths each day, and we have the privilege and honor to bring Him glory by loving with Him. To God be the glory as we love—forgive, pray, serve, forbear, and encourage—the members of Jesus’ body today. When we love even the least of the members of His body, we are loving Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”The reason Paul gives for defending God’s righteousness in loving Jacob but hating Esau is this awe-inspiring statement God made to Moses when Moses asked to see God’s glory. We find it in Ex. 33:18-19. “Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” Then in Exodus 34:5-8 God did what He promised. “The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.’ Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.”Moses was considered by God to be the most humble man alive at the time. When he heard these words, instead of faulting God for not leaving the guilty unpunished and visiting the iniquity of fathers on future generations of those who hate Him, He humbled himself and bowed in worship. So should we! As we watch God deal with the entire race of fallen man who are hostile with God and whose every intent of their thoughts are only evil continually as it says in Gen. 6:6, we ought to be stunned that He loves anyone and is willing to show mercy and compassion. Because we know God is just and right to be merciful and compassionate to those He loves in Christ, we have confidence to love everyone God places in our lives by showing mercy and compassion. We are loving with Jesus the same way He has loved us. May our lives be examples of the mercy and compassion of the Lord for His glory as we leave the results to Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!Here we have the question Paul knew his readers might ask when they read God’s declaration that He loved Jacob, but hated Esau. Is God unjust to love Jacob and not Esau? Paul’s answer was an emphatic, “No!” He laid out the reasoning for his answer in the following verses. Is there any encouragement to love in this verse for us?Can’t we find great comfort in knowing that there is no injustice with God? The word translated injustice in this verse is translated unrighteousness in Romans 1:18; 3:5; and 6:13. Paul’s point was that there is no unrighteousness with God. His will and actions are always righteous. We may not be able to see it clearly on this side of eternity, but when “that day” comes, God will be seen to be just in all of His dealings with His creation and with His creatures. In the following verses Paul worked out his support for emphatically denying that there is any injustice or unrighteousness with God. Today, as we live to love with Jesus, we can be comforted by the truth that God is righteous in all His ways as He works or doesn’t work in the hearts of those we love. Like Paul, although we have sorrow and grief over those we love who reject God’s love revealed in Jesus and also reject His love through us, we can trust God’s wisdom, justice, and righteousness. This truth frees us to humble ourselves and simply love with Jesus everyone He puts in our lives.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:13 Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”In this verse, Paul cited God’s Word, which has not failed, in answer to the declaration of God’s faithfulness to His Word in 9:6. “It is not as though the word of God has failed.” Every promise of God was and is laser focused on His Son, Jesus Christ. We also note that the promise is connected to God’s love. “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” The children of God cannot be separated from God’s love anymore than Jacob could be separated from God’s love—regardless of what he did. As we all know, Jacob was not an outstanding example of personal achieved righteousness. What summarizes Jacob’s life? God loved him. That will also be the summary of all of the lives of the children of God. It won’t be remembered for what we did or didn’t do. Our only boast will be, “God has loved me in Christ!”What many of you will probably do is miss the great declaration of God’s love because you are shook by the idea that God hated Esau, or for that matter anybody. If God is love, how can He hate Esau? The answer is simple, and we all understand it to some degree. Love cannot exist without hate. If you love something, you hate anyone who works to destroy what you love. God must hate everyone who is hostile to the highest good of those He loves. So love and hate must coexist in God.Do we love Jesus? If we do, then we should hate everything that is hostile to Jesus. We should hate any sin that easily entangles us and trips up our brothers and sisters who are in Christ. We should hate anything that separates us from any member of the body of Christ. Jesus does. May we love everyone who Jesus loves with a jealous love—jealous for Him to receive the glory as we love, forgive, forbear, and encourage one another.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:10-12 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, "The older will serve the younger.”Paul continued explaining the wisdom of God revealed in the history of his brethren for whom he had great sorrow and grief. The wisdom of God was their inheritance, yet they totally were missing it. In vss. 3-5 Paul itemized the blessings they had received such as the Law and the promises to the fathers, but they could not see that these all pointed to a righteousness from God given as a gift through Jesus Christ. In these verses, he unpacked another part of their history based on the promise “through Isaac your descendants shall be named.” Before her twins were born, before any actions could be considered as a basis for the prophetic word, God said to Rebekah, “The older will serve the younger.”This story highlights the three foundational truths of living to love with Jesus. It illustrates Jesus’ worldview and ours. 1). There is one God from whom all things come, and He is love. 2). Jesus’ love is enough. He alone, His will alone satisfies my soul. 3). God’s purpose in all things is to make us like Jesus and prepare us for eternity. For Rebekah, she should have reasoned in her heart something like this: This is from God. I’ll be satisfied with His will, love, and wisdom. And God is working out His eternal purposes in me and my sons. However, we know from the story that Rebekah tried to work out God’s will in her own ways instead of trusting God. May we not be that way. Let us trust that we cannot be separated from God’s love in Christ. Let us receive encouragement from these verses to be satisfied fully in His love, and know that He is working out His will for His glory in our lives and in the lives of those He puts in our paths. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:9 For this is the word of promise: "At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”Yesterday we were encouraged that the love we have from God isn’t based on some physical, fleshly basis, but that we are children of the promise, which means that we cannot be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus. In this verse, we learn what the promise of God was to Abraham which gave rise to the children of God. God promised Abraham a son from the unfruitful and impossible union of he and Sarah. The children of God were not to be children of the flesh, but children by the supernatural power of God.Again, let’s see how Paul put it to the Galatians. Galatians 4:23 “But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.” We are going to learn in the next few verses the wisdom of God revealed in the way God did this with Abraham. In fact, after this section of Paul’s letter, he wrote, Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”God’s love and wisdom are inseparable. For God to love us with a steadfast love from which we could not be separated by anything or anyone, His love had to be based upon His character and thus upon His promise. Furthermore, for God to be glorified in His Son, His love had to be an expression of their love for one another that overflowed into irresistible and impregnable grace and mercy toward those they love. The wisdom of man would have come up with a way where man gets at least a share in the glory, if not all of it. Before the foundation of the earth, God’s wisdom issuing forth from His love, devised a plan for creation that would culminate in unbounded, unfathomable, eternal glory to God through the Son, who would stand among His brothers and sisters—God’s children, by the power of the Spirit. That wise plan was that His love and grace would be based on His promise.Again today we are encouraged to receive the abundance of grace in Christ and to talk about and reveal God’s love to those He puts in our paths. May we love them with the love of God—full of wisdom, mercy, and grace. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.In this verse Paul further explained what he meant when he said previously, “they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants.” The children of God, those who cannot be separated from God’s love in Christ are the children of promise and not the children of the flesh. The encouraging takeaway from this verse is this: There is the hope of glory for everyone who is in Christ. If only those who are descendants of Abraham in the flesh are children of God, then all who are not natural born Jews are excluded and cursed. All of Paul’s readers who were Gentiles are without hope. But because God decided that the children of God would be children of the promise, there’s hope for everyone. The second encouraging takeaway is that our hope of glory is based on God who made the promise. God’s promises give hope because we know He is able to accomplish what He promises. Here’s how Paul put it to the Galatians. Galatians 3:18 “For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.” Galatians 3:22 “But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” Galatians 3:29 “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” So we can see clearly that it was a big revelation to Paul and to us that we are heirs of the glory of God, not based on what we have done or not done, but upon what God has done in and through Jesus Christ. Let’s connect this to the love of God in Christ from which we can’t be separated. We can’t be separated from God because He has made His will, character, and glory the fountain of the love. This also is the fountain of our love for others. His love fills us so that we can love others with Him with the same love with which we have been loved. It is an act of faith in Christ to say to those we love that we promise to always love them. We can say that because love isn’t based on the flesh, but on the will, character, and promises of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "through Isaac your descendants will be named.”Again Paul taught the Romans that God’s plan and love extended beyond the direct fleshly lineage of Abraham. The children of God are not such because they are descendants of a particular father. Abraham had descendants who were not considered his children from God’s viewpoint. Furthermore, the promises to Abraham were narrowed in scope to exclude Esau who gave up his birthright. Paul will talk more about these two later. For now, the point is that God chooses upon whom He will set His love for that’s how the love of God works for us and through us. When we live to love with Jesus, our love is a choice, not a reaction. The faithfulness of God to fulfill His word cannot have as its basis anything human, natural, or fleshly. Then the possibility of something separating the recipients of His love could occur. But if the love of God is based on the purpose and will of God, then nothing can separate them from His love. They are children of God because God’s word and promises were intended for them. What encouragement and grace can we derive from this verse to help us live to love with Jesus? If we know the nature and character of the love of God in Christ that we have received, then we can surrender our lives to be men and women who express His wonderful love. If God has set His affections on someone and they are His children, regardless of their ethnicity, gender (and by that I mean, whether male or female), social or economic status, or even behavior, we love them by the will and choice of God. The direction of my choices toward them for their highest good will be sustained by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. Every other kind of worldly love fails. A love based on anything in the life of the person who we know God wants to love, will tire, fail, and ultimately be lost. So today, let’s remember what Paul taught in this verse. Loving with Jesus isn’t based on what we get from those He puts in our paths or what they do or don’t do, but it is based on our choosing to express God’s love for them for His glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;Apparently Paul knew some of his readers would conclude that the word of God to the Jews had failed if Paul’s brethren were separated from God. This reminds us of what Paul wrote in 3:1-4. “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be!”No, God’s word never fails, it endures forever, wrote Peter in 1 Pet. 2:5. And God’s love never fails as Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 13:8. How is it that the word of God hasn’t failed? It’s because God’s promise of salvation was broader than one nation, the nation of Israel. I’m sure this statement was puzzling to his readers then and it is to some today. The Israel of God isn’t limited to the literal offspring of Israel. God’s original plan was that there would be others who struggled with God and prevailed other than Jacob. Remember his wrestling match with the angel of the Lord when he received the name “Israel”? By the revelation of the Holy Spirit, Paul saw that God chose to wrestle with others throughout history who would prevail with Him by the same grace given to Jacob. Not everyone He chose to wrestle with were descendants of Abraham. Paul obviously understood that even though his beloved brethren were unbelieving and caused him much sorrow and grief, God’s faithfulness to His Word had not failed to accomplish what it was sent for, namely, the salvation of all whom He foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. These are the true Israel that God had in mind when He chose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) to be heirs of the promise. As we live to love with Jesus, we can comfort ourselves as Paul did. God’s faithfulness and word have not and will not fail. His hand is not so short that He cannot save all whom He has seen in Israel, both Jews and Gentiles. As we love in His name, we can be confident that God will be faithful. We can trust Him. We can trust His wisdom, will, power, and love. That’s the encouragement we can draw from Paul revealed in Rom. 9:6. We can rest in God’s purpose, word, and faithfulness as we love with Him everyone He puts in our paths.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:3-5 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.In today’s verse we discover the source of Paul’s sorrow and grief. We can see how Paul went from joy in the love of God in Christ from which he can’t be separated to the sorrow and grief over those who are separated from God’s love. The love of Christ for his Jewish brothers in the flesh who were still unbelieving swelled inside him. The sorrow and grief came as he contemplated how God’s love for them had been expressed through how He had blessed them. The Jews are God blessed forever because He chose to use them as the ethnic group to give the Christ, the savior of the world, through them. The Jewish people had blessing after blessing from God’s providence. At the same time, God gave them very difficult trials which caused them great sorrow, grief, and bitterness. Do you see the difference between Paul and his countrymen. The source of their sorrow and grief was self-focused. The sorrow and grief Paul experienced was Christ-focused and others-focused. We experience this same thing in our hearts when we can see the blessings of God’s love in the lives of people we love, but they can’t see God’s goodness. Notice the attitude of Christ in Paul. “For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren.” He said, “I could wish” but his being separated from God’s love couldn’t accomplish their restoration. But Jesus could wish it, and indeed, did it! He became a curse for us that we might be brought to God. The apostle John wrote, John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Paul was testifying to the love of Christ in his heart for his brothers in the flesh. They have the witness of God’s love in their history, yet they do not know the love of God in Christ Jesus. Although we can’t lay down our lives to secure salvation for those we love, we can lay down our lives for them in practical ways when God puts them in our paths. When they are separated from us and wish to do us harm, as the Jews did with Paul, we can have sorrow and grief in our hearts for them, we can wish the best for them, and we can pray for them. In those ways, we are living to love with Jesus—expressing His love for them.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 9:1-2 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.After writing one of the greatest declarations about the love of God in the entire Bible, this verse seems like an invasive jolt. He had just said that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, which you would think would fill him with ecstatic joy in his heart, and instead he immediately felt compelled to express sorrow and unceasing grief. Is that possible? Is it possible to be glorying in the love of God and at the same time experience sorrow and grief? Paul must have thought his readers would have the same question so he assured them of this reality by a positive and a negative assertion. What he’s about to say as the source of his sorrow and grief is the truth and is not a lie. He went even further to say that it’s the truth “in Christ.” Meaning, Jesus, who searches his heart (remember vs. 27) knows that this conflict is in Paul, and in fact, I suggest, he was saying the sorrow and grief he feels in his heart is actually the sorrow and grief of Jesus. And even more, the Holy Spirit agrees with Paul that it is the sorrow and grief of Jesus. We will learn what the source of this sorrow and grief is tomorrow in vss. 3-5. But for today let us be encouraged by this: One of the greatest evidences of the love of Christ within is that it produces great sorrow and unceasing grief for those we love who are separated from God. When we know of friends and family members who are blinded to the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus and who are slaves of unbelief and idolatry, we can’t help but feel deeply what lies before them on that day when we will be finally completed and glorified.Today, as we live to love with Jesus, expect in this world, to experience both the joy of Jesus and the grief and sorrow of Jesus for those He puts in your path. We learn from this verse also that we should not be ashamed to express both as the Lord manifests them to and in us. That’s why I say we are living to love with Jesus. We are not generating the love, we are experiencing and expressing His love. We simply receive what we are given. This verse gives us freedom to be real with what we are experiencing of the love of Christ in our hearts.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.This surely is a favorite verse of millions of believers throughout the church age. There are six points of encouragement to live to love with Jesus in these wonderful verses. 1. God’s love overcomes anything and everything in both heaven and earth.2. Jesus Christ is the revelation of the love of God in the flesh.3. We who are loved by God are eternally united with God through Jesus Christ.4. Jesus Christ is Lord of death, life, angels, principalities, things present, things to come, power, and all created things—and us—and He loves us.5. The love of God is our confidence and peace.6. We have everything we need to live out of His fullness and love whoever He puts in our paths.Father, thank You for another day of life to live to know and love You and live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ so that I can love and trust You and love those You put in my path today for Your glory. Amen.I hope you’ll pray this prayer today. You can find it at www.livetolovewithjesus.com along with other resources to encourage and help you live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.I hope we are greatly encouraged today by Rom. 8:37. Paul had been telling his readers that God was for them, even in their suffering - tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword. I’m encouraged by the fact that as Paul wrote these words, he had experienced the overcoming power of the love of Christ in all those things. He delineated his suffering to the Corinthians in 2Corinthians 11:23-27. “Are they servants of Christ? — I speak as if insane — I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.” Yes, he says, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”His point is clear: God’s love revealed and poured out in Jesus Christ satisfies my soul more than life, health, comfort, safety—more than anything. We know God is for us and that He causes all these things we have suffered to work together for our conformity to the image of His Son. Therefore, in all these things, we don’t just get by somehow, we overwhelmingly conquer them through the life of Jesus Christ dwelling in our mortal bodies. He loves us!Do you know of this overcoming power in your life? If God’s love has been poured out in your heart by the Holy Spirit, you cry out, “Abba, Father”, and you suffer with Christ, rejoicing in your tribulations, then yes, you know exactly what Paul was talking about in this verse. If not, then I encourage you to fix your hope on the joy set before you because of the love of Christ displayed on your behalf even while you were sinner. He died for you for the glory of God—that you might receive the inheritance of the righteous—sharing with Him the glory of God. When Jesus returns all the love we have poured out to one another with Jesus will be seen and all the glory will go to Jesus to the glory of God. Fix your eyes on the joy set before you as you live to love with Jesus. You will overwhelmingly conquer all things in this world.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:36 Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”In this verse, Paul referred to Ps. 44. The context of Ps. 44 is the suffering of God’s people. In the midst of tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword they declare their steadfastness to God. Psalms 44:17-18 “All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You, and we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, and our steps have not deviated from Your way.” Then in Psalms 44:22 they say, “But for Your sake we are killed all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” The lament closes with this: verse 26, “Rise up, be our help, and redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.”Here in Rom. 8, Paul had been describing how God has risen to our help and redeemed us. He is for us. Apparently the persecution in Rome for being a Christian involved all of those things listed in the last verse. They suffered for Jesus’ name sake just as God’s people suffered for their faith centuries before. But suffering in this world for Jesus’ name doesn’t mean God is against us, it means we are beloved children and heirs of glory. Remember what Paul wrote in Rom. 8:16-18? “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”Suffering for Christ’s sake isn’t new. More than likely in our lifetimes, we probably won’t suffer famine, nakedness, peril, and sword for our faith in Christ, but we will endure tribulation, distress, and persecution. Paul wanted his readers to keep focused on the glory of God that awaits them because of God’s love. They are loved with an everlasting love which overcomes the world and anything it can and will do to them. Living to love with Jesus for the glory of God keeps us focused on “that day” when His love is rewarded with glory—and we with Him. We are to arm ourselves with this purpose as Jesus did. Peter wrote that the one who has so armed himself with Jesus’ purpose of loving unto death, has overcome sin (1 Pet. 4:1). He doesn’t mean that person has become sinless, but that sin has lost its power in their life. Their willing to die for Christ rather than sin. Today, be encouraged to love with Jesus by laying down your life for others for the glory of God. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?Yesterday, we were encouraged from Rom. 8:34, that Jesus who died for us and was raised for our justification, who sits at the right hand of God also intercedes for us. In this verse, we see that Paul glorifies Christ by telling his readers that Jesus loves them with an everlasting, steadfast love. His love cannot be taken away from us! Of course the answer to his question, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” is No one and no thing. What security and peace we have as the foundation of our lives! The list of possible separators was real to his readers. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword. Those may not be as relevant to us, but the list you and I could generate will also not be things or people who have the power to separate us from His love. At the top of the list might be—are you ready for this?—ourselves. We can’t even separate ourselves from His love because His love is a love of choice—not based on anything in or about us, but upon His character. God is love, and Jesus is God. If God is for us because He loves us, then Jesus is for us because He loves us. I hope you’ll take comfort and courage today from this great truth: God has set His affections upon us and given us His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our life, our righteousness, and our hope of glory. We live to love with Jesus out of the fullness and inexhaustible resource of His steadfast, unassailable, victorious, glorious, infinite love. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.In vs. 34, Paul raised a second question designed to increase their faith, hope, and love for Christ. Who is the one who condemns? Remember verse 1 of Rom. 8. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” There is no condemnation because Jesus, who died for us to condemn sin, was raised because of our justification, who sits at the right hand of God in the place of judgment, intercedes for us with God. All of these things Jesus did for us, He was sent by God to do them because God loves us. Obviously Jesus loves us or He wouldn’t serve us in these ways. Since Jesus does these things for us, and we have His life in us, then we should expect His love to still move in this direction as it flows through us. Because we love with Jesus, when we are abiding in Him, we will not condemn our brothers and sisters and we will intercede for them with the Father. We want to participate with Jesus as He loves His brothers and sisters. What a privilege it is to give God glory and joy by loving with Jesus. We do so out of the fullness of His love revealed in Jesus Christ for us and through us. Father, we thank You for giving us Your Son, giving us the Spirit of life in Christ. Fill us today with the Holy Spirit so we can love and trust You and love everyone You put in our paths, for Your glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies;In verses 33-35, Paul asked three questions to bolster His point that God is for us and in delivering His Son up for us, meant for us to live in hope and security. We might preface these questions with “If God is for us.” So today we are encouraged by this question and answer. “If God is for us, who will bring a charge against God’s elect?” Notice Paul doesn’t say, “No one.” Because we know Satan is the accuser of the brethren and constantly charges us with many true accusations. So our confidence isn’t in that there are no charges that can be brought against us. There are many! No, our confidence is in the fact that any charge brought against us will fall powerless before God. They won’t stick to us because they were stuck to Jesus. God justified us in His Son, whom He didn’t spare, but delivered up for us. He has given the righteousness of His Son to our accounts, so we stand before Him spotless, blameless, and without blemish. God, our judge, has declared us righteous, and there is no one who can charge us with anything that will change our right standing. So, who gets the glory for this? God does! Jesus Christ does! This liberates us to live to love with Jesus without fear. We know we aren’t going to love perfectly in this life, but we are loved perfectly by God. Knowing and experiencing His love is the fountain from which our love for God and others flows. Father in heaven, we love You! Thank You for loving us and justifying us through Jesus. We praise You and give You glory for freely giving us Your righteousness. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?Do you ever wonder if the grace you need to love is going to be there? This verse encourages us in those moments. We can count on God to give us everything we need to love with His Son. Remember yesterday’s encouragement? God is for us! In this verse, Paul reasoned with his readers. If God didn’t spare His own Son, then we can know He will withhold nothing for our highest good. For Jesus to be firstborn among many brethren, God gave His Son as our substitute. It pleased God to not spare His Son from His wrath against all of our sin so we could be justified and glorified. We can know that He will freely give to us all things. What does He mean by “all things?” Let’s stay true to the context. Paul had just told them that God causes “all things” to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. That means there’s nothing that happens to us that God has not caused it to be for our good, namely, to become conformed to the image of His Son. “All things” therefore are freely given to us for that great and glorious purpose—for the glory of the Son in our lives. I’m reminded of Ps. 70:4. “Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; and let those who love Your salvation say continually, ‘Let God be magnified.’” We, who have received Christ Jesus, may confidently pray for God to be glorified in “all things” in our lives. We live to love with Jesus knowing that we can ask anything in His name, and He will do it (John 14:13-14). Live. Pray. Love. Hope. Rejoice. God is for us. He will freely give us “all things” that His name may be magnified.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?Have you ever said this to anyone? “You can’t make me not love you.” What does that statement mean? We are telling them that we are for them by choice, not based upon anything they do or don’t do. Therefore, we will never be against them. From Rom. 5:1, Paul had been showing the Roman believers that God was for them. If they believed in Jesus, then God foreknew them, predestined them, called them, justified them, and has already given them a place to stand before Him in the perfect righteousness of Jesus, His Son. He has glorified them with Jesus. He is for us!The answer to Paul’s question as to who is against us if God is for us is simple and clear. No one! That is, no one of any significance. We know that the world hates Jesus and us. We know that if they are against Jesus, then they are against us. That is evident as we notice that every policy of the present national governmental administration is anti-God. Everything they are for, God’s against, and everything God is for, their policies seek to destroy. The world doesn’t love us, but God does. And what shall we say to this? What do you say to yourself about the pain and suffering you have experienced and are going to experience in this world? Paul has already said it. The suffering of this world is not to be compared with the glory to be revealed when we get our inheritance. It will be seen that nothing could prevent God’s plan for us, because He has been for us—from start to finish. This informs us as to how we are to relate to one another in the body of Christ. We say to ourselves and to one another, “God is for us, and by His grace, I will always be for you. I will not be against you.” That’s what Jesus says to us, and we are living to love with Jesus, so we can say that to one another. Let’s be on the alert to anything that would turn us away or against another brother or sister in Christ. You know it isn’t from God! There’s nothing they could do that isn’t covered by the blood of Christ, paid for, and removed from God’s view. That’s how it is for you in the presence of God, so that’s how it must be for all who are in the body of Christ. Jesus is our life, and that’s how He looks at us all. He is for us. So pour out His love today with great freedom and joy for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.We can take awesome encouragement today from vs. 30 of Rom. 8 because we learn that from God’s viewpoint, the work of conforming us into the image of Christ is done! With man, we might have good intentions, but that doesn’t mean that those intentions will be accomplished. However, with God, if He plans to do something, we can count it as done. His promises are Yes, and Amen! Our hearts should soar with anticipation and expectation of the hope of glory on that Great Day when Jesus returns and the sons of God are revealed in glory with Him. This is the love of God for us. It is steadfast, immovable, and ever flowing toward us until His love is perfectly revealed in our lives.Notice that all of the verbs are past tense. These brothers and sisters of Christ who were foreknown and predestined to be conformed to His image, God Himself called all of them without exception, and everyone He called, He also justified through His Son, and all who were justified, He also glorified with Him. It’s a done deal because all of these things are solely dependent upon God’s work. He has decided to love us!This gives us vision for how we are to love one another. We love with Jesus the way He loves us. Our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ does not depend upon what they do or don’t do. We love them because we want to love them for the glory of God—just like God wants to love us for His glory. We forgive because we have been forgiven. We are patient because we have received God’s patience. We are merciful because we have received mercy. On and on we could go until it is culminated in John’s great statement in 1 Jo. 4:19. “We love, because He first loved us.” Consider the perfection of God’s love, and let’s love today like He loves us. If we intend to love, by God’s grace may we love well to the very end.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;Let’s work backward in this verse. God planned for Jesus to be the firstborn of many brethren, so He had to have that purpose as the determining factor as He worked in their lives to make them like His Son. To create them, He had to foreknow them, and for them, He causes all things to work for that glorious good of being Jesus’ brethren forever. Does that encourage you? It should. Notice also that this verse contains a conditional clause. God did something in order that something else might come into being. The verb proorizo or predestined tells us what God did. We get our English word horizon from the root of this verb. It means to set a boundary around something or to mark off. When the prefix pro is added to the word, it means this action was done before or prior to the action. The same prefix pro is in the Greek word for foreknew. So we get the idea that those God knew prior to their existence, He also marked them off prior to their existence for a specific purpose. He put a horizon around them before they were born. This means that the horizon or boundary which dictates all of God’s actions toward His children is the purpose of conforming them into the image of Jesus Christ, His Son, so He would be the firstborn among many brethren. Nothing can thwart this purpose because no one is greater than God to hinder Him from doing what pleases Him. He set the boundary around us, and nothing and no one can prevent it from occurring. Let’s take great hope and encouragement from what Paul was writing. In other letters, Paul chose a marriage analogy as the end goal: Jesus Christ standing in His glory with His spotless bride. But here in Rom. 8, he has clearly depicted the end goal of all of history and creation: Jesus Christ sharing His glory with the redeemed sons of God, His brethren. This is going to happen! For real! Living to love with Jesus is participating in Jesus’ love for His brothers. We are to look at them as He does—with the predetermined purpose in view as if the work is completed (that, by the way is the point of the next verse). He loves us, not because we are worthy of love or because He can trust us, but because His Father chose us to be recipients of His love and righteousness. He will glorify His Son when the Son raises up all whom the Father gave to Him and presents them before Him and all the host of heaven—holy and blameless and beyond reproach (Col. 1:22). Our inheritance is the glory of God! This hope fuels our love for Jesus and each other. We want to do everything we can with Jesus to facilitate, encourage, and hasten conformity into Jesus’ likeness as we relate to our brothers and sisters in Christ.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.Paul had been pointing his readers to the hope of glory that we can be sure is coming because of the intercession of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They are of the same mind as they pray—they ask the Father for His will to be done in our lives. So we can have great confidence and encouragement to hope in God because we have effective intercession on our behalf. And we have more! We can draw even more confidence in the fact that God has a wonderful purpose for our lives—to live with Jesus and be conformed to His image for the glory of God. This verse is foundational to living to love with Jesus. If Jesus lives in us, then we have His mindset or worldview to help us process all of life’s circumstances and relationships. Three foundational truths summarize Jesus’ worldview. I’m presenting them however from our perspective. 1. There is one God from whom all thing come , and He is love.2. Jesus is enough. His love satisfies the deepest desires of my soul.3. God’s purpose in all things is to glorify God by making me like Jesus and preparing me for eternity.The third truth obviously comes from Rom. 8:28. We know we are being prepared for the Great Day, the last day, that day when we are glorified with Jesus at His second coming. God is preparing us for that day by causing all things to work together for good in the lives of all who love Him and have been called according to God’s purpose. Paul stated God’s purpose in the next verse, namely, to be conformed to the image of His Son. As God’s children who are loved in Christ, we have confidence that nothing can happen to us that isn’t for our good. Remember, I’ve defined God’s love as the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost. What is our highest good that God causes everything in our lives to work toward? We will unpack more about that tomorrow, but for now, consider that it is our highest good, to find our supreme satisfaction in the love of God through Jesus Christ. Jesus’ highest good, was to be supremely satisfied in His Father’s love and will. When we don’t trust that God is working in love toward our highest good—to find Him to be our all—we will live in bitterness toward God and others when difficulties rise or conflicts occur. We can always have confidence in God’s power and purpose for us. We have been called to glorify the Son of God by loving Him above all and finding our deepest satisfaction in life in Him. Love flows out of that fullness. So remember, no matter what happens today, you know God is using it to give you an opportunity to glorify God, find your fullness in Christ, and reveal His life and love. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.There is great encouragement from this verse as we answer questions we must ask from the text. First, who is it that searches the hearts? The Scriptures teach us that it is Jesus. 1 Chronicles 28:9 “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts.” Jeremiah 17:10 “I, the LORD, search the heart.” Rev. 2:23. Jesus said to the church of Thyatira, “All the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. Second, what is the mind of the Spirit? What is the Spirit’s concern regarding our hearts that Jesus knows? If we answer this from the context of Romans 8, we conclude that the Spirit’s concern is 1) setting us free from the law of sin and of death (vs. 2), 2) fulfilling the requirements of the Law in us (vs. 4), 3) giving us the life and peace of Jesus (vs. 6), 4) giving life to our mortal bodies (vs. 11), 5) putting to death the deeds of the flesh/the mortal body (vss. 13-14), and 6) inspiring our crying out, “Abba, Father!” (vs. 15). Our being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ in the womb of creation is how Paul summarizes the mind of the Spirit and the will of God in vs. 29.We ask a third question, who is the “He”? Is it the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit? Proper grammar rules inform us to go back to the antecedent, which is the Holy Spirit. Paul’s point was that Jesus knows the mind of the Spirit because the Holy Spirit always intercedes along the line of God’s will and purpose for us. Jesus knows what the will of God is, so He understands the intercession of the Spirit for the saints. Now we are ready to draw the encouragements Paul intended for us from this verse. The sons and daughters of God in this present stage of development are weak. As we suffer the pains and pressure of spiritual formation in this fallen world, we groan within ourselves, along with all creation and the Holy Spirit. We eagerly are waiting for this painful process to be completed in glory. Although we don’t know how to pray, we are not alone. We have great encouragement, comfort, and confidence because we have faithful, effective intercessors, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who know God’s purpose for this stage of development of the body of Christ. In vss. 28-29, Paul will be more specific as to the purpose and will of God for us that the Son and Spirit know. For today, we can take heart from these great truths: As we walk by the Spirit today, living to love with Jesus, we are not alone. Our service of worship is to embrace this stage of weakness and give it to Him, lay it at His feet, so to speak, and groan, praise, thank, and stand with confidence that God is for us and will complete His work in us for His glory. Be expectant and hopeful of future grace—the grace the Holy Spirit will give you when you need it to love well for the glory of God. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;Today we are encouraged with another ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Not only does all creation groan and we ourselves groan, but the Holy Spirit also groans in intercession for us. We are not alone in this blessed hope of the glory of God. The Holy Spirit has our perfected union with Jesus and the birth of the sons of God in view as He prays for us when we don’t know how to pray. Let’s take encouragement from this reminder of God’s assignment for the flesh—life in our mortal bodies. The body’s assignment is weakness. God never intended fruit for His glory to be born by our fleshly efforts, knowledge, or determination. Fruit for God was assigned to the Spirit of life in Christ, the Holy Spirit, dwelling within the sons of God. He is our helper, comforter, and here, we learn; He also is our intercessor. Remember what Paul taught the Corinthians? When we are weak, He is strong. Our part in the story of God’s glory is to provide the weakness for God to work with. Doesn’t this encourage you today as you think of loving those God puts in your path? The Live to Love prayer is a prayer of the weak ones—those who know they don’t have the knowledge and power they need to glorify God and love well. We can humbly and genuinely offer our weakness to God, knowing that He is looking to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully His (2 Chron. 16:9)—those who are seeking to find their supreme satisfaction in Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.In this verse we see why hope is so important. Since we don’t yet see what we will be, but know we will be like Him when He returns (1 John 3:2), that hope causes us to wait eagerly with perseverance. Enduring love is being developed, both for God and for one another. We experience Jesus’ love growing in our lives and relationships. We know what the end state is: the love of Jesus perfected, so those who are His, are developing toward that glorious hope. Am I describing your experience? Can you say a hearty, “Amen” to what Paul wrote in this verse? I hope so. I want to fan the flame of love with the hope of the gospel that the book of Romans so powerfully proclaims. With the eyes of faith, let us look to the blessed hope of our inheritance as we love with Jesus. It’s what slaves of righteousness do for the glory of God until He comes or until we go to be with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?We have been saved in hope! Let me remind you of the hope in which we have been saved. We must look back to Romans 5:3-5 where Paul introduced the great hope of which he wrote. “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” As we suffer the pains of childbirth—tribulations in this world—hope is built. How is hope built? It is built because we know we have been justified by God through Jesus Christ and are at peace with Him. We know He is for us! Therefore, we endure the suffering and pain in tribulations because we know Christ is being formed in us. We know His purpose in all things is to make us like Christ. So as we persevere in the tribulation, it proves that the character of Christ is being developed, and as we see the Spirit’s work in our lives through the trials, it produces hope—we know we are children of God and we know we are going to be glorified with Him when He returns. The Holy Spirit, through this development process, pours out God’s love in our hearts to comfort us and to knit the body of Christ together in the womb of creation which was subjected to futility by God for that very purpose—to birth of the sons of God. That’s the hope in which we have been saved—the hope of the glory of the sons of God. Paul said that we don’t see the glory now. So true! Now we are being sown in weakness, as he wrote to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” We now live to love with Jesus in the weakness of our mortal bodies which have been given life by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and sheds the love of God in our hearts. What drives us on to love today is the hope of the day coming when our love will be perfected with Jesus. As Jonathan Edwards wrote in his treatise on Charity and its Fruit: Heaven, a World of Love, “The Spirit of God shall be poured forth and manifested in perfect love in every heart to all eternity.” (CHAPEL LIBRARY, www.chapellibrary.org/pdf/books/hawo.pdf). Everything and everyone will be lovely in heaven. We eagerly wait for that day, don’t we?! What a day that will be! So we live and love today in the light of “that day” when our hope is seen. There we will be standing with Jesus in His righteousness, no longer by faith, but by sight—it will be a reality.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.“And not only this.” Remember yesterday we were encouraged by the fact that all creation is groaning with the pains of childbirth, awaiting the liberating power when the sons of God are revealed when Jesus returns. Paul then added that we believers also groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our body. Notice that again, Paul didn’t use the plural “bodies” as one might expect if he is referring to the sons of God as a group. We wait eagerly for the redemption of the body that we all are a part of—the body of Christ, the Son of God. It’s the revealing of the body of Christ that is being formed in the womb of all creation that we anticipate with great joy and hope. As I said yesterday, living to love with Jesus is how the redeemed body grows and develops. So again today, we are encouraged by the reality of this verse. Do you groan within yourself as you suffer the pains of growing to maturity? Are you eagerly waiting for the completion of Jesus’ work of love in your life? This groaning is another evidence of the witness of the spirit of adoption which we have received. Let’s not miss that this isn’t a groaning of hopelessness and defeat, it’s a groaning of expectancy and hope. Consider this: the moment Jesus returns, if we are alive, we will all be changed into the perfect image of Christ (1 Cor. 15:52) and put on the imperishable body (1 Cor. 15:53), an immortal body, and we will be revealed with Him in all of His glory. This is as sure to happen as Jesus’ first coming happened. So today as we love others, anytime you suffer the pains of childbirth, difficulties, putting to death self, and bearing the weight of the weaknesses and sins of your brothers and sisters, instead of complaining, blaming, and rejecting them, groan with a sense of hope that a day is coming when we will all be birthed into the glory of the sons of God. Let the hope of that reality fuel the flame of your love—that’s what fuels the flame of Jesus’ love for us.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.In the previous verses of Rom. 8 and in today’s verse, Paul introduced the power of hope that God desired to be instilled in the creation through subjecting it to slavery to corruption when Adam sinned. We learn in this verse that the whole creation groans like a mother in labor groans. It groans because it suffers the pains necessary for the great revealing of the glory of the sons of God. It is as if the sons of God have been growing within the womb of creation. This is a wonderful picture of what is actually happening today. This age in history, since Jesus came to earth, is the stage when the body of Christ is being developed like a baby develops within the womb. We are still in utero, so to speak. But from the moment the Seed was implanted into the womb of creation, all creation knew it was pregnant with the Son of God. In God’s perfect timing the body of Christ, the sons of God, will be revealed. The love of Christ knits each cell with the others as the body grows. Living to love with Jesus, each one using the gifts given by the Spirit of God, builds “up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12-13). We are a part of a new person to be revealed at the end of the age—the glory of the Son of God. All creation will see the fruit of its labor, and for now, our presence is causing pain and suffering, but it is suffering that has hope with it, just like an expectant mother experiences. Can you see what’s happening from God’s and all creation’s perspective as you live today with Jesus? Christ is being developed in you and everyone of the brothers and sisters with whom God has placed you in utero. So give creation a thrill of hope and move, kick, and tumble in love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:20-21 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.The Day of our inheritance, when the glory of the children of God is revealed will have a cosmic impact. All creation will be set free from its slavery to corruption which we know occurred with the entrance of sin into the world. The Spirit indicated through Paul that although it was man who sinned and plunged the creation into slavery, it was God who determined that man’s sinfulness would have a cosmic impact. Paul told his readers why God subjected all creation to slavery to corruption. God did it so that hope would also reside in the material universe—a hope of freedom when the redemption of sons of God are revealed in glory.Beside the sins of man as sources of our suffering, some of the suffering that we endure on the earth also comes from the corruption of creation. Perhaps this refers to what insurance companies call “acts of God”: events outside of human control or activity, such as a natural disasters like earthquakes, storms, floods, and droughts. These things did not exist in the Garden of Eden. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, creation has suffered corruption. When Jesus came into creation, He was a reservoir of love placed into a dry and dark universe. When He breathed His last breath on the cross and the veil of the temple was torn into, the reservoir of God’s love was broken and a cosmic earthquake occurred which released a tsunami of love that has swept over and through the children of God. If you are a child of God, then you are a channel of His love, which is a testimony of hope, not only for all mankind, but for all creation. If men and women who were slaves of sin have been set free from sin and death to love in the Spirit of life in Christ, then the creation knows that redemption has begun. It will be completed by God and culminate in a final cosmic liberation when the sons of God are revealed in glory. Today, as we live to love with Jesus, we testify to the beginning redemptive act in creation. God has set us free from sin and death to live to Him through the Spirit of life in Christ. The evidence of His life is love. His love flowing through you is the continuing wave of God’s love spreading throughout the earth. You are a witness that the glory of the sons of God is imminent. So open the flood gates of your heart and let the living waters flow! Love fosters hope in our hearts as well as in all creation.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. Have you ever looked forward to the unveiling of a new product or the premier presentation of a much anticipated movie or the arrival of a new episode of a favorite tv series? Ok, I know, there’s no adequate earthly corollary to the anticipation of the revealing of the glory of God in Christ and His adopted sons and daughters. But those illustrate what Paul wanted his readers to feel as they considered the unworthiness of comparing their present sufferings with their inheritance of the glory of God. Not only are the heirs of God excited about what is to come, but all of creation eagerly waits for Jesus’ return in glory. This isn’t the only time in Paul’s letters that his solution to suffering and problems in life is to remind his readers of the glorious return of Christ (2 Thess. 2). As you read Paul’s letters, you discover that he lived each day in view of “that day”—when we all will be revealed in glory with Jesus. However, the glory is only revealed in light of our suffering. For instance, on “that day” everyone will give an account of his deeds and words. Then, for the sons of God, the glory of God’s justification, redemption, and salvation will be seen in all of its glory. Since we know things are going to be revealed in this way, we repent today of living for ourselves and embrace our redemptive purpose—to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God. We actively, eagerly wait for our unveiling by loving in the power of the Holy Spirit. So, we are doing more than just enduring suffering until the end of all things, we are advancing God’s kingdom through the life of His Son as we abide in Him and love with Him. We are pressing on to what lies ahead, and what lies ahead is glorious if we live today in view of “that day.”
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.In the previous verse, Paul told them that the glory of God is their inheritance. if they suffer with Him. So in this verse, he compares the suffering with the glory to be revealed when they get their inheritance. There’s no comparison.Loving in this world with Jesus will have a cost. We will suffer for His name sake. In Jesus’ last words to His disciples, He basically told them to embrace suffering. He said, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you” (John 15:18-19). And “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me” (John 16:2-3). And again, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).Paul obviously got the message. If you’ve read Acts, then you know that Paul endured much suffering in “this present time.” By that, I think he was referring to his journey in this world. When Paul considered the glory that is to be revealed to us when Jesus returns, the present suffering isn’t even a blip on the radar. It’s like looking at a flashlight beam in a dark room, and then someone turns on the light. The beam disappears. It’s overcome by the greater light. So it will be when Jesus is revealed in His glory—and us with Him!Another comparison that you women will relate to is the suffering of labor compared to the birth of your child. In a matter of seconds or minutes (I’m a guy, what do I know?) the pain is forgotten because of the glorious joy of the fruit of your labor. So it will be, wrote Paul, when Jesus is revealed.So what encouragement can we draw from this verse to spur us on to love with Jesus? Embrace whatever the cost necessary for God to receive glory on that day as you love. Remember this definition of God’s love: It is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost. That describes God’s love for us revealed in Christ, as well as the love of Christ we have residing in our mortal bodies by the Holy Spirit.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.Yesterday we rejoiced in the blessing of God to give us two witnesses that we are His children. Today we see the great privilege it is to be loved by our Father. If we are His children, then we are heirs of God. Paul called believers, fellow heirs with Christ. Jesus is the Son of God, and w e are his brothers and sisters, who are loved with the same love. The apostle John records Jesus’ praying this: John 17:10 “And all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them." John 17:22-23 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” So we are fellow heirs with Christ of all that belongs to God. Not only do we rejoice today in the blessing and privilege to be God’s children, but we also can be encouraged by the fact that we suffer with Him as we lay down our lives (put to death the deeds of the body) to love others with Jesus. If Spirit of Christ is the source and power of this love (and He is in all those who are God’s children), then Jesus is to receive the glory. But that’s not all. Paul encouraged them that they/we will also be glorified with Him because we suffered and loved with Him. The connection between suffering and glory is revealed clearly in Hebrews 2:9. “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” God gave His Son grace to love us by laying down His life. In so doing, He crowned Jesus with glory. Paul made the same point. If we love others by laying down our lives with Jesus, by the grace received from God, we also are crowned with the glory of God. We will inherit the glory of God with Jesus, His Son, because we suffer with Him in this world.As we live to love with Jesus, we will suffer, but we suffer with hope—the hope of glory. The glory of God is our inheritance as heirs of God, fellow heirs with Jesus, if we live to love with Him. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,I want to encourage you today with Rom. 8:16. In the previous verses, Paul had been encouraging his readers in Rome (and us) that they were children of God—they belong to Him. He had told them that if they had the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them, then they belonged to God. If they were being led by the Holy Spirit to put to death the deeds of the body, then they were children of God. In this verse, Paul strengthened his point by revealing to them the testimony of two witnesses: the Holy Spirit and their spirit. The Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit, not to our spirit. It helps to answer the question, “What does Paul mean by “our spirit”? First, let’s notice he didn’t use the plural form “our spirits.” We all have one spirit. Second, it seems best to stay in the context of the last verse where Paul said that we have received a spirit of adoption. When we are born again by the Holy Spirit, we received a new spirit. God revealed this in Ezekiel 11:19 “And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.” We have a new heart, a new spirit, the spirit of adoption that, by its very presence testifies to us that we are children of God. Only the children of God have an awareness that they are adopted by the God of the universe, their Father who loves them with a steadfast love. As I mentioned yesterday, His children feel they owe their new father great honor, allegiance, gratitude, and love. Those attitudes testify to whose we are.Then we also have the Holy Spirit testifying that we are children of God as He gives us grace (the desire and power) to put to death the deeds of the body. As we experience His guidance (which involves awareness and conviction of the sinfulness of the deed), we then follow through with repentance to express the love of Jesus. This process also is a witness to the fact that we are children of God. So we have two witnesses as to our identity as children of God. If you have these two testifying to you, then you have been loved and have been called to enjoy, be satisfied in, and express His love as long as you live. It is a privilege to be one of God’s beloved children. We will learn more about that tomorrow, but for today, let’s give thanks to God for giving us a firm foundation and confidence in this life through Jesus Christ. Thank you, Father, for giving us these two witnesses of your love for us.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"We can draw much encouragement today from Paul’s contrast between two spirits: the spirit of slavery and the spirit of adoption. When we were slaves of sin, we were controlled by a spirit of slavery. Do you remember? We were constantly afraid because we sinned and fell short of the glory of God. We knew we should be rejected, condemned and punished. We lived under the dark shadow of death. Paul made it clear that God didn’t give us that spirit of slavery and fear. As sons and daughters of God, when He gave us the Holy Spirit, He gave us a spirit of adoption. That spirit recognizes God as our father. It is a spirit of acceptance, forgiveness, and steadfast love, a spirit of belonging. The adopted child should certainly feel obligated to put away the old life of an orphan and feel that they owe their new father great honor, allegiance, gratitude, and love. They must learn to live by a new reality: They have a loving father whom they are to call, “Father.” Paul said that it is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life in Christ, who gives us the spirit of adoption that leads us to put to death the deeds of the body and to cry out, “Abba, Father!” This cry rises from deep within our souls as we realize our great need and our great privilege. We are chosen, accepted, and loved in Christ, so we are confident that everything God, our Father, is and has is available to us. In God, our Father, through Jesus Christ, His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we find satisfaction for our souls that we cannot find anywhere else or in anyone else. The love of Jesus flows out of this fullness to those God puts in our lives. He loves them like He loves us. We are testimonies of the love of the Father for His own. So today, let us live in the fullness of the spirit of adoption, sharing freely the love we have received, and remember, we are no longer under the spirit of slavery and fear.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.This verse is very encouraging and enlightening since it states clearly who are the sons of God. It is as needful today as it was in Paul’s day. Not everyone who says they are a believer in God or Jesus is a son or daughter of God. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 63% of adults polled considered themselves Christians. What do you think God sees if the only ones that are Christians are those who are born again by His Spirit and are led by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh and live to Him? The Spirit leads, and we follow. We don’t follow so that we can be His children. We follow because we are His children. Do you think it also true that those who live to love with Jesus are the sons and daughters of God? Consider these verses from 1 John. 1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” 1 John 4:7-9 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” In John’s gospel, he recorded these words of Jesus. John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Most of us know that the fruit of the Spirit it love as indicated by Paul in Gal. 5:22.In the Live to Love prayer found in my book, Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships, and on the website, livetolovewithjesus.com, I ask the Father to anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust Him and love the people He puts in my path today for His glory. I ask for the Spirit’s help because of the powerful promise that He has been given to me for just that purpose—to be my helper, power source, and sanctifier. God gets the glory as we live to God by the Holy Spirit’s leadership, filling, and empowering. This is available today to us who are the sons and daughters of God. He leads, we follow, because we are His children.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.Paul called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of life in Rom. 8:2. Jesus was raised from the dead by the Spirit of God, the Father. The same Spirit of God that raised Jesus, the Spirit of Life, lives in all who have been justified by faith in Jesus. The promise in this verse that He will give life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit gives glorious hope. We have the very life of God living and working in our lives!We should conclude from this that our lives are not our own. We belong to God. Remember that Paul had just told them that if anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them, then they don’t belong to God? Although he didn’t say it explicitly, he clearly meant that everyone who does have the Spirit of Christ living within them, indeed, belongs to God. Our bodies are His. Our souls are His. Our lives are His. This is tremendous encouragement for us who believe in Jesus to live to love with Him. We always have the life of Jesus as the source of love flowing through our lives as we abide in Christ, receive what God gives us daily, and love with Him for the glory of God. I hope you’ll pause and think about this wonderful reality. You have the Spirit of God dwelling in your mortal body. God loves you, and will fill you with His life, light, and love as you trust Him with all things and love those He puts in your path.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:9b-10 But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.How do you know that you have been given the righteousness of Christ? According to these verses in Rom. 8, you know you have been given the righteousness of Christ if your spirit is alive to God. John confirmed this reality in 1 John 5:12. “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” In some ways, we are a contradiction. Our body is dead because of sin. It cannot produce and bear fruit for God because of the weakness of the flesh. But, if Christ is in you, your spirit is alive to God. This is a repeat of what Paul wrote in 6:11. “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Being alive to God is the work of the Holy Spirit, and only those who belong to God can receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples, John 14:16-17. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” Being alive in the spirit is the same as being resurrected from the dead. You were born dead in your mortal body. You were in the flesh and lived according to the flesh because your spirit was dead to God. You were a prisoner of sin and death—without hope in this world and destined for wrath. Then, according to God’s will, mercy, love, and pleasure, He gave you the Spirit of life in Christ, and you were made alive to God. The gospel tells you that the presence of the Holy Spirit is the proof that God has given you the righteousness of Christ by uniting you with Him in His death and resurrection. Faith rose in your heart as you heard this good news. Just as Paul wrote in 4:25, “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification”, so you were given to Christ because you are a sinner, and He made you alive because of Jesus’ righteousness. God didn’t look down through the corridor of time and see that you would believe in Jesus and on that basis make you alive in Christ. Rather, He put you in Christ according to His eternal plan so He could glorify His name and His Son in you. What mercy and love! You belong to Him!If you have the Spirit of God, then you have been given God’s righteousness. He has sent you into this world with the good news of God’s great mercy and love given freely in His Son, Jesus Christ. That is living to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.After describing the powerlessness and hostility of the flesh toward God, Paul provided another indication of what it is to be a Christian. It is to be in the Spirit instead of in the flesh and to belong to God. The encouragement we can draw today from this verse is this: If the Holy Spirit dwells in you, then the Spirit of God dwells in you. If the Spirit of God dwells in you, then the Spirit of Christ dwells in you; and you belong to God. How do you know if the Holy Spirit lives in you? Paul answered that question in vss. 13-14. You are led by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh. We’ll talk more about that in a few days. Those of us who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in our bodies can see the evidence of His presence in our lives. He testifies to us that our identity is in Jesus. He speaks the things of God to our hearts and works out the salvation that God gives us in Christ. He is the Spirit of life in Christ, and we believe and know that Jesus is life and therefore are alive to Christ. The life of Christ is the source of our love for God and for the people God puts in our lives each day. Indeed, does the Spirit of God dwell in you? Receive all that He has for you in Jesus. May we wait upon Him, enjoy Him, and love with Him for His joy and glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:7-8 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.In today’s Live to Love Scripture encouragement we see another reason to discourage us from trying to live without Jesus. Not only are our efforts to love, do good, and obtain righteousness in the flesh death, but the person who wishes to do so is hostile to God. Why is the mind set on the flesh hostile to God? Because God only gets glory if the deed done originates from the mind of God for the glory of God and is accomplished through the Son of God by the Spirit of life in Him. Flesh desires the glory for itself. It wants the credit and the reward. Due to pride, flesh does not and cannot accept or agree to God’s assignment for it, namely, to be weak, enslaved to sin and death, and unable to bear fruit pleasing to God. This is illustrated by asking people if they think they will go to heaven when they die. Most people will say that they will go to heaven. When asked why should God let them into heaven, they will say something like, “Well, I’ve been a pretty good person. I’m not a bad person.” Saying that, they testify to their hostility toward God. They have no desire to see God get all the glory for their entrance into heaven. It’s not even a thought in their minds. Another form of hostility toward God is to think that God will let one into heaven because they chose of their own free will to accept Jesus or believe in Him. They think flesh is able to choose to believe or exercise faith without the work of God. They react negatively to the idea that faith is a free gift of God to those He has chosen in Christ. That is the thinking of a mind set on the flesh that is hostile to God. It will not submit to God’s assignment to the flesh. It can’t because pride demands to get the glory. It’s impossible to please God depending on anything in ourselves. Can you see what Paul was saying about the mind set on the flesh? Can you see why I say that God has called us to live to love with Jesus? When we live dependent on the Spirit of life in Christ and are empowered to love others by the Holy Spirit, we glorify God by displaying His fruit. We are the fruit-laden branch of the grapevine. Believing, living, and loving in union with Jesus is what pleases God. John 15:5 and 7-8 state this clearly. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”Living to love with Jesus bears fruit for God’s glory.
The Live to Love Blog is a monthly blog by Norm Wakefield from The Spirit of Elijah Ministries and livetolovewithjesus.com. This is the fifth installment in the series on It's a Matter of Identity from Norm's book, Walking Worthy as a Son of God available at spiritofelijah.com.
Romans 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,I hope you remember that a couple of days ago we discovered that the term law entails the concept of parceling out or assigning. God gave the flesh an assignment: to be weak and enslaved to sin and death. He never intended the flesh to be able to bear fruit for the glory of God. As Paul put it in Rom. 3:21. “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The mind set on the flesh, the desires of the natural mind, or as John put it in 1 John 2:16 the mind set on “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life” is death. In this verse, although setting the mind on the flesh does produce death, Paul wasn’t saying that it results in death. He said it is death. It’s what death looks like. It’s impossible to love others in the power of the flesh. All fleshly efforts are death.In stark contrast is the mind set on the things of the Spirit. Likewise, although the Spirit of Christ does produce life and peace, Paul wasn’t saying that the Spirit produces life and peace in this verse. He was teaching that the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. A person who has life and peace is a person whose mind is set on the Spirit. This is very close to what Paul wrote to the Colossians in 3:1-4 “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”My aim in the Live to Love Scripture Encouragements is to repeat this profound truth: when you live to love with Jesus, you are living the life of Christ and have His peace and love. As Paul put it to the Galatians, for you to live is for Christ to live. When you love by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is loving in and with you. Is your mind set on the Spirit? Is it set on the things above rather than on the things on the earth? Until someone repents of living life for self to achieve significance and happiness in this world and turns to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God as their purpose in life, their mind will continually be enslaved to sin and death. So remember. Living to love with Jesus is life and peace because it is the same as setting your mind on the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love because God is love. It helps me to think of the Spirit as the exact expression of the love between the Father and the Son pouring out like a tsunami to, through, and for their own. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.The apostle Paul had been contrasting trying to obtain righteousness without the work of the Spirit of Christ and obtaining righteousness by faith in the power of the Spirit of life in Christ. In vs. 5, he continued the contrast by describing what the mind of each one focuses on. The person who lives according to his or her natural abilities in the flesh sets the mind on the flesh, meaning they live life focusing on what their bodies desire in the natural world. In short, they love themselves. In contrast, the person who lives according to the Holy Spirit sets the mind on the things of the Spirit, meaning they live life focusing on what the Spirit desires. Everyday we can praise God for the grace in which we stand and live! We who have been justified by faith in Christ (5:1-2) have the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (8:2) dwelling in our mortal bodies. We have been set free from slavery to the law of sin and death in the flesh by our union with Jesus in His death and resurrection. This frees us to live to love with Jesus, or another way of putting it, to walk by the Holy Spirit. Our minds are set on the things of the Spirit, which is the life of Christ. We learn that the Spirit’s work is to teach us the things of Christ. John 14:25-26 “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”1 Corinthians 2:9-10 “But just as it is written, ‘THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.’ For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.”As we set our minds on what the Holy Spirit loves, we discover what God has prepared for us whom He loves. Through the Spirit, God pours out His love in our hearts (Rom. 5:5) so we can love Him and pour out His love to others (John 13:35). I hope today, you’ll pause a moment and think about what God has prepared for you. Listen to the Holy Spirit as He brings Scriptures to mind that reveal the tremendous eternal benefits of being chosen by God to receive the righteous in Christ. Give Him thanks. Worship Him in Spirit and truth. Then be on the alert for those He puts in your path today to love through the power of the Holy Spirit.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.In this verse Paul informed them of the reason God sent His Son, namely, to release us from the Law so we could walk/live according to the Spirit. I hope you can see that Paul was still building on the idea that through Christ, God released us from the Law so we could bear fruit for God’s glory. Jesus had to come in the flesh (meaning with a mortal body) in order to fulfill what the Law required of flesh, namely, righteousness and death as the wages of sin. We also see who Jesus fulfilled the requirement of the Law for. Was it for everyone? No. It was only for those who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. What is it to walk according to the flesh? This describes those who think they can choose the good thing without the work of the Spirit of God. It is those who are trying to obtain righteousness by the Law. In other words, they don’t need faith, they simply need to do the right thing according to what the Law requires. We find later in Romans 9:31-32 that he had His Jewish brothers and sisters in mind. For he wrote, “But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works.”What encouragement can we draw from Rom. 8:4? God has already fulfilled righteousness for us through Christ. Now we are free to live to love according to the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Loving with Jesus is the sum total of the Law of God. Rejoice today that you are free from the Law’s requirements of the flesh, and that you are free to live by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the way, truth, and the life. By the grace of God, we walk according to the Spirit. We don’t walk according to the Spirit in our own strength, but by abiding in Jesus, receiving from Him the strength and grace to walk in faith and to live love.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,In verse 3, we see what Paul was doing through chapter 7, namely, showing his readers why the Law of God, the Ten Commandments, could not produce fruit for God. God’s Law didn’t have a weakness. It did what it was assigned to do by God. The weakness was with the flesh from the beginning. It was assigned to sin, and when faced with the Law, it did just that. Remember Adam and Eve? That’s why Paul called it “sinful flesh.” Ok, let’s not miss what Paul was saying here. God never intended for the flesh to be able to obtain or produce righteousness. God’s plan, conceived and agreed upon in the godhead before the creation of the world was to glorify His Son by sending Him in the likeness of sinful flesh, meaning, in a mortal body, to offer His body as a sacrifice for sin. He, who lived and died by the Spirit of life which indwelled His mortal body, obtained righteousness in the power of the Spirit of life. This Spirit-assigned righteousness condemned all flesh attempts to attain righteousness. What made the flesh “sinful flesh”? It is sinful for the flesh to try to be righteous without the life of God as its source. Why is it sinful? Because it robs God of His glory through Jesus Christ. So today be encouraged by this great truth: God has done for you through sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh what you could not do, namely, set you free from the condemnation of sin in the flesh. There are some who think that God looked down the corridors of time and saw who would believe in Jesus by an exercise of “free will”, and then He put them into Christ. This verse totally exposes the fallacy in that view. If free will is an act of the flesh without the Spirit of Life as its source, then it is condemned by the life and death of Jesus Christ. God never intended you to be set free by the power of your fleshly free-will. It is also true that God never intends for us to love others by the power of our free-will, which is another name for the spirit of flesh. God has condemned sin in the flesh through Jesus’ coming in the flesh and dying in the flesh. That’s why you hear me saying day after day, God has called all who are His, all who have the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, to live to love with Him. The Spirit of life in Christ, when He was on the earth lived to love with His Father. Those who are set free from the law of sin and death live in this world as Jesus did. 1 John 4:13 “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” You have received a life of love from God which was manifested in Jesus, the Son of God. Be amazed, and abide in Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.What an encouraging verse! Let’s think back into chapter 7. There he mentioned the law in the members of his body which he also called the law of sin and and in this verse he calls it the law of sin and of death. He mentioned the law of the mind in vs. 23, which I think was referring to the law of righteousness. Here he introduced another law, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. I have suggested that when Paul used the word nomos in these verses, he had in mind a principle or a dynamic that was a work. Another way to understand it is this: nomos literally means to parcel out or it refers to something that is assigned. For instance, an employee might be given an assignment that contributes to the success of a project. A certain task has to be accomplished for the project to be completed. Hopefully this helps us grasp the scope of God’s plan of salvation. The law of God has an assignment: to define, aggravate, and give sin a stage upon which to manifest itself. The flesh’s assignment is to sin against the Law of God. The regenerated mind’s assignment is to hear the Law of God and agree with it. The assignment of Jesus Christ is to instill the breath of life into those God has given to Him from before the foundation of the world. Paul clearly stated this in 8:11. “He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, who is also the Spirit of life. Pay close attention to Jesus’ prayer recorded in John 17:1-2 “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.” The apostle John also wrote in 1 John 5:12, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.”What an encouraging verse Rom. 8:1 is to all who believe in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Spirit of life, and we have been set free from the flesh’s assignment to sin by our union with Jesus’ death on the cross and by the indwelling Spirit of Christ who has been assigned to us for the purpose of righteousness. Love can only flow out of the Spirit of life in Christ. His life sets us free from the assignment of the flesh because we are not trying to fulfill the law of God by fleshly means. We live by the life of Christ. We love through the life of Christ. He lives in us, and loves through us for the glory of God. Have you realized what God did for you through Jesus Christ? Are you living to love with Jesus because you have His life in your mortal body? Have you experienced the freedom Christ was sent to accomplish in your life. As Paul wrote to the Galatians, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” [by trying to do good according to the Law]. Don’t let this pass by without a pause and meditation on what Paul declared in Rom. 8:2. Read it again and again until you are awed by the power of the cross, the love, goodness, wisdom, and grace of God in Jesus Christ. It is the fountain of living to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.I would like to encourage you again today from Rom. 8:1 by asking another question. Yesterday I asked, “How does one get in Christ?” The answer was, God put you in Christ. Today, I ask, “How do you know if you are in Christ?” The way you know that you are in Christ is that God gave you faith when you heard the gospel and believed. Faith is an assurance, wrote the author of Heb. in 11:1. Faith is a work of the Holy Spirit as described in Acts 15:8-9. Acts 15:8 “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.” Later in Rom. 10, vs. 17, Paul explained that faith comes from hearing the gospel, but the hearing comes from the word (the rhema) of Christ, which is the Holy Spirit applied word of God. W.E. Vines described the significance of rhema vs. logos. Rhema “is exemplified in the injunction to take ‘the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,’ (Eph. 6:17). Here the reference is not to the whole Bible as such, but to the individual scripture which the Spirit brings to our remembrance for use in time of need. A prerequisite being the regular storing of the mind with Scripture.” Paul’s point in Rom. 10:17 is that you believed when the Spirit of God made the truth of the Scripture or the gospel come alive to you. Your heart ears were opened by the Holy Spirit like Lydia’s heart was opened in Acts 16:14 “A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.” So who is it that is free from condemnation? It is all those whom God put into Christ and assured them by giving them faith in Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, then God put you into Christ, and there is no condemnation for you. In that freedom, standing in grace, walk in gratitude, joy, peace, and love with Jesus today and everyday. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 8:1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.This has got to be one of the most quoted verses of the apostle Paul. How encouraging it is to know that those who are in Christ Jesus do not stand condemned before God, even though they have been prisoners of sin, captured in a body of death. Why is there not condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? Well, the next verses explain. Today, let’s be encouraged by this great and awesome fact: If you are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation from God for you! Every time you’ve failed to love with Jesus, has been taken out of the way because the Law has been taken out of the way. There’s nothing to condemn you. We hear this again later in chapter 8. Let’s dive a little deeper. How does one get “in Christ”? We don’t have to guess on that. Paul explicitly stated it to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 1:30. “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus.” God put you into Christ. This is said in a different way in Rom. 6:3. “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” In Rom. 7:4 Paul wrote, "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another.” God put us in Christ. He baptized us in Christ. He joined us to Christ. That’s why in 7:25 Paul wrote, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ!” We thank God for putting us in Christ.So we are free today to live a new life without condemnation. We stand blameless before God in the righteousness of Christ. This is significant because that gives us confidence to approach the throne of God to find grace and mercy whenever we need it. We know there is nothing between us and God but His love. Out of that place of love, we draw our fullness today. We are satisfied in God’s love through Christ. His steadfast love is better than life itself and all that it offers us. We have everything we need in Jesus to love God and to love others. We have the same heart to forgive those who hurt or disappoint us that God has toward us. If you aren’t condemned, then what are you? You are accepted in Christ. Rom. 15:7 gives us clear marching orders today. “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:24-25 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.Can we not all relate to Paul’s cry, “Wretched man that I am!” as we realize we are prisoners of sin within our bodies? “How are we to be set free from the body of sin, the body of this death?” asked Paul. Today, let’s rejoice with Paul in our deliverance from being prisoners of war in our bodies. God has set us free through Jesus Christ, our Lord! How did He set us free? We now come full circle. Rom. 7:4 “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.” This was and is God’s plan that fruitfulness to occur in the lives of those who believe in Jesus. Paul explained this great truth further in the next chapter, so we’ll wait to unpack how God set us free. Today, can we not simply rejoice that we have been set free from the body of sin that would hinder or prevent us from doing the good that we want to do, namely, love the people God puts in our lives? I hope you’ll join me in thanking God for sending His Son to die for us. On the cross, God set us free from this body of death, by crucifying it with Christ. Paul had been working out this truth all the way back from chapter 6, vs. 6 where he introduced it, “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.”Father, we rejoice today that You set us free from our bodies of sin as you united us with Jesus’ death on the cross. Thank You for putting our bodies of sin to death and making them powerless that we might live a new life with Jesus today and everyday. Hallelujah! Praise Your name! To You be the glory through Jesus Christ, Your son and our Lord and Savior. Fill us today with gratefulness and joy as we live to love with You.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.We are continuing to learn from and be encouraged by Paul’s teaching regarding the Law. Let’s remember that the context of all of these verses in chapter 7 is that Jesus Christ has set us free from the Law of God. Since he cited the tenth of the Ten Commandments, we know that is what was on his mind as he wrote this section of his letter. However, he didn’t want his readers to think that he did not think that the Law was not holy, righteous, and good. Rather, he wanted them to see that the Law alone was never intended to produce fruit for God or bring life. In fact, it will do just the opposite, it will aggravate sin and bring it to life resulting in death. In this verse, Paul described the war that was waging in his life. On one side, there was the principle of sin in his body. That principle of sin waged war against the principle of righteousness that was in his mind as a result of the new birth and the presence of the Holy Spirit in his inner man. What was the result? As long as he tried in the flesh to do the good by looking at the Law, he found that the power of sin was greater than the power of the fleshly mind. Paul was showing how his body, with indwelling sin, and the Law relate to one another. In vs. 14 he had stated that he was “of flesh” and in vs. 18 he said, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” By “in the flesh”, he meant in a mortal body. That mortal body was sold into bondage to sin with Adam’s first sin. So now that he was a Christian, now that he believed in Jesus and his heart had been committed to righteousness (6:17), the introduction of the Law spotlighted a war raging within him. The new Paul was a prisoner in a body of sin. I can’t wait to get to tomorrow’s verse, but I will restrain myself, and draw encouragement from today’s verse. For now, we are encouraged that God’s plan for us to live righteously and to love those He puts in our paths is not that we try hard to do the right thing. The Law will only highlight how weak, sinful, and fruitless we are living in these bodies of sin. The strength, righteousness, and fruitfulness that we long for comes from the inner man, where our spirits are joined with the Holy Spirit. From that union inundated by the love of God, love for God and others flows. Meditate on this, and let the wonder of living to love with Jesus encourage your soul.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:21-22 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,Paul taught his readers that there was an important distinction to be made between his body (the outer man) and the mind of the inner man. He had said that who he is in Christ wants to do the good thing, he wants to practice righteousness, but if he looks to the flesh for the power to do it, he not only finds himself not able to do the good, but ends up doing evil. So in this verse he summarized his condition when he tries to live his life under the Law. He found that there was a principle or dynamic of evil present in his flesh that was drawn out and exposed by the Law. It wouldn’t have been recognized if he had not been changed in the inner man by the Spirit of God to want to do the good that the law commands. His inner man, as a son of God, agreed that the righteousness of the Law is good, but that knowledge of the goodness of the Law was not more powerful than the principle of sin dwelling in his body. So to be clear, Paul was showing his readers that the Law did not have the power to produce fruit for God, even in the believer. Holiness, righteousness, and goodness cannot be produced by the knowledge of the Law because of the principle of sin dwelling in our bodies. Let me put it before us in an equation format. Flesh + Law —> sin. The Holy Spirit + Faith —> righteousness. Do you live your life from the impulses of the outer man or the inner man? Are you trying to do good without intentionally and consciously being filled with the Holy Spirit? Today, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are united with Christ in the inner man, live and love out of His life. He is your righteousness from God, the source of your love, and your hope of glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.In this verse, we see how the apostle Paul wrestled with his identity. All believers in Jesus will go through the same experience. What we learn about identity from Paul is very important to living to love with Jesus. We’ve been learning from Paul’s teaching about the Law, what it can and can’t do. Paul was intent on teaching them how important it was for them to realize that through Jesus’ death on the cross, they were set free from the Law. In these verses he was explaining that the Law can’t produce fruit for God because its purpose is to reveal the powerlessness, hostility, sinfulness, and fruitlessness of the flesh. He had said there was nothing good in him, in the flesh, so in the flesh he ended up practicing the very thing he didn’t want to do, namely, breaking the law. In this verse he gave the root of his problem: indwelling sin in his body, the flesh. He stated that if he (the believer united with Jesus) did the very thing he didn’t want to do, then, he wasn’t the one doing it. It was sin which was aggravated and enlivened by the Law that did it. Paul’s point was that the doing of the good isn’t possible if we are trying to do the right thing without a conscious union with Jesus Christ. Paul lived his life by this gospel reality—he was united with Jesus in His death and resurrection (which he explained in chapter 6). In Gal. 2:20, Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” This is why I call it living to love with Jesus. The only way we can do the good of loving for the glory of God is if we are living with an intentional, conscious union with Jesus, our Lord, Savior, Redeemer, and lover of our souls. So the scripture encouragement for today from this verse is to encourage you to be intentional about living out of your union with Jesus Christ. Who are you? You are a child of God united with Jesus by the power of God through faith. He is your life. He loves the people He puts in your path. Abide in Him and receive His love for others. This is the way we do what we want to do, which is glorify God by loving Him and loving with Him. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.If you remember, Paul said that the law was holy, righteous, and good, so when Paul referred to “the good” that he wanted, he had the fulfilling of the law in consideration. He wanted to do the law, but remember, what the law does? It aggravates sin (vs. 5), gives him knowledge of sin (vs. 7), and brings it to life in the flesh (vs. 5). Repeatedly trying to keep the law in the power of the flesh will ultimately result in your practicing law-breaking, the very evil you don’t want to do. Peter’s denial of Jesus illustrated what Paul taught here. John 13:37-38 “Peter said to Him,’“Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.’ Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.’” Peter wanted to do good for Jesus, and he thought he could it. In the flesh, Peter tried to do the good he wanted to do, but instead did the very evil he didn’t want to do. This reminds us that if we want to do good, we should not attempt to “live for Jesus” in the power of our self-will. God’s way of glorifying Himself is to glorify His Son. That’s why He was sent. He is the way. His life is the truth. He is the only way God gets glory in our lives. If we want to practice righteousness and not practice evil, then we should give the Holy Spirit access to all that we are and surrender ourselves to be vessels of His love. That’s why we pray the live to love prayer. “Father, thank You for another day of life to know and love You and live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the power of the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love everyone You put in my path today, for Your glory.” Living to love with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit will enable you to do the good that you want to do.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. I’ll admit that this and the following verses are confusing. Some think Paul was describing his life before He was born again while others think he was referring to the internal spiritual conflict after he was saved. My purpose in the Live to Love scripture encouragements isn’t to give a thorough exegesis, but to show you how we can draw encouragement to live to love with Jesus from any scripture. I believe this is possible because God is love and all the Scriptures are the word of God, “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16). In short, all scriptures are profitable for loving with Jesus. When we get to chapter 8, he’ll contrast the power of flesh and the power and work of the Holy Spirit. However, all of these verses in chapter 7 should be taken in the context of what the law of God can and cannot do without the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit. So what encouragement to live to love with Jesus can we draw from this verse? It is this: trying to live to love or to make the right choices in the flesh will not result in righteousness or good. Why is that? He said it is because in our flesh, no good thing dwells. He’s not saying there’s no power to love within the believer, he will get to that. He was teaching them that the doing of the law by the flesh isn’t able to produce goodness or love. Knowing the law—knowing you ought to love and even having the power of choice to do so will still fall short of the glory of God. The law always speaks to the fleshly conscience to perform, and God never intended to receive glory by man choosing to do the right thing of his own free will. God only gets glory if the good done issues forth from the life of Jesus Christ. Let me say that again. God only gets glory if the good done issues forth from the life of Jesus Christ motivated by love for God. That power doesn’t lie in the free will of man, it only resides in abiding union with Jesus. That’s why I call you to live to love with Jesus and not just to live to love. If I just challenge you to live to love, it will become a law to you that you will try to do for God for your own glory, which is the way of the natural or fleshly person. That doesn’t glorify God and thus isn’t good. The chief end of man, as the Westminster Confession teaches is to glorify God. How is God glorified? Only by the life of Jesus Christ dwelling and revealed in man through love. So today, I encourage you that God doesn’t expect you, in the flesh, to do good, to love Him or your brother or sister. You may want to, and you may have the faculty of will, but the only way for you to glorify God is to live abiding in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit and loving with Him, whoever He puts in your path today. Does Jesus live in you? If He does, love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:15-17 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. Even after we have been regenerated, the Law still reveals the powerlessness of the flesh, which Paul illustrated in these verses. He was puzzled and troubled by his relationship and experience with the Law. Having a new heart and a desire to obey God, he agreed with the Law’s requirements that they were good. He also had come to hate sinning or breaking the Law. But the part that was puzzling was that although he wanted to practice obeying the Law and doing what was good, and he hated doing what was wrong, he still found himself falling short and doing what he hated. Here’s Paul’s conclusion to the puzzle. Ok, If I don’t want to do it, then it’s not me who’s doing it. It’s sin which dwells in my mortal body. In other words already used, it’s the flesh, sold into bondage to sin that’s causing the problem. What stirred up or aggravated that indwelling sin? The Law. This emphasizes for us an important truth as we walk with Jesus. Walking with Jesus was never intended to be a fleshly attempt at religion or spirituality. Righteousness isn’t something we can do or attain by our own efforts (this was a major point in Paul’s letter). Rather, righteousness is the gift of God through Jesus Christ. We attain to righteousness by grace, not by the works of the Law. We live to love with Jesus as a result of the gift of righteousness. Here’s how this works out. God declared us righteous in Christ. According to His timetable and through His appointed means, the Holy Spirit is sent into our hearts producing new life (regeneration) the effect of which is faith in Christ. Knowing that it is a God-produced faith, our consciences have proof that God is for us, that we are forgiven and cleansed of all our sin through Jesus Christ. We know by experience that we are loved! The Holy Spirit then sheds God’s love abroad in our hearts. That tsunami of the love of Christ is the fountain of our love for others, which is the fruit of righteousness. All believers are familiar with the puzzle and trouble experienced by Paul when they try to relate to God on the grounds of the commandments of God and try to attain to the righteousness of God in their own strength. This reminds us to pursue love through Jesus Christ by trusting in His righteousness and His indwelling power as we live to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. So far we’ve learned from Paul that the law is holy, righteous, and good. In vs. 14, we learn that the law is spiritual. The law is spiritual in that it tests, reveals, or proves if the Spirit of God is at work in the individual. If the Holy Spirit is at work, then the person is enabled to love and does what is holy, righteous, and good. However, if the person isn’t relying on the Holy Spirit, and instead is trying to keep the law in the power of the flesh, then they will succumb to the power of sin. So the Law is spiritual. Paul wrote in 5:12-13, “through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” In chapter 7, Paul had been teaching his readers that the Law aggravated sin, defined sin, and revealed the utter sinfulness of sin. He made this point by applying this reality to himself. Although he sinned when Adam sinned (5:12), he didn’t know he was in bondage to sin until the law “came” to him. By “the law came” Paul meant that once he became aware of the law, “You shall not covet.” it impressed its requirements upon his conscience. He became aware of what he should not do and what he should do. At once sin became alive, and it resulted in his death.That is the spiritual nature of the law. It revealed his spiritual condition in the present tense. He is of flesh, which he describes as being one sold into bondage to sin. A good definition of flesh is the natural man under the dominion of sin. All his natural faculties and abilities had been sold into bondage to sin when Adam and Eve made the first transaction with Satan and the Law. He didn’t know that until the Law came to do its work. This gives us insight into how to love those who have yet to believe in Jesus. They first need the spiritual work of the law in their hearts so they can see their true spiritual condition. The highest good of someone is to trust in and rely on Jesus for the glory of God. Sin has so enslaved us that we cannot see its power, presence, and affect without help. So in love, God gave the law. When we love with Jesus, He knows when the loving thing to do is to bring the law of God to bear upon the conscience. We can trust the Holy Spirit to use the law to help the person see their true spiritual state before God, namely, that they are of the flesh, in bondage to sin, and in need for a savior. Today, living to love with Jesus may involve telling someone about the law of God. The new commandment of God will accomplish the same ministry as the old commandment of the law. God requires them to believe that Jesus is God and to love as He has loved (1 John 3:23 “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us”). It will reveal that they are of flesh and sold into bondage to sin. They can’t do what Jesus commanded without the power of the Holy Spirit, and they can’t get free from the condemnation of the commandment apart from the work of Jesus on the cross. We believe in Jesus and live to love because of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling life of Jesus Christ. He has worked in us by grace what He has commanded us to do. Enjoy His grace and love those He puts in your path.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. Apparently God knew we would never be able to understand how bad sin is in character without the Law. “Utterly sinful” means sinful beyond measure. It communicates that sin is excessively sinful. The fact that sin takes something that is holy, righteous, and good and uses it to effect our death reveals its hideous, evil nature. But let’s contrast the nature of sin with the nature of righteousness. Righteousness takes something that is unmeasurably awful and evil, namely sin, and uses it to reveal the nature of love as it effects eternal life! Seeing how terrible sin is through its use of the Law should encourage us as we see how glorious righteousness is as it uses sin to reveal love. There is a very good chance that today, you and I will be given the same opportunity. Someone will sin against us, and the righteousness of Christ in us will take that opportunity to reveal the love of Christ through suffering without complaint, complete forgiving of the transgression, and allowing that person to stand in right relationship with us—if they so choose. What an incredible thought and encouragement as to what it means to live to love with Jesus. It is the exact opposite of the utter sinfulness of sin. I hope you’ll introduce others to the Live to Love Scripture Encouragement podcasts by sharing today’s podcast. And if you haven’t visited livetolovewithjesus.com, I hope you’ll do that soon. There are free resources to help you as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Paul knew the Roman Jews would initially think that Paul had thrown the Law under the bus when he wrote that it aggravated, defined, and made sin alive to the point of killing them. They might conclude that the Law must be a terrible thing, and if God gave it, that makes Him a terrible person. So this statement about the Law being holy, righteous, and good was necessary. The Law is holy, righteous, and good because God is holy, righteous, and good. We have insight into Paul’s understanding of the Law also from Galatians 5:14. “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’” Later in Romans 13:10 Paul echoes the same truth. “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:17), Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Jesus not only fulfilled the Law by loving when He was in His earthly body, but He is still fulfilling it in His new bodily creation as we love with Him. We are the body of Christ, and as He loves through us, He is fulfilling His Law which is holy, righteous, and good. Let us be encouraged today to live not by the commandments of the Law, but by the life of the Law-giver. He is love, and loving with Him far exceeds the requirements of the Law. Commit yourself, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to love with Jesus, and do what is in the highest good of everyone you meet. What is the highest good? It is for them to bring God glory through Jesus Christ on “that day”—the day they stand before Jesus and give Him an account of their lives. If you do so, then it will be revealed that you did what was holy, righteous, and good in God’s sight.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:10-11 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. Sin kills us, just like it did Paul. It takes opportunity through the commandments of God to deceive us. How does sin deceive us through the commandment? If we think back to the example of Adam and Eve, we remember that Eve was deceived by sin. 1 Timothy 2:14 “And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.” First, Satan twisted the command of God. “And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, “You shall not eat from any tree of the garden”’?” Second, he lied, misrepresented God, and deceived Eve into sin saying, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4-5). Had there been no commandment, Satan and Eve may have had a conversation, but there would have been nothing to use to deceive her and entice her into sin. Without the Law or the commandment, there could be no sin. But once sin comes to life, it is murderous. Sin deceives us and kills us. Paul’s argument was to convince his readers of the glorious work of Jesus Christ as He died and was raised according to the Scriptures. He released them (and us) from the Law in order to deliver them (and us) from the power of sin. There is no obligation of the flesh (or natural man) to the Law because the flesh was crucified with Christ and the Law was satisfied. This was accomplished by God so we could receive the free gift of eternal life and thus live in newness of life through Jesus Christ, who lives in us. This great gospel truth is the foundation for living to love with Jesus. There would be no “with Jesus” if God had not given us eternal life in Christ, we would never, ever believe in Jesus and look to Him for the power to love those He puts in our paths. Living with Jesus, we have everything that we need for godliness and for loving. We have His life, His mind, His heart, His faith, His power, and His love dwelling in our mortal bodies, filling us with eternal life. Does that encourage you? I hope so. Jesus has conquered sin and death, which had deceived and killed you. You are now free to pour out the love of God in this world for His glory.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; Look at the sinfulness of sin—that it takes someone who was once alive and kills them! We can best see this truth in the lives of Adam and Eve. Before God gave them a law, they were alive to God. Sin could not come alive because apart from the Law, it doesn’t even exist. The power of sin is the Law (1 Cor. 15:56). After God spoke the words, “but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17), sin was aggravated by the Law, Satan deceived and tempted them with lies. When they committed the forbidden deed, they died. And that’s how sin works with the Law. I want to encourage you today with this wonderful truth. In light of what Paul wrote here, can you see what a blessing you have received by being released from the Law when Jesus died on the cross? He fulfilled all of the Law’s demands and bore the curse of the Law, ending its jurisdiction over everyone who believes in Jesus. I like how Paul put it to the Colossians. Colossians 2:13-14 "When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us (that’s the Law), which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” God took the Law out of the way. Therefore sin cannot live as far as believers are concerned! Let that sink in! As Paul wrote in 6:6, “sin has been made powerless.” The other day, God put Renee´ in my path at the park where I walk. I’ve met her before and prayed for her. So when I saw her, I asked if I could pray for anything specific in her life. I shared the Live to Love prayer with her and then encouraged her that God knew her today and loved her. I could tell she was touched and blessed by Jesus’ love. Today, we are freed from the Law to live to love with Jesus. We don’t love because we have to, we love because we want to and get to. It’s a wonderful privilege to meet, listen, care, encourage, and pray for those God puts in our paths—that’s how the kingdom of God rolls.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
The faith of Christ takes opportunity through relationships to produce love. Romans 7:8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. We gain very helpful insight into the relationship between the Law and sin in verse 8 that will encourage us to hope and trust in future grace to love by abiding in Christ. Paul had incredible insight into how sin works with the Law. Without the Law, sin is dead. It has no power to live. Sin cannot live without the commandment from the Law. But with the Law, an opportunity exists for sin to produce every kind of coveting. Paul wrote more about this in the next two verses. Today, from this verse we can see why we don’t want to be motivated by the “don’ts” of the Law. Instead, since we stand in grace before God, we can have confidence in future grace, namely, the grace to love that flows from the life of Jesus indwelling our mortal bodies. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he concluded by bestowing a blessing from God, the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Eph. 6:23-24: “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.” You stand in grace by the favor of God, the Father, through the righteousness of the Son. You are joined with Jesus, so you live with Him today. You can expect the faith of Christ in you to take opportunity to work through love as God puts people in your life. You can expect future grace as you walk in love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” The question in vs. 7 rises out of his teaching that the Law aggravates sin, brings it out into the open so we can see that we are sinners in need of a savior. Does that mean that the Law is sin if it stirs me to sin? Paul again answered with a strong, “No. Not. Never!” In today’s Live to Love Scripture encouragement, we gain further insight into God’s purposes for the Law. Paul detailed another purpose of the Law: to define sin or to reveal what actions are transgressions against God. Paul could have chosen any of the Ten Commandments to illustrate his point, but he chose the tenth, “You shall not covet.” He said that he would not have known that coveting was a sin, much less that he had sinned against God in that way without the Law. The Law of God, to those who love God and His Law, helps us see how super-abounding God’s grace is. When we live to love with Jesus, we have Jesus’ worldview dwelling within. As we abide in Him, we think according to three foundational worldview truths. I’ve shared them before, but I don’t think we can repeat them enough, because they aren’t natural. They are supernatural. They reveal the mind of Christ. They are explained in chapter 2 of my book, Live to Love. 1. There is only one God from whom are all things, and He is love. 2. Jesus’ love is enough. Jesus’ love satisfies my soul. 3. God’s purpose in all things is to make me like Christ and prepare me for eternity. When we believe that everything we have (or don’t have) issues from God’s love and we believe His love fills and satisfies our souls, then we are content with God and His purpose for us. In contrast, covetousness rises out of the soul of someone who isn’t content, feels like they need more than they have been given, and isn’t satisfied with Jesus. If you have purposed today to live to love with Jesus, you are not doing so because the Law requires you to do so. You aren’t trying to prevent coveting what others have because the Law says it’s a sin. Paul’s point was that you are freed from the Law and that it has no jurisdiction over you. Why? Because now you have a higher motivation for righteousness, namely, the grace and love of God. The result is a righteousness that is higher than the Law. You not only don’t want to covet what others have, you want to give to them whatever they need to become more like Jesus and find satisfaction in Him. I hope this encourages you today to not live to keep the Law as you love people, but instead live to love with Jesus. Give Him access to all that you are for the highest good of those God puts in your path.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. Yes! Now that we have died with Christ, God released us from the Law. The tense of the verb “release” makes it clear that the action happened to us in the past at a specific point in time. The very moment Jesus breathed His last breath on the cross and gave up His spirit, we were released from the Law. Up until that point in time, every human being was bound to all of the requirements of the Law. When we were born into this world, we didn’t know that we had been released from the Law. The Jew was born into this world under the Law and they were taught that they were bound to live according to the letter of the Law. Such service never enabled anyone to live in freedom and bear fruit for God. Everyone who was united to Christ, by God’s doing, at the moment of His death, was released from the Law. For all of my listeners who have believed in Jesus, that means from the time you were born, the Law had no jurisdiction over you according to God’s grace. However, you didn’t know it. So when you heard God’s Law, your conscience told you that it had a claim on you. So you felt obligated to try to obey it. You discovered that you didn’t have the ability to perform it according to the letter of the Law, and you knew you deserved to die and were spiritually dead. Because you were united to Christ by God, He sent someone into your pathway to love you and share the gospel with you. At some point, God opened your eyes to understand God’s great gift of the righteousness of Christ to everyone who believes. At the same time, He sent the Holy Spirit to cleanse your conscience by faith as He did with the Gentiles in Acts 15:9. The word of the gospel was united with faith in your heart. Romans chapters 4-7 inform you that if God did that in your heart, then you were released from the Law the moment Jesus died on the cross. And instead of standing before God’s court of Law, guilty and condemned, you stand before Him in grace. When that realization hit you, the Holy Spirit then poured out the love of God within your heart. You knew God had loved you even when you were a sinner, and your heart was committed to righteousness by the Spirit so you could serve God in newness of life and not according to the oldness of the letter of the Law. So be encouraged by these great gospel truths from Paul in Romans. You can serve God today by bearing fruit for Him through the power of the Holy Spirit as you live to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. Paul’s Jewish readers needed to understand how the Law works and why they needed to be set free from the Law. From their perspective, the Law was the source of their identity, their confidence before God was that they were the custodians of the Law. What could be a higher blessing or privilege than to be identified with the Law? Why would they wish to be separated from it and delivered out from under its jurisdiction? In this verse, Paul explained that the first problem with still being under the Law is the Law’s power to arouse sinful passions of the flesh. One day as exited the jetway in Chicago, I noticed a sign on the wall, “Wet paint, do not touch.” I was the last person off the plane, and almost without thinking, I lightly put my index finger on the wall. Yep, it was wet! I’m fairly certain, if there had been no sign, I wouldn’t have touched the paint. I’m embarrassed to tell you this story, but it illustrates the power of the Law as Paul explained it in this verse. There was a desire at work in the members of my body that I wasn’t even aware of until the Law came. In less than 2 seconds, I became a law-breaker, lawless, a sinner. The Law of God addresses much more significant issues than touching wet paint. We could go down the list of those ten commandments, and we would discover that indeed, we can only bear fruit for death. As long as the Law has jurisdiction over us, we cannot bear fruit for God. That’s why God, who is rich in mercy, and because of His great love granted us favor by uniting us with His Son in His death. When He died to sin, we died to sin. The old Adam was crucified, and we have been raised to walk in newness of life with Jesus. Praise His holy name. To God be the glory. Now Jesus, living His life of love in us, can produce His love in us, and we bear fruit for God. This doesn’t happen by mistake. It happens intentionally as we present the members of our bodies to Jesus, give Him access to all that we are so we can fervently love from the heart. What a privilege and joy to live life with such purpose and freedom! How encouraging.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. Today we may be encouraged by the wonderful liberating work of God in Christ Jesus on the cross. Having been united with Christ, by God’s doing, according to 1 Cor. 1:30, we were made to die to the Law. The Law bound us to our first husband, Adam, but through the body of Christ, in His death, the old sinful life in Adam died. Since he is dead, we could be joined to Jesus, who was raised from the dead. Jesus, as Paul wrote earlier in 6:10, now lives His life to God. He has become our new husband, and He enables us to bear fruit for God. That’s a fit description of what living to love with Jesus is: bearing fruit for God through Jesus Christ. That’s exactly what Jesus taught His disciples in His last discourse. John 15:4-5; 7-8. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing…If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” To “bear fruit” doesn’t mean produce fruit. The idea of the word “bear” is to carry or display. With Jesus as our husband so to speak, we have been impregnated with the life of God. The fruit of the life of God is love. It’s the proof that indeed we have been joined to Jesus. Our fruit looks like Him!!! Today, let us display the fruit of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and prove that we are His disciples and His bride. I hope you’ll share this podcast with others so they too can be encouraged to bear fruit for God for His glory by living to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
In Rom. 7:2-3, Paul continued explaining how believers are released from the Law and therefore free to live with Jesus. He wrote, “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.” In verses 2-3, Paul provided an example illustrating how it is possible that the Law no longer has jurisdiction over them. They all would understand that the Law binds a woman to her husband as long as he is alive. As long as her husband lives, the Law has jurisdiction over her. However, if her husband dies, the Law has no authority over her life in regards to her relationship with her husband or any other single man, for that matter. She is released from her responsibilities to her husband according to the Law through the death of the spouse. Being released from the responsibilities of the Law was an important reality for Paul and should be for all believers. Paul had already made it perfectly clear in chapter 3 that no man can be justified by the works of the Law (3:10-20). It is impossible for anyone to fulfill what the Law requires because all have fallen short of the Law’s standards of righteousness (3:21). In chapter 6, perhaps you remember Paul reminded the Romans that they were “not under Law.” In the first verses of chapter 7 Paul explained how it was that they were not under Law. There’s been the death of one of the two parties who were in a covenant of Law. He used the illustration of the husband’s death, but he could have used either party in his example. Today, we may rejoice in the great truth that we are no longer under the Law, but under grace. Therefore, we have been set free from the covenant that says, “If you keep the Law, you live. If you break that Law, you die.” All who believe in Jesus have been released from the Law’s requirements through Jesus Christ, which Paul will explain later. This frees us to live to love with Jesus without guilt or condemnation. Hallelujah! We can serve Jesus today with a clear conscience and love as Paul testified is possible in 1 Tim. 1:5. “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” So let me encourage you to fervently, freely, joyfully love today as Jesus does.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:23-7:1 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? Here’s another thing Paul made sure his readers knew. If you have not died with Christ, then you are still alive to the Law, and therefore receiving your wages from sin. However, if you were crucified with Christ, then you have died and the Law no longer has a right to speak over your life. As a result, having been raised to life with Christ, you have eternal life. Notice Paul had just said the free gift of God is eternal life. Here’s the encouragement for the day. If you have been justified through the death and resurrection of Christ, which you have if you believe in Him and trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of righteousness, then the Law no longer speaks its curse of death upon you. Instead, God speaks the life of Jesus Christ over you and you are covered in His righteousness and filled with His life. That means that today you have the privilege of living with Jesus! Jesus is God. God is love. Just as Jesus was in this world in His body, so are you in this world. Live to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Paul summed up this section of his letter with this great statement of the faith. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We all used to be slaves of sin. We presented ourselves to sin because we thought there was some benefit to doing what we wanted to do. However, we discovered that the wages sin paid were not what we expected or were hoping for. When we held out our hands expecting to receive life, instead, we got death. That’s all that sin has to offer for our service. But what a contrast it is to present ourselves to God for His service! There we were, dead in sin, when faith came to us. Our eyes were opened, and we exulted in God. We discovered we were justified before God through the finished work of Jesus Christ. We found ourselves ushered us into the presence of God, united with Jesus, dressed in His righteousness, and at peace with God forever. And it is all a free gift of God. We didn’t have any good in us to recommend ourselves to Him. We couldn’t and didn’t do anything to earn it. Incredibly, remarkably, we passed from death into life eternal by the glorious grace of God. If you have received eternal life freely from God, then I encourage you to share His life with everyone you meet today and everyday until He returns. The natural and simplest way to do that is to love them as He has loved you. Freely give as you have freely received through Jesus Christ. He is your Lord, and He has given you this commandment and committed your heart to it. “Love one another as I have loved you.” What a gift! What life! Can you think of someone who might be encouraged by today’s podcast? I hope you’ll pass it on.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. Would you consider yourself freed from sin? Have you presented yourself to God as His slave of righteousness? If so, you not only know, but are experiencing your benefit, namely, righteous living or in my words, living to love with Jesus. As a result, you are being sanctified. You can see the Spirit of God working in your life and impacting the lives of those God puts in your path. You are also experiencing the outcome of giving yourself to God as His obedient servant. You know the Father and the Son personally and intimately. That’s eternal life, according to Jesus’ own words recorded by the apostle John in the 17th chapter of his gospel. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” The reason I wrote Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships is so that my readers would grow in intimacy with Christ and experience eternal life now. The hope we have of eternal life in the future is that we are partakers of His life now, each day, in this temporal world. That’s what living to love with Jesus is all about. It’s about our union with Jesus and His life being expressed through the members of our bodies. If you haven’t already read or listened to Live to Love, I invite you to visit livetolovewithjesus.com and dive into the Live to Love resources which are available for free.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:20-21 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. This verse may seem a little confusing. In human terms, he told them that when they were slaves of sin, they were free in regard to righteousness. In other words, they had no obligation to righteousness. He encouraged them by helping them remember the outcome of living as slaves of sin and giving themselves over to the things of which they were then ashamed. What was the outcome? Death! They were separated from God and condemned to eternal death. Do you remember being in that condition? As you think of your former lifestyle, are you not ashamed of the things you did? Does it not sober you to remember how you never even thought of pursuing righteousness. More than likely, you mocked those who didn’t walk in the same path or have the same ideology as you and your friends. What do you think about that lifestyle now? Are you not ashamed of it? We should be encouraged if that is the case with us. When I think back on the days, weeks, months, and years wasted in seeking my own selfish ambition and satisfying the desires of the flesh and of the mind, I am embarrassed, ashamed, but grateful to God for His glorious grace. My life is so different as I walk in love with Jesus each day. I’m not perfect, but I’m on a drastically different trajectory than I used to be. Thanks be to God! I hope you can say the same and rejoice with me in expressing our thanksgiving to God for another day of life to know and love Him and live to love with Jesus. If you have found the Live to Love Scripture Encouragements podcast to be a blessing in your relationship with Jesus, I would like to ask you to share it with your friends and family. In a world where we are inundated with bad news, Scripture encouragements are a breath of fresh air. Let’s share the good news.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. Here in chapter 6 of Romans, Paul was combatting the danger of antinomianism or an attitude of lawlessness since grace super abounds where sin abounds. He had raised the question, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may increase?” Then Paul worked out his reasons for answering with a triple negative, “No, not, never.” He used the imagery of slavery, which they would understand. However, those are not human terms we relate to very well in our day, unless we think in terms of those who are slaves to sex traffickers. The normal person probably can’t imagine a woman presenting herself to a pimp and willingly enslaving herself to them. However, it happens more in other countries than we might think. I learned from the leadership team of a ministry that rescues women from the sex industry that women become slaves because they need or owe money. They have learned they can use their bodies to make money and that pimps are their agents. It’s not much different than an author who sign a book deal with a publisher. They present themselves to the agent, and the agent markets his product and arranges appointments and interviews to make money for the publisher (as well as the author). I am speaking in human terms we understand in our day. Paul’s point was this: you used to present your bodily members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness. You did what you wanted to do for self-fulfillment. What was the outcome of that lifestyle? Further lawlessness. Now that you have died with Christ and have been raised to walk in a new life with Him, present your body to God as a slave of righteousness. The result will be your sanctification. You will become more like Jesus. You will be more holy. The very thing you now desire will take place. Do you want to be more like Jesus? Do you want to be more holy? Then this verse encourages us to give ourselves to Jesus for His service. When we give Him full access to all the members of our bodies because we love Him and love righteousness as He does, He will live His life in us to God which will prepare us for His coming. Jesus gave His disciples the word which the Father gave Him to give to them. It is found in John 13:34-35. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” A few minutes later, Jesus prayed this prayer, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” If you will intentionally commit yourself to live to love with Jesus, the result will be your sanctification as His righteousness is expressed through you.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:17-18 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. There are five points of encouragement in these verses that should motivate us to live to love with Jesus. First, we thank God because our salvation is totally from God, therefore thanksgiving should naturally flow from our hearts. Second, we give God thanks for what He has accomplished on our behalf. We were slaves of sin, but now we have been set free from sin’s power of eternal death. Third, we thank God because He didn’t just set us free from sin’s control. He did a work of grace in our hearts, giving us heart-driven obedience to the gospel truth. Fourth, we thank God that there is a form of teaching to be committed to that is timeless, liberating, and God-glorifying. And fifth, thanks be to God that we have joyful hearts in living for righteousness. We are willing slaves of righteousness. We feel privileged to live righteously for God’s glory. Living to love with Jesus is what being slaves of righteousness looks like. Let’s remember Paul’s point in these verses is to explain why we don’t have a careless, antinomian (that’s lawless) attitude because of the grace in which we stand. Thanks be to God that we don’t have that attitude. He has transformed our hearts and committed our hearts to righteousness so we don’t continue living under the dominion of sin in our mortal bodies. We live to love with Jesus for the glory of God because He accomplished such a wonderful work of grace. We love righteousness like Jesus does. The writer of Hebrews quoted Ps. 45:7 which describes Jesus. “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.” That love of righteousness lives in us if Jesus lives in us. That’s why we love to live to love with Jesus! It’s the righteous thing to do in light of the grace of God which we enjoy and our union with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
The Live to Love Blog is a monthly blog by Norm Wakefield from The Spirit of Elijah Ministries and livetolovewithjesus.com. This is the fourth installment in the Series on It's a Matter of Identity from Norm's book, Walking Worthy as a Son of God available at spiritofelijah.com. This month's blog explains and answers the question: Who is your power source?
Romans 6:16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? What the apostle Paul reasons in this verse he thinks should be common knowledge. “Do you not know?” Basically we should know that whoever we obey, we are their slaves. He had just told them to present the members of their bodies to Jesus for His use. In this verse, we learn what he understood that presentation of our bodies to mean. It means obedience. We specifically and intentionally say to Jesus that we will obey whatever He says. In Paul’s view, we are Jesus’ slaves and the result will be righteousness or love for others. In essence, if we take what has been written before, Jesus set us free from enslavement to sin so we could freely submit ourselves to Him. He’s going to unpack this even more in the following verses. But for today, we can take great encouragement to settle it in our hearts that we were bought with a price and we are not our own. We belong to Jesus. He lives in us, and we are His bondservants. We consider it a privilege and a joy to do His will as we live to love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! In this verse we have the question found in vs. 1 asked in a slightly different form. There he asked, “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” Here, “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” The answer to both questions is, “May it never be!” The next verses explain why the answer is such a strong, “No!” Today we have this encouraging take away. Paul knew his Jewish readers mindset. They had not only lived under the Law, they prided themselves in having the Law. It’s what distinguished them from the wicked Gentiles who didn’t have the Law. Their reasoning was that the Gentiles or Greeks were such sinners because they didn’t have the restraint that the Law offered. In their minds, people who don’t have the Law have nothing to keep them from sinning, nothing to restrain them. We are going to see in chapter 7 that the Law doesn’t actually restrain sin, on the contrary, it aggravates it. This helps us to see that even though we have the command from Jesus Himself that we are to love one another as He loves us, we are not to think of it as a Law. We are instead to think of it as a means of grace. Because we are under grace, we learn that God’s grace provides what the Law requires. Through our union with Jesus and with His Spirit dwelling within, we have both the will and the power to love as Jesus and the Law requires. Some think that we receive God’s grace because we choose to believe and put our faith in Jesus Christ as an act of free will. They think that if you take away free will, you take away man’s responsibility. Under the Law, the Law is only concerned with the act of the will to obey and do. Under grace, not only is the act of the will important, but the heart behind it is of greater concern. The evidence that one is under God’s grace is that the heart is transformed by the Spirit of God which gives them all that they need to trust in Christ for their salvation and to live to love. So asking this question another way highlights the absurdity of it. Shall we not live to love with Jesus because we are no longer under Law but under grace? That’s ridiculous! Absurd! Impossible! Because we are under grace, we consider it a privilege to love in His name.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What a great encouragement we receive from this verse from the apostle Paul. If we are no longer under the dominion and demands of the Law, which we aren’t if we have died with Christ, and if we are under the blessing of God’s grace, then sin is not our master any more. Paul explained how it is that we are no longer under Law in chapter 7 of Romans. So we will get to that encouragement later in August. But for now, we can be encouraged by this glorious reality. We stand before a throne of grace, not a court of Law. God has justified us in Christ through faith (5:1) therefore we have peace with God and His grace covers and fills us. This grace in which we stand isn’t just a position of righteousness. From that position of righteousness flows the grace and ability to live righteously—to live to love with Jesus. Paul wrote earlier in 5:5 that the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit. He is our Master, the One to whom we have given the members of our body in His service. In union with Him, we have all that He is as the source of life. God chose us in Christ for this very purpose, namely, to use us as His instruments of love in this world. You can count on His supply of grace—whatever is needed—to love whoever He puts in your path today. You live under the shower of God’s gracious supply—a tsunami of love flowing continuously from the throne of grace through those who are His.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:12-13 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Yesterday we were encouraged by Paul’s admonition to the Romans not to let sin reign in their bodies, today we take further encouragement about how to do that. Verses 12-14 seem to be the application of the doctrine of our union with Jesus. If we were united with Jesus in His death and resurrection and we are new creations in Christ with Jesus dwelling in our bodies (We are His temple), then we have a responsibility, a stewardship if you will, in the process of sanctification. There is an obedience called for by the Holy Spirit if we are to walk in righteousness, which is the desire of Christ. Righteousness has to do with relating rightly to our fellow human beings. Paul clearly believed that regenerated persons have the capacity to stop practicing sin with their bodily members. He isn’t referring to their personalities because the soul of a believer is immortal. However, the body is mortal. Before we came to trust in Jesus, it was our practice to repeatedly present or give the members of our bodies to sin to use as instruments of unrighteousness. Paul commanded them to stop it because they now had the ability to do so since Jesus lives in them. Our bodies are no longer our own to use as we feel like it. Our bodily members belong to Jesus. Our bodies are His to use for the purpose of righteousness for the glory of God. Paul used this same reasoning with the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 6:15 “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!” Here is the encouragement for today. If you are standing in the grace of God and indwelled by Jesus Christ, or let me put it this way. If you are living with Jesus, then stop giving your mind, eyes, mouths, ears, hands, feet, or sexual members to sin, but settle it once and for all. Present your body to God like Jesus does. He lives to God (vs. 10), and He’s living to God in your body. You must give Him access to use your body as instruments of righteousness. This presentation of your body to God is an action done at one point in time. It is having an official service of dedication before God where you say to God. “I am alive to You in Christ. Here is my mind. Here are my eyes. Here is my tongue and mouth, etc. I present them to You to use to love others. My body is Yours to love through. Make my mind, eyes, mouth, hands, feet, and sexual organs Yours.” This gives hands and feet to living to love with Jesus. Have you had such an official dedication service before God with your body? If not, consider that the Holy Spirit commands it. To live to love with Jesus is to give Him access to all that you have and are. Then daily walk in the reality and faithfulness of your commitment to God with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, If we are going to live to love with Jesus, we must walk in the freedom He has purchased at the cross and in union with His life dwelling in our bodies. We are not to believe the lie that we cannot love like Jesus loves. We must not think like we normally think, being led astray by the sinful lusts and desires associated with living in our mortal bodies in this world. Why? Because we died to sin when Jesus died. We consider ourselves alive to God. What an encouragement it is to know who I am in Christ. One of the biggest transformations of life is that even though I may strongly feel the weaknesses and desires of my mortal body, that’s not who I am any more. I am not a slave of sin because Jesus set me from from its power. I declare today and everyday that sin shall not reign in my body. I do not have to obey any sinful feeling or lust that I experience. This declaration rises from the truth of my union with Jesus Christ and is vital to my walking in love with Him. Please join me in this declaration today as you are encouraged by Rom. 6:12. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts.” Say “No.” to the sinful lusts that wage war against the members of your body. There is a war raging as long as we are in this world. Paul, James, and Peter all wrote about it. Listen and be encouraged by them. Romans 7:23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. James 4:1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. So remember, not every thought or feeling you have is worth listening to or obeying. You are alive with Christ. Don’t let sin reign in your body. Draw your life, your satisfaction, your thoughts and feelings from Jesus. The Scriptures have clearly told us how He thinks and feels. We know He finds satisfaction in the love of His Father. So can you for Jesus is alive to God in you.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Today’s encouragement from Rom. 6:11 raises a question. What do you think about yourself? Do you consider yourself dead to all the natural feelings and thoughts you have that have been influenced by your experiences and the philosophies of this world? Do you consider yourself alive, tuned into, receptive and controlled by the feelings, thoughts, and influences of the Holy Spirit? I hope so! That’s what it is to be a Christian, to believe in Jesus, to believe that you were crucified and raised with Christ. Shall we continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! We are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. What does it mean to be alive to God? I’m sure the answer to that question isn’t quite as simple as I’m going to make it. But if God is love, which He is, wrote John. 1 Jo. 4:8. For God is love. Then to be alive to God is to give Jesus access to every faculty and body member that you possess for the purpose of loving whoever He puts in your path in this world. If God is love, then if you are alive to God, you will be a channel of His love. So, I encourage you today to consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus—live your life to love with Him. Join the adventure. I hope you’ll visit livetolovewithjesus.com and take advantage of the free resources provided to equip you to be a disciple of Jesus Christ-living to love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:9-10 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. There are some important things the Holy Spirit wants us to know and from which we can draw great encouragement today. First, in vs. 6, we know that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. Now in this verse, we know that the resurrected Christ is never to die again. Death no longer has authority over Him because He died to sin once for all. Therefore, the life that He now lives in us today, He lives to God, just like He always has. What an encouragement! We have the life of Jesus in us. He is not weighed down by our baggage—the lies we have believed and have identified with, the guilt and shame associated with our sins and failures, or the host of weaknesses that plague our flesh. We might be tired, but He isn’t. We might be afraid, but He isn’t. We might be dismayed with the current events, but He isn’t. We might feel inadequate to forgive, love, and endure, but He doesn’t feel that way. He lives in us, and He lives to God, meaning, He lives to love for the glory of God. That’s who you are! You are a son or daughter of the living God, with the righteous Son of God dwelling within your mortal body for the glory of God. So be encouraged. Act like who Jesus is in you. Walk as His disciple. Learn from His life. Watch Him respond to the events of the day and love the people God puts in your path, and be amazed at the privilege to live to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, Paul continued His encouragement to the Romans highlighting the great truth of our union with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. This verse has prompted me to ask these questions. Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins? If yes, then do you believe that you died to your selfish, natural life in this world when He died? Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead and now lives, never to die again? If yes, then do you believe that you were raised with Him so that you could live with Him and He with you forever? Let me ask one final question. Do you believe Jesus Christ lives in you today and everyday? If you answer “Yes” to all of these questions, then you believe that you have the life of Jesus dwelling in you. He saved you for the purpose of living His life of love in your mortal body. You have His purpose, worldview, mindset and agenda within you. The last question is this: Have you laid down your old natural purposes, worldviews, mindsets, and agendas and surrendered yourself to Him? That’s what living to love with Jesus is all about. Paul wrote that we believe we shall also live with Him. Today, for the glory of God in Christ, live with Jesus. Receive whatever happens today as from God, your Father, given to you in love so that you might find your satisfaction and life in Christ. Knowing this, that God’s purpose in all things is the same as it was with His Son, namely, to reveal His glory through His love. If we have died with Christ, let’s also live with Christ—obeying and loving for the glory of God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:7 for he who has died is freed from sin. Jesus Christ came to set us free from sin. John recorded Jesus in John 8:31-32. “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’” Jesus declared His mission of deliverance when He read from Isaiah 61. Luke 4:18 “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED.” If we have been united with Jesus in His death and resurrection, then we have died to sin, and are freed from sin’s power. Paul’s point was that since this is so, there’s no way believers can continue in sin because they stand in super-abounding grace. The encouragement for us today who are living to love with Jesus is that we are free to love with Jesus. It’s not a burden. It’s not difficult. It’s not even against our new nature now that we are united with Christ. We are free to say, “No.” to selfishness, unbelief, idolatry, unforgiveness, hard-heartedness, fear, and all the other sins that hinder the flow of God’s love. I hope you will rejoice in the Lord today. Praise Him for the power of His death on the cross and the resurrection. Sin’s power has been broken. Have you had a particular sin that has troubled you often? Declare the truth before the Lord and the enemy of your soul, “Jesus has freed me from the power of lust” (or pride or selfishness or whatever). I am free to love with You, Jesus! Thank You! Today, may we enjoy the fruit of Jesus’ saving and sanctifying work on our behalf.
Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; Today we can be encouraged by what Paul knew about our union with Jesus. His readers needed to know what was accomplished at the cross on their behalf so they could live a new life with Jesus. Just so we can follow Paul’s line of reason, let me review what he said in the previous verse. It is certain that we will live like Jesus lived after He was resurrected because we know that our old self, which was enslaved to sin, was crucified with Jesus. God accomplished this so that our body, which was under the dominion of sin, might be made powerless. Here’s the idea we need to grasp. Sin’s power is the Law. The Law gave sin the power to kill everyone who sins. When Jesus was crucified (and us in union with Him) the Law’s demand was fulfilled and sin’s power was done away with or made powerless. Before we were believers, when we sinned, sin had the power of death. But having been crucified with Jesus, sin has lost its power to enslave us because it no longer has the power to kill. Therefore, we are no longer enslaved to sin and death, even though we still live in bodies of sin. Additionally, Satan has lost his greatest weapon to enslave, namely the fear of death. The author of Hebrews understood the same great truth. In Heb. 2:14-15. “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” What was Paul’s point? Now that sin has been made powerless through our union with the death of Christ, we are no longer slaves of the devil, sin, and death. We don’t have to be afraid of sin, living in guilt and condemnation, but instead we have been united with Christ in His resurrection, and therefore we are free to live with Him to the glory of God. In short, we are free now to live to love with Jesus today if we live by what we know to be true of us in Christ. Heavenly Father, thank You for another day of life to know and love You and to live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill us with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that we can love and trust You and love those You put in our paths today for Your glory. Amen.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, Let’s be encouraged today by our union with Jesus. Paul reasoned with his readers in this way. If you have been united with Jesus so that His death to sin in this world is counted as your death to sin in this world, then it is a definite reality that you also will be united with His resurrection life. Paul’s point was this: having been united with Jesus’ death and resurrection, you certainly would not continue to live the old sin-sick life relying on the grace of God as your fire insurance. You have the resurrected, victorious Christ living within you. This is life transforming! You have a new life if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. That new life is like Jesus’ life. You have a new purpose, the same purpose as Jesus does now. We will see what that purpose is in the next few days. You have a new worldview because now you have the same relationship with God as Jesus does. You are a child of God who is loved by the Father. You have the potential to live your life from the same God-centered perspective as Jesus does. I mentioned three foundational worldview perspectives yesterday. I’ll repeat them today because we want to be Christ-like today. 1. There is only one God from whom all things come, and He is love. 2. Jesus’ love is enough. His love satisfies our souls. 3. God’s purpose in all things is to make us like Jesus and prepare us for eternity. If you think like Jesus and are identified by Jesus’ life, then everything changes. It’s a new life that you have the privilege of living—a life living to love with Jesus. I pray that we all will live in the fullness and newness of life that God intended and planned for all who have been united with Christ.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Yesterday we were encouraged by the truth that we were buried with Christ through our union with His death. Today we take great encouragement from the truth that when Jesus was raised from the dead, we were raised to live a new life with Him. Knowing this is foundational to living to love with Jesus. Let me underline in our minds the phrase “with Jesus.” He was raised from the dead in order that He would live His life in everyone who is united to Him. We live because He lives. We have the life of Jesus dwelling within us. This means that we no longer live according to our old fleshly, selfish, worldviews and values. We live according to the worldview and values of Jesus Christ, who is God and is love. The worldview of Christ as I’ve outlined it in Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships can be summed up in 3 foundational truths. I hope you’ll memorize them and filter all of life through them. From our perspective, they are: 1. There is only one God from whom all things come, and He is love. 2. Jesus’ love is enough. His love satisfies my soul. 3. God’s purpose in all things is to make us like Jesus and prepare us for eternity. Jesus lives, receiving life from His Father. That’s why Paul said we were raised “through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” The new life we live is a life characterized by His love. Our purpose for life has become Jesus’ purpose in life. He lived to reveal the love of God the Father for His glory. We live to reveal the love of God the Father through Jesus Christ for the glory of God. It is a privilege and joy to live in newness of life. I hope you’re encouraged today to live to love with Jesus for His glory because you were raised with Him through the glory of the Father.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death… We are only going to look at the first great truth declared in Rom. 6:4. Everyone who has been justified by God and who stands in the grace of which Paul wrote in 5:1, is identified with Jesus Christ. That’s what baptism into Christ means. We were immersed, buried, placed into the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul wanted his readers to understand why they should not continue in sin since the grace of God super abounds, conquering sin and death. Because we died to our fleshly, sinful lives in this world when Jesus died to this world, it is unthinkable that we would continue living for the same purpose, namely ourselves. Our greatest hindrance to living to love with Jesus is thinking that our natural life continues as the source of our lives. This great truth, that our identity is in Christ, is vital to living to love with Jesus. The unbelief, feelings, fears, pains, disappointments, values, worldview, and mindset which we had before we trusted in Christ have died and are no longer what identifies us in this world. When we consider ourselves dead to the old life, we are set free from these hindrances to love. Tomorrow, we’ll be encouraged by the great reality that we have been raised with Jesus. But today, be encouraged and remember that when Jesus died, you died to selfish living. Lay aside your old life and live to love today with Jesus for His glory.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? In the previous verse, Paul questioned his readers, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” The statement begs another question that Paul answered in today’s verse. When did we die to sin? We died to sin when Jesus died on the cross. He died to sin because once and for all, He paid the ransom for sin. Later in vs. 6, Paul made this point. Romans 6:10 “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” The writer of Hebrews 7:27 nailed it when he wrote of Jesus’ priestly ministry, He “who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.” Paul wrote that we have been baptized into Christ Jesus. The concept of baptism conveys the idea of being immersed into or put into or united with Jesus when He died. This clearly is in Paul’s understanding because he wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:30 “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” Wonder of wonders, in order to declare us just in His presence and give us grace in which to stand, God united us with Jesus making Him the means through which God demonstrated His righteousness in condemning sin and justifying the ungodly. His death to sin became our death to sin. When He died, we died. So shall we continue in sin because we are under grace? May it never be! If we are to live to love with Jesus, this great truth must be a daily consideration and firmly believed and applied. When we wake up each day in this world, we didn’t wake up to love our lives in this world and pursue our selfish agendas. Our identities are not derived from this temporal world and life in this world. Everyone else lives that way, but not those who know that they have been united with Jesus in His death. Notice this verse is another question. Do you not know that God united you with Jesus Christ so that when He died, you died to this world? So my Live to Love encouragement today from this verse is that if you wish to live to love with Jesus, believe, delight in, count as truth that you are dead to sin in this world.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Wow! What a question in response to the question, “Shall we continue in sin that grace might increase?” Let’s follow Paul’s incredible and insightful line of reason. Is it possible for someone who died to sin to still live in it? When a person on the earth dies to this world, they quit breathing and leave this domain. However, they do not quit existing nor are they reincarnated into another life form as some suggest. We know this because eye witnesses saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:3 “And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him). So Paul introduced a very important identity principle in this chapter—union with Jesus. The following verses will unpack this wonderful truth, but for now, I encourage us to consider Paul’s foundational thought. We died to sin. Like a man dies on this earth and no longer lives in the domain of this world, we died to sin, and no longer live in the domain of sin. Living in sin is the exact opposite of living to love with Jesus. Living to love with Jesus by abiding in Him makes sinning impossible. The apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:6, “No one who abides in Him sins.” John wasn’t teaching that we can reach perfection in this world, but he was stating the same thing that Jesus taught when He taught His disciples that if they would abide in Him they would bear much fruit, for apart from Him they can do nothing (John 15:5). When we abide in Jesus and live in and with Him, we won’t sin, but when we aren't abiding in Him (which he said occurs to all of us 1:8), we will sin. I hope you’ll abide in Jesus today and love with Him those God puts in your path. Remember you have died to living in this world for yourself. We will learn more in the days to come about what it means to be identified with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 6:1-2a What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! Now that Paul’s readers know and understand the wisdom and awesome grace of God given to them through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now that they have experienced peace with God through the gift of righteousness which reigns over sin and death. What is to be said about sin? If where sin abounds and increases, grace much more abounds to the glory of God, doesn’t it follow that if we continue in sin, God gets more glory as His grace reigns over it and He continues to forgive and keep us standing in grace before Him? There are many in our day that seem to follow this errant line of reason that God’s grace covers us, so now we can do whatever we want and assure ourselves that we are still loved by God. This idea of the grace and love is preposterous! It is inconceivable! “May it never be,” screamed Paul on ink and parchment. He uses a triple negative construction which is something like, “No, not, never shall we think of sin and grace in such a relationship.” Who would ask such a question? Someone who doesn’t understand the power of God’s grace and the gift of righteousness, who hasn’t had the love of God poured out in his or her heart, and who doesn’t know God or have peace with God might wonder about it. But what shall WE say who DO understand the power of God’s grace and the gift of righteousness, who HAVE the love of God poured out in our hearts, and who do KNOW God and have PEACE with Him? What do you say about treating sin lightly? What do you say about Jesus’ righteousness? What do you say about God’s grace? We might as well start practicing for That Great Day coming when we will give an account for our sin and its place in our lives. In the following verses the great apostle provides what is arguably the greatest explanation of what happened to us through our union with Jesus Christ and the power of His righteousness. We have much to be encouraged by in the following days. Today, I hope you’ll ask yourself the question presented by Paul. Consider if it is possible for such an attitude expressed in this verse to abide in the life of someone who is committed to living to love with Jesus. What do you think? I suggest that those who know they are living with Jesus to express His love to the Father and to His children would wholeheartedly agree with Paul’s reply. May it never be! Why? Because living to love with Jesus is expressing His righteousness and His life reigns over sin and death. May you experience the reality of grace reigning in life through the One, Jesus Christ, who lives in you.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:20b-21 …grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In this last verse of chapter 5 we discover God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. He planned that as sin reigned over all mankind from the beginning with Adam’s sin, His grace would reign over sin and death through His righteousness giving and securing eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Are you relying on the righteousness of Jesus Christ for eternal peace with God? Do you believe God’s grace has triumphed over and reigns over your sin and the resulting curse of death? These words from Rom. 5:21 encourage us because they reveal the security we enjoy because of the grace in which we stand. We have eternal peace with God because the righteousness we have received is the righteousness of Jesus. Let’s not miss the fruit of His righteousness—eternal life. Jesus defined eternal life in His priestly prayer recorded by John in chapter 17, verses 1-3 of his gospel. John 17:1-3 “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.’” Who does Jesus give eternal life to? To those the Father gave to Him before the foundation of the earth. What is eternal life that He gives to them? The ability to experientially know God, the Father, and God, the Son. How did Jesus give them eternal life? Through His righteousness that He performed in the 12 hours after He prayed those words in John 17. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). If you know the Father and the Son, then you have eternal life. If you have the Son, then you have the life, wrote the apostle John in 1 Jo. 5:12. If you have Jesus’ life in you, then you have the love of God in you. If you have the love of God in you, then it’s intended to pour out on everyone He puts in your path, for His glory.
Romans 5:18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. It is righteous that God condemn everyone. Through the one rebellious act against God, in which we all participated, we are guilty and condemned. We may chafe at God’s reckoning us guilty in Adam. But when we consider how God justified us so that we can live forever by reckoning us as having participated in Jesus’ one great eternal act of righteousness, do we not marvel at the wisdom and love of God?! On the first hand, we react and cry, “Unfair!” It doesn’t seem reasonable for God to condemn us as a result of another man’s transgression. Then on the other hand, we rejoice in awe and cry, “Amazing grace!” Such justification of sinners as a result of another man’s righteousness also doesn’t seem reasonable, but who’s going to push back and argue with God in the face of His great love and judgment? Now let’s apply this great reasoning to living to love with Jesus. It doesn’t seem reasonable to the natural mind that we would forgive and love those who sin against us as a result of another man’s righteousness, namely, God’s judgment and demonstration of love in Christ. But that’s what we do because that’s how we have been loved by God through Jesus. We love because He first loved us in this marvelous, gracious way through His Son, and His Son now lives in us to continue pouring out His Father’s love. Enjoy the adventure today.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. In vs. 17, Paul continued his comparison of the affect and results of the deeds of Adam and Jesus. From the moment Adam sinned, death entered into the human experience and it has been king. In Adam, all die wrote Paul to the Corinthians. So death gained dominion over us through Adam. In contrast, as Paul exclaimed to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 15:22, “In Christ all will be made alive.” Here Paul put it this way. Through Jesus Christ, all who receive and keep on receiving the abundant grace and the gift of righteousness will be kings in life. They will reign over sin and death! Let us be encouraged by this great and glorious truth: there is an abundance of grace available to live righteously. We need only to receive it as a gift through faith. The love we need today to glorify God comes as we abide in Jesus—as we live in Him and He in us. As we live to love with Jesus, we reign in life through Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:16 The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. In these verses of Romans 5 we should be awestruck by Paul’s comparison of Adam’s one act of sin and its result and Jesus’ one act of righteousness and its result. Verse 16 is incredibly encouraging and stunning. Notice that he compared what came through Adam and Jesus. The idea Paul wanted his readers to understand was that what arose from each one’s deed couldn’t be more different. With Adam’s deed came judgment which resulted in condemnation. All of mankind fell under God’s condemnation. What a tragic and horrible outcome! However, Paul wrote literally “out of many transgressions” the free gift of righteousness arose. What did he mean? God’s grace can only be understood against the backdrop of many transgressions. Listen to Psalms 112:4. “Light arises in the darkness for the upright; He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.” Jesus’ one act of righteousness on the cross when He obeyed His Father and justified the ungodly arose from the many transgressions that resulted from Adam’s sin. That righteousness is God’s gift of grace to sinners upon whom He has set His favor. Be stunned by our magnificent God who reveals His glorious grace. He took the many transgressions of mankind as the opportunity to display His righteousness in His Son, Jesus Christ, and give it as a gift to all who believe in Jesus. Paul earlier in this chapter wrote in vs. 10, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” It is the sins of others that becomes the opportunity for Jesus to love through us. His love rises in us out of the transgressions of others as we willingly bear the weight, pain, and grief of their sins, forgive for Jesus’ sake, and seek their highest good for the glory of God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. How grateful we can be today for the free gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ! That’s the gift Paul had in mind. Previously he had written that in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith (1:17). Adam and Christ were similar and types of one another in that they each performed one deed that was put to the account of all of their offspring. But what resulted from their deeds is entirely dissimilar. As a result of Adam’s one transgression the entire human race died. Mankind was not bettered, but was impoverished by Adam’s sin. It ruined us! However, in stark contrast with the ruination of Adam’s one deed is the over abundant gift resulting from Jesus’ one deed. Paul wrote that God’s grace and the gift of righteousness that was accounted to the many who believe in Him, “abounded much more,” made Jesus’ offspring unmeasurably better. Adam’s deed stole life from us. Jesus’ deed—His substitutionary death on the cross in obedience to His Father—gave us right standing before the Father and eternal life. Are you living in the abundance of grace and enjoying the life you have because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ in which you stand forever dressed and covered? Do you rejoice that your brothers and sisters in Christ also share the grace space with you? Living to love is the evidence that we have experienced and enjoy the abundance of grace in which we stand through the gift of righteousness given to us by Jesus Christ. Abundant grace begets an abundance of love. I encourage you to live in Jesus’ fullness today for God’s glory.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:13-14 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. Paul explained the amazing grace God has provided through Jesus Christ—the grace in which we stand. Salvation by grace through faith has rendered powerless all of the sins of those justified. Even before the Law came into the history of mankind through Moses, death reigned over every single person. They died according to God’s word because they sinned, even though their sins were not exactly like Adam’s specific sin. When the Law came, it defined their sins, and then they could be reckoned to their accounts. Paul wanted to show that Adam’s sin was taken into account as your sin. This transaction which plunged you into death was a type or model of another transaction which raised you into life and enables you to stand in grace. Be encouraged today by the love of God which reigns over sin and death as far as you are concerned—that is if you believe in/trust in the work of Jesus as the basis for your right standing with God. Let’s be amazed at the beauty of the love of God and the work of Christ, and may we be ready to share it with those God puts in our paths today.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned- This verse continues a line of worship and praise to God for His grace. I encourage us today from the perspective of standing in the grace of God and looking back at the glorious saving work of God. It is as if Paul, standing in the presence of God turns around and looks back to the beginning of his life before God. Usually when we think of the beginning of life, we look back to our birth into this world. However, Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, saw when he (and we) became an enemy of God, enslaved to sin, and destined for destruction. Long before our conception, he (and we) chose to rebel against God and ran headlong into the wrath of God. God did not choose for anyone to be destroyed in hell. Mankind, all together became useless to God. He saw that he chose to become “a vessel of wrath, prepared for destruction.” We chose to be a vessel of wrath against God—hostile and destined to spend eternity away from the presence of God. The grace of God in which we stand and the reconciliation Jesus accomplished had to cover sin which accrued to our accounts from the beginning. In this verse, Paul introduced a contrast between the impact of Adam’s actions and the impact of Jesus’ actions on our lives. He will work that out in the following verses. In this verse, we see that our lives began in Adam, the first man and father of humanity. By God’s accounting, when Adam sinned, we sinned. When he died to God, we died to God. And thus our lives of enmity and hostility toward God began. From the time we were born, we were already dead and condemned. The grace in which we stand because of the reconciliatory work of Christ covers everything. From Adam’s and our first sin to the last sin in our bodies in this world, the blood of Jesus has satisfied the wrath of God. Such is the love of God which was demonstrated when Jesus died for us. We love because He first loved us. May we give God glory and boast in God’s grace as we grant that same grace to others today.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Let’s take a few minutes today to “exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The previous verses rejoiced and gloried in what Jesus Christ has done in the past and will do in the future. We were reconciled to God through His death, and we will be saved from the wrath of God that His enemies deserve by His life. But this verse focuses on the present. We now, in this present time, today, exult—that is boast in and glory—in God through Jesus Christ. We have now received the reconciliation with God through Jesus, so here we stand! We stand in grace before God, reconciled and therefore at peace with Him because it pleased Him to justify us through His Son. So not only do we boast in Jesus, but we boast in God, who sent His Son so we might receive His Spirit and be filled with the love of God. His ever-present, all-powerful, sin-conquering, fear-removing, steadfast love should erupt like a volcano in us who believe. It’s meant to create a tsunami of divine love that sweeps over everyone He puts in our paths. Please join me in exulting/boasting in God’s great grace and love which you have received through the reconciliatory work of Jesus before moving on today to your agenda. This is His day. He has invited you into it so you might join Him in the glory of God. Father in heaven, I stand before You in the grace You have provided. Your steadfast love is amazing! It moves my heart and soul into the heavenlies to glory in You and find my satisfaction in You through Your Son, Jesus Christ. You are all I need! My soul unites with the Psalmist who boasted before You. “Whom have I in heaven but You, and there is none upon the earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail, but You are the strength of my heart, and my portion forever. Today, glorify Your name by loving through me.” Amen.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Look at this encouragement today from the apostle Paul. If God reconciled us through the death of His Son, how much more, now, having raised Him from the dead, will God save us from His wrath through the life of His Son. God has given us the life of His Son. Eternal life lives, dwells, abides in us. We are united as one with Him. For us to live is for Christ to live. As we live to love with Jesus, we are saved by His life. Not only His indwelling life, but His life at the right hand of God where He intercedes for us. Here’s how it is expressed in Hebrews 7:25. “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” Jesus lives! He lives in us! He is saving us, and today, He plans to use us to love and save those who are lost. We are only the branches displaying the glorious love of our living Lord Jesus Christ.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. What confidence we have in our salvation! If God has declared us righteous because of the blood of His Son, even more so will God save us from His wrath through Jesus. Justification is a declaration about us. It doesn’t actually change us materially. However, Paul wanted his readers to reason with him that if God has at one point in time in the past declared us to be not only be not guilty, but righteous in His sight, then we can be sure God would save us from His wrath through Christ. Because God has done this great work of justification in the past, we can have confidence in His saving work in the future. Because of this great truth, we who live to love with Jesus can determine before our day begins that we are going to love the helpless, the ungodly, and sinners. We stand ready to forgive, love, and serve them for His name’s sake. They should have no fear of rejection because they know we have chosen to love them no matter what.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:7-8 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In todays verses, we are presented a contrast between natural love and supernatural love. The first case Paul mentioned is the case of a man being willing to give up his life for a man he views to be righteous. There’s nothing about a righteous man that compels another to sacrifice his life for him. In the second case, a man who is good, who has sacrificed himself for the good of others, might move another to die for him out of honor and great appreciation. Such love is natural. But God’s love stands apart from natural love. He demonstrated His love by giving His Son to die for us while we were still sinners. From God’s perspective we weren’t righteous, and we weren’t good. This demonstration of love helps us define it in a supernatural way: the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another no matter what the cost. The love isn’t determined by the actions or attitudes of the objects of love, but by the character and will of the lover. We can be encouraged today from these verses to love like God loves us—to choose to love for the highest good of others, no matter what the cost—By this is our Father glorified.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. If you remember in Romans 4:5, Paul wrote, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” Here, Paul encouraged his readers by saying that Christ died for the ungodly at the right time. What made it the right time? We, mankind, after having hundreds of years with the Law, were still helpless—helpless to obtain godliness and righteousness. There was no reason for God to wait longer in history to manifest His Son. Mankind had unarguably proven that he was ungodly and was helpless to make himself righteous. Not one person sought for God, had done good, or was righteous. All were helplessly enslaved to sin and ungodly. Again, Paul spotlighted that justification entirely depended on God’s love and gracious character. He sent His Son to die when we were helpless. This helps us understand the love of God that lives inside of us and that is expressed by the Lord Jesus. We shouldn’t expect people to meet up to our standards, much less God’s standards of righteousness. God loved us and them while we were helpless, so we can love them without expecting them to perform to our liking. Living to love with Jesus today means we are prepared to lay down our lives for others, even after they have proven time and time again that they cannot love God or us.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. We’ve been encouraged the last few days by the affects of God’s great love for us when He justified us in Christ through faith and gave us His righteousness. This is our grace place to stand before God.
Our assurance that we are righteous in His sight comes from the beautiful work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given to us, and through Him, we receive the assurance of our salvation through faith. Faith is a gracious and loving work of the Holy Spirit. When the Gentiles responded to the gospel in Caesarea, Peter described what happened to them in this way. Acts 15:8-9. “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.” Let’s connect some dots. Remember what Paul told the Galatians? Faith works through love. What do we read here? The hope we have from the perseverance in trials which proves that Jesus lives in us (proven character) is not disappointing. The Holy Spirit manifests the life of Christ cleansing our hearts with faith. When we believe in Jesus, we know God loves us and has removed our sins and our guilt. Our consciences, a function of our hearts, are cleansed by His love poured out in our hearts. This is how we live to love with Jesus—by faith through the God-glorifying ministry of the Holy Spirit. We have a hope that doesn’t disappoint because our hope is not an inactive object. God’s love produces hope and that hope moves us to action—to love everyone He puts in our paths with the same kind of love with which we have been loved. It’s a love that produces peace, exultation in God, endurance, Christ-likeness, and hope. That fullness satisfies our souls today which then enables us to love others.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; Today we take encouragement from this verse to live to love with Jesus because we often face relationships and circumstances that test the character of our faith. Every situation is an opportunity to trust and every relationship is an opportunity to love. The character of our faith is tested in tribulation, and when we persevere in the trial it proves that the faith we have is a divine work of grace in our hearts. All of us have people in our lives who test the source, quality, and endurance of our love. As we sustain the direction of our wills to love—perservance and endurance—regardless of what we face, we prove that our character comes from the life of Christ dwelling in us. That perseverance comes from our abiding in Jesus. That’s when His character shines and is proven. Paul wrote that when our character is tested in tribulation and we don’t give up, but endure, it produces hope in our hearts. What is the hope? It is the hope of the glory of God. We know God will receive the glory. He justified us. He gave us faith as the assurance of His favor. He sent, allowed, or administrated trials for the character of that faith to be proven so we could have hope in our hearts. Today, it is probable that our faith will be tested in some way. If you have purposed to live to love with Jesus, you’ll experience Romans 5:3-4. Exult in your tribulations, abide in Christ, and watch Him love through you as you humble yourself, submit to God’s sanctifying agenda, and persevere for the glory of God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; Today’s Scripture encouragement gives us cause to exult in our trials and tribulations. Living to love with Jesus isn’t easy. In fact, it will cost us our lives in this world. God’s love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another no matter what the cost. To love the people God puts in our paths, requires perseverance. Note, the sustained direction of the will. That’s perseverance. In this verse, Paul said, “And not only this.” Knowing we stand before God by grace and are at peace with Him through the suffering and tribulation of Christ enables us to exult in tribulation. Let’s think about this for a minute. How does tribulation produce perseverance? Do you need to persevere when things are going well? Do you have to persevere with people who do what you want, like you want, when you want? Does it take endurance when there is no pain or conflict? Of course the answer is No. The only time perseverance and endurance is brought about is when we have tribulation in this world. When we pass out of this fallen world into the manifest presence and glory of God, which is our hope, our tribulations end and there will be no more opportunities to glorify God in suffering. This season is short. When we live to love with Jesus, we glorify God by trusting and loving Him by loving others no matter what the cost—like we’ve been loved by God. Be encouraged today to exult before God in the midst of tribulation. That is the light of the world. People in this world cannot love because they run from and cancel out anyone who causes them tribulation. They consider it a testimony of strength to remove toxic people from their lives. They cannot allow those to “stand" before them who disagree with them or don’t make them feel loved. Why? Because they have not been introduced to the grace of God by Mr. Faith. So be encouraged to live to love with Jesus. His love flows out of the place of grace in which you stand. Stand fast, and love to the end.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. In the last verse, we were encouraged that we have peace with God because of God’s work on our behalf through Jesus. Today we take more encouragement from the glorious accomplishment of Jesus Christ. Not only do we have peace with God, but it is through Jesus Christ that we have been introduced to the grace in which we stand before God. We obtained or received this introduction into grace by faith. To think that faith is something we do, would totally contradict the line of reason Paul has been establishing from 3:20 and would introduce an invasion of a thief into the presence and glory of God. For God to get all the glory and for us to have an unassailable peace with God, all of the work must be done by Him. God grants faith to all whom He justified in Christ in order to usher them into His presence with nothing to boast about but the love and grace of God. We were ushered into the place of grace in which stand by Mr. Faith, whom God sent for that very purpose. For this reason, we have hope that God will get glory in heaven for eternity as we stand before Him as recipients of His grace. If Mr. Faith ushered us into God’s grace, then we have hope that He will testify to God on our behalf. This assurance gives us such hope that we can now exult, today, in hope of the glory of God. It’s as certain to happen as it is certain that Jesus was sent to be our righteousness before God. This makes me want to love God for His love, for the peace and hope found in Christ, and to share His love with others. That’s living to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, In chapter 4, Paul joyfully and convincingly explained that Abraham was credited with the righteousness by God revealed in Jesus Christ on the basis of faith. Of course Paul didn’t have chapter breaks, so the “therefore” of 5:1 should be understood as a continuation of Paul’s line of reason. If Abraham was justified by grace through faith, and he is our father, then everyone who believes in Jesus also stands before God on the same basis, namely, the work of Jesus Christ on their behalf. The verb tense is significant and revealing. The action of justification was at one point or time in the past. It also is a passive verb, meaning it was not done by us, it was an act of God. Additionally, the action is a perfected or completed action, the effects of which continue in perpetuity. As we will see in the next verses, our justification is all about God’s love. Because of His great love, in and through His Son, Jesus Christ, God declared those whom He chose to be righteous in His sight forever. If God justified us once and for all in Christ, then we know we have peace with God. There’s nothing between us that can hinder our relationship or standing. That’s how we have been loved by our Father, God, and His Son. So when Jesus commands us to love one another as He has loved us, and then tells us that it was the Father loving through Him, we can understand what God’s love is: the sustained direction of the will toward our highest good, no matter what the cost. He is for us, and nothing can be against us. We can’t make Him not love us! That’s the kind of love that flows through all who are His children. When we live to love with Jesus, that’s the kind of love we are commanded to display to our brothers and sisters in Christ. But that command isn’t burdensome to us because we know the blessing and privilege it is to love like Christ and to be loved by the will of God. So today, our attitude toward others should be that they can’t make us not love them. Because we choose to love them like God loves us, not based on our deeds, but on the basis of God’s work in Jesus Christ.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. This last verse of Romans chapter 4 gives us incredible encouragement by telling us the significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It tells us why Jesus was crucified—for our transgressions—and why He was resurrected—God accepted His death and righteousness on our behalf so we could be justified before Him. Jesus was delivered by God to the Jewish and Roman authorities, the people, and the soldiers. Jesus’ life wasn’t taken from Him, it was given by God and given by Jesus, Himself. God delivered His Son to the devil and his children because we are sinners, transgressors of His Law. Satan’s accusation before God against us is that justice demands that we die because God said to Adam that the day we sin, we die. We have transgressed God’s Law, and Satan has a right to us. Murder and death falls under Satan’s jurisdiction. Just as Adam represented the many before God and the many became sinners, so Jesus was given by God to represent the many that they may be justified through Jesus Christ. Paul will unpack this great truth later in chapter 5, but today let us take great encouragement from this verse. When God raised Jesus from the dead, He did so because He was justifying you and me—if you believe in Jesus. As sure as Jesus was raised to life in this world, so we are justified by God and are credited with His righteousness. Doesn’t this inspire you to love God and love in His name? Let His love pour out of your heart in praise and thanksgiving to God for His great love and saving work revealed in Jesus Christ.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:23-24 Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, The record of God crediting righteousness to Abraham in Genesis was written and preserved by God for us! How blessed we are to have God’s Word captured and preserved for us by God. Paul’s point to the Romans was that Abraham was a prototype of all throughout the history of mankind who would stand righteous in God’s presence. God planned in eternity to give the righteousness of Jesus to ungodly people who believe and trust in Him instead of relying upon their own good works. In this verse and the next, we seek the great assurance of our salvation—the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We can be encouraged that our assurance doesn’t come from something we do, but from what God has done—He raised Jesus from the dead. This has to be said. Jesus was God in the flesh, with a material body, who lived a perfectly righteous life, and was killed and buried in a real tomb where He laid for 3 days. He is a historical figure as real as any other man who has lived on the earth. Now, He lives in us, who believe and have given Him full access to our lives that He might live and love through us, for His glory. We are miracles of grace empowered by the only superpower on the planet—the love of God through the resurrected life of Christ. Let’s remember that we are not earthly normal—that person died when Jesus died. To be Christian is to display the supernatural love of God in union with Jesus Christ.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:22 Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness. I’m encouraged in this verse by the fact that God credited Abraham with righteousness. He was an idolater and an ungodly man, and on the basis of God’s work in Jesus Christ, God credited something to his account that He required. Abraham not only lacked that righteousness, but also could not obtain it through his own efforts. Where did that righteousness come from? Did God materialize it out of thin air? Was it just an idea with value created like digital currency? Absolutely not! It was like God gave Abraham a check to be cashed at the bank where the money was deposited to his account. Because God is eternal, not bound by time or sequence of events, He gave Abraham a righteousness that really existed and was performed before Him by Jesus, His Son, when He came to earth and lived perfectly according to God’s Law. Being eternal, He could credit Abraham with the righteousness of Jesus even though He was yet to perform in real earth time. Isn’t this amazing! God does the same with us as we believe in God’s promise that all who believe in Jesus will be justified in Him. His death becomes their death to the Law and its requirements—penalty paid. His life and righteousness becomes their life as they are resurrected with Him. He gives us His life—the Holy Spirit—so that we can live to love with Him for the glory of God. What grace, wisdom, and glory are ours from God through Jesus Christ.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. This verse is so encouraging! Abraham gave glory to God because He was absolutely sure that God was able to give he and Sarah children, like He promised. As we live to love with Jesus, we may also have the same full assurance as Abraham did regarding what God has promised us in Christ. The evening before Jesus returned to His Father, He promised His disciples (and all of His followers) that He would send the Holy Spirit, another comforter and helper like Him to be with them forever. The context of this promise was the command to love one another like He loves them. He promised them that they could ask anything from the Father in His name, meaning, with the request for fulfilling the command to love with Him. John 14:13-15 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Did you notice what Jesus said? He said, “I will do it.” I think what He means is “I will love through you like I have loved you.” Do you believe Jesus is able to perform what He has promised—that you will experience the reality of Jesus loving in and through you if you will only believe and ask the Father? That’s why I penned the “live to love with Jesus” prayer found in chapter 5 of my book, Live to Love. I hope you’ll pray it with me now and every morning hereafter. Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to know and love You and to live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love those You put in my path today, for Your glory. Amen. If you haven’t read my book, Live to Love, I invite you to go to livetolovewithjesus.com and get your free copy of either the print book, ebook, or audiobook and study guide.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. In the last verse, we were encouraged that we have peace with God because of God’s work on our behalf through Jesus. Today we take more encouragement from the glorious accomplishment of Jesus Christ. Not only do we have peace with God, but it is through Jesus Christ that we have been introduced to the grace in which we stand before God. We obtained or received this introduction into grace by faith. To think that faith is something we do, would totally contradict the line of reason Paul has been establishing from 3:20 and would introduce an invasion of a thief into the presence and glory of God. For God to get all the glory and for us to have an unassailable peace with God, all of the work must be done by Him. God grants faith to all whom He justified in Christ in order to usher them into His presence with nothing to boast about but the love and grace of God. We were ushered into the place of grace in which stand by Mr. Faith, whom God sent for that very purpose. For this reason, we have hope that God will get glory in heaven for eternity as we stand before Him as recipients of His grace. If Mr. Faith ushered us into God’s grace, then we have hope that He will testify to God on our behalf. This assurance gives us such hope that we can now exult, today, in hope of the glory of God. It’s as certain to happen as it is certain that Jesus was sent to be our righteousness before God. This makes me want to love God for His love, for the peace and hope found in Christ, and to share His love with others. That’s living to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, In chapter 4, Paul joyfully and convincingly explained that Abraham was credited with the righteousness by God revealed in Jesus Christ on the basis of faith. Of course Paul didn’t have chapter breaks, so the “therefore” of 5:1 should be understood as a continuation of Paul’s line of reason. If Abraham was justified by grace through faith, and he is our father, then everyone who believes in Jesus also stands before God on the same basis, namely, the work of Jesus Christ on their behalf. The verb tense is significant and revealing. The action of justification was at one point or time in the past. It also is a passive verb, meaning it was not done by us, it was an act of God. Additionally, the action is a perfected or completed action, the effects of which continue in perpetuity. As we will see in the next verses, our justification is all about God’s love. Because of His great love, in and through His Son, Jesus Christ, God declared those whom He chose to be righteous in His sight forever. If God justified us once and for all in Christ, then we know we have peace with God. There’s nothing between us that can hinder our relationship or standing. That’s how we have been loved by our Father, God, and His Son. So when Jesus commands us to love one another as He has loved us, and then tells us that it was the Father loving through Him, we can understand what God’s love is: the sustained direction of the will toward our highest good, no matter what the cost. He is for us, and nothing can be against us. We can’t make Him not love us! That’s the kind of love that flows through all who are His children. When we live to love with Jesus, that’s the kind of love we are commanded to display to our brothers and sisters in Christ. But that command isn’t burdensome to us because we know the blessing and privilege it is to love like Christ and to be loved by the will of God. So today, our attitude toward others should be that they can’t make us not love them. Because we choose to love them like God loves us, not based on our deeds, but on the basis of God’s work in Jesus Christ.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
This is the Live to Love audio blog for July by Norm Wakefield from The Spirit of Elijah Ministries International and Live to Love with Jesus. This month's blog focuses on the second identity principle our of four: Identity has to do with power.
Romans 4:19-20 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, We draw further encouragement today from our father Abraham who loved God by trusting in Him, in hope against hope as we were told in the previous verse. As Abe contemplated the reality of his and Sarah’s physical condition—both as good as dead when it comes to having children—his faith did not weaken. How was this possible? There’s a great lesson to be learned and applied today. Although reality caused him to take note of the impossibility of God’s promise coming to pass, the fact that God promised trumped the impossibility of his circumstances. He kept his eyes fixed on God, His character and power. Notice that Paul said that Abraham did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God. That means that Abe recognized God as the source of His faith, hope, and fulfillment of the promise. Let us, like our father, Abraham, keep our eyes fixed on Jesus as the source of our faith (he’s the author and perfecter of faith—Heb. 12:2) and the source of our love. Do not waver in unbelief that God can do what He promises. He gives us life and fills us with His love for His glory. So let us give glory to God for the great things He has done and is doing in our lives.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:18 In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, "So shall your descendants be.” What are the chances that you (or anyone for that matter) could stand before God with no violations to your account and a record of perfect righteousness? The chances are the same that Abraham and Sarah could have a son, much less he become a father of many nations. Impossible! Out of the question! Hopeless! But God did something in Abraham and Sarah that was beyond common sensible from a human perspective. They were beyond the age when human beings are capable of having children. Paul says here, though, that in hope, Abraham believed against all hope, that not only would he finally have a son with Sarah but that God would keep the promise to make him the father of many nations. God counted that faith in His promise as righteousness. How about you? God promises that you will be an heir of eternal life and stand before Him without blemish or spot marring your righteousness. You look at yourself, and what do you conclude? That’s impossible. But then you think, “But God said it’s possible. I hope He will do it, because if He doesn’t, there’s no way. I perish in my sins.” All hope is gone as you look at the reality of your sins, yet because of God’s word, you hope against hope and trust in God’s love and promise in Christ. Take heart from Paul’s explanation to the Colossians of our salvation. Colossians 1:21-23 “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard.” If you have in hope against hope believed in Christ for your salvation, then God calls you to live to love with Jesus. That same hope with which you cling to Jesus is the same hope that spurs you to live to love with Him. Believe He can and will do in you what He promises to do—express His love for the glory of God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:17 (as it is written, "A father of many nations have I made you") in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. Today, we take more encouragement to live to love with Jesus from the story of Abraham. Paul quoted Genesis 17:5 “No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” Notice the love of God for Abraham that had you and me in view. This verse tells us how Abraham became our father in the faith. Jesus did it! “A father of many nations, I have made you.” Let’s not miss who is speaking. It’s Jesus! Jesus made Abraham a father in the presence of God, the Father, whom he believed when God made the promise to him. Jesus accomplished what the Father promised to Abraham, and it is the same for us. If you remember, it was Jesus, the angel of the Lord, who came to visit Abram and told him Sarah would give birth to a son. He gave life to Abraham’s seed and to Sarah’s womb, then called Isaac into existence. That was a foreshadowing of salvation by faith in and through Jesus Christ. Jesus has accomplished our salvation for us by giving us life (for we were dead) and by calling into existence that which doesn’t exist, namely faith. If Jesus birthed faith in Abraham and also births faith in us, then he is our father in the faith. All of this happened because of the grace of God. To God be the glory, great things He has done. This should encourage us to love God all the more by loving others in His name. Let’s not forget that one aspect of loving them is to tell them the good news God has made a way for them to stand right before Him, not on the basis of their deeds, but on the basis of Jesus’ deeds on their behalf.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, Let’s follow Paul’s reasoning here in this verse and be encouraged to love with Jesus and rejoice. The only way the promise of righteousness could be guaranteed to all the descendants of Abraham was if the promised righteousness was accomplished by God. If God does the work and gives right standing to anyone, then He gets the glory. For Him to be glorified in man’s salvation, one’s right standing must be on the basis of God’s grace. For one’s standing to be by grace, the means of assurance that one is righteous by grace can only be faith. Faith is assuring because no man can produce faith. It is a work of grace in the hearts of all whom God justifies in Christ, both those who are of the Law (meaning Jews) and those who are not (meaning Gentiles). If the basis for justification relies upon anything that a person does, then the righteousness is not in accordance with grace. Therefore, God has determined from eternity that salvation would be by grace alone through faith alone. This verse reveals that faith is God’s work and not man’s. If it were man’s work, then salvation would not be in accordance with grace. Since it salvation is by grace, then Abraham is the father of everyone who believes, whether Jew or Gentile. How does one know that the faith they have isn’t natural, but supernatural? Faith works through love—you live to love with Jesus. You have the witness of the Holy Spirit loving in and through you today and everyday. No, we don’t love perfectly and every time there’s an opportunity. But it is our hearts’ desire and intention to love as He has loved us—giving grace to others because of love.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:15 for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Wow, what an encouragement! Since God has excluded Law as the grounds for right standing before Him, then there is no violation of the Law to be admitted to the court of justice. All of mankind was born under Law and because all have sinned, the Law must bring about wrath upon all who have violated His Law. When we sin under the Law, we store up wrath for “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” as Paul mentioned in 2:6. That’s bad news for everyone. This is the prequel to the gospel. The gospel is good news for everyone in the world who believes in Jesus Christ as God’s provision of a savior who takes away their sins. It’s great news for those whom God credits as righteous through faith in His Son as their grounds for right standing. Later, Paul refers to this same good news when he wrote about the “grace in which we stand.” How does this strike you? Do you believe and live by this great reality? If you believe and trust in Jesus, then you are not under Law and there are no violations on your account and won’t ever be. Today, you do not have to live in fear of wrath and punishment. You can live with expectation of joy as you express the love of Jesus in this dark world.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:14 For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified; Are you one of those who wake up everyday feeling like a failure? Do you feel overwhelmed with the burden of having to do the right thing and not sin? If so, my encouragement today for you is that those sentiments are not those of Jesus Christ, who lives in you. If you are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, then the faith God has given you tells you that the Law’s demands of you have been made void. He has chosen, out of His great mercy and love to fulfill the Law for you in Jesus, His Son. To continue to live under the heavy burden of the Law is to make faith void and to nullify the promise of God that the righteous by faith are heirs of eternal life. In giving us Jesus, God has given us the Source of Love to dwell within us. God’s love fulfills the Law of God. Paul told the Galatians that the whole Law could be summed up in one word—love. Living to love with Jesus removes the fear and burden of the Law. As we surrender our lives to Him and give Him full access to all that we are, Jesus loves through us. Trusting in Jesus’ life and love sets us free from, nullifies, our fear of condemnation. So take courage today. Love fulfills the Law and sets us free to enjoy life and people.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. There is great encouragement in this verse isn’t there? Not only was Abraham an heir of the world, but if we are his children, so are we heirs through the righteousness of faith. Later in Romans 8:17 Paul wrote, “And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” To the Galatians, Paul wrote in 3:29 “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” Titus 3:7 “So that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” We are heirs of eternal life! Eternal life according to Jesus is this: John 17:3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” We have eternal life now in that we have Jesus living within us now. We know Him, and if we know Him, we know the Father. If we know the Father and the Son, we are His beloved children, heirs of the world, with Abraham. The life of Jesus dwelling within us is the source of the love we have for others. It is God’s work in our lives for His glory. Please take a moment after this podcast and let the reality of who you are thrill and satisfy your soul. You are a child of God and an heir of eternal life. You are loved. Let that love fill you to overflowing today. May His love pour out on everyone you meet.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised. We who believe in Jesus Christ are children of Abraham. We are his children because he was the first to be justified before God through faith in God’s grace and favor. We have followed in Abraham’s steps when we also turn from trusting in our works to trusting in God’s work for us. We understand so much more than Abraham did to encourage us to love and trust. Abraham simply received and trusted God’s promise to him that he would be a father of many nations. We have so much more now. We have the full explanation of God’s love in Jesus Christ and the promise that we will be beloved children of God for eternity. As beloved children, we love with His love for His glory, today. Be encouraged as you walk by faith and love everyone God puts in your path.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Today we receive encouragement to live to love with Jesus from Rom. 4:11. Romans 4:11 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, It’s not a small thing that God credited righteousness to Abraham while he was uncircumcised. We learn from this verse that God justified Abraham by faith before he had done anything required by God. He did it for two good reasons. 1). So that Abraham might be the father of everyone who believes in Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile. 2). So that God might credit righteousness to everyone who believes in Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile. Remember how exciting this was to Paul? In chapter 1:16 he wrote, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” This verse continued Paul’s line of reason that boasting of anything we have done in the presence of God is excluded by the gospel. Rather, all of the glory goes to God. What motivated God to credit righteousness to Abraham and all of his faith-descendants? Paul answered that question clearly in Eph. 2:4-10 and also encouraged his readers that the way they live is also God’s work of love. Ephesians 2:4 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” It was God’s great mercy and love that motivated Him to provide salvation as a favor. And that salvation includes living to love with Jesus. To walk in the good works God prepared for us in Christ is another way of saying we live to love with Jesus. We are His workmanship which means God gets all the glory as we love with Him. Now tha t’s encouraging, isn’t it?
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:9-10 Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; The Jews who were reading Paul’s letter to the Romans thought the world was divided up into two categories of men: The Jews: those circumcised and blessed to be in covenant with God through the Law and the Gentiles: the uncircumcised, who were outside of the promises and blessings of God because they didn’t have the Law of God. However, Paul was excited to tell both the Jews and Gentiles of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Christ, there is no distinction between the two when one comes to stand before God for God gives His righteousness to both on the same basis: His gracious favor bestowed upon them because of love. His readers, and we, can draw great encouragement from Paul’s revealing that this blessing of God’s righteousness by grace through faith isn’t a new thing. It’s always been God’s way for any man to stand before Him. Beginning with Abraham and continuing to David and to his readers and on to us, God’s grace abolishes all distinctions of race, nationality, or gender. God’s righteousness was given to Abraham before He was circumcised, so circumcision or the keeping of the Law is excluded as a basis for righteousness. One stands righteous before God according to God’s choosing to bless, forgive, cover, not take into account sins, and credit righteousness. What should this encourage us to do in our relationships? I hope we are encouraged to love others with the same love Jesus has loved us. Let us choose to glorify God by choosing to bless, forgive, cover, not take into account sins.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:8 "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” In today’s live to love scripture encouragement, we look at a second reference which Paul made to King David’s declaration in Ps. 32 regarding the man or woman to whom God credits righteousness. “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” The context indicates that Paul had in mind the time when a man stands before God to give an account of his life. Imagine the wonder, awe, gratitude, and outpouring of love from one whose sins are not taken into account at that moment—or any moment, for that matter. How blessed is that man or woman! The only way their sins are not taken into account is that God, in eternity, chose to take their sins into account when He crushed His own Son as payment for those sins and then credited His Son’s righteousness to their account. Do you believe that God has taken the certificate of debt you owe and ruled it as inadmissible evidence in your trial? Do you believe that the only evidence on record for you before God is the righteousness of Jesus Christ? And why is that true for you? You believe that the righteousness of Christ is credited to your account because of the love and righteousness of God. You trust in His character and His will. Why do you trust in Him? It is because of the faith He has given you to believe and trust. Why did He give you faith in Christ? Because He has loved you in Jesus from before the foundation of the world. Be amazed with me at such glorious grace and love. Paul described agape love in this way to the Corinthians in 13:5. [Love] “does not take into account a wrong suffered.” How blessed is the man whose sins are not taken into account. Are you taking into account anyone’s sins and allowing their sins to separate them from you? If so, it can only mean one thing: You don’t really understand His love for you. For if you did, you would gladly, repeatedly refuse to allow their sins to stand between you and them. You would bless them as you have been blessed. As we live to love with Jesus, let us bless people by not taking into account their sins.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Yesterday we read Romans 4:5, today our scripture encouragement comes from vs. 6-7. I’ll begin with vs. 5 and read right on through to 7. “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered.’” The point Paul made was that the only boast that a man can make before God is a boast that he is accepted by God as a favor from God. In this verse, Paul gave a second witness to this great truth. King David boasted in God’s great grace and favor when he declared that those who whose sins have been forgiven and covered are blessed by God purely as a result of His choice to justify the ungodly. If we have been raised up with Christ and Jesus lives in us, then we have the same attitude toward those who sin against us—an attitude of forgiveness and a willingness to cover their sins with love. The apostle Peter affirmed this reality when he wrote in 1 Peter 4:8, “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” Why would we do this? Because we have been loved and are living to love with Jesus. The love of God courses through our lives for the glory of God. This is also echoed in the Lord’s prayer when we pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” More than likely today, someone will sin against you—maybe intentionally and maybe unintentionally. Regardless, you have the privilege to forgive their sins and cover them with your love—your love for God and His glory and your love for those Jesus loves and blesses. We are the beloved of God and we love or His glory in Jesus Christ.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Yesterday we read Romans 4:5, today our scripture encouragement comes from vs. 6-7. I’ll begin with vs. 5 and read right on through to 7. “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered.’” The point Paul made was that the only boast that a man can make before God is a boast that he is accepted by God as a favor from God. In this verse, Paul gave a second witness to this great truth. King David boasted in God’s great grace and favor when he declared that those who whose sins have been forgiven and covered are blessed by God purely as a result of His choice to justify the ungodly. If we have been raised up with Christ and Jesus lives in us, then we have the same attitude toward those who sin against us—an attitude of forgiveness and a willingness to cover their sins with love. The apostle Peter affirmed this reality when he wrote in 1 Peter 4:8, “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” Why would we do this? Because we have been loved and are living to love with Jesus. The love of God courses through our lives for the glory of God. This is also echoed in the Lord’s prayer when we pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” More than likely today, someone will sin against you—maybe intentionally and maybe unintentionally. Regardless, you have the privilege to forgive their sins and cover them with your love—your love for God and His glory and your love for those Jesus loves and blesses. We are the beloved of God and we love or His glory in Jesus Christ.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, This is a stunning! Most people think God only accepts people who are good, and in their own view of themselves, they think they qualify. They believe that God only justifies good, godly people. That’s a corrupted view of God—an earthly, self-centered perspective. These people work so they can be rewarded and receive glory from God. 180 degrees from that perspective is God’s love. Because He is love, He justifies the ungodly. He gives—let me say it again—He gives ungodly people His own righteousness merely as a favor. The way they know that God has justified them is that they believe that God is love and justifies the ungodly, not on the basis of anything they have done, but 100% on the basis of His pleasure and love—for His glory. Let this sink in! “Believe in Him who justifies the ungodly.” Is that your hope? Is that your confidence when you come to die? Is that what motivates you to live and love today? I hope so. This great gospel truth is the heartbeat of the Christian life.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. This verse teaches us a lot about salvation. Salvation is given as a favor, not as a payment for good works. If we love others so God will accept us into His heaven, or love others so we won’t go to hell, we are operating in another kingdom than God’s kingdom. Because God deserves the glory for all things which He does, everyone who enters into His kingdom, does so on the basis of God’s favor. Their presence before God cannot have anything to do with their works. One stands before God only by the good grace of God, His good favor. He is love. God’s love is the sustained direction of His will toward our highest good, no matter what the cost or no matter what we have done, either good or bad. That’s the kind of love that flows in the hearts and lives of those who live to love with Jesus. We enable others to stand before us out of favor—grace. We don’t take into account wrongs suffered nor do we receive them because they do what we want, like we want, and when we want. We accept them based on the same grace of God which we have received—as a favor. Today, let us be like our Father in heaven, who enjoys granting favor to sinners who don’t deserve it. I hope you’ll visit livetolovewithjesus.com and be encouraged by the free live to love resources that are made available to you as a favor from God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Was Abraham’s faith an act of the will? To answer that question, let me ask another. Is there a difference between the heart and the will? Is it with the will that a man believes or is it with the heart that man believes? I suggest the Scriptures clearly teach that there is a difference, and that the acts of the will simply reveal the condition of a person’s heart, namely whether it is believing or unbelieving. I submit that the Scriptures teach that unbelief and belief are conditions of heart, not choices of the will. Listen to these verses of Scripture. Romans 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that cGod raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Acts 15:9 “and He [the Holy Spirit] made no distinction between us and them [that is Jew and Gentile], cleansing their hearts by faith.” Heb. 3:12 references the unbelieving heart. Hebrews 3:12 “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” Paul’s reference to Gen. 15:6 stressed his point: Abram believed God’s promise because God did the work in his heart to show him His favor. God did it this way so that Abram would glory in God’s righteousness given according to the Lord’s mercy and grace rather than his own works. So the righteousness of God is credited to those whom God grants the grace of faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught this to His disciples when He explained the parable of the soils. Mark 4:11-12 “And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN.” May this encourage us today to live to love with Jesus, not to obtain a righteousness for our glory, but as an expression of love for God who has graciously given us His righteousness through faith in Jesus. If we have believing hearts like Abraham, then we also have the righteousness of God credited to our accounts. To God be the glory! What a privilege it is to express our love for Him by loving those He puts in our paths each day.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 4:1-2 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.There’s a big difference between loving others to justify ourselves before God and living to love with Jesus. Paul wanted his readers to consider how Abraham found favor with God. It wasn’t because he performed some work that pleased God. Paul made it clear that Abraham wasn’t justified by his works because God has made it clear that no man can stand before Him and boast about anything he does or has done. The only thing that man has to boast about before God is to boast in the Lord! I’m sure that means if there is anything worthy of praise or glory that occurs in our lives, it is because God has done it through Jesus, His Son, for His glory. Whatever is done for the glory of God can only occur because God gave grace upon grace out of the fullness and overflow of Christ. As John wrote in the first chapter of his gospel, “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (vs. 16). So deeds of love only occur as Jesus loves in and through us. So we don’t love so that God will approve of us when we stand before Him. We love because He has raised us up before Him, granted us favor in His Son to whom He united us, and has given us the Spirit of His Son to perform deeds of love for His glory. So the person who performs acts of love so he or she can feel good about him or herself and boast about those accomplishments, can boast before men, but not before God. The person who lives to love with Jesus has no reason to boast before men, but has great confidence to boast before God in what He has done in their lives for His glorious name.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.The law of faith establishes the Law of God. How does it do that? We believe in Jesus Christ because He has become the fulfillment of the Law for us. Listen to what Paul wrote later in this letter. In Romans 10:4 we read, “For Christ is the end (the completion) of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Justification by works never fulfilled the Law. Only through faith in Jesus Christ is the Law officially fulfilled and established.Now, on a daily basis, those who believe in Jesus are called to live out the righteousness they have received by loving one another. Through us in Christ, the Law is fulfilled in us. Through Christ in us, the Law is fulfilled as we love with Him. Those deeds, accomplished by Jesus in us, are the deeds which will be rewarded when we come to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. He who knows the secrets of men’s hearts, knows what deeds He has done in all of those who believe in Him. Therefore we who live to love with Jesus have confidence in the Day of Judgment, for as He is in this world, so are we. Those are the words of John from 1 John 4:17. Be encouraged today as you live to love with Jesus. Jesus is fulfilling the Law and establishing it in you. Rejoice in His goodness, His love, His righteousness, and His grace toward you. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.The God of the Jews and the God of the Gentiles is the same God. Later in Romans 10:12-13, Paul wrote, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” Paul had stated that there is a new law established by God for the justification of sinners—the law of faith. We will discover later that the reason God justifies by faith is so that salvation may be all for the glory of God since it is according to grace and not works. Paul reiterated that God is not partial and makes no distinctions between the Jews, who were His people, and those who were not Jews. Now all who believe in Jesus Christ are God’s people, recipients of His grace. Paul gave more insight into what motivated God to contrive such a means of salvation in Eph. 2:4-5 when he wrote, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” God is love, and because of His great love, He justified us all in Christ through faith. I hope you pause today and consider God’s great love for you revealed in Jesus Christ. Consider all of your sins of a lifetime and be amazed and grateful that God has taken them out of the way. Ponder the riches of God’s mercy that has provided for you a grace place in which you stand before God. Then with those things in mind, love others as He has loved you. When you live to love with Jesus like that, you are bringing God glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, Our God is the God of all races and peoples. He created them all for His glory, and Has made a way to justify everyone on the same grounds of grace through faith. For us to have a savior, God chose the Jewish people to be the channel of humanity through whom He would come. He gave them His Law, but He also prophesied that in and through them, all the nations would be blessed. In Christ, He has kept His promise and made salvation available through Jesus Christ to all who believe. Perhaps today we will have the opportunity to share the good news that the God of creation has made a way for anyone to draw near to Him and find rest and peace. That way is through His Son, Jesus Christ. Anyone who believes in Him will not be disappointed, said the prophet Isaiah. Many people are disappointed and live in shame. We have good news to share about Jesus. May He fill us with boldness and love to tell them about their God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Up until Jesus came, mankind sought to justify themselves before God on the grounds of their good works. We failed miserably and still fall short even today. If you ask people if they think they will go to heaven when they die, most will say that they think they will. They usually add, “I’m not that bad of a person.” In other words, they think their good deeds outweigh their bad ones. Once Jesus came, a new means of justification before God was made known. There had been plenty of time for mankind to see that the Law only revealed that we are sinners and that none of us are righteous. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, good news spread like wildfire throughout the world. God has made a way that a person can be justified by faith in Jesus Christ—His substitutionary death and resurrection. In His death, sins are paid for and covered by His blood, and in His life, righteousness is put to our account and we are redeemed for the glory of God. Doesn’t this good news make you want to love Him with all that you are? The way we love Him is by loving with Him. Let’s give Him full access to our bodies and souls for Him to express His love. He bought us. We are His. He loves us, and delights to love others through us.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.The new law of God is faith. The Law of faith has excluded boasting because no one can perform what the Law requires. God requires faith in Christ for sinners to have a righteousness that satisfies Him. What is amazing is that God supplies what He requires. As we saw a few days ago, faith is a gift of God, not of works, so no one can boast. That makes salvation a gift of grace. That’s how God loves those who are useless. He provides what they cannot do. When He’s finished pouring out His love upon and in them, they become useful vessels of love for His glory. They live to love with Jesus. Not only does God provide the faith that He requires, He also, through the life of Christ applied by the Holy Spirit, God provides the love that He commands. Remember the new commandment? Love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34). He loved us with His Father. We love one another with Him. This is faith at work. Faith looks to Jesus for life and for the love that God requires us to show to others. It’s what we owe to all men. Such is the wonder and glory of grace. He fills us with His love so that He can continue to love His own til the end of the age. Today, we have another opportunity to display the faith God has given us in Jesus Christ through loving those He puts in our paths for His glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.The cross of Christ did not happen in an out of the way corner of the world. God displayed His justice and righteousness so the whole world could see that He is just and the justifier of any sinner who has faith in Jesus. What a demonstration! At the cross, justice and mercy meet. At the cross, the love of God breaks forth like a tsunami as the body of Christ, the reservoir of God’s love, is pierced and broken. That love has poured down through the centuries and swept over the hard hearts of sinners and transformed them into reservoirs and channels of His love. The movement of the love of God will continue to roll until the very last one of those whom God has justified in Christ comes into the fold. That will be the last day of history. Jesus will return and raise everyone who has believed in Him. What a day that will be!We live to love with Jesus today because that last one is yet to be saved. Let the tsunami of His love captivate you and carry you through this day into the paths of those God desires. Watch carefully for them. One of them might be the last one. We love with Jesus, and God saves. Glory be to God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; How can a righteous judge pass over sins without executing justice? How can we pass over the sins of another without demanding justice and retribution? The answer is the same for both questions. In Christ, God showed that He was righteous to pass over sins previously committed because He knew He would faithfully execute His justice at the cross upon His Son, Jesus. God placed the blood of His Son in front of the entire world. He placed the payment for all the sins which He passed over on a billboard for all to see. Because God looked at Jesus’ work on the cross, He could forbear with all who sinned previous to the time of His sacrificial atonement. This is the same basis for believers who forbear or pass over the sins of others. They demonstrate God’s righteousness by looking to the suffering of Christ on behalf of the offender as payment in blood for their sin. Forgiveness and forbearance are significant qualities of the love of those who live to love with Jesus. We forgive and forbear with others because we know they are not getting away with sin. Their sins have not been passed over, they have been sufficiently dealt with at the cross. Therefore we do not need to require anything from others before we forgive them. We also don’t exact some retribution or vengeance because we want God to get all the glory for the work He has done in Christ. To demand more is to say that Jesus’ payment in blood was insufficient to satisfy God’s justice. We certainly celebrate that Jesus’ payment is enough for us. We are glad He doesn’t demand that we suffer more because of our sins. Jesus would never ask for more to be done than what He has done. This is the love for Jesus and of Jesus. If we love Him, we want Him to get all the glory as we forgive and forbear. If we love with Him, we give Him glory as we accept all that He has done to justify our brother or sister before God and before us.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:23-24 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;The righteousness of God manifested through faith in Jesus Christ does not have the distinctions of Jew and Gentile because when it comes to their standing before God according to the Law, they are all in the same condition and in need of the same remedy. Jews and Gentiles have all sinned and all have not glorified God. They all need a righteousness that glorifies God so they can stand before Him. How is God glorified in all who believe? They are justified as a gift, meaning, the righteousness in which they stand before God is a gift of God by His grace. Jesus Christ paid the debt of love or righteousness which they owe. The Law demands that we love. Love is the fulfillment of the Law. Jesus poured out His love to God and for us in laying down His life for us in obedience to His Father. This gift of righteousness by grace reveals the love of God: the sustained direction of the will toward our highest good, no matter what the cost. The righteousness of God reveals the love of God. If we are recipients of His righteousness we become channels of His love. Father, thank You for the gift of righteousness and the revelation of Your love. Fill us with awe and gratitude for Your glorious gift. Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your life and the privilege of loving, with You, those you put in our paths today. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:21-22 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;The apostle Paul in this verse introduced a righteousness of God that is apart from the Law. In other words, this righteousness, although recognized and testified to by the Scriptures, is God’s righteousness actually manifested or displayed for all to see. The righteousness of God in man isn’t a righteousness that comes from a man performing the Law. Instead, it is a righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. How is this righteousness manifested? It is manifested as God gives people faith to believe in Jesus Christ as their righteousness. Their faith in Jesus is how God manifests this righteousness. Paul wrote to the Ephesians of this work of God manifesting His righteousness. Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Paul told the Romans that this righteousness is given to all who believe and there is no distinction between Jews and Greeks. If God gives a Jew faith to believe in Jesus for his righteousness, then God has given him a righteousness that satisfies the Law of God. If God gives a Greek faith to believe in Jesus for his righteousness, then God has given him a righteousness that satisfies the Law of God. God doesn’t have a different righteousness for the Jews than He has for the Gentiles. Having given us faith in Christ, not only does it mean that God has justified us in and through the death and resurrection of His Son, but this wonderful gift of faith carries with it the characteristic of love. Paul wrote that this faith works through love (Gal. 5:6). We know that we have believed in Christ by the power and grace of God because we have a new heart to love our brothers and sisters for the glory of God. Faith cleanses our hearts, our consciences, so we are free to serve God, not in the oldness of the law, but in the newness of the Spirit (Rom. 7:6). Today, serve God by living to love with Jesus in the power and newness of the Holy Spirit. What a privilege! What a joy!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. What does the Law speak to mankind? It tells us what sin is so we can see that we cannot justify ourselves in the sight of a God who judges righteously. We have nothing to boast about before God. Quite the contrary. As we look at God’s Law, we realize God looks at us through His Law and we are found wanting and thus worthy of condemnation and death. Even as I say these things, my soul breathes a deep sigh of relief. We who live to love with Jesus do not plan on boasting in our own righteousness. We know we are not justified by our good works. We don’t love others to justify ourselves before God. We boast in the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ who justified us on the grounds of grace through faith. Because His love has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we consider it a privilege to love others in His name for His glory. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;In today’s verse, we learn that the Law of God speaks to all who are under the Law. In the next verse, it tells us what the Law speaks, but in this verse it tells us why God has given the Law a voice. It’s to silence all mankind who wishes to justify themselves before God. God has spoken through the Law and made everyone accountable to fulfill every law. As Paul has already asserted, every man agrees in his conscience that God is just to cause His wrath to fall upon every action that misses the mark of perfect righteousness. So what shall we say to this?Praise God for the gospel! The good news that God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Gal. 4:4-5). Listen carefully to what Paul wrote later in Romans 7:4 “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.” The Law no longer has anything to say to us who are no longer under the Law. We are under the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and savior. We have been given the righteousness of Christ through our union with Christ, and that’s by God’s doing. Listen again and be encouraged to live to love with Jesus. 1 Corinthians 1:30 “But by His (that’s God’s) doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”Not only are our mouths not silent, they are filled with words of praise, love, and boasting in the Lord. God loves us! He has given us His life, and called us to live to love with Him in this world. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes.”This verse tells us a wonderful truth. If anyone fears God, then they have been loved by God. Those who are loved by God know that they have the life of Christ dwelling in them, so they fear or respect His presence. The person who is experiencing God’s wrath has no awareness that what they say and do is being done in the presence of God with whom they are to give an account. We who live to love with Jesus not only are aware that Jesus is with us, hearing and watching all we do, but we also have surrendered ourselves to His Spirit so that His actions become our actions. His words become our words. Today, as you live to love with Jesus, enjoy His presence and His love. Let us be wary of and sensitive to doing or saying anything that might misrepresent Him or fail to bring Him glory. What a privilege it is to be loved by God, to know His presence, and walk in His joy and glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:15-17 "Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known.”It’s impossible to be at peace with people if one is not at peace with God. If we have the life of Jesus living within us, we not only have peace with God, we have peace within ourselves. Listen to Jesus’ last words to His disciples as a group. John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” The next time Jesus saw the disciples together as a group was after His resurrection. Here is John’s account. John 20:19 “So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’”Those to whom God reveals His wrath have sensitive triggers. Because they are not at peace with God, they are afraid, and justifiably so. They don’t know the path of peace, so their paths are strewn with victims—destroyed relationships. They are miserable because rather than having clear consciences with God, they live in fear and guilt. They perceive of themselves as victims and have taken on the overwhelming role of protecting themselves at all costs. Those who know God and who have received the life of Jesus, have Jesus’ peace dwelling within. Be encouraged today to entrust yourself to Him who judges righteously as Peter wrote in 1 Pet. 2:23. Remember, God is for us, so no one can harm us in any significant way that separates us from His love and purpose (Rom. 8:31, 35). As we let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, we are free live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:13-14 "Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”This verse reminds me of the incredibly repulsive smell of a dead animal I once passed on the roadside while riding my bike. It almost knocked me over! This also helps us understand the holiness and righteousness of God and how different He is from us. I guess if you are around a terrible smell long enough, you become used to it and it isn’t as offensive or repulsive. To God, the speech of all mankind has the stench of death. It is dead, and it causes death. That’s not our perception of ourselves, is it? We might counter God’s judgment that we are useless and smell like a dead animal according to our feelings about ourselves. “We aren’t that bad!” But God’s judgment is righteous and true. Truth is as He sees us, not as we see ourselves. One of the areas of transformation in our lives when we are born again is in the area of our speech. Whereas our mouths, tongues, and lips were expressions of our sinful selves, they become vessels of loving communication. James wrote of this work of God’s Spirit which gives wisdom to our speech in James 3:8-11 “But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?”If we have adopted Jesus’ purpose in life and recognize that our bodies are not our own, but are for expressing His life and love, then we go through a sanctifying work in how we speak to people. Instead of a poison, there is a healing balm. Instead of the stench of death, there is the aroma of life. Rather than speaking deceitfully, we speak the truth in love. This verse reminds us of what we once were, but are no longer. God has made us a fragrant aroma of Christ as we live to love with Him, speaking the truth in love. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:10-12 as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one."Where was this written? We find it in Psalms 53:1-3, we read this: “God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there is anyone who understands, who seeks after God. Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Ps. 53 is God’s judgment of all of mankind as a result of one breach of God’s Law by our father, Adam. Theologically, it is called The Fall of man. Today progressive theologians reject this “narrative” because they don’t like the idea of sin. They don’t like the idea of The Fall because it places everyone under the power and curse of sin and makes us all answerable to God, who must be a righteous judge. He must note every act that falls short of His righteousness. These verses in Ps. 53 and Rom. 3 inform us as to God’s judgment regarding us all. In love, God has told us His judgment. The truth about us is that at one time, through one act, we all together, all of mankind, because useless to God. Not only did Adam and Eve turn aside, but each of us has also done so. And this is how we know what love is! Paul told the Romans in chapter 5, verses 8-10. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”God could get nothing from us. We were useless. Yet He loved us because He is love! We who live to love with Jesus express His love because we know God, and as sinners have experienced His love. Like God, we don’t have to get anything from people. They may be useless to us, yet we love them because God is love and we have been loved by Him. He has reconciled us through His death and lives in us to save us from our uselessness. Celebrate His life and love with Him today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;Are we better than those who condemn us for saying, “If through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory.” Why are we judged as sinners? It’s because of our lack of righteousness as well as our evil deeds. Verses 10-18 give God’s judgment of mankind in general and with some detail. We will look at those verses in the days to come. Today, let’s focus on the truth in this verse and it’s impact on our living to love with Jesus. We are all sinners.According to these verses every human being is under the power and curse of sin. There is only one exception: Jesus Christ of Nazareth. There is a growing cult of progressive unbelievers who reject this narrative, as they call it. They reject the Holy Spirit’s word through the Scriptures and the apostle Paul here in Romans. One of the leaders in the progressive movement, when being interviewed by The Christian Post, said that he struggles with "the idea that humanity has become detestable to God and that it's only the people who become Christians that God can truly love, that their being loved by God through just being God's creatures is somehow destroyed by original sin.”His error in understanding stands out in his statement when he said that God can only truly love those who become Christians. His mistake is in thinking that if a person becomes a Christian, then God can love them. The truth is this: Christians are people who were loved while they were still enemies, hostile to God, and alienated from Him due to their sinfulness. They are Christians because they have seen that God loved them even when they were unlovely. In experiencing His forgiveness through faith in Jesus’ death on the cross, they experienced His love and trusted in Him. They became Christians because they were loved, not loved because they became Christians. This is important. We love much because we were forgiven much. We live to love with Jesus because He lives to love through us, as a sign to us and to others, that God is love. We testify that God loves sinners before they were changed. He forgave us before we did anything. Therefore, nothing can separate us from His love. If God is for us, no one and nothing can be against us. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:7-8 But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), "Let us do evil that good may come"? Their condemnation is just.If we are living to love with Jesus, we believe and think like Jesus believes and thinks about our sin. It will seem worthy of condemnation by some who don’t understand, just as Paul asserted in these verses. They will accuse us of being ridiculous. To say that God receives glory because we are sinners, seems to say that our sinfulness and evil works toward His glory and righteousness. It is to say that He needs our sinfulness so He can show His righteousness. So if God needs us to be sinners for His glory then why are we still judged as sinners? Paul agreed with their line of accusation. Let’s grasp His point.For Jesus, we are of value to Him, not because He gets anything from us. We have nothing to give Him. Our value is that through our lie (exchanging the truth of God for a lie and living for ourselves), Jesus testified to the truth of God— that God is a righteous judge. He has satisfied justice and demonstrated His righteousness at the cross so we could see the glory of God, namely, that God is love and love comes from God. Jesus glorified His Father, by finding His satisfaction in the love of His Father, then, out of that fullness, He expressed the Father’s love on the cross and through forgiveness.For all who live to love with Jesus, we also know that the value of a person, isn’t what we can get from them. Instead, their value is that they give us an opportunity to know and experience the love of Christ, then out of His fullness, we express His love to them. With this understanding someone might say, “Then let us offend you so that you might experience and express God’s love.” Their reasoning is right on. They have understood the power of the gospel and the righteousness of God. So today, remember, another’s failure doesn’t nullify the righteousness and faithfulness of God. Quite the contrary, it actually gives an occasion for love to be demonstrated for His glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:5-6 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world?Only a righteous God can judge the world in righteousness, and He has judged the world. In verses 10-18, we will see what God’s judgment is regarding everyone in the world. In these verses, we see Paul’s understanding about the relationship between our unrighteousness and God’s righteousness. Our unrighteousness has provided God the occasion to demonstrate His righteousness. This is also true for those who live to love with Jesus. When others sin against us, it provides God another occasion to demonstrate His righteousness in and through us as we forgive and love them with Him. God demonstrated His righteousness in Christ as He bore the weight of our sin, performed justice as He satisfied the Law’s requirements, and then gave us His righteousness as a gift by grace. We affirm God’s righteousness as we forgive and love those who offend or seek to hurt us on the grounds of what God accomplished in Christ. We glorify God as we demonstrate His righteousness by loving them. We love because we know God is righteous and has and will inflict wrath upon every sin. No sin escapes God’s righteous judgment and wrath. Therefore, we testify to the righteousness of God as we live to love with Jesus by forgiving and forbearing with our brothers and sisters in Christ.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 3:4 May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, "That You may be justified in Your words, and prevail when You are judged.”In Rom. 3:4, Paul answered the question about God’s faithfulness being nullified because of the unbelief of God’s people who have the oracles and promises of God. His answer: No, not, never! Man’s unbelief cannot nullify God’s faithfulness. People often use the hypocrisy and unbelief of church members as an excuse to reject God. Yes, we all fail—even believers. However, it would be better for us to be found liars rather than God be found untrustworthy. God is true. His Word is true. His judgment is true. There will always be people who judge God. Paul wrote that God will be found true and His words will stand til the end of time. As we live to love with Jesus, there will be times when we will have people tell us how they can’t believe in God because people in churches are hypocrites or maybe even because we hurt them in some way—we didn’t love them well. Let’s be quick to admit our failures. We might say it this way. “If I ever love, it’s Jesus. The rest of the time, it’s me, and it’s easy to tell the difference.” The faithfulness of God isn’t nullified by our weaknesses or failures. In fact, God’s faithfulness is experienced by His love poured out in the hearts of all sinners who trust in Him who justifies the ungodly, as Abraham did. Paul wrote of Abraham in Romans 4:5. “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” We live to love with Jesus because we have experienced God’s love while we were yet sinners. That’s the good news we have to share with others today, who like us, have fallen short of the glory of God. Yes, we have been unbelieving, but that has not nullified God’s faithfulness. To the contrary, we are examples and witnesses of His faithfulness.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
This month's Live to Love blog focuses on the first of four identity principles from the Equipping Men Series: Practical Tools for Life's Issues by Norm Wakefield. Why do people do the things they do?
Romans 3:1-3 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?As you might suspect, these questions were important to Jewish members of the Roman church. Similar questions are pertinent in our day. What advantage is there to growing up in church? What is the benefit of being baptized? Does the fact that many baptized church members act like unbelievers mean that God isn’t to be trusted?There are some benefits to growing up in churches. If there is any place one may go to know God’s Word, it is to churches who honor it and proclaim it. That is a benefit, however, knowing God’s Word and having Bibles in our homes won’t save us from the wrath of God that rightly should fall upon those who sin against God and others. We also should not think that if we live to love with Jesus that such good deeds can justify sinners before God. We don’t live to love with Jesus in order to receive forgiveness and grace. We live to love with Jesus because we have been justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Because He is our life and righteousness, we give Him access to our bodies and our life in this world so He will reveal His life and love. When someone asks about our hope, let’s be sure not to say it is because we have the Bible, have been baptized, or are church members. Our hope is in our union with Jesus Christ who has justified us through His substitutionary sacrifice and who has given us His righteousness as a gift by grace through the faith He has given us. The reality of our faith being a work of the Holy Spirit is that we live to love with Jesus. Father, we give thanks to You for another day of life to know and love you and to live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill us with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that we can love and trust You and love those you put in our paths today, for Your glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:28-29 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.Surely this was a confusing statement to Paul’s Jewish readers who were not trusting in Jesus. Their understanding was that if a man was a circumcised descendent of Abraham, then he was a Jew. He introduced a new thought for them. What one does outwardly in the flesh to identify with a particular religion or with God has no value against fleshly indulgence. If they break the Law, which is an indulgence of the flesh, then what good or what value is being circumcised or bearing the sign in the flesh of belonging to God? We might say the same thing about those who do outward things to identify with God such as going to church, having Bible knowledge, wearing a head-covering or neckless with a cross, or bearing a tattoo with John 3:16. What matters isn’t what we do in the flesh to signify to others that we belong to God. What does matter? Who is a Jew in God’s eyes? It’s an inward matter of the heart. The true sign of belonging to God, wrote Paul, is the circumcising work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. Paul will say more about this work of the Spirit in his letter. For today, take heart and know that living to love with God is evidence that your heart has been circumcised by the Holy Spirit. At the cross, God cut away all of the efforts of the flesh which fall short of God’s righteousness. Then, when you heard the gospel and believed in Jesus, the Holy Spirit applied that circumcision to your heart. He set you apart for Himself so He could love through you and thus fulfill God’s Law. Let’s rejoice! God will praise you because in praising you He is praising His Son, who has accomplished the work on your behalf and through your life. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:27 And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law?John wrote about those who believe in Jesus when he wrote, 1 John 5:2-3 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” Both Paul and John understood that those who believe in Jesus keep God’s commandments and do them with joy. Paul said in vs. 27 that those believers will judge those who do not believe in Jesus, yet are circumcised and know the letter of the Law. Those who do not believe in Jesus are transgressors of the Law. Those who do believe in Jesus, although they have transgressed the Law, are considered by God as having fulfilled the Law through the righteousness of Christ. Isn’t this an amazing truth?! What is the believer’s judgment about those who are circumcised, know the Law, yet habitually transgress it? Their judgment is that only those who trust in Jesus can be regarded by God as having fulfilled the Law of God. They also testify that only those who love with Jesus can be regarded as righteous in Christ. Loving with Jesus is the evidence that one is justified before God.Are you justified before God? Do you live to love with Jesus? If so, have you rejoiced today in your salvation and the gift of righteousness that has been reckoned to your account before God? Live to love with Jesus today as an expression of gratitude to God for His grace through Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:26 So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?Can any person, uncircumcised or circumcised keep the requirements of the Law? The answer is: not in his own strength. Here’s where Paul was going in his argument. We read it in Rom. 8:1-4. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”Paul’s point in this verse is that what matters to God is that one keeps the requirements of the Law, regardless of whether he knows the Law or not. What encouragement to live to love with Jesus can we take from this verse? As we live to love with Jesus, we are demonstrating that the requirements of the Law have been met for us in Christ Jesus. Those who are justified by faith know God, know He is love, and believe that love is the fulfillment of all of the Law. Our trust is not in trying to love to meet the requirements of the Law, we love with Jesus because we know He has fulfilled the Law on our behalf. God has given us His Spirit, the spirit of life. When we walk by the Spirit, we love with Jesus for His glory. Hallelujah! Love through us today, we pray, for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:25 For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.Circumcision was an outward sign of Israel’s covenant with God through Abraham. Every male from Abraham on was to carry that sign. Then God gave the Law through Moses, and the circumcised tribe entered into another covenant with God. We read about it in Deut. 5:2-3. Moses wrote,“The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today.” The covenant God made with Abraham was a covenant of grace through faith. Paul wrote of this covenant later in Rom. 4:3. For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” But the covenant God made with the circumcised offspring of Abraham through Moses was a covenant of Law. It demanded perfect obedience. Deuteronomy 5:27-29 “‘Go near and hear all that the LORD our God says; then speak to us all that the LORD our God speaks to you, and we will hear and do it.’ The LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me, ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. ‘Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!’” The problem with the covenant of Law was that even though they knew what the Law said, they didn’t have hearts that could perform it to the glory of God. So what value was there in being circumcised or carrying the sign of the covenant of grace if they didn’t display evidence of the grace of God?This same line of argument stands today. The evidence that someone is a recipient of the grace of God which comes through faith is the constant flow (not perfection) of the love of Jesus, for as Paul wrote to the Galatians, “Faith works through love.” (Gal. 5:6). Today, as we live to love with Jesus, we can be greatly encouraged that we are also in covenant with God, not a covenant of Law, but a covenant of grace. Therefore, God gets the glory for every act of love that flows through our lives.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:24 For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.The prophet Isaiah wrote in 52:5, “Again the LORD declares, “Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually blasphemed all day long.” Let’s not think this is only an Old Testament problem. Peter warned of false prophets who will arise among believers in 2 Peter 2:2 “And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned.” Let this be a warning to us that we don’t want to be the reason why unbelievers would blaspheme God or malign the truth that Jesus is God and the savior of the world. Jesus told His disciples that if they abide in Him and He abides in them that they will bear much fruit and glorify the Father (John 15:5-8). He also taught that the world will know that we are His disciples by our love (John 13:34-35). One of the most important reasons we live to love with Jesus as our purpose in life is because it brings Him glory and honor instead of shame and dishonor. We have the privilege today to give Jesus a good name as we love with Him. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:21-23 You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?Do we always do what is right? Unfortunately, we do not. We are all sinners. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. We may know that God is love, but do we always love? Again, unfortunately, we all too often fall short of His glory and bring dishonor to God. We should be able to relate to the Jews in Rome to whom Paul wrote. There is an encouragement to be found here. The fact that even though we know what is right, we still are sinners, should convince us that God doesn’t want or intend for us to live for Him. The gospel isn’t about what we can do for God. The gospel is about what He does for us. We need Him to live for us, to live through us, to satisfy the righteous demands of the Law for us. God gave Jesus to us for the purpose of glorifying or honoring God in and through us. His life becomes our life. His love is our love. His righteousness is our righteousness. Our message isn’t to call others to keep God’s Law and do what pleases Him so He will accept you. Rather, our message is that God gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place so that for all who believe in Him, their sins may be forgiven and removed. Then we may be united with Him so He can live His life of love in and through us for the glory of God. That’s why we live to love with Jesus. We have been loved by God so we can love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
We have been looking at Paul’s explanation to the Roman Jews of their need for a righteousness from God. He had said in Romans 2:17-18 “But if you bear the name "Jew" and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law.” Today we look at verses 19-20 where he continued, “and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth,”Being confident in what we know isn’t unique to those of Jewish descent who were given God’s Law. Throughout approximately 2000 years of history, the Jews were the lone recipients of God’s revelation of Himself to man. So they rightfully considered themselves to be guides and teachers of others in all things related to God. However, Paul’s message, which we will see in the following verses and chapters, was that their confidence was wrongly placed in being recipients of the Law. Knowing what is right and wrong doesn’t mean one can escape the judgment of God against sin.A believer in Jesus Christ does have confidence, but the confidence isn’t based upon knowledge and one’s ministry of guiding, correcting, or teaching others. Confidence before God comes from seeing the life of Christ loving through them on a regular basis. The apostle John wrote of the believer’s confidence in 1 John 4:17. “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.” As we live to love with Jesus, it is the love of Christ dwelling within our hearts and issuing out into the world that makes us guides, lights, correctors, and teachers. Our confidence isn’t in what we know or in the ministry we have to others. Our confidence is in Jesus, Himself, who lives in us. Today, remember, you are living to love with Jesus. He is your Guide, Light, Corrector, and Teacher.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:18 and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law,In this verse, Paul continued his description of the Jews who boast in God. They are proud of the fact that through the Law, upon which the rely, they know God’s will in those things which are essential in life. In fact, they derived 613 commandments out of the Law delineated in the Mishnah. They consider these things to be essential.Let’s again contrast this description with those who have been justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and who live to love with Jesus. Since they boast in the cross of Christ and rely upon His righteousness, life, and love, they know that His will is for them to love with Him. They love to obey Jesus’ command to love one another as He has loved them. They consider loving with Jesus to be essential in life above all things. To them, it is the Royal Law that is not burdensome. If I just described you, rejoice in the Lord Jesus and give Him glory. Let us pray for God to be glorified, His name exalted, and His will be done in our lives today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:17 But if you bear the name "Jew" and rely upon the Law and boast in God,This verse is the first in a series of verses describing the Jews. He cites first, the source of their identity. The name that identifies them is “Jew.” They are sons of the Law of God, and therefore boast in belonging to God through the Law. Second, he defines what they rely upon, namely, that they are recipients of God’s Law. Third, he states what they are proud of, namely, God. Let’s contrast that description with those who live to love with Jesus. First, they bear the name “Beloved of God.” That’s what identifies them in this world. They are the ones who have been loved by God. Second, they rely upon Jesus: His substitutionary sacrifice and righteousness, His life, and His love. Third, they boast in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to how Paul spoke of his boast. Galatians 6:14 “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”Dear Beloved of God. Rely on the Lord Jesus Christ today, and declare His faithfulness to those God puts in your path today. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:14-16 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. What are the secrets of men that God will judge through Christ? He knows their consciences and their thoughts behind every deed. Jesus knows if the source of the doing is Himself or is the individual. He knows if the doing is instinctive or if it is an act of obedience to the witness of their consciences. The apostle John put it this way in 1 Jo. 3:20. “God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” Just prior to that verse John wrote, “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God” (1 Jo. 3:18-21). Do you see the connection? We believe God is going to judge all of our deeds through Jesus Christ. We know He knew all of our sins, without exception, which fell short of the requirement of His Law, and He put them on His Son at the cross, and removed them out of sight. Therefore, our consciences can be assured before God. We are among the Beloved of God, and in God’s sight, through Jesus Christ, are doers of the Law. Having known God’s love, which is bestowed by grace, we are called to bestow that love on everyone we meet. When we do that, we are loving with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:13 for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.Paul’s point to the Romans was that the righteous standard by which God judges is a standard no one can perform: 100% conformity to the Law in all one’s actions. Who are the doers of the Law who are just or righteous before God? He made it clear in the next chapter that no one is justified by the works of the Law (3:20). So what are we to conclude? Can anyone escape from God’s righteous judgment, His wrath, and indignation? He wanted them asking that question, and these verses in chapters 2-3 were written to help them see that Jesus Christ is the only answer. As sure as God’s wrath has been revealed from heaven, God’s salvation has also been revealed from heaven. Salvation results from a God-given righteousness revealed in Jesus Christ on the basis of grace alone through faith alone. Paul wrote to the Galatians that the Law of God could be summed up in one word in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal. 5:14). The justified by faith are those who love with Jesus. His righteousness not only satisfies what God’s Law requires, but also bestows the grace to love through the Holy Spirit who indwells them. Today be encouraged by this great truth that you have become a doer of the Law through faith in Jesus Christ by grace. These verses in chapter 5 thrill my heart and testify to this wonderful reality. Romans 5:1-5 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Do I hear an Amen from all who are living to love with Jesus today?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:12 For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;The difference between the Jews and the Greeks was that the Jews had the Law of God and the Greeks didn’t. But since it is the deeds which are being judged, and not whether one has the Law or doesn’t have the Law, the issue isn’t knowledge, it’s whether the deeds done were good or evil. What makes a deed good? It’s the source of the deed. A deed done by Jesus in a person brings glory to God and thus fulfills the Law. Therefore it is good. A deed done without Jesus falls short of the glory of God and thus is a sin. Therefore it is evil. Paul will make this point later in his letter. In this verse, we learn that God’s judgment of those without the Law is the same as those with the Law. If either sins, then they perish. Righteousness cannot overlook sin in anyone’s case. Is this not foundational to living to love with Jesus? His free gift of grace in Jesus Christ is bestowed on both Jews and Greeks as well as everyone who believes in Him. We know the love of God in this: that Jesus laid down His life and bore our sins to satisfy the righteousness of God and to display the righteousness of God. We know we deserve death, wrath, and indignation, but God, who is rich in mercy and love, has forgiven us our sins and given us the righteousness of Christ as a free gift through our union with Jesus. God has put His seed into our hearts which has given birth to the life of His Son in us. We know that we are born of God because we love like Jesus loves.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:9-11 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.If we take these verses out of their context, one might argue that Paul taught that salvation is based upon good works. However, he had already made it clear in 1:16-17 that salvation is based on the righteousness of Christ that is given to all those who believe, whether Jews or Greeks. The point in these verses is that there is no partiality with God. He doesn’t grant favor to the Jews because He chose them to be the race through whom He would give the world both His Law and a savior. He judges what is evil and what is good, regardless of one’s individual distinction in this world.Today we can draw encouragement that there is a wonderful reward from God to every soul of man who does good. Deeds which flow out of the life of Jesus are the only ones which bring glory to God. Those who live that way will experience glory, honor, and peace in their souls—both now and forever. If you don’t have Jesus, you cannot produce good deeds, and therefore there will be tribulation and distress of soul—both now and forever. Knowing these things, let us live to love with Jesus for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.What a contrast to what we read yesterday in verse 7. God’s judgment is that one who seeks His glory and honor by trusting in and living in union with Jesus Christ has eternal life. In this verse Paul continued explaining the revelation of God’s wrath and indignation. We learned from chapter 1 that God’s wrath focuses on those who suppress the truth in ungodliness and unrighteousness because they do what they want to do. Here, he calls them selfishly ambitious. They do not obey the truth that only God is good. Therefore they are hopeless without His righteousness as the source of their justification and good works. They think they can do good and that their good deeds will outnumber their bad deeds. They are deluded about God’s judgment. They think they will be rewarded with eternity in heaven even though they know God’s wrath should rightly fall upon every deed that falls short of His glory. God will render wrath and indignation upon these proud, self-seeking rebels.Let this verse be a welcome reminder to us to seek to glorify and honor God today by living to love with Jesus. Let us take heart that we are obeying the truth when we live in union with Him and trust in His righteous deeds as the basis for our justification before God. The way we show our faith in Jesus and our obedience to the truth is walking in love. In 1 Cor. 16:14, Paul wrote, “Let all that you do be done in love.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
We are reading from Rom. 2 about God’s righteous judgment. We learned yesterday from verse 6 that God will render to each person according to his deeds. Today we gain more perspective on this judgment in Romans 2:7. “To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.”I would like to show you how encouraging these words are for everyone who lives to love with Jesus. Those who know that Jesus is life and that He is living His life in and through them, also know that the only deeds which are good are those prepared beforehand by God for Jesus to do. Only Jesus’ works are good. Mark 10:18 “And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.’” Everyone who is justified by faith and walks by faith acknowledges God in all their affairs. They “seek good” as Paul declared here. They want to bear fruit for the glory and honor of God. They know that apart from Jesus, they can do nothing good, nothing to bring glory to God. But if they do live with Him, then they know their deeds are immortal—they issue forth from eternal life—the very life of Jesus Christ. If you live to love with Jesus, you will in perseverance do good, seeking for glory, honor, and immortality. The Holy Spirit through Paul informs us that the righteous judgment God will render to you is this: You have eternal life! I hope you are encouraged to live to love with Jesus another day. What a privilege! What glory! What honor! Immortality! Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:6 who will render to each person according to his deeds:We learn from the apostle Paul that a day is coming when everyone will be judged by God, their creator. His wrath and righteous judgment will be revealed to all. He put it to the Corinthians this way in 1 Cor. 3:13-15. “Each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it (that is, the foundation of Christ) remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as though fire.” In the next two verses of Romans, Paul gives more insight into the basis for God’s righteous judgment. When we live to love with Jesus as our purpose in life, we are building on the foundation which has been laid. Our deeds have only two sources according to which God renders His judgment: Our deeds are either of flesh or of spirit. Deeds of the flesh are those which are apart from Jesus, and those which are of the spirit are deeds done in union with Jesus. Believers have the life of Jesus dwelling within them. As Jesus lives for them and through them and they live for His glory through Him, God’s righteous judgment is rendered that those deeds are rewarded by God. Everything you do today to love with Jesus will not be overlooked when that great day comes. You will face that day with confidence because as John wrote in 1 John 4:17. “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,We see from this verse why a person takes lightly the riches of the kindness, tolerance, and patience of God. They are stubborn or hard hearted. Furthermore, they are unrepentant regarding their behavior. Someone who is hard-hearted and unrepentant is someone who will not be able to love. Jesus was visiting a Pharisee’s home when “a woman who was a sinner” came and washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. Simon, the Pharisee, was offended and judgmental of the woman and of Jesus’ kindness, tolerance, and patience toward her. Jesus commented then that her sins, which were many, had been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little. A hard-hearted, unrepentant person doesn’t recognize his or her sins because they are justified by their depraved mind and futile reasonings. They don’t see their need for forgiveness, so they are forgiven little, so to speak. The hard-heartedness makes loving others impossible, and as a result the wrath they deserve increases. There is a day coming when God’s wrath and righteous judgment will be revealed. They should fear God, but don’t. In contrast, someone who lives to love with Jesus is able to love because he or she has not treated sin lightly. Their hearts have been softened by the realization that they deserve God’s judgment and wrath. They have seen themselves as great sinners and have thrown themselves on the mercy of God. In Christ, like the woman who was a sinner, they have found forgiveness for their many sins. What great appreciation they have for God’s kindness, tolerance, and patience! The result of receiving much love from God is that they love much. They are kind, tolerant, and patient with others for His name sake. I hope I have just described you! Today, you’ll probably have many opportunities to be kind, tolerant, and patient with other sinners, who like you, need forgiveness and love. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?Why doesn’t God’s wrath rightly fall upon you right this minute, argued Paul with the Romans and us. You have sinned. You know you have. You know what you deserve. But why hasn’t God’s wrath crushed you? Paul said it is because of the riches of God’s kindness, tolerance, and patience. In His kindness, every time we have sinned, God restrained His wrath. Every time we have sinned, God has tolerated our hostility and enmity. Every time His justice and righteousness moves Him toward crushing us, He has instead exercised patience. What other explanation is there for why we who deserve His wrath have not received it and passed into eternal damnation? It certainly isn’t because we don’t deserve it. It surely isn’t because our sin isn’t worthy of death. There’s only one explanation for why all mankind doesn’t drop of our own sinful weight into a burning hellfire. It’s because of the indescribable riches of God’s kindness, tolerance, and patience. Have you received such riches and taken it lightly? It’s as if God has given to you a million dollars when you owed Him a million dollars, and you didn’t notice it or acknowledge it. You just go on your way satisfying your own desires and living like you want to live with no thought about who God is or what pleases Him. Those who live to love with Jesus do so because they don’t take lightly the riches of God’s love and grace. They live from faith to faith as Paul mentioned in Rom. 1:17. They live in the process of repenting of their self-ambition, self-gratification, and self-exaltation because they have seen God’s kindness revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we live to love with Jesus, we are living in repentance and walking by faith in Jesus’ resurrection life dwelling in us, loving through us, for the glory of God. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:3 But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?If you take Jesus out of the picture, out of the equation, what are we left with? Is there any way that we sinners can escape what we deserve? For instance, if we know that God should not turn a blind eye to those who are unloving (a sin listed in Rom. 1:31), how are we to expect God to turn a blind eye to our unloving actions? Even if we went 364 days in a year without sinning, which we can’t, but were unloving on one day, isn’t it right for God to judge that sin and punish it? If He were to ignore it, wouldn’t that be unrighteous and therefore untrustworthy, which are sins also listed in vss. 29 and 31 of Rom. 1? How are we to escape the judgment of God? Is it by our good works? Paul will make it clear later on that no man will be justified by good works. What hope do we have if Jesus isn’t God, come in the flesh, to express the love and mercy of God, by becoming our substitute? We have none. But, and this is a wonderful but, but God, being rich in mercy, because of the love with which He has loved us, has made us one with His Son, and reconciled us to Himself through Jesus’ death and resurrection. He saves us by the life of His Son! We are indeed loved by God. This gospel we have to share with everyone who is in danger of God’s wrath and has no other escape. More than likely, today, God will place someone in our paths who is in such a dangerous condition. We are living to love with Jesus, and He loves them enough to put them in our paths that we might pray for them, share with them, and love them in His name. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 2:2 And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.One of many reasons we love with Jesus is because we know we have been loved even though we deserve God’s wrath. Paul affirmed in vs 2 of chapter 2 that we all know that it is right for God to judge sinners. Why do we believe in the gospel, the power of God for salvation? It’s because we also believe this verse is true. We know we are sinners, and thus we know what should rightly fall upon us—God’s judgment. What good news it is to our ears to hear that God chose to love us even when we were hostile to Him and His enemies. He caused His judgment to fall upon His one and only Son, Jesus, so His judgment would not fall upon us. In this is love, that He, Jesus, laid down His life for us. In this is love, that He, God, caused our sins and iniquities to fall upon His Son, so that we might be reconciled to God through His righteousness and raised to a new life in union with Jesus. This is right in the eyes of God who is love: that our sins should fall upon Him who created us and loves us. That’s why we live to love with Jesus. We love because He first loved us.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
This is the audio version of Norm Wakefield's Live to Love with Jesus blog found at www.livetolovewithjesus/blog. It is the fifth installment of a series based on 1 Peter 1:22-23 about all-out love for others.
Romans 2:1 Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. What does someone who lives to love with Jesus do about judging others? The apostle Paul lured his readers into a trap. If they agree with God’s judgment that those who practice the sins he previously listed in verses 24-31 of chapter 1, if they agree that they rightly deserve God’s punishment, then if they have committed any of those sins themselves (which they have) what excuse do they have before God? They condemn themselves as well in such judgment. It is true that even though we live to love with Jesus, we are not thinking that doing so is our excuse for our sins. We live to love with Jesus because we believe the good news that our righteousness before God is a gift of grace. We also believe that even our believing the gospel is a gift of grace. That gift of faith informs us that God has placed the punishment upon His Son which rightly should fall upon us. So when we say these sins are worthy of death, we are not saying we are better than those whom we judge. We condemn ourselves also, then we share our hope of escape—the gospel promises in Jesus Christ. As Christians we are not soft on sin and ourselves. We love others when we call sin what God calls sin, and we tell the only hope there is for sinners like us—the substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. These who abide in God’s wrath know it is right for God to put to death a person who practices unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; and who is full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; and who are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful, but it not only doesn’t stop them from doing these things, it also don’t stop them from approving of and celebrating others who do them. In other words, birds of a feather stick together. Regardless of the pressure we receive from our culture to approve and celebrate the depraved behaviors listed here, we cannot in truth and love condone what God condemns. Those who live to love with Jesus will also stick with others who walk by faith and live with Him. Let us today give thanks to God for our brothers and sisters in Christ. May we approve of them and celebrate the life and love of Jesus that we enjoy together. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:29-31. being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; In verses 24-31 of this first chapter of Romans we discover what fills the life of someone who has a depraved mind due to not acknowledging God. The list should hopefully encourage us of the mercy of God which we have received. It’s a descriptive list of the fruit of a bad tree—a tree that is to be chopped down by God. We shouldn’t think of it as a prescription for those who want to be Christian. The Holy Spirit says that a depraved person is full of these things which means they habitually spill out in their relationships. Those who live by faith in Jesus are filled with very different fruit—the fruit of the love of Christ—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. What a contrast! Acknowledge Jesus in all your ways and He will produce good fruit in your life for the glory of God. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, One of the foundational truths of living to love with Jesus is Jesus’ view of God. He, and thus we, believe there is only one God from whom all things come. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 8:6, “Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” Knowing this about God means we acknowledge His work and purpose in everything that occurs in our days. Not so with the one who abides in God’s wrath. They go from bad to worse. We have witnessed the reality of this verse in our public square here in the US. Once someone or a culture doesn’t see any reason to acknowledge God at all, they become depraved in their minds. There’s nothing to restrain them. Their behavior displays their depravity of mind. The Holy Spirit gets specific again in the following verses about the fruit of their lives. For today, let this verse spur us to live to love with Jesus and be expressions of the wisdom of God. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:26-27 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.In these two verses the Holy Spirit gives the truth regarding the reason men and women abandon natural, normal sexual relationships. The reason is that they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and instead of worshipping and honoring God and His design for them, they worshipped the creature. In verse 18, God said they suppressed the truth because they wanted to do what they wanted to do. Therefore as evidence of His wrath, God gave them over to degrading, dishonoring homosexual passions and desires of their hearts. He calls homosexuality an error that has a penalty that is due because of their rejection of God and the truth.How would Jesus love someone who is in error and is incurring a penalty from God because he or she rejected the truth about God and His plan for them? Would He approve and encourage such behavior that the Holy Spirit calls ungodliness and unrighteousness? I don’t think so because God’s love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another no matter what the cost. Love would seek to help them repent of the error and avoid the penalty due such activity. Love would also show them how they could honor God by embracing how God made them and the privilege they have to encourage others to do the same rather than participating with them in sinful, degrading, indecent acts. Helping someone avoid God’s penalty and promised wrath is not an act of hatred, as some might ignorantly accuse. Guiding someone to find his or her satisfaction in Christ rather than in selfish, destructive, lustful experiences is an act of love, not rejection. Let’s remember this same love should be expressed to anyone who is liable to the wrath of God. In the next verses, we learn that there are others who need a warning, help, and encouragement to repent and believe in Jesus for forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation from God’s wrath. It could be that today, God may put someone in your path who needs to be loved with God’s love. These verses help us to know what the Holy Spirit thinks about such sin, and it is the love of God that we know what God thinks. Continued ignorance can only end in eternal damnation, but knowing and surrendering to the truth about God revealed in Jesus Christ results in salvation and freedom. Let’s be ready to love with Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.It is impossible to love if one does not believe the truth of God, namely, that there is only one God and He is love, that we were made to find satisfaction in Him alone, and that our purpose is to glorify God by expressing the life of Jesus Christ, His Son. Love can only flow from God, by His Son, through us. The moment we worship and serve another god, we cut ourselves off from the only source of love—God Himself, who, as Paul declared to the Romans, is blessed forever. Shall we all say an “Amen” to that?!It was God’s love that motivated Him to engrave this in the stone tablets given to Moses to give to His people recorded in Deut. 5:7-10. “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”He knew that if we break this commandment, we would not be free to love. Furthermore, He warned His people that He would visit judgment on those who dishonored Him and hated Him by exchanging Him for other gods. So He has done!He has also shown His lovingkindness to thousands of generations who have not exchanged the truth of God for the lie and have worshipped Him by looking to Him as God, their creator, finding their satisfaction in Him alone, and live each day to express His life and love for His glory. Through those who have loved and are loving with Jesus, God has shown and is showing His steadfast love to thousands of generations. Paul told the Galatians that the entire law could be summed up in one word—love. As we live to love with Jesus, we are fulfilling God’s law and bringing glory to God through Jesus Christ. Let us hold fast to the truth of God, and worship Him alone today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.In the past week, we have considered the contrast between those in whom the wrath of God is revealed and those in whom the love of God is revealed. Circumstances and relationships bring out what our hearts desire. Paul told the Romans that there is objective evidence that someone abides in the wrath of God. In this verse, the Spirit says, and Paul wrote, that God does not restrain the desires in their hearts—they are drawn toward impurity so that they dishonor their bodies. We should not be surprised because if they dishonor God, wouldn’t they also dishonor their bodies made in His image? The point here is that there are no boundaries to their lusts, which Paul will explain in the next few verses. God shows they are under His wrath by giving them over to the lusts or desires of their hearts.This is also true of those who are united with Christ by faith. God also gives them over to the desires of their hearts. However, rather than lusting for satisfaction from impure use of their bodies, those who are justified by faith in Christ, desire to find satisfaction in pleasing God with their bodies. They desire to express the love of Jesus to those around them. Today, God will orchestrate circumstances and relationships in your life, then He will give you over to what your heart desires—to love with Jesus. In loving with Him, you’ll find great freedom, joy, and satisfaction. As you live to love, the righteousness of God is being revealed on your behalf for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.First, we consider the people in whom God’s wrath is revealed. In their foolish state, they look to god-substitutes as the sources and satisfaction in life. The person under God’s wrath tries to find satisfaction from pleasing themselves or other people, who are corruptible. They also make gods in the form of creatures that God has made instead of worshipping and honoring God, Himself.Second, let’s consider those who walk and live by faith. When we abide in Jesus or live with Him, our minds are conformed to His mindset so we can prove what the will of God is, that which is good and right. We glorify God by living our lives in union with Jesus. The foundational worldview of Jesus could be summed up in three foundational truths:1. There is one God from whom all things come and He is love.2. Jesus’ love is enough. His love satisfies my soul.3. God’s purpose in all things is to make us like Christ and prepare us for eternity. The incorruptible or unchanging God is worthy of the glory we give Him as we look to Him in all things and find our satisfaction in His presence and in doing His will. I encourage you today to learn these three foundational truths and process everything that happens today through these great truths. You will find His way, truth, and life to be the way to glorify God. The glory of the incorruptible God is seen and experienced in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As Paul wrote to the Colossians, 1:27. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,Why would anyone experiencing God’s wrath assert that they are wise? The answer: we’ve just seen in the previous verses that although they know God exists, they don’t honor Him as God, they don’t give thanks to Him, their reasoning is vain, and their hearts are darkened. They are deluded. They think they have something, but they do not. They think they know, but they do not. They think they are wise, but they are not, and in so thinking, they become foolish in their behavior. God describes in some detail what fools they become. They think they can live their lives apart from God and do whatever they desire.Those who lives to love with Jesus assert that without Jesus, they are foolish. Their wisdom lies in their knowing that apart from Jesus, they can’t do anything to glorify God. And there is the distinguishing characteristic of those who live by faith: they desire to glorify God. They understand that the only way God can be glorified in their lives is if they live by His power with His presence.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.Those who are experiencing the wrath of God recognize or perceive within them that God exists and is the creator of all things, but they do not give Him glory (that’s honor) of which He is worthy and they do not give Him thanks for life and all that they enjoy. Instead, their reasonings and speculations about God are empty, vain, or useless. God calls their hearts foolish hearts and as a result of their vain reasonings, their hearts have no light. Let’s contrast the state of those under God’s wrath from those who have been justified by faith and live from faith to faith. Because their hearts have been enlightened to see the glory of God in the face of Christ, they recognize that Jesus is life. Having seen His glory, they give Him honor and thanksgiving in all things. They have the mind of Christ, so their thinking is being renewed and conformed to that of Jesus. I hope this describes your life. Let this remind you to honor God today and give Him thanks for His grace to you in calling you to live to love with Jesus. Thank Him for all the people He will put in your path today so you can experience and express His love for His glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:19-20 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.In Matthew 5:44-45 Jesus said, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Isn’t this what Paul had in mind in these verses? Those in whom the wrath of God is revealed are those who have clearly seen God’s attributes, power, and divine nature of love as He provides both sunshine and rain for their blessing. It is evident within them and can be understood through creation and nature, that God is one. He is living. He is love, and He is merciful to them daily. These things are known about God from the creation of the world, so there has never been a person upon whom God’s wrath is revealed that will ever have an excuse for not acknowledging Him, thanking Him, and submitting themselves to Him. It is evident within them that they should do so, so why don’t they? We will learn that in the next few verses.So what encouragement can we draw from these verses to live to love with Jesus? If we are not suppressing the the truth, and are thanking God for His wonderful generosity, mercy, and love, then we know we have been loved by God with an everlasting love. We know He loves us because He lives in us. And if we know He lives in us, we know that the life that He lives, He lives to the glory of His Father. We have been united with Him so that we can experience His love and express His love for the glory of God the Father, through faith in Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing can separate us from His love and from living His purpose. May we be in awe of what we know about God, be amazed at His attributes, power, and divine nature as He dwells in us and expresses Himself in this world through us.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,Does it surprise you that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven? It isn’t a secret who abides under the wrath of God or as John puts it in his first epistle, who abides in death. He wrote in 3:14, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” Godliness refers to one’s relationship with God, whereas righteousness has to do with relationships with man. God’s wrath, therefore is revealed against those who do not love God and do not love people. Why don’t they love God and people? The answer stated here is that they suppress or hold down the truth about God in their desire to do what they want in their relationships with others. We will see that stated more succinctly in verses 24-32. The sobering truth is that those who are experiencing God’s wrath are evident by their lack of love for God and others.Those who live to love with Jesus do not suppress the truth about God revealed in Jesus Christ and instead embrace it with all our hearts. God is righteous, and His righteousness is the standard of the Law. The resurrection of Jesus declares that Jesus’ righteousness has met God’s standard and that He is Lord of all. He lives, and His life dwells within those who believe. The evidence of God’s presence in those who believe in Jesus is that they love because Jesus lives to love in them. The truth is that the righteous shall live by faith in Jesus Christ. It’s a faith that works through love for all of their lives. We continue each day, moment by moment, from faith to faith, for the glory of God. Let’s give thanks to God for His immeasurable mercies that united us with Jesus, so that He might deliver us from the wrath we deserve, and fulfill the requirements of the Law in us by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith."Today we are encouraged by these two wonderful realities. 1. The gift of the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, and 2. The recipients of that gift of righteousness are revealed as God gives them faith to believe to the end of their lives in God’s promise through Jesus Christ. Paul drew these two realities from Scripture. He cites, "But the righteous man shall live by faith." How does a man who is a sinner, an enemy of God, live before God rather than be condemned? The answer lies in the righteousness of God. God’s righteousness demands that everyone be righteous—100% conformity to the Law of God. Furthermore, His righteousness demands justice be meted out to all who miss the mark of 100% righteousness. Here’s the good news as Paul wrote in Romans 3:21-26. “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness because in the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” and also in Romans 8:1-4. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”In Jesus, God is both just and the justifier. His righteousness is revealed both in dealing with our sins and in giving us the righteousness of His Son as a gift. We know we have it because of the faith He has given us. Wow! Glory to God! This is one of many reasons, I say, we were saved to live to love with Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.Eagerness to preach the gospel comes from understanding what the gospel is: It is the power of God for salvation from the wrath of God which is revealed from heaven. In Romans 5:9 Paul wrote, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) and the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Why would anyone be ashamed of such good news? They shouldn’t, especially if they themselves have been saved. If the gospel were dependent upon the power of man’s will to be effective, one might have plenty of reasons to be ashamed to share such an ineffective message. However, Paul (and we) have every reason to be excited about sharing the gospel because it is the power of God that brings about salvation. We can rest assured, just as Paul did, that when the gospel is preached, everyone God intends to save, He will save. Paul knew this from experience in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:47-48). Paul explained to both the Jews and the Gentiles, “For so the Lord has commanded us, ‘I HAVE PLACED YOU AS A LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES, THAT YOU MAY BRING SALVATION TO THE END OF THE EARTH.’ When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”We, like Paul, can share the gospel with confidence that God will empower the gospel to save everyone who believes. We will find out in the next verses that faith is the power of God, not a power of man’s will, by which God reveals whom He has justified in Jesus. One aspect of living to love with Jesus is testifying to the great love with which He has loved us and trusting God to work powerfully in the hearts of those He has saved through Jesus Christ. Let us not be ashamed of the gospel, but instead be eager to love and share the gospel for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.One of the ways the apostle Paul loved with Jesus was to preach the gospel. The gospel of the righteousness of God given as a gift to all who believed in Jesus was given to him by God, and he considered himself a steward of a wonderful mystery. He wrote to the Ephesians of his call to preach this mystery, “To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things” (Ephesians 3:6-9).How eager are we to tell others the good news that God made a way for people who were not His people to become recipients and partakers of the promises He made to His people? How excited we should be to wake up each day to a life of knowing and loving God by living to love with Jesus, in the power of the Spirit. We know that whoever God puts in our paths, He knows and loves them. I want to encourage you to pray this prayer every morning. “Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to know and love you and love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love those You put in my path today, for Your glory.” When you pray that each morning, then you can sincerely tell people that you prayed for them that morning. You didn’t know who they were, but you know God did. Now here they are. In your path. The very one you prayed for earlier. Then you can ask if they have heard the good news that God has made a way to bring them to Himself. If they ask how that is possible, then it’s preaching time! That’s what Paul was so eager to do—preach the gospel. How eager are we to preach the gospel? Are we eager enough to pray daily for the opportunities and to prepare ourselves to live to love with Him?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.There’s an important lesson to be learned from the apostle Paul in this verse. The lesson is this: Having been loved by Jesus, we are indebted to Him. We owe Him love in return. That debt is paid as we love everyone God puts in our paths. Here’s how Paul explained this lesson later in chapter 13:8. “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” Everyday, we wake up in debt. We owe the love of Jesus to everyone we meet. Paul used extremes when he mentioned Greeks and barbarians and the wise and foolish as a way of saying that he owed love to everyone. What a contrast this is from an earthly selfish attitude where people think everyone else owes them—everyone is indebted to them. From a fleshly, worldly perspective, we think we deserve to be loved and to be happy. Once we see the truth, that in reality, because of our sin and hatred for God, we deserve condemnation and wrath from God, we can also see the incredible riches of love that God has poured out on us. We owe Him! Big time! How does one repay such a huge debt, a debt that we are powerless to pay? What an amazing turn of fortune! God has forgiven our debt through His Son Jesus, and having truly seen what He has done for us, we have become His bonds slaves. We owe Him our lives, and thus we ask, “What can we do to show our love in return?” He says to us, “Forgive the debt of all who owe you anything. Love them like I love you.” Paul’s understanding was that he was obligated to love all men because of the gospel which revealed that God had given Him the righteousness of Jesus as a gift. The fruit of that righteousness was what Paul wanted to display to the Romans and to all men. So I repeat we have a lesson to learn from Paul. We are bondslaves of Christ and therefore owe the love of Jesus to everyone. That’s another way of saying we were saved to live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:13 I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.We can see from this verse that Paul was eager to see the Roman believers because he was confident that Jesus would love them through him. Paul would then display the fruit of the Spirit for the glory of God. Every time you are with someone to love them with Jesus, you will experience His love for you and for them. As He reveals His love for them, you are obtaining fruit from Jesus. That is your fruit! Well, actually it is His life, the life of the vine, producing fruit on you, the branches, so that those you are with may eat and be satisfied in Christ. This brings glory to God both in your life and theirs. Of course, this administration of love flows both ways. You also benefit from the fruit produced by Jesus in their lives. Let’s not miss this: the focus isn’t on how others respond to you, it’s how you love them with Jesus. How they respond to you is “their” fruit. How you love them is “your” fruit. Although you may enjoy the fruit (that is, love) God gives you to display to others for their edification, they eat the fruit you obtain from the life of Jesus abiding in you. When we go to church, is that our mindset? Is that our expectation? Are we excited to be among our brothers and sisters in Christ so that Jesus can bear fruit in our lives as He loves them through us? I hope so. Imagine the glory to God in an assembly of believers who have such a selfless, giving, God-glorifying attitude. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:11-12 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine.When believers meet together, we may expect there to be mutual encouragement. The faith of each member of the body of Christ encourages the others. The writer of Hebrews said as much when he wrote, “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Heb. 10:24-25). Later in Paul’s letter he wrote, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly” (Rom. 12:5-7).As we live to love with Jesus in community, let us look for opportunities to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ with the Word of God, the gospel, and the encouragement the Holy Spirit gives us for each one we meet. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:11 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; Love gives. The apostle Paul longs to give what God has given to him for the good of the Roman believers—some spiritual gift. He gives us gifts of the Holy Spirit that will establish our brothers and sisters in Christ in their faith. How are we to use those gifts? Paul told the Corinthians that the way is love (1 Cor. 13). Without love, the gifts are nothing. Let’s ask ourselves as we love people today: Will my words or actions establish them and point them to Jesus? If so, we may feel confident before God and know we are living to love with Jesus.
Romans 1:10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. It was in Paul’s heart to go to Rome, and He was hopeful that God would at last answer his prayer and make it possible. He was in Corinth at the time. We know now that God used conflict in Jerusalem to get him there, but it was love for his fellow countrymen, believers who were suffering from a famine, that took him from Corinth to Jerusalem. Where is the love of Christ taking you? Who do you have a heart for? Is there someone for whom you always pray? One of the easiest first steps of love is prayer. God puts them on your heart, give thanks to the Father through Christ, then listen to the Holy Spirit for what to pray.
Romans 1:9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, What is truth? Paul essentially said, “God is my witness as to how unceasingly I thank God for you.” For Paul, the truth is what God sees to exist in reality. There is no higher authority to have as a witness to our words and actions. He witnesses all that happens in the affairs of men. He observes our prayers, the affairs of our spirits, and our deeds done in our bodies. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6:17 “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” We serve God in our spirits. It is with our spirits that we relate to God. So when we live to love with Jesus, we are loving Jesus and others as one spirit. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of life who gives life to our spirits and bodies. Later to the Romans he wrote, Romans 8:11 “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Praying for others is an act of love expressed in the spirit, and God witnesses that it is a work of the Spirit of Christ in us. Let’s not ever think that praying and thanking God for others is insignificant or meaningless. God notices and sees the truth. You are loving with Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.What an amazing testimony the Roman Christians have throughout the whole world! What did Paul mean that their “faith” was being “proclaimed throughout the whole world?” Probably everywhere Paul went, he had heard that the gospel had been well received in Rome, which at that time was politically the center of the world. The persecution of Christians in Rome had instigated a mass exodus of believers. They were dispersed all over the Roman Empire, so their faith was proclaimed wherever they went. It was for this reason that Paul longed to go to Rome, but at the time of this writing, Paul’s heart was filled with thanksgiving to God. He wanted them to know, first of all, how grateful He was to God for His grace outpoured to them. The fact that the gospel had reached the Romans probably made Paul’s ministry of the gospel more acceptable. Let’s notice that Paul’s gratitude to God could not be offered without the mediation of Jesus Christ. He wrote, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all.” He could not approach God’s throne to give thanks, and they would have no faith to be proclaimed were it not for the redemptive, reconciling work of Jesus Christ. Jesus brought him and the Roman believers as one into the presence of God. This verse reminds us that we not only are saved through the life of Jesus Christ, but we continue receiving the benefits of His gracious intercession. Just as the Jews could not pray in the temple without offering a sacrifice for their sins because God is holy, Paul understood he could not pray and give thanks to God without the blood sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God, to cover his sins and make him acceptable to God. He knew that was also true of his Roman brothers and sisters in Christ. God is to be thanked through Jesus Christ for His work in all of our lives. As we live to love with Jesus today, let’s remember to thank God for the testimony of those who have gone before us and planted a faithful witness. Their faithfulness adds validity to our testimony. Jesus’ name is exalted, and He receives the glory and honor. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:7 to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had all the beloved of God in Rome in view as he wrote this incredible letter. The Holy Spirit has us in view as well, for we too are loved by God. How do we know we are loved by God? The Lord Jesus Christ is with us, living His life in us. That makes us Holy ones, saints. When Paul wrote that they were called as saints, he was stating the basis of God’s love. They had been set apart by the Holy Spirit when He united or incorporated them into Jesus. When did that call take place? In eternity! Listen as Paul described that calling to Timothy. In 2 Timothy 1:9, speaking of God, “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” We have been known and loved by God in Christ, called as saints, holy ones to the Lord, before the world was created. Therein lies the fountain of the grace and peace we have from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The grace to love with Jesus flows out of our union with Jesus. Experiencing and expressing His love is the proof that we have peace with God through Jesus. We know we are the beloved of God! May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure! Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; Paul recognized his readers in Rome who were believers in Jesus were “the called of Jesus Christ.“ They were called out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God‘s beloved Son. Paul identified them with all God has saved and called. In 2 Timothy 1:9 glorifying God, “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” If we believe in Jesus, we are the “called of Jesus Christ. Called into salvation through the gospel of God, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood (1 Pet.1:2). You are the beloved of God. Rejoice and bless God today. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Let’s look again at verse 5 of Romans 1. Romans 1:5 The gospel of God…concerning Jesus… through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake, What was it that motivated the apostle Paul to lay down his life as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, to die daily, to travel to places where the gospel had not been preached? It was for the sake of Jesus’ name. Another way to say the same thing is that he was motivated by a desire to see God glorified through the working of God among the Gentiles. Knowing the Holy Spirit would bring all whom God chose to the obedience of faith, he poured out his life so the life of Christ might be manifested. Today I want to encourage us that this same desire for God to be glorified in Christ should motivate us to live to love with Jesus everyone God puts in our paths. We are still in the age of the Gentiles where God has opened the door for all of whom He has chosen who are not of Jewish descent to obey the gospel and believe on Christ. Have you obeyed and believed? God is still at work through us who live to love with Him to bring about the salvation of many among the nations. May we realize that we are among the bond-servants of Christ who live with a passion to see Jesus’ name exalted above the heavens. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:5 The gospel of God…concerning Jesus… through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake, The power we need to minister in Jesus’ name comes through the life of Jesus. Paul wrote that he and his companions had received grace to be apostles among the Gentiles through Jesus who was raised by the power of God. Living to love with Jesus occurs as we receive grace to minister to those He puts in our paths each day. We receive that grace, the power to love, through Him. John 1:16 “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” I encourage you today to embrace Jesus’ presence and receive His grace in your life. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Fervently love from the heart. This is the apostle Peter's call to live to love with Jesus. This is the fourth blog post this year in a series based on 1 Peter 1:22-23. You can find the previous blog posts here in this channel in soundcloud or at livetolovewithjesus.com.
We are reading Paul’s intro to Romans where he declared himself a bond-servant of Christ. Speaking of the gospel of God which is concerning Jesus Christ, God’s son, he wrote in Romans 1:4 “who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Yesterday we were encouraged by the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Today let’s focus on the phrase “according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ, our Lord.” The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is none other than the Spirit of holiness. It helps me to think of holiness as referring to oneness. Jesus was one with the Father and one with the Holy Spirit and one with us. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, so it makes sense that Jesus was resurrected according to the spirit of holiness. We were raised with Him by the “sanctifying work of the Spirit (1 Peter 1:2). We have been united with Jesus by the same power that raised Jesus. Hallelujah! Having been united with Him is what makes us holy. Thus Paul declared Jesus to be our Lord. Where the Spirit is Lord, there is freedom to love in His name. I hope you will enjoy the Spirit of holiness as you surrender to the lordship of Christ today. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:1 Paul, …set apart for the gospel of God…concerning His Son, Romans 1:4 who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, If Jesus was not resurrected, then there would be no gospel. Paul’s gospel concerning Jesus Christ emphasized this great reality. It is God who declared that Jesus was His Son with power, the greatest power ever seen in history, by raising him from the dead. Eye witnesses testified to His ascension into heaven. No other human being has such a testimony. This is the good news of God’s great love for us: The sustained direction of His will toward our highest good no matter what the cost. He sent His Son into this world to die for our sins so that whoever believes in Him might have eternal life. God justified sinners through the cross of Christ. Sin got what it deserves—God’s wrath, so God could be just in giving us what we don’t deserve. Whoever has the Son living within them, has eternal life. What does that life look like? That same love of God, revealed in the gospel, abides in them. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe He is God’s Son, given to you that He might continue living to love with His Father in you? I hope so. Let’s remember that the power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:1-3. Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, The gospel of God is concerning God’s son, Jesus Christ. It is important to the Holy Spirit and thus to the Romans and us to know that Jesus was a descendent of King David. It is important because God told David that the Christ would come from his line. Not only that but David prophesied the resurrection of Jesus Christ when he wrote, Psalms 16:10. “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.” This confirmed to the Romans and to us that Jesus isn’t just a good man or a myth. He is the gospel in the flesh. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians concerning Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15:3-5. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” We say we live to love with Jesus, because Jesus lives. The gospel tells us he was raised from the dead, and lives in his people. Today, God calls those who believe the gospel to live to love with Jesus. They are testimonies of the gospel that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, and lives in us even as Paul was a living witness to the resurrected Christ, a descendent of David. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures,The gospel isn’t a new thing historically. It was first declared to Adam and Eve when God told them that One from her seed would crush Satan under His feet. Then through thousands of years, God promised to reveal His righteousness to the nations through Abraham and his descendants. Paul saw himself as set apart by God for the purpose of declaring the arrival of that good news to the Gentiles. Paul was living to love with Jesus as he taught the gospel from the Scriptures. We can do the same! It’s why we study the Scriptures. We study to show ourselves approved to God, workmen who are not ashamed, just like Paul studied the Scriptures and was not ashamed of the gospel. The Scriptures are holy because they are the word of God, one with God. We are the fulfillment of the promise of God in that we have the Son of God living to love in us, just like the gospel promised. As we love, we declare that Jesus died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and was buried for three days, and was raised to life, according to the Scriptures. We love because He lives in us. That is the proof that God sent Jesus and raised Him from the dead to declare Him to be His Son. We’ll see that in verse 4. Today, let us be encouraged to live to love with Jesus, because in doing so, we are living evidence that Jesus lives and the gospel is true.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Romans 1:1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,In Galatians 1:10, we gain insight into what it meant for Paul to be a bond-servant of Christ Jesus. “Or am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” We live to love with Jesus because we know it pleases Him. He has called us to live with Him and to be expressions of His life in this world. One of the greatest hindrances to loving others is idolatry: placing someone else in Jesus’ place. When we live to please people, we have become their bond-servants. Our lives are run by their likes and dislikes. In this particular time in history, a popular perspective on love is that love is defined by how we make people feel. If we agree with them and celebrate their sinful lifestyle choices, then we love and accept them. If we don’t, then we are liable to a litany of accusations and worthy of censorship. As bond-servants of Christ, we should not believe those lies. We are not striving to please them or seek their favor. We seek His pleasure and favor, therefore we speak the truth, that which correlates to reality, in love. We, like the apostle Paul, have been set apart for Jesus that the gospel might be magnified and preached through our lives as we live to love with Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. All that John wrote concerning Jesus was but a drop in the bucket compared to all that He did in His 33 year life. Although the majority of what Jesus did isn’t recorded and couldn’t be contained if it was, what was recorded is sufficient for anyone to believe and trust in Jesus Christ. We can and should be as excited about the gospel as John was and as the apostle Paul who wrote to the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). Maybe today God will put people in our paths who need to hear some of what Jesus did. We can also tell them He did much, much more than all of the books in the world can hold. Maybe there will be an opportunity in the future for us to see all of those glorious works of God done in and through Jesus Christ. Wow! What a thought. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. The testimony of John is true and reliable. There are others who have verified what he has written. He wrote, “We know…”. Who is the “we”? Probably he had in mind the rest of the disciples who also were eye witnesses to the life of Christ and the things of which John wrote. The preponderance of the scriptures calling God’s people to live to love with Jesus come from John’s gospel and letters. All the other NT authors testify to love as the outstanding characteristic of followers of Jesus, but John’s testimony is unquestionable. Jesus is the Son God and the life and light of the world. That life and light is love. Everyone who has the Life loves Him and with Him. As we live to love with Jesus we testify that we believe that John’s testimony regarding Jesus Christ is true. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:23 Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?" How easy it is to misunderstand what someone says, and then spread the wrong information to others. Apparently that’s what happened in this case with Jesus’ comment to Peter regarding John. Sometimes we hear what we want to hear. Maybe that was the case with the disciples. It wasn’t a stretch to think that the risen One, who had just defeated death and promised His return could protect and preserve John’s life. They all believed God numbered their days, and they had just heard Jesus tell Peter about his future. Was it out of the question that Jesus might be telling John also about his future? I think they wanted to hear that Jesus would keep some of them alive until He returned. That is speculation, of course, but the fact that they misunderstood Jesus and spread false information gives us reason to examine ourselves. Have we done the same thing? Today, let’s be careful listeners and faithful communicators of the word of God. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:20-22. Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrays You?" So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, "Lord, and what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!" How easy it is to be distracted by what is or isn’t happening to others. Notice how quickly Simon Peter shifted the focus off of himself to John. How often have we listened to the word of the Lord and our mind jumped to someone else. Almost without notice we made the application to them instead of ourselves? Maybe that’s what happened to Peter. He really felt uncomfortable about the thought of the kind of death Jesus foretold and wondered if he had been singled out for such treatment. What about John? Jesus was not put off by Peter’s redirection. He kept Peter in His bullseye. “What’s that to you? Follow me.” God has called us also to follow Him with no explanation for how He deals with others. Each of us is responsible only for our faithfulness to follow wherever He leads and do whatever He says. We can follow Him with great hope and anticipation of His help and His reward if we walk in love with Him. Let this encourage you today to follow Him with nothing withheld. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:18-19. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go." Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, "Follow Me!" Peter was to follow Jesus to a martyr’s death. Like Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, Peter, His under-shepherd would give up his life for Jesus’ name sake. Both deaths were motivated by the love of God— the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another no matter what the cost. Why did John write about this conversation between Jesus and Peter? I’m not sure all the reasons, but one is stated. That we might read this and believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. This reveals that Jesus’ followers should not expect a happy life in this world, but can trust Jesus with whatever is to come. This foretelling of how Peter was to die did not hinder, prevent, or discourage Peter from surrendering all to Jesus. Should God so will that suffering and death lie in our paths, may we be faithful to love with Him until the end. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go." What a true statement Jesus made to Peter. Anyone who has grown old knows the truth of what was said. When we are young we feel in control of our lives. We can take care of ourselves and can go where we want when we want. When we are old, we lose our independence and self-sufficiency. We need others who will care for us and lead us. Where they lead us won’t always be where we want. So what was Jesus’ point and mine? Surrender to God’s will and trust in God. Our lives are in His hands regardless of our age, but as we get older we need to be more aware of it. May God give us grace today, to surrender ourselves to him, as we live to love with Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:17 He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me (here Jesus used phileo)?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Tend My sheep. Jesus wanted Simon to know that the basis for their relationship and his ministry was not his good deeds or performance. Asking the third time certainly reminded Simon of his 3 denials because he was grieved. But notice the root of Peter’s peace. “You know all things about me.“ What was implied by his reply is that Peter’s love wasn’t as high as it ought to be, but he was assured that Jesus still loved him unconditionally. Let’s take note of what is settled in Simon Peter’s heart. He loved Jesus and Jesus loved him. Those two things settled, a man is ready for responsibility in God’s kingdom. Are those two things settled in your heart? The love of God can only flow through someone who has been loved by God though Christ and who longs to love Him in return. If Simon loved Jesus, he would love His sheep. Living to love with Jesus is loving—feeding and tending—those who belong to Him. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:16 He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Shepherd My sheep." Again, Jesus starts with the highest form of love in His questioning of Peter. Do you love Me with agape love? Again Simon Peter answers, “Yes, You know I love you with a brotherly love—a phileo love. It seems he was saying to Jesus that he loved him just like all the other brothers did. Again, Jesus rewarded Peter with the privilege of shepherding Jesus’ flock out of love for Simon Peter and His disciples. Jesus cares for His sheep. If you are one of His sheep, you can know that He knows you and cares for you enough to appoint someone to be a shepherd to you. You can also know your shepherd has feet of clay like you. It’s the love of God revealed in Christ that keeps the flock. That’s why He called us to live to love with His Son. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:15.3. So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Tend My lambs." Jesus started at the highest level to see how highly or lowly Simon thought of himself at this point in their relationship. But Simon apparently didn’t think he loved Jesus to that degree, so lowered the bar to a more natural degree—a brotherly love common to all. Let’s note that he didn’t rate himself above the rest. Perhaps he was trying to avoid the shame. He would have been embarrassed to answer in the negative, “No, Lord, I don’t love you more than the rest.” He chose to express the state of his love according to what he thought was the truth as Jesus knew it. He saw himself equal to, but not superior to his brothers. I wonder if Jesus’ answer was a reward for His humility. “Tend My lambs.” Or in other words, “Yes, you answered correctly, so I’m putting you in charge of caring for my little ones even though you see yourself on the same footing as they.“ This is an important lesson to learn as we live to love with Jesus. We are not greater than anyone. We know our weaknesses and failures and should be grateful to be numbered among His brethren. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:15.2. So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Tend My lambs." Today I direct our attention to the words used for love. Jesus asked Simon if he loved Him with agape love. Agape love is an unconditional, all out love that demonstrates value, esteem, and faithfulness. An appropriate question given Simon’s denials. Simon answered that he loved Him with phileo love, a warm, brotherly love. Jesus was seemingly aiming to help Simon Peter settle the issue of his love for Him. We also need to have that settled in our hearts if we are to partner with Jesus in building His kingdom. What kind of love do we have for Him? Is it settled? My spiritual mentor has often reminded me that two things are foundational to walking with Jesus. It must be settled in our hearts that God loves us and that we love Him. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:15 So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Tend My lambs." Names are noteworthy. When Jesus called Simon Peter by his old name, Simon, He was addressing what Simon used to be in the flesh. For instance, Mark 14:37-38 “And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’" Luke 22:31 "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat.” Surely Simon didn’t miss Jesus’ meaning that when he denied Him, he was identifying with his old self. So Simon knew Jesus was engaging him with a full understanding of the root of his failure. He had lapsed back into self-protection. The point is that God’s love has overcome the failures and sins of the flesh. It was true for Simon Peter and is also true for all who believe in Jesus. He knows everything about us, and He still loves us. That love engages us for our highest good, just like it did Simon. We can be encouraged today that regardless of how we have failed Jesus, His love is the basis of our relationship and our relationship with others. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:14 This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples, after He was raised from the dead. Although this was the fifth appearance of Jesus since His resurrection, it was the third to the disciples as a group. This settled the question, “Who is Jesus?” These three times testify to this great truth or reality. Jesus lives. Jesus, is the Son of God. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. May this verse encourage us today again to declare to ourselves who Jesus is. We may also have opportunities today to declare Him to others. Everything in our lives rests on this great truth. Jesus is our life! He lives. He lives in us. We are one with Him and today He plans to love people through us. He has orchestrated our days and there is a queue of people lined up who will be brought into the presence of Jesus. They will show up one at a time as we go through our day. The Father is giving them to Jesus so that He can love them and reveal to them that He lives. For many of these people, it will be one of many times they have been in the presence of Jesus, but were prevented from recognizing Him. Perhaps today, their eyes will be opened, and they will have an encounter with the resurrected Jesus in us. Father, manifest Your Son in and through us today. You open the eyes of Your disciples to see and know You. May You do that today. Let us see You and may the world in which we walk see that You live. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish likewise.My understanding of middle-eastern culture is that hospitality is an incredibly high value. If a guest came, food and drink were offered. It was expected as a display of honor. To not do so was to shame the guests and would be considered shameful of the host. The earth is the Lord’s. It’s His house, and that morning on the beach, He wanted to refresh them after their fishing adventure. What kindness.This encourages us to be kind also. One aspect of love is hospitality—kindness—sharing what You have with others as God brings them into your path or your home. Sometimes our kindness may be planned and other times it may be random. Regardless, let’s just let this idea of kindness encourage us to be looking for opportunities to be kind to those God puts in our lives today. What do you have that you can share with your wife, husband, children, parents, friends, and work associates? Jesus, show us how You want to be kind to those You put in our lives today, for Your glory. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:12 Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples ventured to question Him, "Who are You?" knowing that it was the Lord.John wanted his readers to know for certain that this was an encounter with the resurrected Jesus. Therefore he stated uncategorically that they knew that it was the Lord. The Holy Spirit inspired John, so we can know this comment about this encounter is important for us. He wrote these things so we might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that in His name we may have life. What encouragement can we draw from this?Even though we may believe and know the Lord, we can’t be encouraged enough. We need a daily reminder of who Jesus is because our faith will be tested today. Satan and the world, who hate the light, may be allowed to express that hatred in the affairs of your life, and then a thought may flash through your mind. Is Jesus who He said He was? Is Jesus really Lord of all? May we receive this encouragement with open hearts. Jesus, we don’t question who You are. We know You are the Lord, no matter what happens today. We worship You as the Lord of creation and the Lord of our lives. We know You care for us and want to be with us and break bread with us—fellowship with us. That’s amazing and humbling! Fill us with the awareness and reality of what we know about You today. Thank You for inviting us to eat and fellowship with You. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:11 Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. It seems that Peter was still in the water and hadn’t yet come on the land because John said that he “went up and drew the net to the land.” Had he been on the beach he would have “gone down.” John thought it was important to note that there were so many fish, 153 to be exact, that the net was not torn. Someone had to have counted them, perhaps John or whoever the accountant was for the disciples. The encouragement to me is that those nets were important to Jesus’ friends, and He, who holds all things together held the net together as Peter drug it ashore so full of flapping fish. Let’s be amazed at this Jesus, the Son of God, the creator and sustainer of the universe. The apostle Paul described Him this way, Col. 1:15-17 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Today, let us be encouraged by this great reality of who Jesus is. He loves us and cares for the things that are important to us, like He cared for the net which belonged to one of the disciples. He created us for Himself. We exist for God and we exist through Jesus’ purpose, love, and care. As we co-labor with Him, may we trust Him with everything in our lives. This glorifies Him. It’s our way of saying to Him that we know He loves and cares for us. Notice how Peter obeyed Jesus’ directive. It was hard work, I’m sure. We can be sure that he was careful with his net, not to break it. We can trust Him as we work carefully to obey Him and do as He directs us today. That confidence is an important aspect of living to love with Jesus. He will take care of the important things to us.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:10 Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish which you have now caught."Why did Jesus ask them to bring some of the fish they had caught when He already had fish and bread prepared? I’m not sure, but it does seem like the Lord to bless our labors and then use the fruit of what He provided for His glory. We are in this together, and in a way, Jesus asking them to add their fish to His dignified their work and exemplified His union with them. They were co-laborers and they were to enjoy their work and the fruit of it. The same is true for us today as we live to love with Jesus. We are co-laboring with Him. We are helpless to accomplish anything of significance, so He supplies what we need as we work. Then having finished our work, Jesus blesses it by uniting it with what He has prepared for us. It’s a wonderful picture that encourages us to surrender all that we are and have to Jesus as Lord. We can know that He will dignify our work by using it for His purposes and glory. Father, we praise You and love You because of Your gracious care for us. It’s really overwhelming love that You have bestowed on us that we can co-labor with You. Thank you for blessing our labors today and using the fruit of them for Your glory. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:9 So when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it, and bread.Jesus was prepared for His disciples that morning. It takes time to build a charcoal fire. You’ve probably done it before. Had Jesus gathered the wood, built the fire, and waited as the wood turned into coals? That’s when it’s the hottest and best for cooking. That takes time. Where did the fish and the bread come from? Did He just materialize them or did He catch them Himself? We don’t know. All we know is that Jesus prepared to serve His disciples physical needs. That’s one of many ways He loves us. He knows our needs, and He loves to serve us. He did not come to be served, but came to serve as He said in Matt. 20:28. Our Lord never changes. He still serves us daily. We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and He does—abundantly I might add. We pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,” and He does—all of them completely. He comes to us prepared to serve and give us our highest good for His glory. Let’s remember when we see Jesus, we are seeing the Father revealed.Father, thank You for loving us and serving us our daily bread and for being ready and able to provide what we need to love and glorify You. We are encouraged by this aspect of Your love and character because today we have needs that we cannot fulfill or adequately supply without You. We worship You today and look to You to be our source of supply for all our needs. Glorify Your name in our lives, we pray. Amen.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:8 But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about one hundred yards away, dragging the net full of fish. I imagine us at the end of our lives dragging our nets to Jesus. Each one’s net is full of the people God put into our paths throughout our lives. People whom Jesus loved through us and to whom He ministered. We present them to Him because we know we didn’t catch them. He gave them to us for our joy and blessing and for His own joy and glory. Lord Jesus, we want to see You manifested in our lives, but are as helpless as Your disciples were to catch fish. Without Your power and presence, we waste our lives. Fill our nets with the souls of many for Your joy and glory. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
3/8. Maybe the Lord will show up in your life today. John 21:7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord." So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw himself into the sea. How exciting it must’ve been for the disciples to see the Lord on the beach. It’s hard to imagine what was going on in their minds, but you know they had to be thrilled. It’s always thrilling when Jesus shows up. Lord Jesus, we are expectant today to see you show up as we work just like you did that day on the beach at the Sea of Galilee with Your disciples. May we be as excited as Peter. We can’t wait to see you. We need Your presence and power in our lives so we can work with joy and love the people you bring to us. Father, glorify the name of Jesus in our lives, we pray in His name. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:5-6 So Jesus said to them, "Children, you do not have any fish, do you?" They answered Him, "No." And He said to them, "Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a catch." So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish. It surely must have been a deja-vu moment. Here’s Luke’s account of a similar event. Luke 5:4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."Luke 5:5 Simon answered and said, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets."Luke 5:6 When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break;Luke 5:7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. After this event recorded by Luke, Jesus called Simon to follow Him. It was a life-changing encounter. This also was to be another life-changing encounter as we will see. As believers in Jesus, we are people of hope. We know Jesus lives and that He can show up anywhere, anytime. Let’s be alert today for the presence of the Lord as we walk by the Spirit in His love. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:4 But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Remember how Mary and the two on the road to Emmaus were prevented from recognizing Jesus? This may be another time like those. In each case, we understand that God has a purpose for the temporary blindness. It makes the revelation of Christ a miraculous expression of love. You may be in a similar state where you are confused and wondering what you are supposed to do. Jesus may be standing nearby, but you don’t realize He’s there. Take heart. Keep doing what you know to do and wait on the Lord. Keep loving the people God puts in your path regardless of how successful or unsuccessful you think you are. He will show up because He loves you. You are His!!! Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:3 Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will also come with you." They went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing. Sometimes we go back to what we did before we met Jesus. Maybe it’s because we don’t know what to do perhaps that’s where Peter was. He didn’t know what to do, so he went back to the thing that he knew – fishing. James and John also had been fishermen, so it made sense for them to join Simon. Have you ever felt the tug to go back to your old lifestyle? Let’s not think what Simon did was sinful nor faithless. He probably loved fishing and perhaps needed to catch some fish to provide for his family. For whatever reason, God orchestrated a repeat of the events when Simon first met the Lord. Jesus wasn’t finished using Simon Peter, and it would not do for him to go back to his old purpose for living. Once we embrace that God’s purpose for us is to live to love with Jesus, the Lord will not let us go back to the natural life. He has chosen us for Himself as channels of His love for the rest of our lives. If we do turn back, we will find our nets empty. Do you feel like going fishing today—returning to an empty life? Be encouraged that the emptiness you experience there means God has something way better for you. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:2 Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. God moves people as He wishes to accomplish His purposes. On this day, on the sea of Tiberius, God put Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James, and John, and two other disciples together in a boat. As we’ll see in the next verse, God gave Peter a desire to go fishing, so the rest joined him. The target was Peter who had denied Jesus three times. Simon Peter’s story wasn’t over. His story is important because there are many Simon Peters, who have failed Jesus and themselves. They need to see the love of Jesus in an undeniable and personal way that speaks directly to their fears and insecurities. Today, God may put someone in your path who needs to see Jesus and experience His love and encouragement. You may not know their failures, disappointments, or fears, but Jesus does. He has put them in your path so that they may have a life-changing encounter with the living Lord Jesus Christ.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 21:1 After these things Jesus manifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and He manifested Himself in this way. This is now the 5th appearance after Jesus’ resurrection and the 3rd to the disciples. He had told Mary to tell them He would meet them at the Sea of Galilee which is also called the Sea of Tiberias. The fact that Jesus manifested Himself, informs us that He wants to be known. He wants His disciples to know His love and purpose. We are the same way. When we want to be known, we manifest ourselves to the people that we want to know, and that we want to know us. Don’t you think He still wants to be known? Don’t you think He still wants people to know His love and purpose? That’s why He manifested Himself to His disciples and to you. He will manifest His love and purpose in us if we believe He lives and give Him access to our lives. May we abide in Him today and expect Him to show up when and where He wishes. Remember, we are His body!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:31 “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” There are limits to what John had time and space to relate concerning Jesus, but it is adequate for any to believe and have life in His name. Our problem isn’t what we don’t know about Jesus, which is infinite. Our dilemma is rightly responding to what has been revealed in Jesus. We see from this verse why John wrote down the things He saw and heard concerning Jesus. It was to give a gospel that God would work with in your life. He declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, sent to reconcile sinners to God. He is the Son of God, the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only way to the Father. John introduced Jesus saying that in Him was life, and the life was the light of men (v. 4). We live to love with Jesus because He has given us His life, and that love is the light for everyone He puts in our paths. Rejoice with me that we have life in the name of Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:30 “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;” I’ve heard it said recently that we only have a few weeks worth of the life of Jesus recorded in the gospels. John indicated as much in this verse. What is recorded is incredible, but there is so much more to which the disciples were eye witnesses. However great and wonderful you and I think Jesus is, He is infinitely greater and more wonderful. So whatever praise we give Him, He is due more. Whatever love we show Him, He deserves more. Whatever worship we give Him, He is worthy of more. Today as we love Jesus and walk with Him, let’s exceed what we think and feel is adequate or expected, for His glory. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
All Out Love for One Another: Part 3. This is the audio version of the Live to Love blog for March, 2023 by Norm Wakefield. You can find the written version at www.livetolovewithjesus.com/blog.
John 20:29 “Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.’" Have you believed that Jesus is Lord and God without seeing Him in bodily form? Have you believed after hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ? If so, you are blessed, according to Jesus Himself. Thomas and the rest of the disciples were blessed also to see the resurrected Christ. They believed and have born witness to the reality of the Word of Life. All who have heard and believed are blessed, blessed with eternal life in Jesus. Do we realize how blessed we are to believe in Jesus? We didn’t bless Jesus by believing in Him. Faith in Christ is the blessing of God. The apostle Peter wrote concerning Jesus in 1 Peter 1:20-21. “For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” We live to love with Jesus because He loved us and blessed us by giving us faith when we heard the gospel. If He has blessed us, He will bless many more as we love and share the gospel. Let’s be ready for the opportunities He gives us today to live to love with Him. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:28 “Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’" John didn’t tell us if Thomas actually touched Jesus’ hands and side. He had seen enough to be convinced that standing in front of him, was the resurrected Christ. He declared what everyone who believes declares. Jesus is Lord of all, and Jesus is God. That is what we proclaim as we witness to the resurrection. Some say Jesus is a good example to follow. Others suggest He is just another way to God along with the ways of Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Many dismiss Him as a mythical construction. What do you call Jesus? If anyone calls Him Lord and God, then you can be sure they know He lives. They also, like Thomas, understand that Jesus knows and loves them. May we be faithful witnesses to Jesus as we submit ourselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Let us honor Him as the Lord God Almighty. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing." Jesus knew what Thomas had said about his hands and side. They were the wounds that killed Jesus and perhaps that’s why Thomas didn’t say he wanted to see and touch his head and back. He had to know those wounds were healed. Thomas didn’t say he had to put his finger in the nail hole, but in the place where the nails were. What did he think he would find? A hole or a whole hand? This is clearly speculation, but I think he thought that if Jesus was alive those wounds would be healed. Jesus had not been there when Thomas told the disciples that he wouldn’t believe unless he put his fingers in the places where Jesus was nailed and pierced. Yet Jesus knew what Thomas needed in order to believe. From this we may conclude He knows all of His brothers and sisters as well. As we live to love with Jesus we may have confidence that Jesus is at work. We know He knows the hearts of everyone He puts in our paths, and when it pleases Him He will reveal Himself. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:26 “After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you.’" Just like Jesus appeared the first time to the disciples, He materialized in a closed room and stood in their midst. Again He said, “Peace be with you.” It was important to Jesus and to John that Thomas was present. He wanted his readers to know of Jesus’ love for Thomas. Maybe it was because John wanted to encourage those who want proof that Jesus lives. The risen Christ not only appeared once, but twice, to them just for Thomas’ sake. This gives us confidence to encourage people who doubt or question the reality of Jesus’ resurrection to seek Him and settle for nothing less than a personal encounter with Jesus. Jesus will give them His peace and the Holy Spirit. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:24-25 “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’”Before we judge Thomas too quickly or harshly, let’s consider the bright side. Thomas wanted to have first hand experience with the risen Christ. I don’t blame him, so would I. Is it enough for us that God’s word tells us that God is love and that He loves us? For some, yes, that’s enough. For others, who want to be touched deeply, just hearing about God’s love isn’t enough. They want to experience His love first hand. Furthermore, I think of John’s opening to his first epistle where he wrote, 1 John 1:1-2 “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life —and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us —“ Did you hear that? We have looked at and touched with our hands. That’s what Thomas is known for. That’s his testimony. I touched the risen Word of Life with my own hands, so I can testify with confidence that He died and lives. We can have peace with God and fellowship with Him and each other. To live to love with Jesus, we must have Him with us. We want to see Him, touch Him, and be touched by Him. We are living testimonies of the grace of God to a sin-trapped, death enslaved world. May we have the same desire as Thomas to be fully engaged with Jesus and surrendered to the reality of His resurrection life in us.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:23 “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained." Notice that the Holy Spirit’s ministry is a ministry of discernment. “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained." They will have the ability to discern what God has and hasn’t done. Another way to think of the blessing Jesus gives through the Holy Spirit is this: The Holy Spirit enables us to keep in step with what God is doing in and through our lives and the lives of others. We learn from this verse that it’s not a given that everyone’s sins are to be forgiven. We need the Holy Spirit to know when to affirm the work of forgiveness in the lives of the people God puts in our paths. We also need to know when God has not worked. We conclude that if God has forgiven someone’s sins, then He would give them a spirit of repentance and conviction of sin. They know clearly what they have done and are aware they need forgiveness. The Holy Spirit gives us discernment as we listen and watch how they respond to their own sins. In contrast, if God has withheld forgiveness from a person, the Holy Spirit knows it because He has not done the work of conviction, brokenness, and repentance. The Holy Spirit then will not witness to us that God is at work, and so we will withhold encouraging them that their sins are forgiven. What we learn from this passage is that our relationship with the Holy Spirit is vital if we are going to live to love with Jesus. We need His discernment to recognize those in whom God has worked his gracious work of repentance and forgiveness.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:21-22 “So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ and when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” Being sent by Jesus as the Father sent His Son is to produce peace. The next verse tells us what He meant. The Father sent Jesus in the power of the Spirit, and He sent His disciples and all believers in the power of the Spirit. So peace be with you! You have the presence and power of God in you everywhere you go. You have no reason to fear or be troubled. You are no more alone in this world than Jesus was. The Holy Spirit’s presence in Jesus’ life is how God, the Father, is manifested in His life. The Holy Spirit’s presence is how Jesus is manifested in our lives. Peace comes from a total submission to the Holy Spirit just as Jesus was submitted to the Spirit of the Father. If our purpose in life is to live to love with Jesus, then we can walk peacefully, trusting Him to do what pleases Him to glorify the Father in our lives. May we heed carefully what Paul, the apostle wrote to the Colossians. Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:20 “And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” And so will we! There is a day and a time when we who believe and trust in Jesus will see the Lord in His body. What a day that will be! The author of Hebrews wrote of this moment. Hebrews 9:28 “so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” The last time some of the disciples saw Jesus He was bloodied from head to toe with gashes and nail and spear wounds. Imagine their joy at seeing Jesus alive and well within 3 days. What do you think they saw when He showed them His hands and side that made them rejoice? Seeing Jesus’ wounds, most of them to a great degree healed, in His resurrected body meant He had been to the Father and had returned as He promised with the Holy Spirit. I wonder if any of them recalled His words from the previous Thursday. John 16:19 Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, "Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, 'A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me'?John 16:20 Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.John 16:21 Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.John 16:22 Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. Today as we live to love with Jesus, let us rejoice and be filled with joy. Jesus who appeared to them lives in us. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:19 “So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’" I wonder if the disciples remembered the last words Jesus had said to them as a group in His last discourse? He had said, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Before perhaps they were just words, but when the resurrected Christ appeared in the room and said, “Peace be with you,” His overcoming power was on full display. I don’t think Jesus walked through a closed door, rather He materialized on our side of the veil between heaven and earth. He had gone to the Father as He had told Mary. Let’s not miss this verse. Jesus lives to bring peace on earth to His disciples. When He came to earth, the heavenly host said, Luke 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." Jesus atoned for their sins so they could have peace with God. The resurrection is God’s declaration that peace has been made through Jesus Christ, His Son. That’s what the love of God produces—peace. Peace be with you today. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:18 “Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, ’I have seen the Lord,’ and that He had said these things to her.” John declared his source for his account. It was Mary. I wonder if Jesus just disappeared, and then Mary went to the disciples or if she left Him there in the garden. We aren’t told, but she did what she was told. Mary’s testimony can be a example for us all. “I have seen the Lord.” Living to love entails more than just good deeds and service. We are to proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light as Peter wrote in 1 Pet. 1:9. We not only have seen Jesus, He lives with us. We are testimonies of His resurrection life and His mercy and grace. If you have yet to see the matchless excellencies of Jesus Christ, read the Bible, keep His story before you, and let Him know you are seeking Him—like Mary did. Wait upon Him to make Himself known to you just like He did to Mary. Listen to this Scripture and be encouraged. Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Mary was rewarded and so shall you be if you believe and seek Him. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:17.2 “Jesus said to her, ‘Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.”'" Before Jesus was crucified He told His disciples that He was going to the Father. It is interesting that between the time He was resurrected and the time He showed Himself to Mary that He had not yet gone to His Father. It was as if she was preventing Him from ascending to His Father, and it was time for Him to go. By the time she got to the disciples, He said to tell them He had ascended to His and their Father and His and their God. This means that the delayed ascension was for one purpose, namely to launch the testimony of His resurrection with Mary. Once that was accomplished, He ascended into heaven to celebrate the glorious work of redemption with His Father. Jesus is now not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters. The writer of Hebrews wrote, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11). Join me with our brother Peter in blessing God today for His great love. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:17 “Jesus said to her, ‘Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.”'" I want to encourage you today to look at the events of that resurrection morning from this perspective. God moved Mary into Jesus’ path because He planned to love her in a special way and use her for His glory. He wanted her to see the resurrected Jesus. Today, God is doing it again in all the lives of those in whom the Son dwells. He will put people in your path so they can see the resurrected Jesus in you! Then they will go and tell the world that Jesus lives and is risen. That’s how the Father builds His kingdom. Mary is the first in a series that won’t end until the last one of the elect of God trusts in the resurrected Christ. That last one might be in your path today. Be ready to love with Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:16 “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means, Teacher). When Jesus wants to be seen, eyes are opened. That’s how God’s light, which is love, works. At one moment Jesus is unrecognizable. You are prevented from seeing Him as we’ve discussed in the previous verses. Mary was the first to experience this blindness to Jesus’ presence on that first resurrection morning, but not the only one. We read in Luke 24:31 “Then their (Cleopus’ and another disciple’s) eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.” Then He speaks your name, and you see Him. All Jesus said was, “Mary,” and then she recognized Him. Have you heard Jesus speak your name, and you knew He was present you? I bet you have never forgotten that moment. Can you imagine Mary telling of this moment? I can imagine she shared about seeing Jesus for the first time hundreds of times. Maybe God will give us a chance today to share about the time our eyes were opened and we saw Jesus. We once were blind, but now we see. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:15 “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.’" Remember John telling us that Jesus was buried in a garden tomb? Certainly the garden was tended by someone. Who else might Mary expect to see early in the morning if she thought someone had taken Jesus’ body. What’s more, Jesus’ questions seem like questions a gardener might ask. Since she was standing in front of the open tomb, her reply makes sense. Maybe she thought there had been a mixup, and Jesus had been buried in someone else’s grave. The gardener perhaps had discovered the error and relocated the body with the intention of settling on a final resting place for the man later in the day. So Mary offered to take the problem into her own hands, and take the body off the gardener’s hands. It’s almost as if Jesus played the part for a moment like He played ignorant of the current events in Jerusalem as He walked with the two on the road to Emmaus. In both cases He gave them opportunities to express their hearts and love for Him. In this case Mary still wanted to honor Jesus even though she thought He was dead. Have you noticed Jesus may do the same with us? He may leave us in the dark, so to speak, to give us opportunities to express our love for Him in a disappointing situation or confusing circumstance. The safest way to not miss those opportunities is to always be ready to love and serve. Are you ready?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:14 “When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.” That Mary didn’t immediately recognize Jesus should not surprise us. We read in Luke 24:15-16. “While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.” That morning with Mary was the first time that Jesus revealed Himself after His resurrection, and God at first prevented Mary from recognizing Him. Why did God do that? I’m not sure, but not recognizing Jesus when He’s right in front of you isn’t a strange phenomenon. It’s happened to all of us. Haven’t we all at some time or another been prevented from seeing Jesus in one of the members of His body because they didn’t appear as we thought they should? Haven’t we experienced mistaking a brother or sister in Christ for a husband, father, mother, wife, grocery clerk, bank teller, or pastor? There they were standing right in front of us, and we were so occupied with our own issues that we missed the opportunity to love and respond to Jesus. I want to encourage you today with this thought. The more we intentionally practice living to love with Jesus, the more apt we are to recognize Jesus’ presence in others and love them with Him. Peter’s admonition in his first epistle is helpful advice. “Be sober in spirit.” 1:16. From a live to love perspective, don’t let anything in this life intoxicate you and prevent you from recognizing an opportunity to love Jesus by loving Him in another. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:11-13 “But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." From John’s account, Peter and John went to their homes with the same conclusion as Mary. Mary was weeping because she thought someone had taken Jesus’ body. However her mistaken conclusion was necessary to have her in the place where God wanted her. Consider how Jesus had already loved Mary Magdalene. She was demonized and delivered. Because she was forgiven much, she loved Jesus much. God chose Mary to be the first eye witness to His resurrection. No offense intended, but I don’t believe this was God’s way of honoring women. I believe it was personal. In Christ, there is no partiality toward any natural class of people. Not only was this for Mary‘s highest good, but it was for the disciples’ highest good and ours. Jesus lived to love whoever God put in His path that morning. He still does! He will do it again today in you and me. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:10 “So the disciples went away again to their own homes.”Had the disciples believed Jesus rose from the dead, do you think they would have split up and gone to their own homes? The implication is that they didn’t know what to do other for each of them to return to their own homes. This doesn’t seem reasonable if they believed Jesus had risen from the dead. It only makes sense if they believed Jesus’ body had been taken and laid somewhere else. But what would they have done if they believed Jesus had risen from the dead (which they didn’t understand at the time)? We will see later what they did when they did believe He was alive, but from this verse, we can learn that when they didn’t know He was alive, they returned to normalcy—they went home. Have we returned to normalcy? Are we living as if we don’t believe Jesus lives in us to continue glorifying His Father, manifesting the power of God, and pouring out His love in a dark world? Believers in Jesus Christ may have homes to return to, but they don’t live normal lives because Jesus lives in them. John wrote in his first epistle that we are as He is in this world (1 Jo. 4:17). John described what it is to be as He is in this world. “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jo. 4:9-11). So, have you been loved by God? Then live to love with Him today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:8-9 “So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.”In these verses, John testified that he entered the tomb and saw the empty grave clothes and the rolled up face cloth. Then he said that they didn’t conclude that Jesus was risen from the dead because they didn’t understand the Scripture yet. What did they believe if they didn’t understand that Jesus was to rise from the dead? If we read these words in the context, they believed what they were told by Mary, namely, that someone had taken His body away. Have you ever drawn a wrong conclusion because you didn’t understand the Scripture? I sure have—more times than I know. For instance, there was a time that I thought because Jesus rose from the dead that the proper response was that I was to live for Him. I have discovered in the Scripture that I drew a wrong conclusion. Jesus doesn’t need me to live for Him, I need Him to live for me! He was raised so that we might live in and through Him and that He might live in and through us. The Scripture, John 15:5, informs us that apart from Him we can do nothing. Jesus lives to change everything in our lives. He lives to love through us, and that purpose changes and affects everything we do. Today, let’s not make the same mistake the disciples made that first Easter morning. They believed the wrong thing. Instead, let’s live to love with Jesus today for His glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:3-7 “So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself.”Do you remember when Lazarus was raised from the dead, that others had to unbind him? Perhaps Mary, Peter, and John assumed the same with Jesus. They may have concluded the grave clothes wouldn’t be there unless someone removed them and took the body. We can understand why they were perplexed. But when Jesus was raised from the dead, He transcended time and space. He was able to move freely through the veil between heaven and earth and could appear anywhere He wanted—in a locked room, on a road with two disciples, or on the beach on the Sea of Galilee. The stone didn’t need to be rolled away so Jesus could walk out, but so the first eye witnesses could see He had risen and was no longer in the grave. Jesus prayed, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20).In raising Jesus, Peter preached, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). Jesus is Lord of time and space and He lives in us! He is manifesting Himself in our bodies as we live to love with Him so the world may see that Jesus lives and believe in Him.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:2 “So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.’”Mary did not understand that Jesus had risen from the dead. She testified to John and Peter that “they” had taken Jesus’ body and laid it somewhere else. By “they” she may have had Joseph and Nicodemus in mind, perhaps the guards, or the Jews. All she knew was that Jesus’ body wasn’t where she thought. It’s important to keep this in mind as we read through John’s account. Today, I have a question for us. Do we realize that we also may not know where Jesus’ body is located? I know that sounds strange, but stick with me. Every member of Jesus’ body that comes into our paths is the resurrected body of Jesus Christ. If your husband or wife is a believer, then the body of Jesus is in your presence. If your parents or children are believers then you should treat them as the resurrected Jesus. We are all one body, the body of Jesus. Where do we think the body of Jesus is? Mary and the other women with her didn’t know that morning where His body was. Do we? When we live to love with Jesus, we are loving Him as we love our brothers and sisters in Christ.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 20:1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.Surely they were surprised and perplexed to find the tomb unguarded, the stone rolled away, and unoccupied. Unknown to them, God had been at work! Jesus had risen! God’s love overcame all of the devil’s work to stop the arrival of the Son of God. Not only did Satan fail to prevent God’s redemptive work, but he had actually facilitated it! Our adversary could not and did not keep Jesus in the grave. What Mary and her friends didn’t know was that she and all who believe in Jesus had risen. When Jesus rose from that sandstone slab, the entire body of Christ rose with Him. They were born again! The apostle Peter wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:2). Need I remind you that John got this information from Mary and the other women? This is a firsthand, eye witness account to Jesus’ resurrection. We live today in Christ because Jesus rose from the dead. Rejoice! Let the reality of this truth transport you into the presence of God. I want you to realize that you live in this world with Him (for the time being) to love for God’s glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:41-42 “Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”Apparently Golgatha was not as stark and ugly as many may suppose. There was a garden in the same place and we have learned that Joseph of Arimathea owned it. Since time was of the essence, due to the observance of the Passover Sabbath, Joseph and Nicodemus made the decision to bury Jesus there. What captures my attention is that Jesus was crucified in a garden. Hm. He died in a garden because of choices made in another garden by Adam and Eve. Wouldn’t it be amazing if the garden in which Adam and Eve sinned was in the same location as the garden in which Jesus died and was buried? Wouldn’t it be stunning if the very dust at the foot of the cross was the same dust into which the serpent was thrust by God when he was cursed for tempting Adam and Eve? Even more thought-provoking is the idea that the tree upon which Jesus was hung was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by which our first parents were tempted? And what if the garden in which Jesus crushed Satan’s head had the very same coordinates as the place where God said, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” Yes, this is all speculation, but it is not out of the realm of possibility. For the work accomplished by God in or near the garden where Jesus was buried could easily have been the garden of Eden. The flood would have completely reshaped the landscape. The garden of Eden would look nothing like the garden in Jerusalem. Wouldn’t it be like God to display the redemptive work of the seed of Eve in the same location where the image and blessing of God was lost? The blood of the Passover lamb was prepared and now sacrificed. The carcass has been put out of sight. The Passover may begin that commemorates God delivering His people from slavery in Egypt. It is a shadow of what we have been reading about in John 19. In this garden where Jesus died and was buried, God has delivered His people from slavery to sin and death. Hallelujah! What a steadfast love! Please take a few moments today to visit the two gardens. Drink in the love of God poured out for all heaven and earth to see, be amazed, and be moved to love in reply.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:39-40 “Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.”Here we have another testimony of love. The Holy Spirit through John wants everyone to know the impact of the meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus recorded in John 3. At that point, Nick was THE teacher in Israel and a ruler of the Jews. He didn’t have an understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in the kingdom of God or new birth. He knew Jesus had to be from God, but he didn’t know His purpose, His mission. In John 7:51, there’s evidence that Nick had become at least sympathetic to Jesus’ message and ministry. When the chief priests, Annas and Caiphas, and the Pharisees were discussing arresting Jesus, it was Nicodemus who said, “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?” By the way, that comment was totally ignored. In this verse, we learn the impact of Jesus on Nicodemus. He, like Joseph of Arimathea, overcame fear and risked his reputation and standing with the council of the Jews. So what was the cost to Nicodemus for the extravagant burial spices? Some say in today’s economy, it was $150,000 to $300,000. But the true value of Nick’s honor of Jesus is more realized by what he surely traded in helping bury Jesus, namely, his standing and position with the council. It was a calculated action with known consequences—costly indeed. The amount of Nicodemus’ mixture of myrrh and aloes was shocking. From my research, the usual application of funeral spices was one pound. By the way, this was not for embalming because embalming required cutting of the body. These were spices typically used for healing and to ward off the smells of death and decay. However, we know Jesus was dead, and there was no decay. Ps. 16:10 prophetically stated, “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.” So I don’t think Nick was thinking about overcoming the smells of a decaying body. Rather these spices were an expression of honor, love, and commitment. What can we do today to show honor, love, and commitment to Jesus? We have the body of Jesus available to us. As we care for those who are members of His body, we are displaying honor for Christ, love for His sacrifice, and commitment to Him. Let’s go all out to live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body. Here’s what we know about Joseph from the 4 gospels. He was from Arimathea, an unknown village. He was a wealthy council member who did not agree with condemning Jesus. He was a secret disciple of Jesus awaiting the establishment of the kingdom. He stayed at the cross until Jesus died. He owned a new tomb. He was willing to risk his reputation to provide for Jesus’ burial. He was willing to become ceremonially unclean by taking Jesus’ body down from the cross and burying it just prior to the Sabbath. How willing are we to risk our reputation with our peers by identifying with Jesus’ death? At some point, living to love with Jesus will require dying to the approval of the world. When we do so we are identifying with Jesus’ death. We are risking all—out of love for Christ. No more hiding in secret. May we be as moved to love Jesus and honor Him as Joseph of Arimathea was on the day Jesus died for him and us.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:36-37. “For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, ‘Not a bone of Him shall be broken.’ And again another Scripture says, ‘They shall look on Him whom they pierced.’” The Scripture was fulfilled because God loves us, and He wants us to know that every aspect of Jesus’ death was under His authority. He wants us also to have confidence to believe and trust in Jesus. These two details of Jesus’ crucifixion were prophesied by David (around 900 years before) and Zechariah (around 450-500 years before). Let that sink in. When the Holy Spirit inspired those men to write what they did, God had all who are to believe in Jesus in view. In Jesus, no bones broken and pierced in His side, God glorified Himself and revealed His love. Now let this sink in. Almost 2000 years ago God spoke in His Son and prophesied that those who believe in Him will be known by their love for one another. Living to love with Jesus is God fulfilling the Scriptures in and through us just like He did in Jesus so people will believe in Jesus and be saved. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:35 “And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.”It is stunning to pause and recognize that we are reading the words of an eye witness to Jesus’ death. His testimony corresponds to the original. It is what God saw, said, and did. It is the truth. Unfortunately, many today have no understanding of truth. They think it is whatever they want it to be. “It’s my truth,” they might say. John knew his account faithfully explained what is true, namely, that Jesus was the Word of God incarnate, Immanuel, who came to die as our substitute. He came to remove sins from all those who believe. As Ps. 103:12 promised, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” He suffered and died that He might bring all who believe to God. There are many false witnesses today declaring that these things are not true. They assert that God crucifying His Son on the cross is cosmic child abuse and “their” God would never do that. They say Jesus died because He spoke truth to power. They do not believe atonement for sin was necessary because they do not believe in the original sin, but rather think man’s problem is shame that we can simply deny and cast off so we can become our true selves and be what we were meant to be. Furthermore, they think man has now progressed to have a better understanding of God and Jesus than John and those men who walked with Him.Whose testimony shall we believe? Shall we believe the babbling of fools who were not there over an eye witness’s account? It would be foolish to do so. Don’t miss this. Those who believe John’s testimony and the testimony of the other eye witnesses, love Jesus and love with Him. It is the fruit of their lives. Those who do not believe, love themselves as God and cannot love others. If you believe in God, believe also in Jesus. He is the one and only God who has defined love by His death and resurrection life. Who do you believe?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:32-34 “So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.”Jesus was dead. What more could they do to Him to increase the pain or hasten His death? The others weren’t dead yet, so the soldiers’ job was unfinished. The jab of the spear was to confirm that Jesus was dead. It wasn’t to kill. God may do something similar with those who are His.We died when Jesus died. Death, sin, and fear of death were defeated. We died to self so we might live to God. God will send people to make sure we are dead. If we are not dead to ourselves, then expect them to “break our legs.” Our legs are the things on which we trust rather than trusting in Jesus’ death and resurrection. If we have died to ourselves, we should also expect God to send people to pierce us. Don’t blame them. They are God’s agents confirming that we indeed died when Jesus died. When love flows out of our hearts, it proves that we are dead to this world and satisfied in Him alone. Loving with Jesus isn’t possible as long as we are hanging on to this life. We must give up our spirits to God and trust Him to give us life. Then love will come out.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:31 “Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”Did those Jews have no shame? They had no problem with unjustly trying and condemning Jesus, but wanted to be sure they observed the law in Deut. 21:23 not to leave a dead body unburied. They swallowed the proverbial camel and strained the gnat! Had it not been a “high day” Sabbath, both the first day of Passover and the normal Sabbath, they would have had no problem leaving His body on the cross to putrify and be eaten by the buzzards, as the Romans usually did. Let’s pause, think about this hypocrisy, and examine ourselves before we are incensed at their lack of shame and hateful cruelty. At the heart of the matter was a lack of fear of God and a desire for approval from men. Jesus had said of them, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God” (John 5:44)? Have we ever thoughtlessly spoken ill of someone with whom we disagreed so that their reputation might be destroyed and our reputation enhanced in the eyes of our followers or friends? I’m ashamed to say that I have been guilty of the same hypocrisy. Today, let me encourage us to purify our souls from the shameful desire for glory from men, so we can sincerely and fervently love others God puts in our paths today, for His glory. If we don’t, we allow the same shameful, hypocritical attitude in our souls that would murder a man and then seek to gain more followers on social media for doing so.The reason it is important to live to love with Jesus is that such a purpose in life will protect us from doing what the Jews did. We live to love with Jesus because we seek glory from the one and only God. That’s why Jesus loved us—to glorify the Father and to be glorified by the Father. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
All Out Love for One Another: Part 2. This is the audio version of the Live to Love blog for February, 2023 by Norm Wakefield. You can find the written version at www.livetolovewithjesus.com/blog.
John 19:30 “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” After fulfilling the last Scripture He knew to fulfill, Jesus had one last thing to do. Breathe His last breath knowing He would not be able to exhale. He suffocated and gave up His spirit to His Father—yet He did not die—His spirit did not die. In a moment, He was with His Father. The work was done. He could sit down on His Father’s throne and take an eternal Sabbath rest. It was the Passover rest. The lamb had been sacrificed. The blood shed. The blood sprinkled on the altar, the mercy seat, the Priest (the Son), and the worshippers. It was time to celebrate and enjoy the salvation of God. Can you imagine the immediate relief of leaving His body and this world of pain, misery, and suffering? Please take a moment and do so. Your time is coming! You and I will come to that moment when we too can say, “It is finished.” Our journey in this world is over. We will breathe our last breath, leave our bodies sleeping here on earth, and immediately experience the same relief Jesus did and and enter into the presence of our God and Father, Jesus Christ. What a glorious day that will be! We will be raised up and united with Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. We will experience the reality of what we now know positionally. We are one with Jesus just as Jesus is one with the Father. To God be the glory. That hope is what births faith and love, for Paul wrote to the Colossians, Col. 1:3-6 “We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.”We believe and love because of the hope of the gospel. We know we will breathe our last breath on earth and in the next moment breathe in our first breath of eternal life in heaven which will never end. Have you heard this gospel in your heart? Is it bearing the fruit of faith and love in your heart? Are faith and love increasing as you walk in the grace of God in truth? We live to love with Jesus because of the hope of the gospel.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:28-29 “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth.”Again John shows us that Jesus is the Messiah, the One sent by God to be the savior of the world. This Scripture was fulfilled. John brings to our remembrance Ps. 69:21. ‘They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” He wants there to be no doubt about who was on that cross and what it means to us. Jesus left nothing undone. Drinking the sour wine was one of the last things to be accomplished now before returning to His Father. He did this to fulfill Scripture. That means He did it because He loves you! You needed to see this testimony of God’s faithfulness. He couldn’t leave it out or undone. God decided it was important for you to know Jesus did all things His Father willed so you could believe and be saved. Your salvation is perfect. It’s complete. It is grounded upon the eternal Word of God. Jesus, thank You for accomplishing all of the Father’s will and for fulfilling the Scripture because you love us. We believe because it is the Father’s will, and we love because You have loved us. Glorify Your name in us today as we accomplish our Father’s will and fulfill the Scriptures, “By this, all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:26-27 “When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.”Before going to His Father, Jesus had one last responsibility as Mary’s oldest son. He knew He was leaving within minutes, but His mother was to remain a while longer on the earth. She needed to be cared for. At that moment, apparently none of His siblings were believers, so He wanted Mary to know she would be cared for. He gave her into the hands of His beloved disciple, John, who took her into his care from that hour. I have not often considered that John even had a household to take her into. Perhaps he was married like Peter was. Perhaps he had children. We know John’s brother, James, was a believer also. Other than that, we don’t have much info about John’s household. But this we know. Jesus recognized the family of faith is more important than flesh and blood family. When we come to Jesus, we come to a new family of faith. We gain new fathers and mothers, new brothers and sisters, with Jesus as the head of the family. To receive and love them is to receive and love Him. As believers we are all in God’s household. We are disciples whom Jesus loves. Just as Jesus loved John and gave him someone to love, so He loves us, and gives us others to love. May we take up the responsibility as quickly and willingly as John did.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:25b “But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.”It’s hard to imagine how difficult it must have been for these women to watch Jesus suffer so. We also cannot know what Jesus felt knowing they were there, but knowing God is love gives us insight. We know He wasn’t self-conscious. He was perfectly love-conscious. He knew what they were watching was to result in their salvation, their ultimate union with Him, and change everything in their lives. He was almost finished fulfilling His Father’s will. Within moments, He would be with His Father rejoicing in His love and glory. I hope you’ll join me in pausing to put yourself at the foot of Jesus’ cross and receive His love. The women didn’t know at that time the significance of what they were watching, but they do now! And so do we! While we were still sinners, Christ died for us, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. There, He presents us spotless, blameless, and covered in His righteousness. Can we see His love and joy? Have you entered into it by loving like He loved? By that I mean, have you willingly, intentionally, and lovingly laid down your life so another might stand before you spotless, blameless, and covered in Jesus’ righteousness? Have you loved others with Jesus’ love?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:23-25a “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. So they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be’; this was to fulfill the Scripture: ‘They divided My outer garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.’” Therefore the soldiers did these things. As I read these two verses, I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like for the soldier who walked away with Jesus’ tunic to put on the cloak of a man he had mocked, whipped, shamed, stripped, and crucified? But I miss the point. The point of John was that he wanted us to know Jesus is the Messiah, the savior of the world. He is the One of whom the prophets spoke. This Jesus came to serve us by giving us His coat or tunic of righteousness. It was seamless and in one piece. There were no tears, no breaks, no flaws. It was perfect. What an amazing metaphor. We have no righteousness. We are dressed in filthy rags. But Jesus, the Righteous One, laid down His life, and clothed us in His righteousness. Our living to love with Him is a testimony of His righteousness, we are showing off the coat, the tunic, that God has chosen to give us. It is God who decides the tossing of the lot. He has chosen that we receive it, and we should wear it in humility and gratitude today and everyday.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:19-22 “Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, ‘JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.’ Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, ‘Do not write, “The King of the Jews”; but that He said, “I am King of the Jews.”’ Pilate answered, ‘What I have written I have written.’”What was the purpose of the inscription that Pilate put on the cross? It was to show the world what happens to people who commit crimes against the Roman state. The crimes of the criminals certainly were also posted. In Pilate’s mind, he was ridding the world of competition to Caesar, Herod, himself and Rome. Jesus said He was the, not just a king of the Jews. As far as Rome was concerned, Jesus was who He said He was, and therefore He was crucified.But the Jews were ticked off with that statement because it was placarded as the truth. They viewed Jesus as an impostor, a deluded crazy man, and an embarrassment to them. Let us be in awe at this great truth proclaimed by both Pilate and John. What occurred that day on Golgotha, was the revelation of a new kind of King—a king who conquered the enemies of His people by dying for them. Where as kings of the earth rule by totalitarianism and brute force, this King, died to set His people free. He did not lose His kingdom that day, He established it by His love. And so we learn from this that to live with Him, we die. To reign with Him, we serve, and the unbelieving world will never understand until He returns with us in glory.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:18 “There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between.”Listen to the prophecy fulfilled in John’s explanation of the crucifixion. There are none of the gory details, just a few important things to know about Jesus’s death so His readers might believe that Jesus is the Messiah of whom the prophet Isaiah wrote in 53:10-12 “But the Lord (that’s God, the Father) was pleased to crush Him (that’s Jesus the Son), putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.”This is John’s point in testifying that Jesus was crucified with two other men, two other transgressors. We learn from Luke’s account that they were criminals. From an earthly perspective, Jesus’ death looked like the deserved death of the other men who had broken Roman laws. But it was not as it appeared. Love is willing to be misunderstood, suffer unjustly, and be shamed, despised, and rejected among men in order to please the Father. It seems that followers of Jesus have more reasons today to expect the same treatment. Do not be shocked when true Christians are considered criminals by the world and by religious people. Let’s notice Isaiah’s comment, “because He poured out Himself to death.” Let us live to love with Jesus with the understanding that our Father is not only pleased when we pour ourselves out in death to self in order to love with Jesus, but that we will be rewarded with Him as well.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:17 “They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.” Let’s consider God’s word in Is. 66:1. “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool.” In Nov of 1997 I remember looking up at what was thought to be Golgotha. The hillside seemed to have the image of a face of a skull. I could imagine three crosses with men hanging on them. In light of Isaiah’s revelation, I can imagine the Father in heaven on His throne looking down at His feet where Jesus, the Lamb of atonement, is being sacrificed so God can passover our sins. He sees the blood of His Son flowing down the cross and covering all who are bowed at His footstool. Their sins vanish. The curse lifted. The veil between heaven and earth opens above them, and the love of God, like a tsunami, cascades from the throne over His Son and inundates the beloved. It carries them into the world, filled with His love. Were you there?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:17a “They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross.” The Roman soldiers took Jesus out of the Praetorium. Who came up with the idea that Jesus should bear His own cross? God did. That’s what love did. Since God loves us, it was His will that Jesus carry our crosses as one unit. Our cross became His cross. We should die for our sins and every weight we carry in this life, we deserve more. We are the sinner in God’s view. Yet our cross was put upon Him before He was put upon our cross. He bore our cross with its shame so that we might live. If we follow Jesus, we may expect God to continue revealing His love to and through us by putting what someone else deserves upon us and then crucifying our selves upon it. We must follow in His steps to know Him and to live to love with Him. Jesus told His followers of this life recorded in Luke 9:23. “And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’” Jesus took up His cross once and for all to put sin to death. We are to take up our crosses daily to put self to death. It is a testimony that we died to this world when Jesus died and that we have been raised to live to love with Him. Will you carry your cross today or will you refuse to? What did love do for you?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:16 “So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified.” Have you ever realized that loving someone was going to cost you more than you previously thought, and you considered it a privilege to give it? Have you ever wanted to stop the pain, avoid the inconvenience, or run for comfort but you didn’t? What about the time your soul screamed for overcoming grace to not quit, to suffer in silence, to bear the weight and consequences of someone’s sins so they could stand before you forgiven, accepted, and know the power of the love of God? If you have had these experiences then you know Jesus personally. You know what it was like for Jesus in the moment God gave Him over to the will of the Jews—to be crucified. Why did God allow someone’s sins to fall upon you? That you might know Jesus! That you might know and be satisfied with His love. That you might enter into the glory of God revealed in and through Jesus. How did Jesus love like this? The suffering and shame were as nothing compared to the joy set before Him (Heb. 12:2). So today and everyday when you find yourself given over to those who wish you ill, remember Hebrews 12:3 “For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” That’s living to love with Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:15 “So they cried out, ‘Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’" With the preparation of the Lamb completed and with those words of condemnation, the Passover sacrifice was sentenced to death. Jesus was silent like Isaiah prophecied in 53:7. “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.” What can we learn about love from His silence? There are times when we know it is God’s will that we bear the weight of another’s sin or ignorance. For their highest good it is best to remain silent. Such was the case here. Any words of defense or excuse would reveal a resistance to God’s will. True love loves God’s will and His being our Passover lamb was God’s will. Also to speak could easily communicate thoughts of injustice or complaint. But Jesus was suffering to satisfy divine justice once for all. What a good work! May God give us discernment to know when it is God’s will to reveal His love through us as we trust that Jesus’ death satisfied God’s justice for that sin, and we can suffer and forgive without a word. So how can we know when it is God’s will for us to suffer and remain silent? I think Jesus gave us insight when He spoke to His Father, “Forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” When someone doesn’t know what their doing, and you know they wouldn’t understand, then it is best to remain silent before them and pray for God to forgive them. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:13-14 “Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, ‘Behold, your King!’" The Pavement was a judgment seat outside the Praetorium, and there Pilate presented Jesus once again to the Jewish officials. He still had nothing by which to condemn Jesus. The Jew’s accusation that He was an imposter portraying himself to be their king didn’t seem to be worthy of the death penalty. Nevertheless, Pilate made one last fruitless appeal. Behold your king. There Jesus stood robbed in purple, crowned with thorns, blood steaming down His face and torso. The blood of the eternal covenant between the Father and the Son had begun to be spilled. Every drop that hit The Pavement declared the love of God for His people—an everlasting love, sustained by the will of God through the incomprehensibly brutal beating. The will of God the Father authorized it, and the will of God, the Son, received and endured it. In this the definition of the love of God is revealed: the sustained direction of the will, toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost. This kind of love flows out of the lives of those in whom Jesus lives. And in a way, very different from what Pilate meant that morning, we say to the world, “Behold my King!”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:13-14 “Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, ‘Behold, your King!’" There isn’t time to go through all the various explanations of the “sixth hour” mentioned by John in this verse. After reading many of them, I think this one seems most plausible, reconcilable to all accounts, and meaningful. Jesus was the sacrificial Passover lamb. The Greek word pascha, here translated Passover, is also used elsewhere to refer to the Passover meal or the lamb of sacrifice. Before the lamb was offered it had to be examined by the high priest and prepared. The only timeline that makes sense is this. Jesus was arrested around 2 a.m., taken to Annas’ and the Caiaphas’ houses for examination. Then He was taken to Pilate around 6 in the morning, then to Herod for further questioning and execution. When Pilate proclaimed to the Jews, “Behold your king” at around 8 a.m., 6 hours of examination and preparation had transpired—from 2-8. This explanation brings this account into the timelines of the other gospel accounts, but it also explodes with meaning. John revealed that God prepared His Passover Lamb according to the Law to fulfill all righteousness. The Lamb of God was prepared on the preparation day of Passover, and the Lamb was ready for sacrifice. He was presented one last time to the high priests and Jewish officials. Behold the love of God! His blood on your life means His death angel will passover your life and not destroy you. Look now at Jesus in the moment recorded here in John 19:14 and recognize and receive God’s gracious and merciful provision so He could passover your sins. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:12 “As a result of this Pilate made efforts to release Him, but the Jews cried out saying, "If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar." James, Jesus’ brother, wrote, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Pilate was faced with a decision we all face. Will I be a friend of Jesus or a friend of the world? We can’t be friends of both. We should not be surprised when the world threatens to cancel us if we are friends of Jesus and proclaim that He is God. He is the only way to be saved from the wrath to come. But if we love them, we must testify to Jesus, the Life. When the angel of the Lord released the apostles from jail he told them, "Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life” (Acts 5:20). May we be faithful friends of Jesus when the pressure is on. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:10-11 “So Pilate said to Him, ‘You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You? Jesus answered, ‘You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.’” Let’s unpack this verse carefully because it could be confusing. Jesus recognized that God gave Pilate authority to crucify and therefore he, Pilate, has a responsibility to God. The fact that God had given Pilate authority to execute the death penalty was the reason the High Priest and the Jewish officials gave Jesus over to him. They didn’t have that authority. For that reason the High Priest and Jewish officials committed a greater sin than Pilate in the death of Jesus. This truth didn’t let Pilate off the hook so to speak, but it reveals that this execution took place under God’s jurisdiction. God established government as a “minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil” (Rom. 13:4). So Pilate was sinning against God to punish Jesus, who he knew was innocent. But the High Priest has the responsibility to offer the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people, and he was the one who delivered Jesus to Pilate proclaiming Him to be blemished and guilty. He knowingly offered to God what was in his mind a unacceptable offering. He is guilty of the greater sin. The reason we live to love with Jesus is the reality that everything we do is an offering of worship to God because we are priests serving in God’s temple. Have we been guilty of great sin by offering to God actions and words that we know are unacceptable for His consumption? When we love, we know we offer that which is a fragrant aroma of Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:9 “And he entered into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, ‘Where are You from?’ But Jesus gave him no answer.” So it helps to see what’s happening. It appears that Jesus was brought out of the Praetorium and presented to the Jews. Then upon hearing that He might be the Son of God, Pilate took Him back into the Praetorium to question Jesus along that line. He asks Jesus a great question, “Where are you from?” That is the right question when considering the claims of Christ. If He’s from Nazareth, then no biggie. But maybe Pilate remembered that Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world and he thought he should double check. Fear of offending God should cause us to double check ourselves. In this verse we see that Jesus didn’t immediately answer Pilate’s inquiry, so we will wait for the rest of the story. But for now let us ask ourselves this same great question. If Jesus is from God, shouldn’t it change everything in our lives? If Pilate could have this moment back to do over, I think we would see him fall on his face before Jesus and say, “Have mercy on me, the greatest sinner, dear Son of God. I’m so sorry for what I have done. Forgive me!” What about us? We have this moment. We are seeing that God is love, and that love is the sustained direction of the will toward our highest good no matter what the cost. Have we fallen prostrate before Him and confessed our sorrow for what we have done to Him? If not, do we really know where He is from? And if we do know that He is from God in heaven, shouldn’t we trust Him who has sent and sacrificed His Son for us? Shouldn’t we surrender all to Him who surrendered all for us? And shouldn’t we understand that we are not of this world, but are sons and daughters of God, sent into this world by God to live to love with Jesus as He lived to love with His Father?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:7-8 “The Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.’ Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid;” Have you ever had an “oops” moment? That’s a time when you got new information that you wish you had heard before you did something you wish you hadn’t done? Pilate didn’t have a problem executing a man pretending to be a king, but it certainly must have caused him to rethink what he had done if indeed this man was the, not a, but THE son of God. That would be a big oops. I’ve felt that way about my sin against Jesus, have you? King David confessed to God, “Against You, and against You only, have I sinned.” Oops! I need to rethink who I’ve sinned against like Pilate did that day. You notice John said Pilate was “even more afraid.” That means he was already afraid. Thinking about what he had done to Jesus in light of this knowledge increased his fear. It should have the same affect upon us if we stop and think about our sin and see it rightly. Holy Spirit, fill us with a fear of sinning against You, our Father, and His beloved Son. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:6 “So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, ‘Crucify, crucify!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.’" Again we see Pilate trying to wiggle out of the guilt of executing an innocent man. It wasn’t that he had any mercy, empathy, or sympathy for Jesus. “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him,” he said. He didn’t want to be responsible for His death. How about us? According to Isaiah, we are responsible. It was our sins that fell upon Him. Isaiah 53:5-6 “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” Behold the man. To live to love with Jesus means we will have to die daily. May God give us grace to bear the weight and consequences of other’s iniquities, sins, and hostilities. When we must be crushed for another’s wellbeing may His comfort and peace reign as it did in Jesus when Pilate presented Him to the Jews. Jesus, manifest Your glory through our lives today. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:5 “Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold, the Man!’" Yes, let’s behold the God-man, Jesus. Perhaps Pilate thought that once they saw how much Jesus had suffered their thirst for His blood would be satiated. But as we will read tomorrow, they were not. What did they see as they beheld the man? Isaiah, the prophet, told us. Isaiah 53:4 …Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Isaiah 53:8 …And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? No, as they beheld the man, beaten beyond recognition and dressed in mocked kingly attire, they did not know they were looking at the holy lamb of God. But we do. As we behold the man, we see the love of God in flesh appearing. We see our death to sin and this world initiated, we see our glorious savior bearing our sins. Behold the love of God, and may we walk in humility as He did and love others with an “all out love.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:4 ”Pilate came out again and said to them, ‘Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.’”Had Pilate found Jesus guilty of anything worthy of death, he would not have brought Him out to the Jews. He would have had Him crucified without any hesitation. As it was, after trying Him by scourging, Jesus was spotless. It’s important for us to recognize, Jesus suffered not because He did something wrong, but because we have done many things wrong. He was the spotless lamb of God, led to the slaughter, where He willingly shed His blood so we might know God’s love and salvation. I remember watching the movie, The Passion. During the scene when Jesus was scourged, I couldn’t take it. I wanted to shout out, “Enough! I can’t take any more!” What struck me was that there probably was no one in the Praetorium crying out those words. It was God who finally said, “That’s enough.” Only then did the soldiers wash off their deadly instruments and hang them up to dry. But God wasn’t finished. His love was deeper and greater. His commitment to glorify His Son to the uttermost required more. This speaks to my heart when I consider to what extent will I love someone. I’m not talking about those around me that are easy to love. I have my enemies in mind. Jesus didn’t suffer for righteous people. While we were still His enemies, Christ died for us. That love revealed in the scourging, mocking, and shaming lets me know that there should never be a time when I say, “That person is too difficult to love. They require too much sacrifice from me. They are too toxic. Too hurtful. Too demanding.” No, as I consider the first phase of His suffering, I realize living to love with Jesus will cost me my life. It is a privilege to love whoever He puts in my path for His glory just as Jesus loved those soldiers that day. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:2-3 “And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him and they began to come up to Him and say, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and to give Him slaps in the face.”From this verse we see the disposition of the Roman soldiers who carried out the crucifixion. They obviously had no respect for Jesus. They knew the charge. King of the Jews. It was written on the sign to be affixed to the cross. As we read about Jesus’ suffering, we are to learn from His example for in 1 Peter 2:21 -23 we read, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.”Undoubtedly, we will not suffer like Jesus suffered nor to the degree that He suffered, but it’s amazing to realize the love of God for us revealed as Jesus kept entrusting Himself to His Father. If we live to love with Jesus, we have this attitude in us. We know, like Jesus did, that all things come from His Father, who loves Him. We also, like Jesus, find our satisfaction in life in the love of our Father. We also know, like Jesus, that every trial we face has the purpose of revealing the life and love of God in that situation for the glory of God. We can entrust ourselves to our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ regardless of what anyone else says about us or does to us. We know God judges righteously and in the end will glorify Himself through us in our suffering. Today, you may suffer an injustice or perhaps you’ll be slandered or abused. May the Holy Spirit give you the same love and grace that was given to Jesus so you may know how to respond for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 19:1 “Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him.”As we begin chapter 19 let’s remember what’s happened previously. Jesus gave Himself up to the Jews and Romans. He endured an unlawful arrest and trials by Annas, Caiaphas and the Jewish council, Pilate and Herod. After efforts to wiggle himself out of dealing with Jesus, Pilate succumbed to the pressure of the Jews to crucify Jesus. They were compelled by hate and jealous self-ambition to destroy Jesus and His movement. Pilate caved to the pressure and handed Jesus over to his soldiers to carry out the most excruciating execution imaginable. We read here that Pilate did the deed, but we know he never laid a hand on Jesus. He was guilty of authorizing the scourging and execution in the name of Rome. As we read about the crucifixion of Jesus, let’s remember He is allowing everything that happened to Him. At any given moment in the chain of events that led to His death, He could have stopped it all with a word if the Father had so willed it. Pilate had Jesus scourged. The Jews by law could not give more than 40 lashes, but there was no limit to a Roman scourging. In an article On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ, in JAMA, March 21, 1986—Vol. 255, No. 11, a Roman scourging was described. “The severity of the scourging depended on the disposition of the soldiers and was intended to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death. As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissues. Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock. The extent of blood loss may well have determined how long the victim would survive on the cross. After the scourging, the soldiers often taunted their victim.” We know from Scripture that the goal was bring the Jesus to the edge of death through loss of blood and pain so that they could be finished before observing the Passover celebration. We also know from Scripture that this was God’s doing because the Son’s innocent blood had to be spilt in payment for our sins. This is love, that He, who knew no sin, laid down His life for us, who are hostile in mind and engaged in evil deeds (Col. 1:21). Through our oneness with Jesus, we are saved from our sins. He conquered our enemies and reigned as our King of love as He suffered. What Pilate and the Romans meant for evil, God meant it for good. Let’s give thanks to our God. “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we praise You and thank You for enduring the pain and bloodshed that we might be justified, forgiven, and have fellowship with You. It is our privilege to live to love with You today.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:38-40 “And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, ‘I find no guilt in Him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?’ So they cried out again, saying, ‘Not this Man, but Barabbas.’ Now Barabbas was a robber.”John left out some significant events at this point. He didn’t event mention Herod. Luke recorded this in Luke 23:4-7. “Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, ‘I find no guilt in this man.’ But they kept on insisting, saying, ‘He stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee even as far as this place.’ When Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that He belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who himself also was in Jerusalem at that time.” I hope you’ll go to Luke 22 and read the rest of the story because there’s quite an exchange between Pilate and the Jews after they and Jesus returned from Herod’s interrogation. Jesus didn’t answer any of Herod’s questions, yet Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate saying he could find nothing worthy of death. We don’t see in John’s account how much Pilate had reversed course and tried to do everything he could to release Jesus. He even suggested that he would punish Him before releasing Him. But it came to Pilate’s mind that he customarily released someone from prison as an act of goodwill toward the Jews. So he made one last appeal. “Don’t you want me to release your king to you—Jesus, the king of the Jews?” Do you find this as unbelievable as I do? Blinded by hatred, the Jewish officials bid Pilate to kill Jesus and release Barabbas, a known thief. Luke wrote that Pilate “wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again.” It’s a this point that the Jews chanted out, “Crucify, crucify Him!” Pilate made a third appeal which was drowned out by the crowd’s insistence that Jesus be killed. Jesus, in the Sermon on the mount, said that if someone is angry with his brother, he is guilty of murder before the court (5:22). We can certainly see that truth evidenced in the Jews. They hated Jesus and are so blinded by it, that they can’t see what they are doing. Rejecting their king for a thief. When we think of love’s antithesis, we usually think of hatred. May God free us from even the smallest vestige of hate in our hearts. The way to get free from hatred is to live to love with Jesus. If your goal is to love others in the power of the Holy Spirit, there is no room for hatred. Holy Spirit, please purify our hearts for a sincere love of the brethren so we can love them fervently from the heart as Peter admonishes us in 1 Peter 1:22.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:38 “Pilate said to Him, ‘What is truth?’”What is truth? Jesus told Pilate that He came to testify to the truth, namely, that He is a king of a kingdom that is not of this world. It’s a kingdom that Pilate couldn’t see, but it exists nevertheless. We popular progressive view of truth today is that it is something inside of a person. It’s how they feel or think about themselves and the world around them. It’s not fact related nor does it have to be proven. There’s a truth for you and a truth for me. Your truth, my truth, anyone’s truth. However, for centuries, truth was something outside of our individual selves. It was something to be discovered so we could align ourselves with it. In light of the Scriptures and the revelation of Christ, I would propose that Truth, with a capital T is whatever God sees, says, and does from and in eternity. If He sees it, then it is the truth. If He says it, it is the truth. If He does it or establishes it, it is the truth. If He didn’t see it, say it, or do it, then it is a lie. With that in mind, consider this. God is love. Therefore, love is the truth. Everything God sees, says, and does is motivated by His love. The apostle John echoed this reality when he wrote in 3 John 3-4 “For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.” If we are of the truth, then we will live to love with Jesus. As we do so, we are testifying to the world that Jesus is our king and we are of His kingdom.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:37 “Therefore Pilate said to Him, ‘So You are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’”I’m trying to imagine the impact Jesus had on Pilate. I’m sure he had never spoken with anyone who said the things Jesus said about Himself. Pilate had no reference point for Jesus. For that matter, how does anyone who is of this world and thinks life consists only of what we can see, touch, and hear in this world understand the eternal things of God? They can’t. So perhaps we can sympathize with Pilate a little as we read their exchange. Think about it. Have you ever heard anyone talk about the reason they came into this world? I doubt it. Jesus told him that He came to testify to the truth and everyone who is of the truth hears His voice. We’ll talk tomorrow about what truth Jesus was speaking of. But for now, let’s focus on the amazing statement that those who hear His voice are “of” the truth. This isn’t the first time Jesus had said this. John recorded Jesus saying these things in John 10:16 and 27. “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.” and vs. 27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”Obviously Pilate was not “hearing His voice.” Have you? If so, you are of the truth and of His kingdom. He is your king, and He knows you. He was born to testify to this great truth: namely, that God has an eternal kingdom and Jesus knew the servants of His kingdom before the world was. The Father gave them to Him. He was born and lived in this earthly domain, to testify to that great truth. The evidence of that truth is that His servants hear His voice, “If you believe in God, believe also in Me. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34 and 14:1) and they follow Him. If you’ve heard His voice, live to love with Jesus today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:35-36 “Pilate answered, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.’" Basically, Pilate seems frustrated with Jesus—and the Jews. Remember, he doesn’t want to have anything to do with him. If we could look into his heart, we might find him looking for a reason not to condemn Jesus. Pilate’s remarks essentially confirm this. He was saying, “I’m not a Jew, so this has nothing to do with me. I didn’t start this.” His question, “What have you done? What have you done to threaten your people and their leaders that makes you a threat to Rome?” Jesus’ answer removes the false claim that Jesus was killed because He spoke truth to power. Jesus’ answer should have brought a sigh of relief to Pilate. Jesus is a king, but not a king of the earthly realm. Certainly this was as puzzling to Pilate as Jesus’ words were to Nicodemus when He told him about being born again. It is clear from the text that Pilate is still in the kingdom of darkness.Perhaps this gives us a small insight into Peter’s attack on Malchus. At that point in time, Peter did think Jesus’ kingdom was of this world. Perhaps he fought so Jesus wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But this verse makes it clear that we who follow Jesus have been transferred out of the kingdom of this world into another kingdom, the kingdom of God. The apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians that God “rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13-14). In Him, our beloved king, we have eternal life. Love is the manifested evidence that we are in Jesus’ kingdom. In a sense, love is our kingdom ID. John wrote in his first epistle in 3:14 that those who love have passed from death to life. May we display everyday that we are not of this worldly kingdom, but servants of Christ our king.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:34 “Jesus answered, ‘Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?’" First, notice how love pushes for the highest good. The highest good in this instance for Pilate was to ask himself, “Is it possible that this man really is the a king? And if he is, what kingdom is he the king of?” Jesus answered Pilate’s question with a question that revealed Pilate’s heart and motives. Second, notice also that Jesus isn’t telling Pilate something he’s not ready to hear. Third, notice also that Jesus was reminding him, kindly, that the law requires witnesses. “Did others tell you about Me?" We can learn from this exchange how to answer an opponent or antagonist. It is better to answer questions of accusation with a question that helps them sort out why they are doing what they are doing. Jesus was keeping the burden of proof on Pilate and the Jews. When we know we are of the truth, the burden of proof rests on the accuser. Like Jesus, we should rest peacefully in the truth. If we live to love with Jesus we will always be walking and standing in the truth, for Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. For more encouragement to live to love with Jesus I invite you to visit www.livetolovewithjesus.com. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:33 “Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, ‘Are You the King of the Jews?’" Pilate talked with the Jewish leaders and mob outside the Praetorium because the Jews would be defiled if they went inside. But Jesus was inside the Praetorium before the judgment seat of Pilate. While outside talking with the Jews we learn from Luke 23:2 what the council had agreed would compel Pilate to crucify Jesus. “And they began to accuse Him, saying, ‘We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.’" Do you see how Satan led them to twist the words of Jesus and falsely accuse Him? They found Pilate’s weak spot (self-ambition and self-preservation) and played him. They knew this information would lead to Jesus’ execution. So upon hearing this false accusation, Pilate returns to investigate along this line. “Are you the king of the Jews?” As we live with Jesus, we should expect Satan, who hates Jesus in us, to attack Him in the same way. He will twist our confidence in Christ and lead those who are threatened by it to think it is pride (calls Himself a king—thinks He is an authority). We will take careful notice the next few days at how Jesus loved in the face of such demonic opposition. Today, let’s not let those who misjudge us throw us off our purpose to love with Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:32 “To fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die.” Matthew recorded Jesus’ prophecy regarding His death. Matthew 20:18-19. "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up." Jesus also prophesied our death. Matthew 16:24-25. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.’” Have you not heard? We were born again to die just like Jesus was born to die? We know the kind of death we are going to die—death to our own individualism, death to self—so that the life and love of Jesus may be resurrected in us. If we think we can live today to express our true authentic selves, we are deluded and deceived. There was no way out for Jesus that morning. His death had been prophesied by God and this had to be fulfilled. So it is with us. As we live to love with Jesus, we may expect to die daily so Jesus’ love may be revealed. We can testify with the apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:31 “I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” In Jesus’ death, we die. In His life, we live—to love with Him. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:31 So Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law." The Jews said to him, "We are not permitted to put anyone to death," Pilate’s statement here represents a change in what was arranged the night before between Caiaphas and Pilate. On Thursday night Pilate was all in with the plan to execute Jesus under Roman law. Then he got his wife’s, Claudia’s, message about her dream, warning him to have nothing to do with this righteous man. You can see that’s exactly what Pilate was trying to do. He was trying to put it back on them. "Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law." They probably had the same conversation the night before. The Romans were needed in order to get rid of Jesus once and for all. Jewish law did not permit them to execute Jesus for anything He had done. Sometimes we know something doesn’t feel right. There’s a nagging pang deep within telling us, “Don’t do it.” “Don’t say it.” Deep down we know we should put on the brakes and turn around. Go another way. But we don’t. That’s where Pilate was that Good Friday morning. I hope we can pause today and remind ourselves to seek the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness for times we ignored His gracious warnings and purpose going forward that we will stop and turn away from temptation. It’s loving Jesus with our whole hearts.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:30 “They answered and said to him, "If this Man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him to you."Welcome to a new year, 2023. I plan to continue working through the book of John until we complete the study, looking for encouragements to live to love with Jesus. I hope you’ll join me each day, as you have today for a live to love encouragement.If you remember, as Pilate began his investigation into Jesus’ case, he asked, "What accusation do you bring against this Man?" This question was not unexpected by Caiaphas and crowd. An agreement had already been arranged between Pilate and Caiaphas to execute Jesus as quickly as possible. So someone gave what they thought would be a sufficient, bottom-line answer. In short, “This man deserves to die or we wouldn’t be here.”Before we pass judgement on these guys, it might be helpful and wise for us to ask ourselves. “Have we ever judged someone without hearing the evidence or hearing their view of things?” It’s impossible to love with Jesus when we are sitting in the judgment seat. These people falsely accused Jesus of being an evil-doer merely because He didn’t affirm them and tow the party line. Have we ever done that to someone? My live to love encouragement today is to repent of such pride and judgment and purpose not to condemn others, but instead love them. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
All Out Love for One Another: Part 1. This is the audio version of the Live to Love blog for January, 2023 by Norm Wakefield. You can find the written version at www.livetolovewithjesus.com/blog.
John 18:29 “Therefore Pilate went out to them and said, "What accusation do you bring against this Man?"Pilate was a blood-thirsty tyrant. Josephus, a Jewish/Roman historian, recorded a time when Pilate ordered his army to attack unarmed demonstrators, killing and wounding many. He didn’t hesitate to use force to quell an uprising. As Pilate was meeting with Caiaphas and crew at the Praetorium, reviewing the case against Jesus, God set up a test for him which became a surprising turn of events. God gave his wife, Claudia a dream. Matthew records what happened. Matthew 27:19 ‘While he (that’s Pilate) was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message, saying, ‘Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him.’” Pilate began the farce by asking what the accusation was against Jesus. That would have been a typical line of investigation. However, it is probable that the message from Claudia came at this point, because the rest of the exchange between Pilate and the Jewish rulers didn’t go as planned. As we will see, Pilate began to look for a way out, but ultimately he caved to the pressure of Caiaphas and the crowd. However, consider the love of God for Pilate that He would give him a warning and an opportunity to do good. We will see in the coming days that it was an opportunity missed by Pilate. Speaking of opportunities missed and a test of character. Perhaps it is good to ask ourselves if we have missed opportunities to love and do good. I know I have. I regret those times when God tested my character and I failed the test due to fear of man or self-protection. How about you? Now that I have a greater understanding of my purpose in life—namely to love and bring glory to God by living to love with Jesus, I don’t want to miss any opportunity to love and do good—even to my enemies. As we come to the end of 2022, let’s take this opportunity to thank God for His steadfast love and forgiveness for all of the opportunities to love with Him that we missed. If any specifics come to mind, I encourage you to confess them, roll them over to Christ, and worship Him. As we look into 2023, will you join me purposing anew to live to love with Jesus? I invite you to visit www.livetolovewithjesus.com and write down the “Live to Love Prayer”. If you want to grow in loving God and loving others, I hope you’ll make that prayer, or one you write from your own heart, a prayer to launch every day of 2023. If you haven’t taken advantage of the free resources on the website, I also invite you to get Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships in either print, ebook, or audiobook formats. You’ll get the most out of it if you read it with the study guide and with friends so you can experience Jesus’ love and discipleship. If you are committed to live to love with Jesus, I’m sure you will have a happy new year.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:28 “Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.”John left out the mock trial at Caiaphas’ house where the Sanhedrin, the High Priest, Scribes, and Pharisees could not even find two witnesses who could agree to their trumped up charges against Jesus. John was primarily concerned with a Gentile audience, so he wanted to highlight the role of the Romans in Jesus’ death. The Praetorium was the Antonia Fortress built by Herod, the Great in 35 B.C. and named after his friend Marc Antony. It was home to the cohort of soldiers that were present at Jesus’ arrest. John was showing that this conspiracy against Jesus was both Jewish and Roman. The Jewish officials could not enter the Praetorium and follow the laws of cleanliness to observe the Passover. Did you notice that it was early? Claudia, Pilate’s wife had a dream about Jesus the night before the trial. That’s Thursday night. This means that Caiaphas, the only Jewish official who had access to Pilate, had privately met with Pilate after meeting with Judas, to get Pilate’s cooperation in condemning Jesus in a mock trial early the next morning. So the Jews had to apprehend Jesus on Thursday night, try Him and find Him guilty of the death penalty (with Roman cooperation and contrary to Jewish law). Then the prearranged plan was to bring Him to Pilate. There they would stage another mock trial and get Him condemned, sentenced, and killed as quickly as possible on Friday before Passover. For Claudia to have the dream, she had to know of the scheme against Jesus on Thursday night, which is why she warned Pilate to have nothing to do with this innocent man. Pilate’s agreement to meet them in the Praetorium was a very unusual, out-of-character concession. Typically, a preliminary investigation would take place in his palace, and then the case would be passed on to an appointed judex or judge to formally hear and prosecute the case. Pilate agreed to forego the law and due process in order to accommodate the Jew’s need for urgency. Furthermore, there was no way the Jews would have known Pilate would hear their case at 6:00 in the morning if it had not already been arranged. On Thursday night, Pilate was a willing accomplice to the plot. This was no trial. Pilate was the hit man selected by Caiaphas.From the time of Jesus’ arrest, He knew what was going to happen. He knew He would not get a fair trial. He knew Caiaphas and the Romans had conspired against Him. He knew He was going to be turned over to the Romans and become our redeemer and savior. As we read about the trial, sentencing, and execution of Jesus, let us remember, we are witnessing the supreme expression of divine love revealed in the history of mankind. This was necessary so we might be forgiven of all of our sins. And having experienced total forgiveness, we might love much. Our living to love with Jesus, for the glory of God, is what is in God’s view as the Father allows Satan to have his way with every participant in the story—from Judas to Peter, Annas, Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod, and the Roman soldiers—and you and me. Behold how God has loved us! Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:24-27. “So Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, ‘You are not also one of His disciples, are you?’ He denied it, and said, ‘I am not.’ One of the slaves of the high priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, said, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with Him?’ Peter then denied it again, and immediately a rooster crowed. The last two of the three denials occurred while Annas was questioning Jesus. Apparently the initial inquiry by Annas took place in his courtyard in close proximity to each other. For Luke recorded that when Peter denied Him the third time and they both heard the rooster crow, Jesus turned and looked at Peter and remember the word of the Lord, how He had told him that he would deny Him 3 times before a rooster crowed today. (Luke 22:61). At that moment Luke said that Peter went out of the courtyard and wept bitterly. It’s difficult to imagine how ashamed Peter must have felt. In an honor/shame culture such as they lived in, the weight of guilt must have been unbearable. Have you ever been there? Have you felt like you have committed an evil deed that completely disqualifies you from ever being loved or used by God? We know the end of Peter’s story, but he didn’t at that point. We know that Peter was forgiven, transformed, and empowered by the love of Christ. I think that was where John was going with Peter’s story. He knew that in a matter of minutes his readers would be reading of Jesus’ encounter with Peter on the beach of the Sea of Galilee. We will get to those verses in 2023. For now, we can know that God has allowed our own failures to occur for our highest good. He knows what He is going to do with us, and He know His love will bring redemption, restoration, and transformation in our lives. So let us be sober-minded and on the alert for the prowling lion. Let us continue living to love with Jesus without fear.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:22-23 “When He had said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus, saying, ‘Is that the way You answer the high priest?’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?’”Under the greatest pressure one can imagine, Jesus remains righteous. He could not speak wrongly. In fact, Jesus had spoken rightly. In line with the Jewish Mishnah, He asked Annas, “Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said.” That was exactly how a just trial was to proceed. The council brings in at least two witnesses who agree to the material events or actions of the accused. They are not to question the accused, but simply be an unbiased judiciary listening to the testimonies of those who were there. Again, notice, how Jesus loved the officer. He led him to examine his conscience in light of the law, which Jesus knew that the officer understood. The officer had no answer to Jesus’ question because he knew Jesus had spoken rightly. This is helpful for us when we are in difficult relationships. It is humble and loving to ask, “Where have I spoken or acted wrongly? Please show me. And if you cannot testify to the wrong, why are you treating me this way?” Because God is love, we can rightly assume that all of Jesus’ remarks are motivated in love. Doesn’t this amaze you? It does me. Jesus didn’t say what He said because He thought it would actually “work” with the officer. That wasn’t His goal. He is a God of justice and truth. It isn’t love to allow someone to abuse and use you without caring for the truth and for the offender. I want to learn from Jesus how to love like He did. May God give us His wisdom in difficult situations and relationships.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:19-21 “The high priest then questioned Jesus about His disciples, and about His teaching. Jesus answered him, ‘I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret. Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said.’”I had a friend in South Africa, the late Judge Neels Claassen, who wrote a book entitled, “The Last Passover of Jesus on Earth: A judicial perspective of His trials, crucifixion, and resurrection.” He outlined the Jewish requirements for a fair trial from the Jewish Mishnah, the oldest authoritative codification of Jewish laws compiled over a period of two centuries. “This jurisdiction was vested in the Jewish Council or Sanhedrin comprising the High Priest, elders, and scribes, a total of 71. There were exceptionally strict regulations for trials.1. The complainants had to apprehend the accused during daylight hours and then bring the prisoner to court.2. A capital crime had to be heard during daylight hours.3. The bench was not allowed to interrogate the accused. 4. Judgment had to be reserved until the next day, and in the event of conviction, the sentence had to also be delayed until the following day.5. A conviction could only be imposed based on the evidence of at least two reliable and independent witnesses. The first two regulations were ignored as they arrested Jesus during darkness and they were intent on a capital crime. The third regulation was mocked as the high priest questioned Jesus. Even though Annas was not the acting High Priest, Jesus answered Annas according to the law. Basically, He reminded Annas of what was required by law. Jesus had spoken openly and thus there were plenty of opportunities for witnesses to be summoned and to testify. So Jesus asked, “Why do you question Me?” This is an amazing act of love in the midst of confrontation. He was actually speaking for Annas’ highest good, even though He knew it would cost Him. He knew His fate was already determined. Even yet, without making any accusations against him, he lovingly reminded Annas and the rest of the court of what was right.Sometimes that is the only way to love in a situation when someone is out to get you and hates you. You can simply state the truth without accusing them. It was Peter who described Jesus’ attitude and actions before this council. May we love like this. 1 Peter 2:21-23. “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:18 “Now the slaves and the officers were standing there, having made a charcoal fire, for it was cold and they were warming themselves; and Peter was also with them, standing and warming himself.”Satan was after Peter. When you look at all of the gospel accounts of this time in the courtyard of the high priests, you discover that all of the denials of Peter occurred around the fire. It was cold and therefore a fire had been started in the courtyard. The slaves and the officers of the high priest, who were no doubt members of the arrest squad, with John and Peter, were warming themselves around the fire. The first to recognize him and question him was the slave-girl who was also the gate-keeper. Luke wrote, “a servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking intently at him, said, ‘This man was with Him too.’” Although John’s version of her question differs, there’s no reason not to believe she said both. One a question and another a statement. At some point Peter was standing with them, but perhaps feeling the stares of some of the slaves, must have stepped back and sat down. Yes the fire was a source of warmth for Peter and the rest, but one can’t help wondering if Peter didn’t feel an internal heat from the temptations and the spirit of the prowling lion from hell. His love was certainly being tested by fire. We can expect the same in our daily walk with Jesus. As we follow Him, there will be times when He puts people in our paths that know that we are Christians and consider us to be threats to their world. We need to be ready with a well thought-out answer when someone questions or mocks us for following Jesus. Perhaps if Peter had prepared himself for such questioning, he would not have denied Jesus. As we love with Jesus, not everyone will receive us with open arms. After you finish listening to this live to love encouragement, I hope you’ll take a few minutes and think about what you would say if someone today confronted you with a negative attitude toward your faith and lifestyle. What would you say to express the love of Jesus? What will you say when the heat is on?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I want to encourage you today on this Christmas with two Scriptures which connect the birth of Jesus and living to love with Him. The first is often read at Christmas. Matthew 1:23 “‘BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,’ which translated means, ‘GOD WITH US.’”The second passage is from Isaiah 43:4-5. God spoke both of these through Isaiah the prophet. This verse is the only place in the Bible where God is quoted saying He loves Israel. He said, “Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you.”Here’s the encouragement from these verses. The Matthew verse tells us that Jesus is God with us. The Isaiah verse tells us why God is with us. It’s because He loves us. This helps us to see what love actually means—what it looks like in real life. The love of God is revealed by His coming to be with us to help us. We, the entire human race need help. We are separated from God. There’s no way a holy God can come be with us and stay with us because we are sinners. For Him to be with us on a continual basis requires that all our sin be removed from His sight. We must be made holy so a holy God can be with us. This is what Christmas is all about. It’s about the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ, who came to be with us to help us at the point of our greatest need—the removal and forgiveness of all that separates us from God. That was accomplished when Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross to the point of death. Then God raised Him and Jesus asked the Father to send us another Helper, the Holy Spirit, who would be “Immanuel”, God with us, forever. The Holy Spirit is with us also because God loves us and that love, like a powerful tsunami, fills and moves through us. What does that love look like? It looks like brothers and sisters wanting to be with each other in order to help each other become more like Jesus. Living to love with Jesus is bringing the Spirit of God near to those who are in need of life, forgiveness, peace, joy, hope, and love. May the love of Jesus fill you with His joy as you are “Immanuel” to those He puts in your path today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Hebrews 2:14-15 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”These verses may be the best summary of Jesus’ life in the Scriptures. They cover His life from birth to death. They reveal why He came to earth which means we are given the meaning of Jesus’ birth. He was born to die. He could not come to earth as God and render Satan powerless by defeating death. He had to become one of us—share in flesh and blood—so that through His death He might make the devil, who had the power of death, powerless. On this Christmas eve, I encourage us all to not forget the reason for the season. “There has been born for you a savior, who is Christ the Lord!” Christmas is more about the Savior than it is about a baby born in Bethlehem. Jesus came to free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. When someone is afraid of dying, they live in fear. Few things hinder the flow of love more than fear. In contrast, when we live to love with Jesus, there is no fear of death, because we know we have passed out of death into life. The apostle John wrote, “We know we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death” (1 Jo. 3:14). He also wrote in 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect (completed) love casts out fear.” The best way to celebrate Christmas is to pour out the love of Jesus on those He puts in your path. That’s why He was born. He was born to die to set us free to love with Him for the glory of God. Have a lovely Christmas!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:17 “Then the slave-girl who kept the door said to Peter, ‘You are not also one of this man's disciples, are you?’ He said, ‘I am not.’”We can connect a few dots at this point. John was known by Annas, and apparently the slave-girl, who was the gatekeeper, also knew John. She knew that John was a follower of Jesus, so when John spoke to her about Peter and she let him in, she naturally assumed Peter also was a follower of Jesus. So probably as Peter entered with John, she questioned him about his connection to Jesus. One has to wonder if Peter was caught off guard at the question, because all of a sudden, it was as if a darkness enveloped him—love and courage were devoured. The prowling lion had pounced on him. He answered, “I am not.”Have you ever had such an experience? One moment you are passionate about Jesus, and then something disillusions you, surprises you, or doesn’t go like you thought it was supposed to go, and the next moment you fall to a strong temptation that you thought wasn’t possible. Have you ever been asked a question that you didn’t expect and responded with a lie in order to protect yourself? You find yourself in a daze, a sense of disappointment with yourself swells within. To my shame, I have been there. The tide of conviction and shame can almost take your breath away, and you can’t think clearly. I can imagine what happened with Peter. Afterwards, Peter could see clearly what he should have done. Resist the devil! It appeared as if Peter wanted to be with Jesus, perhaps just like we want to live to love with Jesus. This story reminds us that we can be following Jesus with good intentions, and in a weak moment be overtaken by temptation. Have you experienced something recently that you didn’t expect? Something that disillusioned you? Someone who disappointed you? That’s the devil’s first growl when he’s on the prowl. He tries to get your eyes off of Jesus and onto yourself. If you know what I’m talking about and you are hearing the growl of the devil, resist him now. Surrender yourself to Jesus and abide in Him with tenacity. We were saved to love Jesus and love with Him come hell or high-water. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:15-16 “Simon Peter was following Jesus, and so was another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest, and entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest, but Peter was standing at the door outside. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the doorkeeper, and brought Peter in.”We have been invited by John into the relationship between Peter and Jesus. I’m impressed with the courage of both Peter and John, but especially Peter. He had been the one disciple to take up arms against all odds. He had severed an ear of a slave of the high priest, Caiaphas, and we see from this verse that instead of fleeing as the rest of the disciples, he followed Jesus. Although Annas was replaced as high priest by Caiaphas in 15 A.D., he still was referred to as the high priest. John lets us know that he was known by Annas and therefore was allowed into the courtyard with Jesus. Apparently, Peter however, wasn’t allowed into the courtyard until John spoke with the gatekeeper. What is Peter thinking? I don’t know, but I am impressed with Peter’s courage at this point to follow Jesus into the lion’s den. Aren’t you? Giving it the best spin that I can, I think Peter is there because he loves his master. He had told Jesus he would not forsake Him, and if everyone else fled, he would not. He and John are like the president and vice-president of the disciples. They are the committed of the committed. They had been with Jesus in best of times. Why not stay with Him in the worst of times? In his mind, he was ready to die with Jesus. We all know where this story goes, but at this point we can be encouraged by Peter’s and John’s love and courage. Perhaps they were thinking that Jesus would be given a fair trial and they would have an opportunity to testify on Jesus’ behalf. That makes me examine myself and ask if I am that ready, willing, loving, and courageous to testify on Jesus’ behalf today. Should the opportunity arise, will love for Jesus move me to live to love with Him by sharing about His love for me and for others? Let’s be ready today to follow Jesus anywhere, even into the lion’s den, to express His love and presence.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:12-14 “So the Roman cohort and the commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him, and led Him to Annas first; for he was father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. Now Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people.”I hope you remember from yesterday’s encouragement that when Peter had cut off the slave’s ear, Jesus rebuked Peter. Matthew recorded the rebuke, “How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way” (26:54). Besides fulfilling the Scriptures from Is. 53 and many others, Jesus also was fulfilling what had been prophesied and would eventually become Scripture. As John wrote this account, he connected Jesus’ words to Peter about fulfilling Scripture to Caiaphas’ prophecy in chapter 11:49-52. “But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.’ Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” What is our take away here? Jesus’ willing and intentional sacrifice was expedient not only to fulfill Scriptures, but to unite all believers into one body. As we read through John 18 and 19, let’s be sure to keep this in view. We are reading the story of redemption—divine love—planned and poured out from before the foundation of the earth. You and I, if we are children of God, have been loved from eternity. It was the Father’s will to gather us together into Jesus’ body to redeem and justify us according to His great love. For this reason, namely, that we are the beloved of God, do we celebrate the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We express our love for God by living to love with Jesus, who dwells within our hearts.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:12-13 “So the Roman cohort and the commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him, and led Him to Annas first; for he was father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.”“So…” makes it clear that what follows the “so” is dependent on what preceded it. Jesus’ willingness to drink the cup the Father gave Him is what permitted the Roman cohort, and the commander and officers of the Jews to arrest and bind Jesus. He could have spoken the word and again, all would have fallen to the ground and been incapacitated. Could He not have called out to the “myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands” of angels surrounding heaven’s throne to come and deliver Him? Matthew’s version of this event included this statement to Peter. Matthew 26:52-53 “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (that’s 7200 angels!).Jesus’ appeal had already been made. Twice already He had prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; not as I will, but as You will.” He had no more appeals. He put His hands into the hands of His enemies to fulfill the Scriptures, for Matthew records, “How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way” (26:54). May we be as committed, determined, and passionate for the fulfillment of the Scriptures as we live to love with Jesus today. The Scriptures say that everyone who knows God loves his brother (1 John 4:8), and that all men will know that we are Jesus’ disciples, if we have love for one another (John 13:35). How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled if we don’t live to love with Jesus?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:11 “So Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?’”John didn’t record the healing of Malchus’ ear. Luke revealed that detail in his gospel. For John’s purposes, Jesus’ words to Peter were more important. John wanted his readers to know that Jesus’ death was intentional and sacrificial. Jesus willingly gave up His life for our highest good—the salvation of our souls. Furthermore He wanted it to be crystal clear: Jesus’ death was the Father’s will for the salvation of sinners. John recorded a part of Jesus’ prayer time that Matthew didn’t record, and vice versa. In Jesus’ prayer, John focused Jesus’ desire to do the Father’s will, love those given to Him, and the glory of God shared with them, revealing the divinity of Christ. Matthew told about Jesus’ grief and internal struggle, revealing the humanity of Christ. John hadn’t mentioned the cup that Jesus mentioned in this moment after healing Malchus’ ear, but Matthew did. Matthew 26:39 “And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.’”This verse shows us clearly that Jesus had gotten up from that prayer time determined that it was the Father’s will for Him to drink the cup of suffering and wrath, performed by Satan’s hands, to satisfy justice on behalf of all whom the Father gave Him. And this is how we know what God’s love is. It is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost. From the “Amen” of Jesus’ prayer until the “It is finished,” Jesus never wavered. He would, He did, drink the cup which the Father gave Him to reveal the love of God to save sinners. It is for this reason that I say that our purpose in life is to live to love with Jesus—to lay down our lives for the highest good of others no matter what the cost. It is the cup the Father has given us to drink. Shall we not drink it?Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:10 “Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave's name was Malchus.” This verse begins a parenthesis, so to speak, in this narrative. It’s a parenthesis focused on Peter’s relationship with Jesus. It begins with Peter’s initial reaction to Jesus’ arrest and continues to his denials before the rooster crowed. Apparently John wanted to draw his readers into Peter’s failures in order to highlight the love, mercy, and grace revealed in Jesus toward Peter later in the gospel. So let’s attempt to enter into what’s happening between Peter and Jesus.Have you ever wondered what Simon was thinking when he attempted to remove Malchus’ head while facing a host of armed soldiers? By the mercy of God, Malchus ducked and only lost his ear. Regardless of Peter’s intent, it seems to be a rash and uncalculated act considering the odds. However, if we pause, put ourselves in Peters’ sandals and mind, a couple of very diverse possibilities come to mind. 1. Peter was filled with faith. He thought that Jesus was launching of the Messianic kingdom. Hadn’t Jesus told him to take up a sword and that one was enough? Just moments before he heard Jesus say, “I am,” and he saw the entire Roman cohort along with the temple guards fall flat on the ground. It’s similar to Peter’s jumping out of the boat onto the Sea of Galilee once he saw Jesus walking on the water. Peter was all in with Jesus. If this was going on in Peter’s mind, then it was an expression of radical faith. In stark contrast is another explanation.2. Peter, Jesus #1 disciple, was used by Satan in an attempt to discourage Jesus and take out His disciples at the same time. Do you remember this interaction between Jesus and Peter? Matthew 16:21-23 “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.’ But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man’s.’” This hour was Satan’s hour to throw everything he had at Jesus, and it makes sense that once again he would go after the hearts of Jesus’ followers, especially Peter.I’m inclined toward the second alternative explanation because the disciples fled and Peter continued under Satan’s spell as he denied Jesus 3 times. I don’t guess we will know the answer to this on this side of heaven, but it should cause us to humble ourselves and be on the alert. Satan is prowling around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour (Peter’s caution by the way, 1 Pet. 5:8). Let’s abide in Christ. Be on our guard. Resist the devil, and live to love with Jesus.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:7-9 “Therefore He again asked them, ‘Whom do you seek?’ And they said, ‘Jesus the Nazarene.’ Jesus answered, ‘I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way,’ to fulfill the word which He spoke, ‘Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one.’”In verses 7-8, it seems as if the entire crowd, after having fallen to the ground were like patients waking from an anesthetic sleep, grasping to reorient themselves to the real world. Once Jesus saw that they were recovered, He restated the original question. Do you wonder with me if all of them were afraid of another retreat and fall? If in their minds they were saying, “Oh no, here we go again.” But this question had a different purpose than the first one. Rather than setting the stage for a stunning revelation of who He is, it was asked for the purpose of clarifying that they were not after His disciples. John inserts the comment that Jesus was aware of what He had said to His Father only minutes before. It’s recorded in John 17:12, “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.” John summarized Jesus’ prayer. “Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one.” It’s amazing to think that in the enormity and stress of this moment, Jesus remembered what He had prayed. We can be eternally grateful for Jesus’ intercession and care for us. He made sure that His disciples were not to be swept up with Him. The suffering which He was to endure was to be His alone. May this serve as a reminder to us to keep our purpose to live to love with Jesus in the forefront of our minds so that we can think of others when we are in trying circumstances.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:5-6 “They answered Him, ‘Jesus the Nazarene.’ He said to them, ‘I am He.’ And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them. So when He said to them, ‘I am He,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.” Jesus had just asked the soldiers and officers, “Whom do you seek?” Apparently He wasn’t addressing Judas, for he would know whom they were seeking as he was leading them to Jesus, but the Holy Spirit through John wants us all to understand the stunning and authoritative statement Jesus made to them. “I Am.” was His response. Contrast the difference between whom they think they are seeking and who He really is. “Jesus the Nazarene” may be considered a name of embarrassment or shame. It was apparently well known that nothing good could come from Nazareth for Nathanael remarked to Philip, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). Jesus’ reply was shocking. His reply was literally the name of God, “I am.” Upon hearing Jesus say, “I am,” the entire entourage drew back and fell to the ground. Let’s try to imagine this. Besides Judas, there were the officials from the chief priests and pharisees (we don’t know the number, but these were “police” officers of the temple). A Roman cohort could be anywhere from 480-600 men according to my research. So imagine the 500-600 men in battle gear on the hillside of Gethsemane marching in military order up the hill with Judas and the temple guard at the head. Coming down the hill are Jesus with His disciples trailing Him. They meet, and these words are exchanged, “Whom do you seek?” asks Jesus? Some of the crowd answer, “Jesus the Nazarene.” Then Jesus replies, “I Am.” Now watch this! 500-600 armed soldiers draw back—step back?, take many steps back? Then fall to the ground. This is not like Moses falling on the ground of His own will to worship God. Their falling on the ground isn’t a collective bowing down to offer honor to a king—at least not intentionally. They fell to the ground in response to a statement of divine authority. Jesus’ words were accompanied with power and glory. It’s something like what Paul declared will happen at some point with all humanity when he wrote to the Philippians. Phil. 2:8-11. He wrote of Jesus, “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”In the garden, this was, in a sense, a premonition of the glory of Christ to come. We aren’t told that the disciples fell to the ground. Isn’t that interesting. It seems it was only His enemies that were struck by the authority of God’s declaration, “I Am.” That great day is coming again soon, when Jesus will appear, will go forth as He did that evening, and upon His approach, all will fall down, awe-struck with the glory and authority of the Son of God. May we live to love today aware that we love in the authority of the great I Am.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:4 “So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, "Whom do you seek?"Did you notice the words “went forth” in this verse? Jesus didn’t walk into the garden and then become passive, waiting to be taken into custody. He went on the offensive. When He saw Judas and the crowd with torches and weapons, instead of running, hiding, and protecting Himself, He went forth. What gave Him such confidence when He knew it was the hour of darkness and that they would take Him into custody, strip Him, abuse Him, whip Him, shame Him publicly, and crucify Him naked on the side of a busy thoroughfare? This is not left for us to guess at the answer for Heb. 12:2 informs us where His heart was focused. We read that Jesus, “for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.” What joy was set before Him? I think it was the joy and pleasure of His Father as He obeyed and glorified Him by laying down His life for those the Father gave to Him. He had just expressed this joy in the prayer in John 17. What a stunning greeting Jesus gave this crowd. “Whom do you seek?” He was setting them up for an even more stunning display of who He is, which we will consider tomorrow. But today, these words inform us that these men really didn’t know who they were seeking. I mean they didn’t know who He really was. That is also true today. Many people think Jesus is like a common man. They think He is like they are. And furthermore, when they seek Him, they aren’t seeking Him to become a follower, they are seeking Him to find something wrong with Him. Looking for a reason not to believe in Him. People with that attitude rarely respond to the love of God revealed in Christ. These will view true followers of Christ as threats to their earthly kingdom and desires. May God give us discernment today as we live to love with Jesus. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:3 “Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.”This verse describes some of the events referred to in Acts 4:27. From a God-centered, faith-informed perspective, God was gathering this crowd against His Son. Judas, the Romans soldiers, and Jewish officials were needed for the love of God to be displayed in its glory. We should understand that God put them in Jesus’ path so He could express the love of the Father to this world. We may have this same confidence. God is still expressing His love in this world through His Son in us. He puts people in our paths, some friendly and some antagonists. Knowing that the only reason they are in our lives is for God to love them through us, keeps us from stumbling and being discouraged. Jesus’ perspective of this event will sound radical to the natural mind, because it is! He received them as from His Father so He could do the will of His Father for His glory. He knew these things were to occur so God’s love could be defined, experienced, and expressed, not only in and through Him, but in and through everyone of His disciples throughout the remaining history of mankind. So it is with us today. God is gathering people all over the world to put them in the path of the Son of His love who lives in millions of His own throughout the world. With this understanding, I invite you to pray what I call a Live to Love prayer with me now. “Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to live to know and love you and live to love with Jesus. Anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love everyone You put in my path today, for Your glory.” I hope you’ll make this prayer a part of your daily devotions with the Lord. If you do, you’ll have the same attitude that was in Christ Jesus as He walked into the garden of Gethsemane: humble, trusting, expectant, fearless, purposeful, and loving. That light shines like the sun in the darkness.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:2 “Now Judas also, who was betraying Him, knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with His disciples.” Yesterday we saw from John 18:1 that Jesus knew where to meet up with the devil in Judas. Today’s verse reveals that Satan in Judas also knew where to find Jesus at that hour of the evening because Judas knew where they usually rested. Some commentators suggest that Jesus and His disciples perhaps slept there when visiting Jerusalem. For whatever reason, the Holy Spirit wants us to know that Judas knew where to find Jesus in order to betray him. What encouragement to live to love with Jesus can we glean from this verse?Jesus had told the disciples that He was going to be betrayed, that those who hated Him would hate them, and that in this world there will be tribulation. As we live with Jesus, we can expect that there will be some people in whom Satan has entered their hearts, or at least have captured them for his use, who will resist and attack us. We must not be afraid of them. In that hour of darkness, when God so wills that we be accosted by those who wish to silence us, let us remember what John learned from Jesus. “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” As long as we purpose to love in that dark time, we won’t be overcome by the darkness. We have Jesus abiding in us, so we can take great encouragement from Jude 24. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” Living to love with Jesus will prepare us for the encounters with our Judases just as Jesus, living to love with His Father, was prepared to meet His Judas.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 18:1 “ When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the ravine of the Kidron, where there was a garden, in which He entered with His disciples. Earlier Jesus told His disciples, “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here. (John 14:30-31). Jesus had a divine appointment with the devil. Later in vs 4 John tells us that Jesus knew what was coming upon Him. The rendezvous was arranged by God before the world was made, for the Spirit says in 2 Timothy 1:9 that God “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” The Father and Son planned this showdown of light against darkness. In Genesis 3:15 we hear of this appointment. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." Jesus and Satan knew exactly where and when they were to meet—in another garden. We learn from Luke 22:39 that Jesus often prayed in this garden on the Mount of Olives. “And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives.” From the upper room to the Mount of Olives where the Garden of Gethsemane was located, one walks through the ravine of the Kidron valley. As we think about this verse today, let’s let this wonderful truth sink in: We are reading about what living to love is all about. God’s love is the light of the world and when empowered by faith, it overcomes the darkness and destroys the work of the devil. May we be an expression of Jesus’ love today in the darkness.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:26 “and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."God’s love for His Son resides in us because He resides in us. This is only possible because of what Jesus told His disciples and then displayed on the cross. He made known God’s name, the name of love, to that small band of followers. So they knew His name by words first, and they believed them. Then, when Jesus said, “I have made your name known to them, and will make it known” He surely was referring to what He was about to do. After these words, Jesus displayed the greatest act of love known to man in the history of the world so they could know God’s love by experience, be filled with both His love and Himself, and make Jesus known to the world. In essence, Jesus was saying, ”I am going now to die for their sins, so they can be forgiven and cleansed. Then when You raise me up, I know You, You are righteous, Father, and You will do the right thing. You will reward my obedience by giving all those whom You have given to me, the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that Your love, with which You have loved Me may be in them and so I may dwell in them. Together, just as I have lived to love with You, they may live to love with Me.” Implied is this wonderful conclusion: In modern vernacular it’s like Jesus was saying to His Father, “Let’s do this!” Let’s die and live to love for the glory of God.”Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:25 "O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me;”In Hebrews 1:8-9 we read, “But of the Son, He (God) says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above your companions.” Why does the Son love righteousness? Because He knows the Father and knows that He loves righteousness. How did the disciples know God sent Jesus? Because He was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, which is what righteousness looks like in relationships. Let’s tie this verse to the previous verses so we can get the line of reason in Jesus’ mind. He has prayed that the world would know that God sent Him by the unifying power of the love of God dwelling in them as Jesus abides in them. In this verse, He again brings the unknowing, the ignorant world into the Father’s view. In Jesus’ mind is the heart of the Father to display to the world they have created His great love and glory. It all hinges on this small group of men and women whom the Father gave to Him. They know that God sent Jesus into the world. How did they know this? And more personally, do you know that God sent Jesus into the world? Tomorrow, in the last verse of John 17 we will see how they knew and believed in Jesus. If you can’t wait, go on and look at John 17:26. However, if you like suspense. Wait for it! We will rejoice tomorrow in the amazing words of Jesus as He closes His prayer with His Father. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”Can you imagine the Father, God, not giving His Son what He asks for? If an earthly evil father would give his son what he asks for, how much more would the heavenly Father give Jesus what He asks for. Jesus asks the Father for what would be our highest good which would also be the Son’s highest good, which would also be the Father’s highest good. He asks with confidence for the Father’s will to be done because Jesus always asks according to God’s will. Jesus desires for us, who have been given to Him, who believe and receive Jesus’ words as from God, to be with Him in heaven forever. That’s wonderful in and of itself. What a privilege! What an adventure! What a hope we have in Jesus! There’s more! He desires us to be with Him with the Father, so we can see His glory given to Him by the Father. His glory is revealed in the love that existed between them before the world was created. Get ready for it! We are going to see this glory, the love of God, with our own eyes! We will feel it to the depths of our being. It will transform us, fill us, and explode among us. The apostle Paul knew this to be true. He wrote to the Colossians. “Christ in you, the hope of glory!” (Col. 1:27) and “For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete” (2:9-10). All of the history of the world is moving to this one great finale. “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it” (Rom. 8:24-25). So what are we waiting for? We are eagerly waiting for the Father to give Jesus what He desires. His bride with Him before the Father in heaven enjoying the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:23.2 “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”Okay, can it get any more incredible and wonderful that this: That I am loved with the same love with which the Father loves His Son, Jesus? Let’s not miss this great truth. He doesn’t love us based on how we make Him feel. His love isn’t a responsive or reactionary love. God chooses to love. His love is the sustained direction of His will toward the highest good of another no matter what the cost. His is a steadfast love. Unwavering. Unending. Unlimited. Undefiled. He always acted in His Son’s best interest and highest good for His glory. That is the love that the world needs to see expressed in the church—Jesus’ body. The world needs to see that the Father was abiding in the Son and the Son was abiding in the Father. How will they see that unity? They will see it as believers abide in Jesus and He abides in them and His love. That love is the love of the Father for Him and them. It will be seen as that love overcomes every possible threat that living in this world throws at them or between them. Our testimony in this dark world is this: Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, therefore, nothing can separate us from each other. We are living to love with Jesus. He lives! We love!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:23 “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”The world needs to see that God loves us with the same love that He has for His Son. How is that love known? It is known by the life of Jesus dwelling in us and loving through us in the same way that the life of the Father dwelt in and loved through Jesus. Do you realize how glorious this is?! The indwelling life of Jesus, who is the revelation of the love of God, has united all believers perfectly. It’s another way of saying that the love of Jesus is enough to satisfy our souls. Nothing can be added to make us more unified. Our love for each other is our glory. It is the glory of God for the glory of God. This is precisely why we must not allow anything to divide us. If we allow anything to divide us, we take God’s name in vain. We bring shame upon His name. We provide a stumbling block to the world. For whatever that thing is—an opinion, a perspective, a value, a belief, a preference—whatever it is, it makes a mockery of the love of God revealed in Jesus and screams that the love of Jesus is a sham. A professing believer in Jesus Christ, cancelling, rejecting, and refusing to love another professing believer declares to the world that the idea that God sent His Son, who is love, to live in the hearts of men so they can reveal His love is not only a lie, but a gross, malicious deception. It preaches that Jesus was a liar and an imposter. Have you allowed anything to separate you from another believer in Jesus Christ? Have you rejected the perfect bond of unity—the love of God for us all in and through His Son? Have you forgiven others like you have been forgiven by God on the basis of Jesus’ death for you? For God’s glory and Jesus’ name sake, drop whatever it is that you are holding on to, other than Jesus’ name and glory, and give the world a taste and testimony of the love and glory of God. Forgive and love your brother! Open wide your heart to him. Give him a place in your heart like Jesus gives you a place in His heart—a place of peace provided by His love. God wants them to know that He sent Jesus into the world and that He lives.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;”What is the glory that the Father gave the Son that He gave to us so we can be one as they are one? We find the answer two verses later when Jesus said, “so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. The love the Father gave to His Son is the love that the Son gave to us so that we may be one as they are one. In John 15:9 Jesus blessed His disciples saying, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you, abide in my love.” Since we know that Jesus didn’t do anything apart from His Father, we know that it was the Father’s plan and command for Jesus to love us as He is loved by His Father. Living to love with Jesus flows out of the love Jesus has for us, and that love flows out of the Father’s love for His Son and us. This love is the light in a world that has no enduring bond of unity. You can tell those who are His because they love the brethren, wrote John in his first letter in 3:14, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” And in 2:9-10. “The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” As Jesus loves us and we love others, the glory of God rests upon us. So when we love in Jesus’ name, we are manifesting the glory of God to the world. That is our chief end. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:21.2 ”That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”We don’t want to miss God’s plan in sending His Son. His plan was that the love the Father has for His Son, which unites them would be manifested to and through a select group of followers.These followers were so impacted and transformed as they received and believed the words the Father gave Him to give to them, so that they became channels of His life, love, and the gospel in the world. His use of the word world in this case seems to be the same as was John’s use of it in 1 John 2:2. “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” What is meant is this: In the entire history of the world, God has provided only one way, namely Jesus, for sins to be forgiven and upon whom anyone may believe and be saved. In Jesus’ prayer in John 17:21, Jesus was saying to His Father, that throughout the entire remaining history of the world, the community of believers filled and unified by His love, will be the convincing proof to everyone who believes that God sent Jesus as Lord and Savior.A team of 8 guys on mission in Brazil for Global Challenge Expeditions were cruising the Amazon River. They and other passengers slept in hammocks on deck for over a week. They built a relationship with two men, one was an atheist and another was a new ager who believed that the universe is God. Opportunities arose for them to share their testimonies regarding Jesus and for the other two to also share their “testimonies” of “miracles” they had experienced in life. One shared how certain amazing things had happened “by chance” and the other shared how “the universe” provided for Him. They all testified of peace, hope, and faith they had found in Jesus, the universe, and in humanity. Finally, my friend provided the undeniable evidence that Jesus was God in the flesh sent to save mankind. He said, “You have watched us guys for a week. Have you noticed the love we have for each other? That comes from Jesus.” The other two men replied, “We don’t have that.” It isn’t something humans or the universe can provide. The love that unites believers testifies to the world that God sent Jesus. We live to love with Jesus so the world may believe that God sent Him to be their savior and Lord.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:21 ”That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”From before the foundation of the earth, God determined that by the sacrifice of His Son on our behalf, everything that separates us from God would be removed from us physically as well as positionally. The love of the Father and Son could not be contained in heaven alone. His love, by its nature, had to be revealed, known, and shared with, in, and through undeserving, sin-ridden, hostile, hell-deserving, grace-transformed outcasts. In this verse, we see the awesome, and I do mean awesome, vision of God for us and the means by which it is realized. The vision is that through the intercession of Jesus, God and redeemed mankind would become one to the same degree that the Father and the Son are one. We are indeed saved by His life. He prayed for this glorious end in His prayer in this verse, and then having been resurrected and seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, He has received the authority to give eternal life to all whom the Father gave to Him. He ever lives to intercede for us and save us as it says in Heb. 7:25. God has answered this prayer of Jesus, the Son. He prayed for our union with Him and the Father according to God’s will and name, the name of love. This is the basis of our identity as sons of God and the basis of our purpose for living. We are as united with Jesus as He was with His Father when He was sent into this world to love with His Father for His glory. Let this sink in! May this great truth overpower the darkness, as His light, which is His love, shines in this world through us today.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:19-20 “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;”Jesus asked the Father to sanctify His disciples through His Word (17:17), namely, the commandment to believe in Him, who is the truth, and love with Him who is the way (13:34). This was made possible through His unswerving dedication to lay Himself down for them. He did it then, as He willingly, intentionally, went to the cross. The impact of such love was intended to thrust them into the world with the same dedication, intention, and willingness to lay their lives down—living to love with Jesus. Jesus could see that His prayer for His disciples extended also to all who would believe because He sanctified Himself to God’s purpose so that they would be sanctified to God’s purpose, so that we also might be sanctified to God’s glorious, redemptive, purpose. How do we know if Jesus was praying for us? If we have believed in Jesus through the words of Jesus’ first disciples, then we were and still are in the mind and intercession of the Son of God. What does this mean to us? It means, we are united with Christ, set apart to God’s holiness, to His redemptive, loving purpose in this world. This purpose sets us apart from everyone else in the world. The world lives for this world. We have been set apart to live to love with Jesus for the glory of God. I hope this encourages you like it does me. What an incredible and glorious way to live!Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:19 “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.”There’s a false narrative floating around in the world that Jesus died because He spoke truth to power, not because He was the Father’s sacrifice of atonement to take away sins. This verse exposes and condemns the lie. The truth, right out of the mouth of the Son of God is this. Unlike priests who sanctified both the temple and the offerings unto God, Jesus as our high priest, sanctified Himself, as the offering unto God. He was not a victim. Nothing happened to Him that was not in His control. He set His body, soul, and spirit apart from the common uses in this world and set Himself apart to His Father’s will and purpose. Jesus was sent into this world by the Father to lay down His life to satisfy divine justice on behalf of those whom the Father gave to Him before the world existed. And this is love: the sustained direction of the will toward their highest good, no matter what the cost. The sustained direction of the will is what it means to sanctify. Jesus determined to love His disciples with the Father, so they could be sanctified in truth and love His own with Him. We are here today because God answered Jesus’ prayer. They were sanctified in truth by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the impact of which has powerfully continued to this day and will continue to the end of this world. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:18 “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” Jesus was sent to be the exact representation of the Father, God. His passion was and is the glory of His Father. He manifested the Father’s name, the name of love. He was not alone. He came to love with His Father. He could do nothing apart from His Father. He received the words the Father gave to Him and faithfully gave them to His disciples. In the same way, Jesus sent His disciples into the world to carry His life in them. Their passion was the glory of God revealed in Christ. They prayed and spoke in Jesus’ name, the name of love. They were not alone. They went into the world to love with Jesus. They could do nothing apart from Him. They received the words of Jesus and faithfully gave them to Jesus’ disciples. All these things were true of those first disciples, and they are also true of all who are His disciples throughout the ages—all the way down to us.Jesus lived in the power of the Holy Spirit because He gave the Father access to all of His humanity. All believers have the same power source dwelling within them. The love of God flows through them as they give Jesus unlimited access to their humanity. Jesus was sent into the world with the life of God dwelling within Him. Jesus has sent us into the world also with the life of God dwelling in us—the life of Jesus Christ, Himself. This is the miracle of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! He came to bring us to God so that the life of God could be revealed in us as we live to love with Jesus. So today let’s remember. We have been sent into the world just as Jesus was sent into the world for the glory of God.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” What is the sanctifying word of truth that Jesus had in mind? I suggest from John 13-16, the context reveals that the word that God gave Jesus to give to His disciples that sets them (and us) apart to God and apart from this world is this word: “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you. Abide in my love.” I summarize that word with the phrase “live to love with Jesus.” Jesus asked the Father to set His disciples apart, sanctify them, through His call to love with Him. It is love, the supernatural sustaining of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, that sets them apart from everyone who is of the world. Yes, it is true that God’s word, in general, has a sanctifying affect. But the context of this passage reveals that Jesus had a specific “word” in mind, not merely the general word of God. He’s thinking of the specific word that the Father had given Him to give to them. The word that manifested the Father’s name that His disciples believed and received. That word was the new commandment to believe Jesus is God and love with Him. Stop and think about how everyone who believes that Jesus is God and believes that God is love is believing the truth about God and about life. If God is love and Jesus is God, then what impact would that word have on those who believe? It would change everything! They would be set apart, sanctified out of this world and sanctified to God. As they lived to love with Jesus, it would reveal the truth that Jesus is God, is alive, and God is love! He has died and risen to life. He lives in them! Father, sanctify us with this truth; Your word is truth.Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:16 “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” So we who are following Jesus are in this world, but not of it, even as Jesus was in this world, but not of it. We do not lay in the power of the evil one even as Jesus did not lay in the power of the evil one. Those who are of this world love themselves and this world. They will not lay down their lives in this world. In contrast, just as Jesus laid down His life in this world, knowing He had a better home and was going to His Father from which He came, so also those who are His willingly lay down their lives in this world, knowing they have a better home. They know this world is not their source of identity or life. They are going to their Father’s house in heaven from which they came. Where is your identity? Is it with this world or with our Father in heaven? Jesus is from the Father in heaven and so are we if we live to love with Him. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.” This isn’t a new prayer. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, Matthew 6:13 “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Notice again the impact of these words on John as he wrote his first epistle. 1 John 5:19 “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Those who are in and of the world do not believe and receive Jesus’ words and hate us because they lay in the power of the evil one. So as long as we are in this world manifesting the name and love of Jesus, we need to be kept from Satan’s power. And what is his power? It’s the power to steal, kill, and destroy. We can be confident that as long as we are in this world, as long as we are alive and live to love with Jesus, this prayer of Jesus will be answered. We will not be people who steal, kill, and destroy, but people who give generously, give and protect life, and restore, build up, and encourage.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” The world, those who will not believe and receive the words of God, hate those who speak God’s words. Why? Because the words of God are supernatural and authoritative. The words Jesus spoke were not of this world. If we believe and receive them, it reveals that we are from God, sent into this world by the same One who sent Jesus. As Jesus just said, John 17:6 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” So when we speak Jesus’ words and love with Him, it reveals that we, like and with Jesus, are not of this world. We are called today to live to love with Jesus because like He is in this world, so also are we. John wrote. 1 John 4:17 “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.”
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
This month's blog focuses on the birth of Jesus from a middle eastern perspective. There are certain parts of the story that have come from Christmas traditions more than from the text of Scripture. We'll look at Jesus' birth through the eyes of the honor/shame culture into which Jesus was born as well as through the eyes of the Father's love for His Son by providing a house and family to surround Jesus when He arrived.
John 17:13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.” This verse parallels something Jesus told His disciples in John 15:11-12. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” Did you notice the difference? In 15:11, Jesus spoke the things He spoke to them so that Jesus’ joy would be in them and their joy be made full. In this verse, He spoke them so that His joy would be made full in them. When we put them together, both being true, we learn that the words the Father gave to Jesus to give to them were spoken so both Jesus’ and His followers’ joy would be made full in them. Here’s the reasoning we can be encouraged by. We were created to enjoy God forever. When we enjoy God, He enjoys us. He has told us what He enjoys to the fullest, namely, Jesus, the Son, loving through those who are His own. So let us be encouraged by this: we contribute to and participate in God’s joy and glory as we let Him enjoy us as we enjoy Him by living to love with Jesus. Here’s the idea in an equation. Jesus loving +/with you loving = Jesus’ joy = your joy = the Father’s joy. Here’s another equation. You trying to love in your own strength -/without Jesus’ power to love = 0. Let’s remind ourselves of the things Jesus spoke in the world so we may have His joy made full in ourselves. He said: Serve one another as I have served you. Love one another as I have loved you. If you believe in God, believe also in Me. My words and works are the words and work of the Father. I go to the Father to send the Holy Spirit to manifest My presence in the lives of all who are His and mine. The Father is the vinedresser, I am the one true vine, and you are the branches. Apart from Me you can do nothing. You are My friends. You can ask for anything you need to believe and love in My name directly from the Father, and I will do it. In this world, you’ll have tribulation, but I have made a place for you in Myself where you have peace. We could not experience Jesus’ joy nor could His joy be made full if Jesus hadn’t come into this world, accomplished what He was sent to do, which was manifest the name of His Father, the name of love, and then return to His Father with the sacrifice of His life—all for the glory and joy of His Father. Let us rejoice as we live to love with Jesus!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:12b. “I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.” The Psalmist wrote: 109:4. “In return for my love they act as my accusers; but I am in prayer. Thus they have repaid me evil for good and hatred for my love.” Psalms 109:8 “Let his days be few; let another take his office.” Ps. 109:4 was fulfilled as Jesus was in prayer and verse 8 was fulfilled in Judas’ betrayal and death. Judas was not kept in the name of love, even though he had heard all that Jesus taught. The name the Father gave to Jesus to manifest, the name of love, was not manifested to Judas. Judas didn’t believe and receive Jesus’ words. He heard them, but they were stolen by the devil. This Scripture was also fulfilled. Matthew 11:27 “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” Judas perished because Jesus didn’t reveal the Father to him, and the Father didn’t reveal the Son to him. Judas, like the Pharisees, Scribes, Herod, Pontius Pilate, and the Jews and the Romans were sons of perdition, sons of destruction, all serving God’s purposes so that we might know the love of God and be saved. Here’s how the Holy Spirit explained these things to the disciples after Jesus’ resurrection. Acts 4:24-28 “And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, “O Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM, who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said, [now we see the Scriptures fulfilled in Judas not being guarded and kept in His name] ‘WHY DID THE GENTILES RAGE, AND THE PEOPLES DEVISE FUTILE THINGS? THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND, AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.’ For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.” What do we say to these things? What can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Nothing! He loves us. It is His name. We are kept in His name if we walk in love. This verse gives us a sober warning. God will work out His will and purposes in every person ever created in fulfillment of the Scriptures. Matthew 26:24 “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” Jesus fulfilled the Scripture. As He lives and loves in us, He is also fulfilling Scripture.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:11-12 “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.” While Jesus was in this world, He had a job to do, namely, first, to manifest the name of the Father to those the Father gave Him and keep them in His name. This is revealed in vs. 6. Jesus said, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world.” In vs. 12, we see second that Jesus also kept them in His name. He guarded them—that is, all that the Father gave Him. In these two verses, Jesus, knowing that He is leaving this world to go to the Father, has a request of the Father. He asks the Father to keep His disciples in His name so they may be one even as He and the Father are one. I have suggested that the name that Jesus manifested is love. I think this is confirmed when we notice that whatever the name is, it is what unifies the Father and the Son and will also unify the disciples. Love is the perfect bond of unity according to Paul (Col. 3:14). Therefore I conclude that the name that has been manifested and in which we are kept is the love of the Father and the Son for His own. Now let’s connect the dot of the glory of God that the Father and Son had before the foundation of the world. That glory is their love! Listen to what Jesus says only moments after these words. It is recorded in John 17:22-24. “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” What is that glory He wants us to see? The love of the Father for the Son. So today, let us be encouraged by these words. Our Father keeps us in His love, the same love He has for His own Son, Jesus. As we live to love with Jesus today, we do so because of the grace of God bestowed upon us in giving us His Son. Jesus in us loves those He puts in our paths. We simply love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:10 “And all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I am glorified in them.” The Father has glorified His Son, Jesus, by giving Him everything that belongs to Him. It’s the another way of saying that Jesus is the “heir of all things” as stated in Heb. 1:2. If anything belongs to the Father, then it belongs to Jesus, and if anything belongs to Jesus, it belongs to the Father. What a sweeping, glorious declaration. What are the “all things” to which Jesus referred? As I’ve said before, context is king. It governs the meaning of words. If we look back a couple of verses, we read this: “For the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I am glorified in them.” What did Jesus have in mind when He said, “all things”? It seems clear that He was thinking of all of those whom the Father has given to Him who received and believed His words as if they were the Father’s words. Here’s my take away. When we receive and believe the words of God spoken through Jesus and His disciples, we glorify Jesus, just as the disciples did. Dear friend, you can glorify Jesus today as you receive and believe Jesus’ words that He gave in John 13-16. What were those words? Serve one another as Jesus serves us. Love one another as Jesus loves us. If you believe in God, believe also in Jesus. Jesus’ words and works are the words and work of the Father. Jesus has gone to the Father to send the Holy Spirit to manifest the presence of the risen Christ in the lives of all who are His. The Father is the vinedresser, Jesus is the one true vine, and we are the branches. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. We are His friends. We can ask for anything we need to believe and love in Jesus’ name directly from the Father, and Jesus will do it. In this world, we’ll have tribulation, but He has made a place for us in Himself where we have peace. Do you believe and receive His words? In so doing, Jesus is glorified in you, just as He was in His disciples. Jesus is glorified by the grace He gives us to believe and receive.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:9.2 “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world.” Yesterday we rejoiced and were encouraged that we who have received and believed in Jesus through the words and witness of Jesus’ disciples were in God’s view. But what encouragement can we receive from who is not in view? The world has never been in view of this particular, exclusive love. Those who were and are of the world were not to receive the blessing of His particular, exclusive intercession. The set of people known by Jesus as “the world” in this context may be identified as those who were not given to Him by the Father. I can hear some asking, “But what about John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son…” In that context, Jesus speaking to Nicodemus, who thought that God only loved the Jews, needed to know that the Spirit of God was going to move among the Gentile world. So “the world” in John 3:16 referred to the Gentile world. However, in the context of John 17, “the world” Jesus referred to when He spoke with His Father, was those who the Father had not given to Him. Context determines the meaning of the words. How can we know who has not been given to Jesus? They are those who refuse to receive and believe the words and testimony of Jesus’ disciples. They do not believe God sent Jesus as the only way, truth, and life. This truth should encourage us all the more to love those God puts in our paths each day by sharing with them Jesus’ words given to His disciples. And let us pray with Jesus to the Father on behalf of those He’s given to His Son. Those who are of this world will not believe, so don’t take it personally. They can’t believe because of the sin of unbelief. With Jesus, we must lovingly and trustfully leave those who reject Him in the Father’s hands. But we aren’t trying to identify those for whom Jesus didn’t pray. We love and share the words of Jesus given to His disciples, the gospel, to find out those for whom He did pray. They will respond because Jesus has and is interceding for them.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:9 “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;” In this verse, Jesus identified for whom He interceded and those who were not in view. He directed His Father’s attention to those who had believed He was God-sent and had received His words. In verse 8 He said, “for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” But not only His disciples are objects of this divine love, He interceded for all those who were in His Father’s view from eternity. For in vs. 20 Jesus broadens the view. "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word.” Have you believed in Jesus through the word of His disciples? If so, you have been loved and in the view of the Father and Son from before the foundation of the world! In the following verses we will see what Jesus asked on our behalf. But for today, be encouraged that Jesus prayed for you to be included in His glorious work He was about to do through His death and resurrection.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:8 “for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” When it comes to the good news which provides hope for mankind, who should we listen to? The gospel preached and taught by Jesus’ disciples get my vote. They received the words Jesus gave them and have faithfully recorded and explained them because they understood that Jesus came forth from God. They believed Jesus was sent by God to bring us to Him. Here’s an example. Peter wrote, 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;” One of the ways we love people is to give an explanation of the hope that we have in Jesus. Those who knew Him best, walked with Him the longest, and were His followers were so convinced that He was God in the flesh that their message and lives became the foundation of the gospel and the church. That gospel foundation has stood the test of time. 1989 years to be exact. The Father, God gave Jesus the words to teach, Jesus spoke them, the disciples received and believed them, and they are still speaking them through the Bible. Listening to them is to listen to God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:7 “Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You;” Everything Jesus said was from God, and His disciples knew it. Jesus’ words changed everything for them. Do we listen to the words, the writings, of His disciples as if they were the words of the living almighty God? Do we believe that everything we have read and studied in this precious gospel of John is from God through Jesus to us? John wrote that the way we know who is from God is that they listen, not to the world, but to him and the other disciples who wrote and testified of Christ. 1 John 4:4-6. “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” The disciples knew that everything Jesus said was from God. It changed their lives. Jesus said He would make a place for them in Himself, and then come dwell in them and they would bear fruit for the glory of God as He loved through them. They believed and kept His word in their hearts and minds. Jesus kept His word, and gave them eternal life in Himself. Those first disciples lived to love with Jesus and started a tsunami of love that pours out down through history until all of those who belong to God are swept up in the deluge of love. Such is the power of God’s word manifested in Jesus Christ. Let’s keep the tsunami rolling!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:6.2 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” The disciples belonged to God, and were given to Jesus, and so are all those who believe in Jesus and keep His word given to the disciples by Jesus. Here’s how John understood Jesus. 1 John 4:6. “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” Here’s how the apostle Paul was taught by Jesus. Ephesians 1:3-6. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Before the world was, God the Father and the Son, chose a people out of the world to share their glory, for their glory. In His prayer to His Father, Jesus recalls to mind, the original plan, for Him to manifest His Father’s name to those who were given to the Him by the Father. And who are those who belonged to the Father and were given to Jesus? All those who keep Jesus’ word. Hear the word of the Lord. Believe in Jesus and love with Him in His name for His glory. Are you one of those chosen and beloved of God? I hope so.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:6 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” In vs. 4 we read that Jesus had accomplished the work God gave Him to do. Now we see how He glorified the Father. He manifested His name, which is another way of saying He manifested the work of God. What was that name or work that He manifested? It was love. He loved His disciples with the Father’s love and thus gave Him a name to define Him. That name is love. John, wrote of it in 1 John 4:7-11. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Jesus manifested the love of God. Love defines Him like a name defines a person. John, who recorded Jesus’ prayer here in John 17, was saying this. If we are His, His name of love should define us. That’s why we should live to love with Jesus. We are manifesting His name in the world. We lay down our lives for His own as He did. God’s love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost. And their highest good is to glorify God in Christ and enjoy Him forever.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” Before the world was, God, the Father and Jesus, the Son existed in glory together. They were united as one. They shared the glory of heaven before they made the earth and everything in it. Their united glory then was their goal in all creation, but especially mankind. As the Westminster Confession begins, “What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Jesus came to fulfill that chief end of man, which we could not do, sinners that we are. Having accomplished that work in the world, which existed in heaven before it was created, He now prays for the glory of God that predated the world, brought it into existence, and sent Him into it in human form. God and man united as one in glorious love. If Jesus lives in us, that is our future state and hope, for if we are united with Him, we will be united with Him in the glory that the Father and Son enjoyed before the world was. “Christ in you is the hope of glory,” wrote Paul in Col. 1:27. I can’t wait! How about you? We will see that we predated the world in Christ!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:4 “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.” What person has ever accomplished this work of glorifying God every minute of his or her life on earth? No one. Everyone has fallen short of the glory of God, but Jesus. John wrote in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus defined what it is to glorify God, namely, doing what God sent Him to do. He never did anything on His own initiative or in His own power. Every word and every action was the exact representation of the Father. Hebrews 1:3 “And He (Jesus) is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His (the Father’s) nature.” Such is the heart of Jesus. If Jesus lives in us, His heart will be evident in our lives. He does in us what He was sent to do, namely, glorify His father by loving those given to Him. This is why we live to love with Jesus. He continues the work of glorifying His father as we (Jesus and us) love those He puts in our paths today for His glory.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Jesus is the life—the vine. He was sent to be the life-giver. In knowing Jesus, we know the Father—the only true God. To know and have the life of Jesus abiding in our bodies and souls is to have life eternal dwelling in us—a life that will never die. John wrote in 1 John 5:11-13, “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Do you have the testimony of God in you—the eternal life of Jesus? Living to love with Jesus is the testimony, for God is love. As Jesus said only moments before these words, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” John 15:8.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:1-2 “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.” First, today, let’s give thanks to God! He has glorified His Son Jesus by giving Him authority to give eternal life. If we or anyone has eternal life, then it is a gift from God. Glory to God! Second, if we have eternal life, we were given as a gift to Jesus by the Father. We are not our own. We have belonged to God from before the foundation of the world. That’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? We are Jesus’ inheritance. Be in awe! The Father has glorified His Son by creating a people for Himself in Christ that He might save them from their sins, make a place for them in Himself, that He might bring them to God, and unite them as one even as the Father and Son are united as one in love. That’s why we live to love with Jesus. Glory to God!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 17:1 “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,” Jesus had just said to His disciples, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." Then He turned His focus to His Father in prayer. John 17 records that prayer. It is an amazing, wonderful, awe-inspiring, gift to us. We are treated to what makes Jesus’ heart beat—the glory of God. When we are filled with the Spirit of the Father and Son, we also will pray, “Father in heaven, glorify Your Son in me that the Son may glorify You.” Isn’t this what it means to pray in Jesus’ name? To pray as He would pray? To pray with the same heart beat as He prays? Jesus recognized that the hour had come for Him to lay down His life and reveal the love of God. In a small way, but not an insignificant way, each hour of our lives is our hour to do the same thing—lay down our lives, to love with Jesus, for the glory of God. May we be consumed with the glory of God today as we manifest His love.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." What are “these things” of which Jesus spoke that provided a basis for peace in His disciples, and all those who follow after them? The immediate things He had spoken are these: He knows what is to come and is in total control. They are going to be scattered in the next few minutes, and Jesus and the Father are going to accomplish what He was sent to accomplish. But even in that difficult hour, they may have peace in Jesus Himself. Earlier in the evening, He had told them that He was going to prepare a place in Himself for them so that where He was, they could be with Him. The only place of peace in this world is in Jesus. Why? Because He has overcome the world. Jesus told them He had already overcome the world. He didn’t say to them that He would overcome the world. What did He mean? I think He was referring to the fact that He had lived for 33 years in this world and Satan, the devil, the god of this world, still had nothing in Him by which to snag Him, trip Him up, or cause Him to fail in His mission of redemption. It had already been settled in Him, He was giving Himself up for His friends, and nothing and no one could stop Him or prevent it. Not only could the disciples take courage from that great truth, so can all who trust in Jesus. We can expect tribulation in this world. It hated Jesus, it will hate us. But, that can’t stop us from living to love anymore than it could stop Him from living to love. Nor can it destroy our peace, because our peace doesn’t come from anyone or anything in this world. It comes from Jesus, Himself. His life. His death. His resurrection. His presence. As we go through the tribulation in this world, may our hearts take courage as we follow Paul’s admonition in Colossians 3:15, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.”
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:32 “Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” Sometimes, it feels like we are all alone. There’s no one to stand with us. In Jesus’ hour of betrayal, there was no one standing with Him. The apostle Paul faced such an hour. He wrote to Timothy in 2 Tim. 4:16-17, “At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.” Jesus and Paul were left alone, yet, they were not alone. The Father was with Jesus in His hour of trial and Jesus was with Paul in his hour of trial. Whatever trial believers face, regardless of how they feel or regardless of the circumstances, they are not alone. Jesus is with them. He promised to be with His disciples forever when He told them in John 14:16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” The disciples at that moment did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, so moments later, they were scattered. We do have the Holy Spirit, the power and presence of Jesus, dwelling within us. So even though there are times we may feel alone and it appears there is no one with us, we are not alone. He lives to love in and through us.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:31 “Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe?’” The disciples had just declared that they believed that Jesus came from God. Yet, Jesus knew what they were about to face and knew that they nor He could trust their hearts. Our flesh and our hearts may fail, even though we are well-intentioned and think we stand in the moment. Jesus asked this penetrating question, “Do you now believe?” He knew the hour had come for their faith to be tested, and that they would act as if they did not believe that He came from God. There’s a lesson in this for us that is vital if we are to live to love with Jesus. We must not trust in our own hearts or faith. Proverbs 28:26, “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered.” Rather, we must trust 100% in Jesus’ heart and righteousness. Remember what He had said only minutes before this. “I am the vine, you are the branches. Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Asaph, the Psalmist, wrote in Psalms 73:26 “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” He said it well, didn’t he? Even though we believe, we can still have an “evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God” as the writer of Hebrews warned in 3:12. We need daily encouragement to abide in Christ and place our entire confidence in the fact that our lives are hidden with Christ in God. He is our righteousness and our peace in this troubled world. His love abides in us, and He will love through us today. “Do you now believe?” Our answer is, “Lord, You know all things, and my hope is in You, today.”
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:30-33a “Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God. Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe? Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.’” The disciples took confidence in the fact that they understood Jesus and believed in Him. They said, “We believe that You came from God.” However, I think Jesus’ response to their declaration of faith, surprised and shocked them. Surely they didn’t expect Him to cause them to question their confidence. He had just told them that the Father had sent Him and loved them. Here was further proof of His love. He told them again what was going to happen before it happened. They were going to leave Him alone. Satan was to scatter them and drive them to their own homes— as if all that was said and done was fruitless and wasted. Why did He say these things to them when they were seemingly so confident in their faith? He said them because their confidence was wrongly placed. Their confidence should be firmly lodged in one great truth. Jesus Himself! He was sent to make a place for them in Himself (as He said in 14:1-2) where they could live in peace with God, with themselves, in this world. Peace in this world of tribulation cannot come in any other way, but in Jesus Christ, Himself. He alone is our peace.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:28-29 “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father. His disciples said, ‘Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech.’” Jesus knew where He came from, what He came to do in the world, and where He was going. He told His disciples plainly. “God sent me into this world to accomplish His will, and now I am leaving this world to return to Him with mission accomplished.” There was no figure of speech employed by Jesus, so His disciples understood what what had happened, what was happening, and what was going to happen. If we have the life of Jesus in us, then we should be able to say the same thing—know the same thing. We came forth from the Father (we were created in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world), we have been sent into this world with the same mission as Jesus (namely, to live to love with God), and we will go out of this world to the Father according to His will and timing, having accomplished His mission. No figurative language here. Straight talk. Simple truth. Our testimony should be as clear and plain as Jesus’ testimony. We know whose we are. We know we are sent and we know who sent us. We know what we are here for. We know where we are going. May we speak so plainly as we share our testimonies with those He puts in our paths.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:26-27 “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.” What day was Jesus referring to? If we look back a few verses we learn that it is the day they see Jesus risen from the dead. John 16:22 “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” In vs. 23, we see Jesus reference “that day” and in vs. 26 He said it again. This gives us insight into the power and significance of Jesus’ resurrection, namely, that in Jesus’ name, we have personal, individual access to our Father in heaven. Jesus implied that the resurrection gives Jesus’ disciples confidence to ask the Father directly to supply whatever they need to obey Jesus’ commands to believe and love. If we love Jesus and believe He was sent by the Father to express His love for us, we know He loves us. The faith and love that we have testifies to God’s love for us. Why was it important for Jesus to clarify that He will not request on their behalf. I think it is “plain speaking” from Jesus. He wanted them to know without question that God would answer their request because of His love for them, and not just because of His love for His son. Since we can do nothing apart from Jesus, let us have confidence to ask our Father for everything we need to live to love with Jesus—to love those He puts in our paths, today, for His glory.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:25 "These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father.” What are “these things” about which Jesus had spoken to them of the Father in figurative language? He had used the agricultural illustration of the vinedresser as the Father. It was the figurative language needed at that hour. But Jesus encouraged them that another hour was coming when He would tell them plainly of the Father. The hour of which Jesus spoke was only seconds away because in the next few verses, Jesus spoke plainly to them of the Father. We can be grateful for Jesus’ figurative language regarding His Father. We learned that this is our Fathers world, and He has planted one true vine in the world—His Son—who is the way of life for the branches so they can display the fruit that pleases the Father. We can also look forward with great anticipation to Jesus telling us plainly of the Father. Until tomorrow, let’s live in gratitude by receiving from Jesus all that He has for us to display His love in this world, and look expectantly toward the future when we will have a greater understanding of the Father’s love.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:24 “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.” Until “now.” Up to that point in history, no one asked for anything in Jesus’ name. To what does “now” refer. I think Jesus was referring to the time after the cross and the resurrection—after Jesus returned to His Father. Minutes earlier, remember what Jesus had said in 14:12-14. “… because I go to the father. Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.“ Having received the commandment to love from Jesus and knowing He went to the Father to give them access to the Father (make a place for you) through Him (who is the way), the disciples then had a reason to ask in Jesus’ name. His name is now the way to love, which is the new and excellent way to live. In speaking of love Paul wrote, “I show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Cor. 12:30)—the way of love. Fullness of joy comes when we ask for the grace to love in Jesus’ name, and Jesus loves through us. May that be our experience today as we live to love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:23 “In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.” Jesus knew that the disciples had many questions regarding all that He had told them about His relationship with His Father and His going to the Father and His sending the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name. They would carry those unanswered questions until they saw Him in His resurrected body. The day they saw the risen Jesus Christ, they knew they had access to God, the Father, through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. His intercession on their and our behalf has opened the door for us to ask the Father directly for anything we need to know to love with Jesus in this world. To ask in Jesus’ name is to approach the Father through Jesus’ work. His work is represented when we call in His name. We can ask our Father for whatever we need to love with Jesus because Jesus commanded us to believe in Him and love as He loves us. We also know that His command came from our Father. So we can have confidence when we say to the Father, “I need help loving in this situation as You commanded me in Your son. How do You want to love through me?” We can be confident when we ask our Father for the grace to love in Jesus’ name, that He will give it to us. Let us rejoice and be glad today. Because Jesus lives, we can ask our Father for whatever we need to love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:22 “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” Let’s imagine the joy of the disciples when they first saw the risen Christ. Unspeakable joy must have filled their hearts. Peter and the rest of the disciples saw Jesus, risen from the dead, on the third day after He spoke these words. Peter spoke of this joy when he wrote about our new birth through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, “and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet. 1:8-9). No one can take away this inexpressible joy any more than they can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. I hope you’ll take a moment and join the disciples in that moment that Jesus appeared to them for the first time after His death. For them and us, it means that our all sin has been removed, death has been conquered, we are never to die, and we know we will forever be with the Lord. We are the beloved of God. May our hearts be filled with His love and joy today so we can love others with Him as a testimony that Jesus lives!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:21 “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.” Jesus chose the example of the anguish and joy of giving birth to a child to give hope to His disciples who were about to go through deep emotional and spiritual pain. Just as the pain is unavoidable in labor, so the pain of the cross and their anguish was unavoidable. There will be no joy in the arrival of the child unless the pain is endured. In the same way, the disciples had to endure great anguish before the resurrection appearance, which signaled the new birth of the children of God. Peter used the birth figure in his first epistle. Let these words be your live to love with Jesus encouragement today. 1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1:4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 1 Peter 1:5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 1 Peter 1:7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; Expect various trials each day. We are in labor pains. But we do not labor without hope. There is a resurrection—a revelation of the fruit of the seed of the Holy Spirit—to come to the praise and glory and honor to God. Live with expectation of that future joy.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:19-20 “Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, ’Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, “A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me”’? Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.” When Jesus was put to death, the world rejoiced and Jesus’ followers grieved their loss. The same happens today as we hear of our brothers and sisters in the faith suffering for His name sake. The world rejoices. As Jesus said only moments before this statement, recorded in 16:2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.” In 15:18, He had said, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” Even though we have been given a “heads up” to these things, we still weep, lament, and grieve when the world casts its hatred for Jesus upon His followers. But we are not without hope just as the disciples were not without hope. They had the hope of joy set before them, much like Jesus. The writer of Hebrews wrote about Jesus, “Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). As we know, they did weep, lament, and grieve when Jesus was crucified and laid in the tomb. However, in a very little while He was raised and appeared to them and said, “Peace be with you. And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” And thus, Jesus’ words in this verse were fulfilled. Today, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who has promised us that our weeping, lamenting, and grief will be turned to joy. May the hope of joy fill our hearts in this fallen world as we live to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:17-18. “Some of His disciples then said to one another, ‘What is this thing He is telling us, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me”; and, “because I go to the Father”?’ So they were saying, ‘What is this that He says, “A little while”? We do not know what He is talking about.’” Obviously the disciples were confused and puzzled by Jesus’ remarks about being seen, not being seen, then being seen again, and His going to the Father. After the resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit, all that confusion was cleared up. Jesus, the living God, changed everything! We are now in the age of history where Jesus has come and the Holy Spirit has been given. We have the record of the life and ministry of Jesus as well as His disciples. They went from a confused band of followers of Jesus to a world-impacting, history-making, kingdom-consumed, love-empowered strike force. Their ministries in the world still ripple today. Believers of every generation stand on their shoulders and are encouraged by their testimonies and understanding of Jesus Christ. Have you ever been confused about Jesus and what He said? If so, just wait a little while. In time, at just the right time, the Holy Spirit will disclose to you what you need from God to manifest His life and light in your world.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:16 "A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me." That’s exactly what happened. Again, Jesus told them of things to come before they happened so that when they occurred, they would believe and trust in Him. Within less than 24 hours, a little while, Jesus was placed in the tomb, out of their sight. However, He was only there “a little while.” On the third day, while gathered in the same room where they had observed Passover, they saw Him again. John 20:19 “So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ And so it was. A little while and they no longer saw Him, and then a little while and they saw Him. These things have been recorded so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the savior of the world. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way for any human being to have access to God, the Father. What’s the main point? Jesus died, was buried, and was raised to give eternal life to all who believe. Those who believe have been called to testify to the risen Jesus by displaying His love, bearing fruit, for the glory of God. It’s why they breathe, eat, sleep, work, exercise, read their Bibles, pray, and serve. May the life of Jesus be the fullness of our lives today, so that the world may see that Jesus lives and saves sinners.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:15 “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” The concept of the Holy Trinity is reflected in this verse. Jesus spoke of His father, Himself, and the Holy Spirit as one, yet distinct. All that belongs to the Father, belong to Jesus, and the Father and the Son both sent the Holy Spirit (14:16; 15:26). Jesus informed His disciples that the things the Holy Spirit discloses are the things of the Father and the Son. Jesus said, those things “are the Fathers” and “are Mine.” What are we? All who belong to the Father and the Son are recipients of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus called “the Spirit of truth.” The apostle Paul referred to the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 3:16), “the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:17), “the Spirit of His Son” (Gal. 4:6), “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:9), “the Spirit of adoption”(Rom. 8:15), “the Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13), and “the Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2). The writer of Hebrews spoke of “the Spirit of grace.” Living to love with Jesus is the same as living to love with the Holy Spirit. This life is not a normal, natural life. His love is supernatural—literally it is a superpower. The worldview, mindset, and attitude of Christ is the way God’s love flows in our lives to everyone He puts in our paths. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the Son, and those in whom He dwells, have received the things freely given us by God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:14 “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.” Even as Jesus glorified His father by revealing the Father, so the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by revealing Him. We may glorify God also as we reveal Jesus in the world. The Holy Spirit takes the mind and love of Christ and discloses it to us as He did to His disciples. Listen to the fulfillment of Jesus’ words explained by the apostle Paul to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, 12-13. “But just as it is written, ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.’ For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” 12-13. “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.” The only way to live to love with Jesus is to receive that which is of Jesus given to us by the Holy Spirit. In this way, Jesus is glorified. His life is manifested in and through the lives of believers who are filled with the Holy Spirit, and thus they think like Jesus, speak the words of Jesus, and love like Jesus. I hope you are encouraged today to abide in Christ by receiving what He gives you through your relationship with the Holy Spirit. Tune in to the Spirit of truth, your Helper and Guide. What a privilege Jesus’ disciples have to receive from the Holy Spirit the things that belong to our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:13 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” Jesus had just told His disciples that He had more to say, but He had restrained Himself because they were not able to bear it. But that didn’t mean that they would miss out on those things He had to say. They would receive them from Him later, once the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, came to them. We have some hint from this verse about the things on Jesus’ mind—they were things “to come.” The Holy Spirit would guide them when they needed it. The Holy Spirit speaks what He hears from Jesus just like Jesus spoke what He heard from the Father. Again we may be encouraged by the union of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus is the son of truth, and the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. Neither of them spoke on His own initiative. If we walk by the Spirit, then we also should be careful not to speak when we feel like it. Just as love restrained Jesus with His disciples, we can expect love to restrain us as the Holy Spirit guides us. John referred to this wonderful truth of the Holy Spirit’s guidance and teaching when he wrote in 1 John 2:27 “As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.” This is the reason I pray in the Live to Love prayer these words, “Father, anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit, the presence and power of Christ, so that I can love and trust You and love the people You put in my path today, for Your glory.” May we abide in the gift of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, as we live to love with Jesus today. Whatever we hear from Him, let us speak in love with confidence.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Heaven: A world of love. This is the audio version of the Live to Love blog for November, 2022 by Norm Wakefield. You can find the written version at www.livetolovewithjesus.com/blog. We will be inspired, convinced, and encouraged by Jonathan Edwards sermon on Heaven, a world of love. When we understand where we are going, we'll be inspired to see this world and people from God's heavenly perspective.
John 16:12 "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” Jesus had given them much to bear or carry since they had eaten their last meal together in the upper room. Because Jesus is the incarnation of the love of God, we know it is love for His Father and for His disciples that gave Him freedom to speak to them as He had. At this point, apparently there was an inner restraint in sharing more with them about what was to happen to and in them in the future. Love restrained Him. He knew they were not able to carry more than He had given them. As we live to love with Jesus, we also need to have His sensitivity to the spiritual state and circumstances of those He puts in our paths. We might ask ourselves, “Are they spiritually able to receive the things I want to share with them? Are their circumstances in life such that more information would be overwhelming? Do they have ears to hear? Is it in their highest good for me to share with them? This verse informs us that there are times when we should restrain ourselves from saying things, even if they are words of encouragement, insight, and wisdom, out of love for someone. My guess is that most of us have “many more things to say,” but that doesn’t mean it is best or loving for us to say them. May the Holy Spirit give us discernment and discretion as to when and what to speak to those we love. Remember, apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. If He isn’t speaking, then neither should we.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:11 “and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” Let’s consider how the presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers convicts the world of judgment. Jesus said He convicts the world of judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged. Who is the ruler of this world to whom Jesus referred? Certainly, it is the devil, aka Satan. Only minutes before, Jesus told His disciples, “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (14:30). We know Satan was at work in those who were his in the world from the betrayal of Jesus by Judas through the burial of His body in the tomb. God gave Jesus, an innocent, righteous man, into the hands of the devil and his world, and judged him as a hater and murder of God. He saw it in him, gave him the occasion to confront Jesus, and God’s judgment was right. Satan killed the righteous Son of God. Now what does the presence of the Holy Spirit have to do with that judgment? The sending of the Holy Spirit testifies to the world that they are just like their father, the devil. As the disciples, and all in whom Jesus dwells, express His life in this world, those in the world hate them and want to kill them. The world wants believers our of their lives! They hate Jesus and murder Him, just like their father. God sees it in them, gives the occasion to confront Jesus in His disciples, and God’s judgment is righteous. They are children of the devil. Their ruler has been judged, and so have they. Jesus loves those who are in the world through us. They will never be able to say that Jesus did not love them. We should not be surprised that they will sabotage His love and twist it, just like their ruler did when Jesus was here on the earth. As we live to love with Jesus, the Holy Spirit is at work. He will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:10 “and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me;” After Jesus’ resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were transformed by the presence of the life of Christ dwelling in them. Even though the disciples no longer could see Jesus with their physical eyes, their testimony was that Jesus was in them. So it is with everyone who lives to love with Jesus. They convict the world of what they lack—the righteousness of God. Unlike the world, who cannot see Him, we practice righteousness (live to love with Him) because He lives in us. We love because He first loved us. His love was seen in His coming to perform a righteousness for us, bearing our sins in His body on the cross, going to the Father, having made a place in Himself for us to live with Him, and then sending the Holy Spirit to us. The presence of His love in us testifies concerning righteousness. Rom. 5:1-5 says it best. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” There is the truth that convicts the world concerning righteousness. Believers have the love of God poured out in them and through them. May Jesus’ love flow through us today for the glory of God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, “Whatever is not of faith is sin.” Do you believe this? The world doesn’t. Jesus commanded in John 14:1, “If you believe in God, believe also in Me.” To obey Jesus’ command is to believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, and that He is the way, truth, and the life, and is the only way to the Father that God has provided for mankind. Those who believe in Jesus, realize and therefore believe that Jesus is life and the source of all that is life. Everything they do that isn’t connected to Him or doesn’t come through His life in them, they believe to be sin. Why? Because the standard is the glory of God. If the words and work are not from and through Jesus, then God doesn’t get the glory, and their words and works fall short of the glory of God. Falling short of the glory of God is another way to define sin. Paul also wrote to the Romans, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23). Look how convicting this is to the world concerning sin! Jesus said that we can do nothing apart from Him. So we conclude that apart from faith in Jesus, all is sin. Since the world has no connection to Jesus, everything they do is sinful. That’s convicting! We should not be surprised if they hate us as we live to love with Jesus, because holiness exposes sin and unbelief.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; The Holy Spirit’s presence in believers, as their Helper, impacts the world. After telling His disciples that the Helper would be with them forever, He said, “that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him” (14:17). The world’s problem is that they have no understanding of sin, righteousness, and judgment because they can’t see who Jesus is nor do they know Him. But those who do know Jesus, have His life in them. Therein lies the source of the conviction. As long as Jesus was present in this world as a distinct, separate, unique individual, He could be rejected, denied, and accused as an imposter and fraud. But after the resurrection and the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, came to transform sinners into saints, the difference between believers and the world is evident. Their holy lives, characterized by the faith and love of the living Christ, exposes the blindness and ignorance of the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. As we live to love with Jesus, we are participating in the convicting work of the Holy Spirit in the world.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” How important the truth is, indeed! Jesus was going to the Father who had sent Him to make a way so that He could be with us forever! Remember what He had said only minutes before. “I will ask the Father, and He will send you another Helper, that He may be with you forever. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (Jo. 14:16, 18). Compare the two statements. In this verse, Jesus said that He will send the Helper to them. In 14:16, He said that the Father will send the Helper to them. Which is it? As we have learned, it is both the Father and the Son who send the Helper to us. They are distinct, yet one. But more to Jesus’ point, Jesus could not and would not be with us if He had not come to earth to bear our sin and shame and offer Himself as a sacrifice according to the will of His Father. In this we see what love is. Laying down one’s life for His friends and then coming to be with them in order to help them do what the Father commands, namely, to believe in the Son and love as He loves. Thank you, Jesus, for first coming to help us by removing our sins, and then coming to be with us forever for the purpose of loving through us for God’s glory.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:5-6 "But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Had the disciples been tuned in to what was happening with Jesus, they would have asked Him where He was going? Instead, apparently all they could think of was the loss and disappointment they were going to experience. This is natural for us all. It is supernatural for us to be Christ-conscious and ask Him questions like, “Where are You going? What do You think? What do You want to do now? What opportunity lies before Him to glorify His Father in my life?” These are questions we ask when we are living to love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:5 "But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' Most of the time when we talk of Jesus’ return, we are thinking of His return to earth. In this verse we know Jesus was referring to His return to His Father in heaven. He was sent by the Father to be the way, the truth, and the life and to be the only way for fallen, sinful human beings to be reconciled to God. He was sent to make atonement for sins and to return to His Father with the only acceptable sacrifice—His life in this world. The point here is He came to do the Father’s will. Hebrews 10:7 "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come (In the scroll of the book it is written of Me) To do Your will, O God.'" And the disciples knew this because they did not ask were He was going. Our salvation was willed and designed by our Father because He is love: the sustained direction of His will toward our highest, no matter what the cost. To Him be the glory.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:4 “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.” We are witnessing an age of apostasy and hostility toward the gospel. Many fall away because they were told that if they accept Jesus they will have a good and happy life. Then when persecution or trials occur, they are not prepared and get offended at God, the church, and believers. In this verse we see the truth. As long as Jesus was with them, the hatred of the world was focused on Him. So it was not the time to tell them of the hatred, trials, and rejection they were going to experience. But now that He was leaving them, they were entering the last days of great tribulation. What should be our response? To trust Him and obey His command to love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:3 “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.” Why can we expect to be rejected, cast out, and possibly killed by others who think they are serving God? We can expect it because they do not know the Father or Jesus, His Son. Again, John applied this truth in his first epistle. “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (1 Jo. 3:1). If they know Jesus, they know the Father. If they know them, they know the children of God. God is love. Jesus revealed the Father’s love. His children live to love with Jesus. The children know one another because they are siblings, having received their life and love from the same Father. Since the world doesn’t know the Son, they cannot know the Father. They are from a different father, and therefore, the children of God are aliens to them. They are strangers and enemies to their family and values in this world. Therefore, since they live their lives to love the world with its lusts and pride, we can expect them to want to cancel or kill us as a service to their god. This was not spoken to discourage us. We should all the more live each day looking for those God puts in our paths to love with His love.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.” What will make the disciples outcasts from the synagogue? Jesus’ words and their love for Him and others made them outcasts in the synagogue. The disciples went into the synagogues preaching Christ crucified and risen and giving His commandment, namely, if you believe in God, believe also in Jesus and love one another as Jesus has loved us. We know this because of John’s letters. He took those two commandments and made them into one. “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us” (1John 3:21-23). Their message testified of a new covenant in His blood, which replaced the old covenant worshipped in the synagogues. The new commandment fulfilled all of the Law. Do you think that was a welcomed message? We know it wasn’t. The book of Acts and Paul’s testimony to the Galatians confirms these words of Jesus to His disciples. When Saul (later known as the apostle Paul) and his companions stoned Stephen because of the gospel, they thought they were serving God. Paul wrote to the Galatians recorded in 1:13-14, “For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.” We may experience the same rejection if we reduce all of the Christian walk down to believe that Jesus is God, and that living to love with Him on a daily basis is God’s call on your life. It seems too simple. But what about all those standards that identify us as Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, Mennonites, etc.? Hm. These words of Jesus are prophetic, but they are still the words that keep us from stumbling. Let us love on with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 16:1 "These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.” One of the ways we know what Jesus meant is by looking to see how the disciples took what He said. We are able to do that in this case because the author of John commented on it in his first epistle. In 1John 2:10 he wrote, “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” To what is Jesus referring when He said, “these things”? John narrowed it down to the new commandment. The one who loves his brother, (shall I be so bold as to say it in these words?) who lives to love with Jesus, is walking in the light. That light keeps him from stumbling just as walking in the bright daylight keeps you from stumbling over something. You don’t usually stumble over things in the daylight, do you? Why? Because you can see where you are going. You can see what’s in your path. So it is when you live to love with Jesus. You know where you are going. You’re on your way to love the next person God puts in your path. And when they appear, you won’t stumble over them because you are there to love them, rather than be loved by them. When we live for ourselves, there is great cause for stumbling. We live in a fallen world, and everyone who shows up in our path is fallen. More than likely they are not going to think about our highest good no matter what the cost. So what happens to the person who isn’t living to love with Jesus, to the one who is living to get his or her agenda done or to be happy and comfortable, or to gain significance in this world? They will not walk in love, but will stumble and react, usually in hurtful, unloving ways. Knowing they were to love one another through the life of the indwelling Christ, would keep them from stumbling. Whenever you stumble in a relationship, you can be assured, you have forgotten that your purpose in life is to walk in Jesus’ light and live to love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:27 “And you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” God has provided two witnesses to the living, risen Jesus, the Son of God. The Holy Spirit bears witness by producing the life of Jesus in His disciples. Jesus’ first disciples, provide a second witness to the life of Christ as they testify that the Holy Spirit is the same spirit as was present in Jesus when they walked with Him in the flesh. The writer of Hebrews declared this phenomenon when he wrote, “How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will” (Heb. 2:3-4). Remember, Jesus said He was telling them of things that were to happen before they occurred, so they would know that He was God in the flesh. We are so blessed. Here we have Jesus declaring they would be witnesses with the Holy Spirit, and then we have the fulfillment of it described in Hebrews. This gives us a hope both sure and steadfast. It gives us confidence that indeed, this gospel of salvation is the great salvation proclaimed throughout all of history from the promise to Adam and Eve through all the gospel promises in the Scriptures. As we live to love with Jesus, the love of Jesus through us is the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Then we also testify about Him as we present the gospel recorded in the word of God. Amazing! In this way, the kingdom of God is advanced in this world. God has granted authority to these two witnesses in the world: His Spirit and His people.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:26 "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,” This verse helps us discern the spirit of truth from the spirit of error. It helped John. He wrote in 1 John 4:2, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, testifying that Jesus is God in the flesh. In Jesus’ words recorded in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.” These words were surely spoken so that there would be no confusion between the Holy Spirit and the spirit of the antichrist. The Holy Spirit, sent by the Son, proceeds from the Father for the purpose of testifying, witnessing to, and glorifying the Son of God. The spirit of antichrist, sent by the devil, testifies to and glorifies man without Jesus. It is the spirit of the world contrasted with the Spirit of God. Let’s not miss this incredible reality. The Holy Spirit could not be sent if Jesus were not alive, having conquered death by the resurrection. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, testifies to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to His union with the Father, and to our union with Him. Only minutes before this, Jesus had said, “In that day [the day the Holy Spirit is sent to you] you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:20). His presence in our lives, loving through us, is the testimony to the world that Jesus lives and we are His. Hallelujah!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:25 “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, 'They hated Me without a cause.’” I’m not sure where in the Law Jesus was referring, but in Psalms 69:4 we find these words. “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies.” To say that they “hated without a cause” is to say that the hatred was within them. There wasn’t something that Jesus did that caused them to hate Him. He healed people, which they could’t do, and they hated Him. He spoke with God’s authority. It brought out hatred in them. He spoke the truth, but they hated the truth and therefore hated Him. God doesn’t cause people to hate Him. They hate Him because they have sin within them. Hatred for God is the fruit of sin whereas in contrast, love for God is the fruit of righteousness. That’s why living to love with Jesus gives us confidence in the judgment as John wrote in 1 John 4:17. We know love for God and others isn’t natural. Rather it’s a supernatural work of grace in the heart of a person, which shows that God has loved them with an everlasting, redemptive love. It reveals that the righteousness of God has been given to them and His righteousness flows through the vine into the branches and bears much fruit—the fruit of God’s love. Hatred for God has been replaced with hatred for sin and love for God. If this describes you, then rejoice in the Lord! Give Him praise and thanksgiving for the privilege of living to love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.” It’s miraculous and supernatural for anyone to live to love with Jesus. It takes a work of grace and glory to transform a hater of God into a lover of God. Look what sin has done to mankind. We live to hate God. We don’t know we hate God until He shows up and does what only He can do. He does the works of God—works that no one else has ever done or can do. We all died when Adam sinned. Death is all we know, and we think it is life because our hearts are beating and we are breathing. So it was with that generation at the time of Jesus’ coming. They didn’t know they were dead in their sin until Jesus came and revealed the life of God. They saw His works, heard His words, and hated Him because He did things they could not do. He exposed them. John described the coming of Jesus this way in John 3:19-20. “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” The same will be true of all those who are His and who walk in the Light of Christ. God is light and the light is love. As they love with Jesus, it will expose those who walk in darkness. Their love is a supernatural love just as the works of Jesus were supernatural. Like Jesus, they will be hated because in everyone who has sin ruling their lives, the love and works of Jesus bring out hatred for Jesus and His Father. Father, give us courage and the love we need to walk in Your light today. Accomplish your work for the glory of your name.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also.” Hate is a strong word, isn’t it? In Deut. 5:9, God speaks to us. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.” Hatred for God is judged and revealed when we put anyone or anything in His place. He alone is worthy of our worship and service. This foundational understanding of hatred for God expressed through idolatry seems to relate to these words of Jesus. Another way of stating this truth is this: He who is most delighted and satisfied in Jesus above all else loves Him and loves God, the Father, also. Whoever hates Jesus and His words, also hates God. What great truth underlies this statement? Jesus and God, the Father, are one. Let’s follow the line. Jesus and the Father are one. If you hate one, you hate the other. Believers in Jesus and Jesus are one. If you hate one, you hate the other. The converse is also true. If you love the Son, you love the Father. If you love those who are His, you love Jesus. What a privilege it is to love with Jesus each day. We are expressing our love for Jesus and the Father, for His glory.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
God has spoken. Man has no excuse for sin. John 15:22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” Notice the importance of Jesus’ words. They judge sinners. Jesus said this earlier in the day that He said these words recorded in John 15:22. John 12:48 “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.” The same reasoning applies in both instances. Jesus spoke. The only reason one would reject His word is that they have sin in them. His word became the occasion for the revelation of their sin. There is no excuse for the creature who rejects the word of his creator. This reminds us of Romans 1:20. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” The apostle Paul explained how God’s wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. It is revealed in the fact that God has revealed Himself, and they suppress the truth that God has spoken or revealed Himself. God came and spoke to Adam and Eve. In speaking to them, He spoke to all of mankind, to them, and to us. “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Had He not spoken to us, we would not have sin. But that word judged all mankind, even us, for God’s Word also says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Rom. 5:12-13). And so we are without excuse for our sin. For Paul also wrote, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:19-20). Jesus’ words are the words of God. They are like the law to us. They are spiritual. They show where the Spirit of God is working and where He is not working. God has spoken to us in His Son. Are we listening to Him?
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.” What are “these things” that Jesus referred to? Persecution and rejection of what you say. The reason we will be rejected, ignored, and dishonored will be for Jesus’ name sake. If we live by and keep His words, then we identify with Jesus, His name. Those who know God, know that Jesus was sent by the Father and that His words were His Father’s words. Jesus commanded His followers to love one another because God is love, and He came to live to love with His Father. So those who know God will love. John expounded on this in his first epistle. “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him” (1 Jo. 4:6-9). Today, we live because Jesus lives. We have His life in us, which is the manifestation of God’s love for us. To God be the glory.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:20 “Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” Earlier in the evening, after Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, He had said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.” It was said in the context of Jesus’ telling them to serve each other as He had served them by washing their feet. In that case, the message was do as I do. In this case, the idea is the similar. It’s you’ll receive the same from others that I receive. Those who persecute Me will do the same to you, and those who honor Me by keeping My word will do the same with you and your words. As we live to love with Jesus, those who reject God’s word will also reject our words. Love won’t make a difference in how they treat us or what they think about us. However, we should not shrink back from speaking God’s word in love. As we do, we can know that those who love God’s word will receive our words as we are faithful to say what He says. They will receive and honor our words because we are repeating Jesus’ words. That’s a vital aspect of living to love with Jesus. Because we love Him, we keep His words and share them with others in His name. As Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” (John 14:24).
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:19b “But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” Jesus reminded them that they did not choose Him but He chose them out of the world. He chose them because their source isn’t the world, rather they are “of” God. The world hates those who go “out from them” to Jesus. It exposes them for who and whose they are. But let’s pause and consider. Those Jesus chose out of the world looked exactly like those of the world. He didn’t choose us, who are His friends, for any other reason than we have a different source. So how do we know who are His friends. Like He said in John 15:14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” We were “of God” and not “of the world”. However, we didn’t know we were of God until He chose us and revealed His love in us. For this reason, the world hates us. As you live to love with Jesus, humbly consider that you are blessed if the world hates you and speaks all manner of evil against you for His name sake.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:19a “If you were of the world, the world would love its own;” The word Jesus used for “love” in this verse has the same root as the word for “friends”. Philos, friends. Phileo, love. So we can understand that Jesus was saying that if the disciples were of the world, the world would be friendly toward them. Friendship with the world reveals that the world is your source. Friendship with Jesus reveals that God is your source. It is clear that John understood this principle because of what he wrote in his first epistle. “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:18-19). Then in 1 John 4:5-6, speaking of the same group who are antichrists and unfriended them, he wrote, “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” Those who are of the world only befriend those who think like them. They have the same lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, and boastful pride of life in this world. They love their lives in this world and so are friends with others who loves their lives in this world. This should speak to our hearts as it did the disciples’ hearts. We should not try to reach the world by being friends with them—showing them that we desire the same things in this world and boast of the same things as they do. If we live to love with Jesus, we can expect no one in the world, who is of the world, will consider us their friends. They won’t listen to the apostles’ writing or teaching, so they won’t listen to us either. Don’t let that discourage you. All who are His friends, will listen and will not reject your witness or love.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:18. "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” John 15:18-25 comprise Jesus’ commentary on the unbelieving world. The previous verse revealed the most identifiable characteristic among the believing community—love. They love one another because they love Jesus and He lives in them. In contrast, verse 18, reveals the most identifiable characteristic of the unbelieving world—hatred for Jesus expressed in hatred toward His followers. Jesus said, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” Hatred for Jesus precedes hatred for those who are His. Let’s keep in mind that Jesus told them of these things before they happened, so they would know that He is the Son of God. Up to this point, Jesus had been the target of the unbelieving ones, such as the Pharisees and Scribes. But within days, their bitterness became focused on Jesus’ followers. Nothing has changed since the moment these words passed through Jesus’ lips. The world still hates the vine and therefore hates the branches of the vine. The branches of the vine that do not bear fruit for the glory of God are the world of which Jesus spoke. If branches suck up the blessings of life from the vine, yet fail to produce fruit, their love for their existence in this world is destructive and counter to the purpose of the vine and the branches. Hatred flows through the branches and produces hatred for Jesus and His followers. Why tell this to His disciples? So they would know when it happened to them that Jesus is the Son of God and that they belong to Him. As we live to love with Jesus, we may expect to be hated by those who hate Him. The point is: don’t think that you did something wrong when others hate you. You may or may not have done something to offend them, but they hate you because they hate Jesus. If they loved Jesus, they would gladly forgive your offense(s) because they too have been forgiven of their sins and have believed Jesus’ commandment to love as they have been loved by Him. So do not be discouraged to live to love with Jesus. Even more so, love as you’ve been commanded.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:17 This I command you, that you love one another. This is now the third time Jesus commanded His disciples to love each other since they had finished the evening meal. The Father really wanted His disciples to get the point of their existence and relationship with His Son. I don’t want us to miss the point. We were saved to live for one purpose: to glorify the Father through loving others with His Son. This verse also makes it very clear what fruit Jesus had in mind when He said in the previous verse, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain.” The fruit of love is the fruit of the vine, the life of Jesus. Again Jesus underscored that it is His command. We’ve learned that it is love that makes such a command. God loved His Son and commanded Him to lay down His life, and the Son has loved us in the same way by commanding us to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters in Christ. What a privilege, honor, and adventure with Jesus! On this side of the cross, we know what it means to love. On their side of the cross, God’s love was in the process of being defined and revealed. How can this Scripture encourage us today? What comes to mind are the words of the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 10:24-26. “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” In a sense, we are now assembled, as we listen to this podcast together to be stimulated and encouraged to love. The day is drawing near that Jesus will return. What will matter is if we lived to love with Him. I hope this scripture will encourage and stimulate you to love with Him today.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” These words were shared for the purpose of giving His disciples confidence and honor. They were His friends because He wanted to befriend them. Let us remember, Jesus’ enemies intended to shame Him by calling Him a “friend of sinners.” The transforming power of His love was bestowed by grace. He did not call them friends because they initiated the relationship. Rather, they found favor with Him because of God’s grace and an eternal purpose determined by His Father. The apostle Paul commented on this great gospel truth of God’s election when he wrote, “God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2 Tim. 1:9). What is the purpose for which we were chosen by God in Christ Jesus? To love with Him. To go through life with Him, laying down our lives, suffering for the sake of the gospel, displaying the fruit He produces in answer to prayer inspired and encouraged by the knowledge of God’s will for them to be fruitful branches. Do we live with that awareness of His purpose, promise, and honor? He has honored us by choosing, appointing, and empowering us to live to love with Him for the glory of the Father. Be encouraged today in the eternal purpose of God revealed in you as you live to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Let’s live in John 15:15 for another day. Jesus said to His disciples, “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” The transformation from slave to friend occurred as He loved them as the Father had loved Him. The Father had given His Son the word that contained the power to set them apart from everyone else in the world. What were those words? To love. “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you” (John 13:34; 15:12). Those were the words that pruned them. They removed the worldly, fruitless purposes that had governed their lives to this point. Without this new commandment, the defilement of worldly pursuits would clog up the life-carrying arteries of the branch. In giving them the command the Father gave Him to give to them, they were set apart to a new purpose or vision for their lives, namely, to live with Jesus to love everyone He loved for the glory of the Father. Through them, the Vine would love His own to the very end of time. As His love sap flowed through them, His friends would show the world that He lives. In the previous two verses, Jesus had told His disciples that the greatest expression of love is laying one’s life down for his friends and that His friends were those who obeyed His command to love as He has loved them. In giving them the word of the Father, to love with Jesus, they had been transformed from slaves to friends for whom He was laying down His life. The word of the Father has been preserved and delivered now to us in this generation, making us His friends if we believe in Him, receive them, and obey. Receive the pruning of the Father. Let all who hear these words, repent of living for selfish, worldly purposes. May we glory in His friendship and live to love with Him for the rest of our lives.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” Earlier in the evening before their last meal together, Jesus had called His disciples slaves. ““If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them” (John 13:14-17). He called them slaves earlier to set the stage for them to receive His new command to live to love with Him. At this point in the evening, He wanted them to know what was about to happen and that He was relating to them, not as slaves, but as His dearly beloved friends. As He spoke and they walked toward the arranged rendezvous with the devil, He was laying down His life for His friends. He wanted them to know what He was doing—sanctifying them, His friends, to Himself—calling them into the place He was going to prepare for them. How do His friends get into this place of union with Jesus? They believe Jesus is God in the flesh, who died to remove all of the sins of His friends, who conquered death for them, has risen to ever live to intercede for them, and to give them His life. All done perfectly, according to the will of His Father, so He can continue loving all His friends through them for His glory. Do you realize what Jesus did for you? Do you believe in Jesus? If so, then you know what He was doing. He was preparing to live to love through us today who are His friends.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
In this month's Live to Love blog, we look at God's Vineyard. You'll learn about the vinedresser (God), the vine (Jesus), the branches (people), the fruit (love of God), and the burn pile (hell). God loves the fruit of His love, so He made the world (the vineyard) for the purpose of enjoying the fruit and glorifying Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ.
John 15:14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. Yesterday we considered Jesus’ incredible words recorded in John 15:13. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Verse 14 reveals who it is that Jesus lays down His life for. He does not lay down His life for everyone. He lays down His life for His friends. And who are His friends? His friends are obvious. They are those who do what He commands them to do. And there would have been no question in the disciples’ minds as to what He had commanded them to do. He had repeated it twice to them in John 13:34 and 15:12. "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” In my paraphrase, “My friends are those who live their lives for one purpose: to love with Me those the Father has given Me and therefore bear fruit for the glory and joy of My Father.” To do that, we must lay down living for ourselves, adopt Jesus’ purpose as our own, and live through Him.” Are you a friend of Jesus for whom He laid down His life? I sure hope so!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. After commanding His disciples to love each other as He had loved them, He explained how He had loved them. His entire life from His first breath in this world, was to surrender His life, to lay down His life, to love those His Father commanded Him to love. What did He lay down? He laid down His life with the comforts of heaven and earth. He surrendered His reputation, honor, rights, everything this world had to offer Him. He did not defend, promote, protect, or assert Himself. Everything was laid down that He had a right to hold onto for the sake of one thing: to express the love of the Father for His glory for those the Father wanted Him to love. As He had only minutes before said, “So that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.” What had the Father commanded Him? For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father” (Jo. 10:17-18). The Father loves His Son so commanded Him to lay down His life of His own initiative. If He laid down His life for us out of obedience to His Father, shall we not also be loved by our Father and commanded to lay down our lives for those He loves? This is the great love that lives inside of us—the supernatural, self-sacrificial, love of God for His friends.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Today’s verse, confirms all that Jesus had said to His disciples. He loved them like the Father has loved Him. To insure that they and all disciples yet to be born may understand that they have been called to a new purpose by the love of God, Jesus repeated the new commandment. It is our highest good to know that this is the love of God, namely, to be commanded to love with Him and then empowered to bear fruit by His life in them. This command, repeated, received, and obeyed is the life, light, and purpose for which church was brought forth out of the Son of Man and given to Him as His bride—to love Jesus by loving each other through the power of intimate union with His life. We will see all of this expressed in Jesus’ prayer in John 17. The love of Jesus is the fruit of the vine which comes from the life of Jesus, and this love is the light of the world for the glory and joy of not only the Father and the Son, but also all who are His. So today, I love you with the love of Jesus, and in His name, command you to live for this one, all-encompassing, life-transforming, joy-producing purpose—to love today with Jesus. We love because He first loved us and commanded us to love like He has loved us. Tomorrow we learn more about how He has loved us and what loving others looks like.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. Here the disciples receive the reason for all that Jesus had said and done that evening, recorded in John 13:4 to now. The glory of God is His love revealed in His Son. And how is that love most glorified and revealed? That the love the Father has for His Son and the Son has for the Father is given so freely and so generously to their offspring that they experience the same fullness of joy that the Godhead enjoys together. What word best describes such revealed love and purpose? The word “Glory” comes to mind. Do we realize the glorious, generous, life-changing, joy-producing love of God revealed in the new commandment given to Jesus by the Father and then lovingly given to the disciples and thus to us, “Love one another as I have loved you.”? Jesus said He gave us the commandment so we might experience His joy. When we see His joy in our obedience, our joy will become full. That is the fruit the vine exists for and the fruit for which the Father planted the vineyard. We exist for the joy of the vinedresser and that joy will explode when the fruit is harvested. What amazing grace, that God has purposed that the branches enter into the joy of the vinedresser and the vine. And all we did was obey the command to live to love with Jesus, ask Him for the life giving power to love, and He did it! He did loved His own for us, so that His joy would be in us and our joy made full. How do you respond to these words?
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. In this verse we learn an astounding lesson about the love of the Father for His Son and the Son’s love for us. Love, the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, expressed that love by giving a command to love. How did the Father love Jesus and what did Jesus do to love His disciples that the Father did to love Him? The Father loved His Son by commanding Him to come to earth and love those given to Him with Him, the Father. In just the same love, Jesus commanded His disciples to love those given to Him with Him, the Son. Let this sink in! Meditate on this glorious truth until your soul is filled with wonder and awe and your life takes on His purpose for life: to make disciples who live to love with Jesus. To love them by teaching them Jesus’ command, namely, to love those who are His with Him. Or to put it in the terms of Jesus’ analogy, to bear fruit for the glory and joy of the vinedresser, His Father. It is in the Sons’ highest good to please His Father by obeying His command to love in His name. It is in the disciples’ and our highest good to obey Jesus’ command to love in His name. We’ll see why this is in our highest good tomorrow. Today, the Son has loved us by commanding us to live to love with Him. Can you imagine a branch not obeying? It’s the very nature of the branch to do so. It’s why it was made.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. Love has lost its meaning today. The love of which Jesus spoke may be defined as the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost. Jesus told His disciples that He has loved them just as the Father had loved Him. What did He mean “just as” the Father loved Him. How did the Father love Him? What did Jesus do to love them that the Father did to love Him? The answer is in the next verse. For today, let’s be encouraged by Jesus’ encouragement to abide in His love. I think the best way to understand the word abide is to picture the branches receiving the life from the vine. This isn’t a passive reception of the life of Christ, it is active. Sometimes there are branches that are called “suckers”, usually referring to branches that suck the sap from the vine but produce no fruit. These must be removed. However, a branch that does bear fruit also sucks its life from the vine for the very purpose of bearing fruit. All of the life-giving energy is sucked/received from the vine and then channeled to the fruit by the branch. Can you see yourself like that branch today? You’re not passive, you are abiding, sucking, receiving your life today from Jesus who dwells in you. He promises to love through you.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Here Jesus reveals His passion, the passion of the vine—namely, the glory of His Father. How vital it is for His disciples to understand that their lives have one holy purpose, that is to bring glory to the vinedresser by bearing much fruit. The fruit, of course, is His love. We must be careful not to be misguided and think that the fruit is decisions for Christ, or changed lives in those whom we love in His name. The fruit is clearly fruit that issues forth from the lives of the disciples. It is the fruit of which the apostle Paul wrote when He described the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in Gal. 5:22-23. We are not fruitful if we see those things in other people. Our fruitfulness looks like the fruit of the life of the vine. It is love. Love is the proof that we are Jesus’ disciples, true branches connected to the vine. This is a repeat of John 13:35. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” May the Spirit of Christ encourage us today, to bear fruit for the glory of the Father, by asking Jesus to love through us and for us. He promises to do it for us.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Let’s look at this verse from the perspective of a branch united to the vine. What would the branch ask of the vine? Wouldn’t a branch that has the life of the vine running through its veins wish only one thing? To bear fruit? It draws upon the resources of the vine so that more fruit can be produced for the glory of the vine. Jesus told His disciples that His life and His words were the life-giving, fruit-bearing sap of their lives. To Jesus’ point, if Jesus and His word had a home in them, had unhindered access to them, then whatever was needed to love as He loves would be done for them. Don’t miss what He said. He didn’t say they would get what they asked for so they could then do it for Jesus. They would ask for what His word commanded, namely to love as He loves, because that’s their greatest wish as branches, and Jesus would do it for them. It’s Jesus living for them, not them living for Jesus! Thank You, Jesus for living in us and giving us Your word that the purpose and privilege of our lives is to love with You. That’s exactly what we wish for today. Give us the fruit of Your life today, for the glory of Your Father. Amen
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. What would you think about a vinedresser that left dead branches on the vine or when removed left an unsightly pile of dried up branches in his vineyard? Would you consider him lazy or sloppy? You certainly wouldn’t think well of him. Would you not consider it to his credit and praise that he remove them and take them to a burn pile? What else does he do with dead, dried up branches? Why did Jesus think it was important to give this information to His disciples? It’s because the Father gave it to Him to give to them because that information is for their highest good. It also is what a responsible vinedresser does, and certainly they knew it. It is highly possible, knowing Jesus, that such a burn pile was in sight. According to Jonathan Edwards, God glorifies Himself even in the destruction of the wicked who do not bear fruit. It is reasonable and it is the branch’s purpose to bear fruit, the fruit of His love. In fruit-bearing both the Father and the Son are glorified. However, a dead, dried up branch brings no glory to the Son, the vine. So there is only one reasonable and expected way that remains for the Father, the vinedresser, to receive glory as far as they are concerned, and that is in the destruction of those who fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). The destruction of the wicked in hell is neither unjust nor unloving. Contrary to popular opinion, it is what love for the Vine and the vineyard looks like. For God, The Vinedresser, to not have a burn pile would be to fall short of the glory of God. Let us bear fruit today by living to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. Jesus is life. Everything that isn’t flowing out of Him is dead. He is the vine. we are nothing more than branches. We don’t do the fruit-bearing, the loving, Jesus does the fruit-bearing and the loving. The branch doesn’t bear much fruit of itself. It’s impossible. God provides the increase, the fruit-bearing through His Son, the vine, in the branches so that all the glory goes to the Father and the Son. The reality of this illustration is amazing. All of mankind exists for God and exists through Jesus Christ. No one who has been made wasn’t made through Him as John wrote in 1:3. “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” Of all of mankind, God has chosen to bear fruit for His glory through some of the branches that issued forth from the vine, His Son. It is obvious which branches have been pruned to bear fruit by the vinedresser. These branches experience a flow of fruit-yielding life as the union between Jesus and them is intentionally chosen by the branches. They live to love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:4. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” Abide is the word Jesus used to describe the dynamic relationship between Himself and fruitful branches. They live or dwell in Him, and He dwells or lives in them. The verb tense of abide describes the resulting action of something that happened in the past, namely, pruning or cleansing by Jesus’ words, which gives rise to the one point in time action that you are commanded to take in the present, which is abide. You now abide in Jesus because He lives in you!!! It’s not so much an imperative of “must”, but an imperative of reality. It’s just the way it is, so you do it. You receive His life like a branch receives life from the vine. The idea is that the branch grew out of the vine with life in it, so the branch naturally abides in the vine and the life of the vine is in the branch so it can bear fruit. It’s the only thing that makes sense. If you have Jesus’ life, then you choose to live the rest of your life in Him to love as He loves. In Peter’s first epistle, He used the same verb tense to explain our loving with Jesus. 1 Peter 1:22 – “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love (same aorist, active imperative) one another earnestly from a pure heart.” The rationale of the verse is clear: The reader who is a Christian has “purified, or been made clean” and this certain reality is made evident by their “obedience to the truth” for the purpose of “brotherly love (fruit-bearing in John 15)” If all of this past work is actually true, the natural result is that you will “love” each other deeply from the heart now. If we have really been converted, been purified and made new, and we have shown a willingness to obey, especially the command to “love the brethren” then naturally we “have to start loving deeply” to prove that what happened in the past is really true. Abiding in Jesus is the foundation of living to love with Jesus. Have you chosen to repent of living life for yourself? Have you chosen to obey Jesus and surrender yourself to live out of His life?
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:3. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” In effect, Jesus told His disciples that they were ready to bear fruit for God because of what He had told them. Let’s be encouraged and pruned with those words. 1. First, told them everything He was doing was so the Father would be glorified in the Son. 13:31-32. 2. Second, He called them to live to love with Him for the glory of God. He gave them a new commandment to love one another as He loved them so the world would know that they were His disciples. 13:34-35 3. Third, He told them how they were going to be able to love. He was going to the Father to prepare a place for them in Himself so they could do the works of God that He does, namely, love like He loves. 14:2-3, 12 4. Jesus is the way, truth, and the life of God. 14:6 5. God, the Father, and Jesus are one. Their oneness is to be in them. 14:10 6. If they ask in His name for the power to love with Jesus, Jesus would do it. 14:14 7. When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in them, Jesus will come back to live in them forever. 14:16-18 8. When you receive the Holy Spirit, you’ll know that Jesus is in the Father, that you are in Christ, and that He is in you. 14:20 9. Fourth, He encouraged them that He who loves Him, will keep His words and the Father and Son will dwell in them because His words were from the Father. 14:23-24 10. The Holy Spirit will be with them forever to help them and teach and remind them of Jesus’ words. 14:26 If you know and experience the presence of Christ then hold on to these words like a treasure. They are the Father’s pruning, cleansing, purifying, and sanctifying work preparing you to bear fruit. These truths are contained in the Live to Love prayer. I invite you to pray it with me now and every day so you can bear fruit for the glory of God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:2-3. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” I want to encourage you today with the words of Jesus that prune us, the words that sanctify or clean us so that we can bear more fruit. If we didn’t stop and look back at those words, we would miss how powerful and encouraging verse 3 is to us. The same Greek word, katharos, is used in vss. 2-3. In vs. 2, Jesus used the verb form and in vs. 3, the adjectival form. Jesus also told them they were “clean” in 13:10. The idea Jesus communicated was the idea of being washed, cleansed, or purified from those things that hinder the flow of His love. There’s so much here! Who does the pruning? The vinedresser, of course, not the vine. However, Jesus said here that His words had cleansed or pruned them. However, He had told them only minutes earlier, that the words that He spoke to them were the words of the Father working. He said, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” So now we can connect the dots. The vinedresser, the Father, gave the words to Jesus, in order to cleanse or prune His disciples. It was and still is the Father working in His Son because they are one. The Father’s words are the life of the vine and the powerful pruning work in our lives. When praying to His Father, Jesus described this incredible reality. John 17:6-8. “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” Then later in His prayer, He asked the Father to prune His disciples through the word that He had given Him to give to them. John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” What truth or words did Jesus give to His disciples that prepared them for effective fruit-bearing for the glory of God? Do you know what they are? Have you received them as the pruning, cleansing, sanctifying words of God that make His branches fruitful? We will be encouraged by His cleansing words tomorrow.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” The vine dresser, the Father, knows what is necessary for His vine to bear fruit for His glory. Branches (people) who do not bear fruit for His glory must be removed. The branches who bear fruit must be pruned so that the life received from the vine may explode in fruit-bearing. Everything that hinders the branch from bearing fruit will be removed. Such is the love and determination of the vinedresser. The vine exists for one purpose: to bear fruit for the vinedresser. The branches are only of value to the degree that they channel the life within the vine into fruit production. What is the fruit of His life? It is the love of Jesus for the Father and for other fruit-bearing branches. Let’s not forget what Jesus has told them. He and the Father are one. They work together. The illustration of the vinedresser and the vine working toward the same end, namely, fruit-bearing, aptly illustrates what Jesus wanted His disciples and us to grasp. They and we are the branches who produce fruit for the glory of God as the Father and Son work in and through us. This is one of the many reasons I hope you’ll grasp the vision of living to love with Jesus, namely, bearing the fruit of the Spirit of God, which is the love of Jesus. Jesus said that if we are to be fruit-bearing branches, we must be pruned so we can bear more fruit. We will continue with that wonderful thought in tomorrow’s live to love scripture encouragement.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” After telling His disciples the new commandment, to love as He loved them, Jesus explained how they were going to be able to obey. He was going to the Father to prepare a place for them so that He could live and love in them through the Holy Spirit. In chapter 15, Jesus chose the metaphors of a vinedresser and a grape vine to further explain how they were going to bear fruit for the glory of God. God, the Father of Jesus, planted only one true vine in this world, Jesus, His Son. He alone is the source of life to this world. In fact, He is the channel through which everything was created and exists. John introduced Jesus this way in John 1:1-4. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” This is indeed the biblical worldview of all things. The world is the vineyard that belongs to the Father. He planted one true vine in this world, His Son, Jesus Christ. Paul put it this way to the Corinthians in chapter 8, verse 6. “Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” The vineyard is there for the Father to enjoy the fruit from His choice Vine. However, not every branch (person produced by the Vine) bears fruit. As we meditate on John Chapter 15 the next few weeks and consider our lives each day, let us remember this foundational statement made by Jesus. “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” Why do we exist? What are we here to do? Will you recognize that Jesus is the only vine and that you came into being through Him?
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here. Consider the life and love of the one who lives in those who believe in Jesus. Jesus loves the Father and reveals that love by His obedience. The Father commanded Jesus to lay down His life for those whom the Father gave to Him before the foundation of the earth. So He came to do the Father’s will. As is written in Heb. 10:7. “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’” Jesus knew they had to leave the upper room and go to the place where the ruler of this world would meet Him and attempt to take Him down. The world is to know that what occurred that night were not in the hands of mortal men nor of the ruler of this world. They occurred so that the Son could demonstrate His love for His Father and His obedience to His will. Jesus was completely, 100% submitted to and surrendered to this one great passion stated by Jesus only minutes before. “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.” (John 13:31-32). As we saw and heard Jesus authorize His own betrayal in sending Judas to do the deed, we now see in this verse, Jesus relocated Himself so that He would be in the path of the betrayer, the soldiers, and Satan Himself. He loves the Father by obeying Him! He did exactly as the Father commanded Him. That is the life and love that lives within all who believe. All who are His love the Father and do the Father’s will. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter” (Matt. 7:21). We do His will—live to love with Jesus—because the love of the Father and the Son dwell within us. There is no greater joy than to glorify the Father through His Son who lives and loves in us.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:30 I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; Jesus told them one more thing before it happened so that they might believe. He told them that Satan was coming to try to get Him, but that Jesus would defeat Satan because there was nothing in Jesus that belonged to him. This is a stunning statement of the divinity of Jesus Christ. Everything in Him was God, and there was nothing in Him that belonged to Satan. There were no thoughts, no lies, no emotions, no doubts, no unbelief, no lusts, no fears, no indecision, no idolatry, no nothing for Satan to appeal to in Jesus that could distract Jesus from doing the will of His Father. He basically told them that Satan will be defeated. We now know that Jesus’ prophetic statement is true. Satan came. He tried to tempt Jesus away from the Father’s will. He failed. There was nothing that belonged to Satan in Jesus, so Jesus stood firm, surrendered Himself to all that was in Him of the Father, and crushed the ruler of this world, the prince of the power of the air, and all of Satan’s works in all of those who belong to Jesus. John wrote in His first epistle in 3:8. “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” And He has! There is nothing in Jesus (in His body—that’s us) that Satan can use to condemn and destroy us. We are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ, who has loved us and given Himself for us. Today, let us be encouraged that Satan has nothing in us to separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ. Let us rejoice and be glad, and give all the glory unto Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:29 Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. Jesus reminded His disciples of what He told them earlier, recorded in 13:19. “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.” At this point, He said, “I have told you before it happens.” He told them 8 things that were to happen to provide a basis for their faith. 1. He was going to the Father and preparing a place in Himself for them. 2. He will leave them, they will not see Him for a while, and then they will see Him, but the world wouldn’t see Him. 3. Because He went to the Father to prepare a place for them, He will come again to them, and they will see Him. 4. Because He went to the Father to prepare a place for them, they will do greater works than He had done as they pray and Jesus works. 5. The Father will send the Holy Spirit, who will bring His presence into their lives forever. 6. The Holy Spirit will guide them into truth, teach them all things, and remind them of what He had said to them. 7. The day they see Him and receive the Holy Spirit, they will know that Jesus in the Father, that they are in Jesus, and that Jesus is in them. 8. He leaves them with His supernatural peace. These things all happened to the disciples as Jesus said they would. They believed. They were written here, so we might also believe and receive the same promises. We have the same basis for faith that the disciples had. Let us rejoice, believe in Jesus, and live to love with Him today.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:28 You heard that I said to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. It was clear to Jesus what he had said to them. He was going to leave them, go to the Father, and then return to them. Apparently, there were no signs in the disciples that they understood the significance of His going to the Father and returning to them. They should have rejoiced, but didn’t. Jesus said they didn’t rejoice because they didn’t love Him. The word Jesus used was a form of agape. When they heard Him say that He was leaving and then going to come again, they should’ve rejoiced if they loved Him for they would have known that his greatest desire was to return to the Father having done His will. When you love someone, you know their heart’s desire, and you want their highest good, their greatest joy. But when you don’t love someone, you are concerned with your own happiness, you’re self-occupied. All events are filtered through what makes you happy or unhappy, what pleases you or disappoints you. The disciples didn’t know that it was for their highest good and greatest joy for Jesus to go to the Father on their behalf. They didn’t know how Jesus loved the Father and that His greatest satisfaction was knowing by experience His Father’s love and presence. Our joy should flow out of love for Jesus’ joy. Do we realize that we have Jesus’ life and heart in us? If we love Him, we identify with His life and love. Are we more interested and consumed with being loved as if we are the greatest, or are we interested and consumed with the relationship of the Father and Son that dwells within us? With Jesus, let us love the Father, for He is greater than we are and greater than the Son.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. The disciples were about to enter into the greatest disappointment and test of their faith in their lives up to that point. They were going to watch their Master, Teacher, and hope betrayed, arrested, falsely accused and tried, and then hung on a cross until dead. They needed peace in their souls—not a peace that comes from happy circumstances in this world, nor a peace that comes from all your expectations being met. They needed a supernatural peace—a peace that only God can give. A peace that comes from knowing God’s will is being done. A peace fostered by righteousness, justice, and love being perfectly executed by Almighty God. That peace, the perfect peace of Jesus stood before them so they could make a withdrawal equal to the challenges ahead. They looked into His face, heard His voice, received His words. There was no terror, fear, trouble, or regret detected. He was peaceful, and He knew what was coming, but they didn’t. He was giving them His peace, right then. He was leaving it with them as He was leaving them. As things began to unfold, they were to receive and live out of His peace. For a second time He admonished them not to let their hearts be troubled or be fearful. Love can’t flow when our hearts are troubled and fearful. Love flows from a peaceful heart that trusts in the wisdom and authority of Our Almighty Father.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:25-26 "These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. It’s almost as if Jesus wanted them to know that the words He had spoken to them in the previous 5-10 minutes or so were spoken so that they would know He and the Holy Spirit were working together. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, sent from the Father upon Jesus’ request will come to them and teach and explain all that Jesus had said. They didn’t have to be worried about remembering everything. It’s also true for us in our time. We have the same Spirit who spoke these words to the disciples while Jesus was with them. Those words were recorded by John when the Holy Spirit brought them back to mind. We are now experiencing the fruit and fulfillment of Jesus’ promise in these verses. That’s amazing and encouraging! We can trust in the Holy Spirit, who is in us in Jesus’ name, to teach us and help us keep His words. Thank You, Father, for giving these wonderful words to Jesus to give to His disciples. And thank You for sending the Holy Spirit to remind them of them so they could write them down and pass them on to every generation after them, even down to us. We receive You and worship You in Jesus’ name as we rely on the Spirit to teach us and guide us as we live to love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me. Walking with Jesus is an expression of love for Jesus. The one who loves Jesus, loves and keeps His words. Jesus certainly made that clear in the previous verses. In this verse, we hear the contrast. Those who don’t love Him are those who don’t keep, watch over, and guard His words or commandments. Consequently, they don’t trust in Jesus in troubled times and they don’t love those who do love Jesus and His words. Again, Jesus underscored His union with His Father. “The word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” Only minutes before, Jesus had told them, “He who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” In John 17:7-8, Jesus revealed that these disciples loved Him for He said, “Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” Only those who love Jesus believe that He speaks the words of the Father, and they know, as the disciples did, that love for Jesus is love for the one true God. Let this encourage us who live to love with Jesus. As we trust in Jesus and live to love with Him, we are expressing our love for the Father and the Son.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. This is a repeat of verse 21 so it must be important. How do we know who loves Jesus? It’s those who keep His word. And what is the reward to those who love Him by keeping His word? They become the dwelling place of the Father and the Son. They become the temple of God—the holy place where God and man meet in worship, honor, and celebration of the greatness, mercy, grace, and love of God. If people want to meet the Father and the Son, where can they go? There was a time when they had to go to a physical tabernacle or temple. Now, we, those who love Jesus and keep His commandments to believe in Jesus and love with Him, are the temple where they can meet up with God. Every person God puts in your path today will be standing, sitting, or passing by the place where God dwells. It is His love, that wonderful, fragrant aroma of Christ that will draw them into His presence to find mercy, salvation, and peace. Glory to God in the highest!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?" Have you ever been afraid that God wasn’t going to do what you thought He was going to do? You question what’s happening because the events aren’t lining up with what you expected. I think that’s what happened to Judas, not Judas Iscariot, but Judas the son of James. If he was thinking that Jesus was going to establish the kingdom in Israel and drive out the Romans, how was He going to do that by revealing Himself to them and not to the world. In Judas’ mind, something must have happened that changed the plan. The natural mind has a worldly perspective, but the spiritual mind envisions God’s kingdom in the hearts of men and women. In reality nothing had happened to change God’s agenda of glorifying Himself in His Son by loving His own and bringing many sons to glory. From our vantage point, something has happened that changed everything and made it possible for Jesus to disclose Himself to us and not to the world. His death, resurrection, and glorification have occurred and as a result, the living, Lord Jesus Christ lives united with all who believe in Him. Who are those people who are united with Him? We will rejoice in the answer in tomorrow’s live to love encouragement.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." In this verse we have a clear statement of what it means to love Jesus and the blessing of loving Him. Those who love Jesus have His commandments and watch over them to keep them. At this point in Jesus’ message to His disciples, He has given them three commandments. 1. John 13:34. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Then in John 14:1, Jesus gave two more commands. So #2, “Don’t let your heart be troubled. And #3. Believe in God, believe in Me. John combined the commands of John 14:1 into one single command: Believe in Jesus. In 1 John 3:23-24 he wrote, “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” My spiritual mentor, Jerry White, Jr. taught me that to be a disciple of Jesus, we have to know that God loves us and that we love Him. If those two things are settled in our lives, then our hearts won’t be troubled in this fallen world—no matter what happens. We know He loves us because He reveals Himself to us. He lets us know that He is with and in us as this verse says by the presence of the Holy Spirit. We know that we love Him because we believe He is the life and that loving with Him is the way we keep His commandments. We don’t keep Jesus’ commandments by accident or happenstance. We keep them, guard them intentionally. If you love Jesus, then be intentional about believing and trusting Jesus to be your life. Expect Him to love whoever He puts in your path today?
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. In what day? I can think of two possible answers from the context. 1. The day of which Jesus spoke was the day they saw Him in His resurrected body in the upper room. 2. The day of which Jesus spoke was the day that each of them received the Holy Spirit. In John 20:19-22 we discover that both of these happened on the same day and within perhaps seconds of each other. “So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” We can see why they rejoiced! Then it happened as promised. He gave them the Holy Spirit by breathing on them and simply commanding them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Which is most important, seeing Jesus alive in His body or receiving the Holy Spirit? This is an important question because we haven’t seen Him physically. We would think that they are blessed more than we. But hear the words of Jesus in John 20:29 spoken to Thomas who didn’t see Him the first time and doubted. Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” He is speaking of us! The best of the two options then is receiving the Holy Spirit. It indicates that Jesus was indeed God, and was in the Father. We also know that we have an eternal abiding place in Jesus. And furthermore, we know that Jesus dwells in us like the Father dwelled in Jesus. What a glorious day it was when you received the Holy Spirit! We have His life in us and therefore are sent to love in this world just as Jesus was sent.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:19 After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. I don’t know if we can imagine the impact of these words on the disciples. He’s told them He’s leaving so that He can return to live in them so they might live forever with Him. Let’s remember why Jesus told them these things. He was telling them what was to happen in the future so that they might believe that He is the Son of God and the life of the Father. John 13:19 “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.” Within days, Jesus died on the cross, three days later was raised, and then they saw Him—alive—in the upper room again fulfilling this promise—“you will see Me.” If we have life, it is because Jesus, who is the life, died, was raised, was glorified, and lives. He has given us life. The apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians in 3:4. “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” for “Christ in you, [is] the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). We are not of this world. We have been loved by God and filled with His life so we can love with Him. We live because He lives, and we love because He is love.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:17-18. that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. So far in John 14, we have seen the foundational truth of the union of the Father and the Son. Now in vss 17-18, we discover another foundational truth. The Holy Spirit is united with the Son. Jesus said, “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father.” Here He said, “When you receive the Holy Spirit, you will have Me as your Father dwelling with and in you.” Notice the verb tenses. You know the Holy Spirit now because He abides with you now in me. You know Him now because He that is with you now will be in you later. In contrast, the world can’t receive the Holy Spirit because the world doesn’t see or know Him. The world who can’t receive the Holy Spirit is the same world for which Jesus doesn’t intercede in His prayer to the Father recorded in John 17:9. “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours.” The presence of the Holy Spirit is the sure sign that you belong to the Father, that you are not orphans, that you are not of this world, but are one of His household of which He spoke in vs. 2. Jesus’ promise to come to them is a repeat of His promise in vs. 3. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself.” This leads us to conclude that the primary truth Jesus has in mind isn’t our being with Him in heaven, but His being with and in His family here on the earth. This is only possible after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and glorification. John explained this in 7:39. “But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Let this amaze us who have the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwelling with us. Jesus has come to us because He has been glorified by the Father for His work on the cross. This place was prepared for us by our Lord. To God be the glory! That’s why we live to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
This month's Live to Love blog by Norm Wakefield is "The Great Conception". What an amazing miracle it is that the life of God can live in the soul of a person. How does that happen? The result is that Jesus' disciples have the power and presence of Christ dwelling in them so they can love like He loves.
John 14:16.2 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;” This is the first promise to His disciples regarding the Holy Spirit. Again, we come to a third pivot point. The promise of the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives changed everything from the moment these words were uttered. It was a seismic paradigm shift of understanding and world view. Up to this time, the disciples were focused on their own abilities and greatness for God—their performance—their works for God. In these words they hear the glorious news that the Father, God, is going to give them the life of God—the Spirit of the Father and the Son—to be with them forever. Their new lives will be defined by the life and presence of the Spirit of God, not by their own works and performance. Is that how we approach life each day? Do you believe Jesus’ words? Do you trust in Jesus’ intercession for you? Do you believe in the Father’s generosity and joy in sharing His life with you so that you can bring Him glory through His Son? The presence of the Helper, the One who walks beside, the One who comforts us is our confidence as we run the race set before us. Thank You, Father for sending Your Son to help us by taking away our sins which separates us from You. Thank You, Jesus, for interceding for us so we could come to God for help. And thank You, Holy Spirit, for helping us live and love for the glory of God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;” The context of John 14 helps us get the fullness of what Jesus said in verse 16. It is something like this: “When I go back to My Father, I will ask Him to give you another Helper, who is the same as Me, so that He may always be with you to help you love Me, obey My commandments, love one another in My name, and thus bear fruit for the glory of God.” Can you imagine what a comfort and hope this statement produced in the disciples? Jesus answered the questions that probably all of them were asking in their minds. “How is this going to happen? How are we going to love like He loves? How are we going to believe in Jesus when our hearts are troubled? How are the works of Jesus going to be done in us? How are we going to live in the abiding place Jesus is going to prepare for us? The answer: You will not be left alone to do life in your own strength and knowledge. If Jesus asks the Father to give us a Helper just like Him, then He’s asking in the name of the Father. The Father will do it because it is the Father’s will that the Son bring us to Him. The Son is obeying the commandment of the Father to love us like the Father loves Him. He loves the Father and is keeping His Father’s commandment because the Father’s life is in Him doing the work so that He may be glorified in the Son. Today, let’s take great encouragement that Jesus has and is interceding for us according to the Father’s will. We can expect help today from the Father to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Yesterday I explained what I thought “asking in Jesus’ name” meant. I said, “To ask in His name is to ask according to what Jesus has commanded, namely, to believe in Him and to love as He has loved us so that God may be glorified in His Son. In other words, we ask for the life and love of Jesus to be manifested in our lives. That’s our new purpose for living. That’s why He saved us! Today’s live to love scripture encouragement from John 14:15 confirms this idea of praying in Jesus’ name. Jesus said to His disciples, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” We pray for God to be glorified in His Son as His Son lives in us. We have just learned in John 14 that those who believe in Jesus have a new place, prepared by Jesus, to live or abide—in the life of Jesus. And miracles of miracles, believers have the very life of Christ dwelling in them. Because we love Him, the motive clearly stated by Jesus in this verse, we will keep Jesus’ commandments because Jesus is our life source. The love we have both for God and Jesus comes from Jesus. The faith we have in God and in Jesus, comes from His life of dwelling in us. We live in His name when we believe and love as He commanded us. All we need to do is ask for His faith and love to be manifested in our lives in this world for the glory of God. That is for sure God’s will. It will be done by Jesus. Do we love Jesus? Our prayers and our works testify to our love for Christ. Let us live to love with Jesus today.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I’m so excited that you have joined me for today’s live to love scripture encouragement from John 14:13-14. Yesterday we were encouraged by Jesus’ call to a radical, this-changes-everything new purpose: to live to love with and in Jesus as He lives in them. A call to do the works of Christ for the glory of God. This verse confirms everything that Jesus has said from John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you” to this verse. Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Let’s work backwards in this verse. First, all of what Jesus has said is about the glory of God, the Father revealed in the Son. All of the works of the Father, the Son, and believers of which Jesus has spoken is on that wonderful trajectory. Second, Jesus is the one doing the living, the work, in this world through those who believe in Him and are united with Him. Third, prayer—namely, asking in Jesus’ name—unleashes Jesus to work for the glory of the Father. This is a reminder to us that God didn’t call us to live for Jesus. We need Him to live for us. The Father can only be glorified in the Son if the Son does the work. Is asking in Jesus’ name the same as ending our prayers with, “in Jesus’ name I pray” or “I ask this is Jesus’ name”? I emphatically say, “No, it is not.” Ending our prayers with “Jesus’ name” is not what compels or moves God or Jesus to work. To ask in His name is to ask according to what Jesus has commanded, namely, to believe in Him and to love as He has loved us so that God may be glorified in His Son. In other words, we ask for the life and love of Jesus to be manifested in our lives. That’s our new purpose for living. That’s why He saved us! Today, Father, I ask that You glorify Your Son as I abide in Him and He lives to love through me. Do it also in all who pray this prayer with me today. Amen.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. These words are stunning, important, and encouraging. Do you remember that I mentioned when we looked at the first few verses of this chapter, that the place Jesus had in mind to prepare for us was not a mansion in heaven when we die? This verse verifies that assertion. Notice that Jesus told them that because He was going to the Father (to prepare a dwelling place for them) they would do the greater works in this world than He has done. That’s why I suggest that Jesus was explaining to them how they were going to love one another even as He had loved them rather than encouraging them that they were going to have a home in heaven when they died. Don’t get me wrong. He did prepare a place for us in heaven when we die, but His going to the Father was primarily about salvation in this world, now, not salvation after we die. He who believes in Jesus as the way, truth, and the life of God has a new purpose in life—to do the works of Jesus like Jesus did the works of the Father. This is pivot point number two! Pivot point number one: Jesus and the Father are one. Pivot point number two: Believers and Jesus are one. Now when we testify about ourselves that Jesus is alive and living in us, we not only have our testimony about ourselves, but we also have the works of Jesus to testify that He lives in us and we in Him. Jesus was calling His disciples to a new purpose in life. They were to no longer live to make a name for themselves (by the way they had just been arguing about who was the greatest only minutes before) or to discover their best life or for self-actualization or even to live for Him. This is a call to a radical, this-changes-everything new purpose: to live to love with and in Jesus as He lives in them. A call to do the works of Christ for the glory of God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. We should pivot and seek after Jesus because of two witnesses. First, the witness of Jesus’ own testimony. Second, the witness of the works He did while on the earth. If the self-testimony of Christ are denied, the source and authority of the works He did cannot be denied. Again, Jesus identified the pivot point, the seismic faith-building reality: Jesus is in God and God is in Him. They are one in essence. True faith abides or lives in this great and awesome reality. John said it this way in his first letter: 1 John 4:2-3 “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” This is so foundational that John also described this union of God and man as he testified to those who are true believers. This truth is what this verse opens up for us. John wrote in 1 John 4:15-16 “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” Let’s connect a couple of dots. Where is the place that Jesus went to prepare for us to live? That place is in Himself, who is in God! It’s the place He said in verse 3 that made it possible for Him to come to us so we could be where He is. He is our abiding place, our dwelling place so that we can love as He loves.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Here is a fundamental truth to Christianity. We believe that Jesus, the Son is in the Father, God and that the Father, God is in Jesus the Son. Jesus’ point to His disciples was that they have been walking with God in the flesh for 3 years. When Jesus spoke, they heard His Father in heaven at work. The very words Jesus spoke to them had been given to Him by the Father, who abides in the Son. Can you imagine what was happening in the minds and hearts of the disciples when they heard these words? Yes, they thought Jesus had God with Him and that He spoke to them the words of God, but this was more—way more. Jesus didn’t just have God with Him. Jesus was one with God and God was one with Him. The words originated from the Father in the Son and the Son lived in His Father’s words. That mutual abiding relationship revealed the true God. That’s what Jesus meant when He said He was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one could come to the Father except by and through Him. Let’s be encouraged and amazed at this: The union of God and man, revealed in Jesus Christ, makes it possible for us to know, love, and experience God in this world. When we listen to and watch Jesus revealed in the gospels, we are listening to and watching God!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Here they are again being told that they don’t know Jesus or what He came for. Philip, like Thomas, and the rest of the disciples had not come to know Jesus, but in this verse, everything changes. We all hit the pivot point together just as John planned through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Jesus and the Father are one. To see Jesus is the way to see the truth and the life of the Father in real time, in flesh and blood. The entire time the disciples had been with Jesus, they didn’t really know who they were watching. They were watching God, the Father, at work. They were watching His character revealed. They were experiencing the love of the Father, God. This is amazing! They didn’t recognize or understand what Jesus was doing. This should sober us. It is possible to see, but not see; and to hear, but not understand. Ok, let’s pivot right here and go back and read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but this time, when you read about what Jesus said and did, ponder this reality. You are reading about God, the Father. The life in Jesus is the life of the Father. Keep this pattern in mind when it comes to living to love with Jesus because it is another seismic shift of perspective. The life in those who believe in Jesus is the life of Jesus, Himself. That’s why I phrase the Christian life in this way: We are loving and glorifying God by living to love with Jesus. He is our Life. His Life is our Light, and that light is the love of God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Have you ever been slow to understand something someone is trying to teach you? I have. Like Philip, we hear, but we don’t understand. We read our Bibles, sit through sermon after sermon, listen to podcast after podcast, and experience the love of God through parents, siblings, pastors, and friends, yet, we want more because what we have seen and experienced wasn’t understood. Philip requested what he thought they lacked. "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." There is probably some “Philip” in each of us that feels like Jesus hasn’t given us enough to live by or to live for? Like Philip, we just don’t understand what God has been doing and revealing to us everyday of our lives. Have you been following Jesus, but still feel something is missing? Get ready, Philip. You are about to come to your pivot point where everything changes!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:7 If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him." These are strange words. Do they confuse you? Let’s keep them in context. What Jesus is showing and teaching them is pivotal. It’s like a pivot point where you have been going one direction, but then you see something that catches your attention, and you stop, pivot, and go in the direction of a new objective. Up to that moment, the disciples had not known Jesus. I think He meant that they had not known what He came to do. They thought He came to establish an earthly kingdom free from Roman occupation, so they had missed what was happening before their very eyes. He came to reveal the Father! He said, “From now on”. In other words, what Jesus was saying to them from that moment on would reveal not only who Jesus is, but who the Father is. They would realize for the first time in their lives that they had been fellowshipping with and watching God the Father at work in His Son. This was a seismic shift of perspective and worldview that was to become the foundation of the kingdom of God and His church for the rest of history. Is it possible that many, like the disciples, have not known Jesus or the Father because they have the wrong idea of what Jesus came for? They think He came to give them a better life in this world. They love their lives in this world. They wake up each day with no real understanding of where they are going, so any ole way will do as long as it is happy and comfortable to their personal sensibilities. When Jesus reveals Himself, there is a pivot point, where the things of life in this world are replaced by one great and glorious object—the reality of the Father revealed in Jesus Christ. Their hearts are captured. They plant their lead foot, pivot, and change directions because now they know that Jesus and the Father are life indeed. Have you experienced the great pivot?
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:4-6 And you know the way where I am going." Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you don’t know where you are going, how can you know the way to where you are going? Sensible reasoning and question from Thomas. Jesus made it clear where He was going. He was going to the Father. This isn’t news to us, but it was for the disciples. John told his readers that Jesus was going back to God in 13:3. Jesus knew it before He washed the disciples’ feet. In fact, returning from this world to His Father was the goal of His life from the moment He left His throne in glory, humbled Himself, and entered into this dark, fallen, realm of death and destruction. He came to bring His people to the Father! Listen to the words from the man who just moments before had been told he would deny Jesus three times. “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18). The way to the Father: revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The truth about the Father: revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Life of the Father: revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what sinners like Peter—and like us—preach and place our confidence in. We know where we are going. To God, the Father. And we know the way where we are going. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, given to us from God, the Father, that we might go to where He is—forever. That is love: the sustained will of God toward our highest good, that is union with Him, no matter what it cost Him. Abide in His love today.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. What an amazing, incredible encouragement these words must have been to the disciples —and to us. He told them he was going someplace to which they could not go at that time, but He wasn’t going to be apart from them for good. The place He was going to prepare made it possible for Jesus to come be with them again. And in coming to be with them, He would receive them (us) to Himself. Jesus even gave them the purpose for His going away. The place Jesus was going to prepare was going to make it possible for them to be present with Him wherever He was present. This reality is stunning. For the disciples, Jesus was speaking of something to be done and experienced in the future. But for us, this is a present ongoing reality and experience. Jesus has come to be with us! He is the resurrection and the Life. We have been received by Jesus because everything that could separate us from His love and prevent our union with Him was removed at the cross in His substitutionary death. Wherever Jesus wishes to go in this world to love for the glory God, we may go with Him. At any given moment in history, Jesus is loving people with and through each of His own. Jesus has begun to explain to His disciples and to us how it is possible that they can love one another even as He loves them. He comes into us. We become one with Him. We are as He is in this world. Now that’s a great encouragement to believe in Jesus and not let your heart be troubled today.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:2 In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. Our Father has planned ahead! There are many places to abide, dwell, or live in our Father’s household. In this verse, we learn where Jesus was going to which His disciples were not ready to go. Back in John 13:1 and 3, John’s readers were told where Jesus was going, but it wasn’t something that was told them at that point. Perhaps it was from this statement that John, with the Spirit’s help, understood what was in Jesus’ mind—it was time for Him to depart out of this world to the Father. He was going back to God to prepare a place for us. It is interesting that Jesus said there are many dwelling places, but He is preparing one place for all of us. Perhaps Jesus was thinking of preparing a place of right standing before God as Paul wrote of in Romans 5:2 “through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. Or maybe it’s the place where God “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenlyplaces in Christ Jesus” as Paul wrote to the Ephesians in chapter 2, verse 6. The point is that Jesus has gone to His Father and made a place with God for us to dwell or live forever. Out of that place, the love of God flows. Although it is true that God has prepared a place for us in heaven when we die, what we want to notice from the rest of the chapter is that the abiding place Jesus went to prepare in heaven becomes the fountain out of which our lives are sustained and supplied while we are on the earth. It makes it possible for Jesus to come again to us. His coming to us is the primary line of reason in this chapter, not our going to Him in heaven when we die. Today, be encouraged that Jesus has made a place for us in the presence of God that makes it possible for Jesus’ presence to be with us while we live today on this earth.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 14:1 "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. Today we are encouraged by the second commandment that Jesus gave to His disciples in preparation for His departure. The first commandment was to love one another as He loved them. The second commandment is to believe in Him as they believe in God. Faith in Jesus as God apparently is the antidote, the necessary condition of heart when facing confusion, disappointment, feelings of abandonment, and loss. If you believe in God as the source of your life then believe in Jesus. Faith in Jesus is foundational to living to love with Jesus. If we believe Jesus is God, then we know He is the source of life. That’s exactly where Jesus is going in this discourse with His disciples. To believe in God, is to believe there is a God who is the source and the sustainer of all of life. I take Jesus to mean this: If you look to God as the source of life, then also look to me as the source of life. Today, let’s look to our Father as the source of everything we need, knowing that He supplies what we need through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:38 Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times. Again, Jesus told what was going to happen before it happened so that Peter would ultimately come to believe in, trust in, rely upon, and follow Him unto death. Jesus responded to Peter’s boast that he would lay down his life for Him. Indeed, Peter would have to die to his own self-appraised grandeur before he could follow Jesus anywhere. Upon the rooster’s crow, Peter’s pride in his own self-significance and importance would lie dead in the Judean dust. He would be perhaps the greatest alright—the greatest failure of the disciples. However, as we know. God used Peter’s failure and subsequent restoration as testimony of His love and an incredible source of encouragement. Will we lay down our lives for Jesus’ namesake? I hope so. Let’s be on the alert for any lurking pride, self-significance, and self-importance that would hinder the flow of the love of Jesus Christ into the world we live in.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:36-37 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered, "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later. Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You." In Luke’s gospel account of the last supper, he recorded something John left out. Luke 22:22-24 “For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!” And they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing. And there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest.” It is plausible that the spirit of that discussion has influenced Simon Peter. Deep within the recesses of his soul is the pride of life that thinks he is better than everyone else. With his “I’m great” filter on, he hears Jesus say he’s going someplace others can’t go, and he’s thinking from an earthly perspective. “I’ll follow Him anywhere at any cost.” The disciples had had this discussion only days earlier when they were trying to decide whether they were going to go with Jesus to Jerusalem upon hearing of Lazarus’ death. In John 11:16 we read, “Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.” So I conclude Peter and the rest of the disciples had already considered what they might have to go through if they followed Jesus to Bethany and then on to Jerusalem. Maybe Peter decided in his heart earlier that he was able to endure whatever befell them. Perhaps at this moment, Peter wanted to show how he was indeed the greatest of the disciples, so he began to see if this was the opportunity to prove himself. However, I think Jesus’ response was puzzling to Peter. Basically Jesus told him, “You’re not ready now to follow me where I’m going.” Whether Jesus was thinking of going to the cross or thinking of going to heaven; in both cases, Peter wasn’t ready, but Peter thought he was. Why wasn’t Peter ready for either place? I think it is because Peter thinks he is great without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, apart from the life of Jesus, Peter could do nothing. Nor can we. Is there any pride of life in us that thinks we can live our lives today without being filled with the Holy Spirit? Can we really lay down our lives for the glory of God if it is not the Spirit of the Son working in us? Without Jesus, we are nothing. With Him, we are ready to go anywhere He goes.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Disciples of Jesus are known by their love for one another. Of all the qualities that a man or woman can have, love—the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another no matter what the cost—is the beacon light of the presence of the life of Christ. This kind of supernatural love is the evidence that a person knows God and is a follower of Jesus. It seems highly probable that based on this statement, John wrote this to the “little children” who received his first epistle. 1 John 3:14. “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 1 John 4:7-8. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” If we know God, we know that Jesus is God in the flesh. If we know God is love, then we know Jesus’ life defined God’s love. He made it tangible, relevant, and real so He could continue loving His own to the very end through us. Today, He lives to love in us, His disciples. That love is the proof that we have His life dwelling in us and that we truly know Him—to the praise of His glorious grace and presence.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. Little children, this is the direction that Jesus gave His disciples as He prepared them for His departure. It’s not a suggestion, it’s a commandment. He was sending them just like He was sent by the Father, and thus honoring and glorifying them as the Father had glorified Him. So first, let’s realize that with the command, Jesus is loving us as the Father had loved Him. Second, let’s be encouraged that in receiving the command like a little child receives a command from his father, Jesus has put us in the privileged position to bring Him glory as we obey. Knowing we glorify Him by our obedience is motivational. Third, Jesus knew that with the command, His disciples could be assured of future grace that He will supply for the mission to be fulfilled. Fourth, they (by experience) and we (by His Word and experience) know what He meant when He said love as I have loved you. As their Master and Teacher, Jesus had just emptied Himself and served them like a lowly servant because His Father loved them. Surely they understood they were to do the same to each other out of love for and obedience to Him. Have we received Jesus’ commandment like a little child receives direction and instruction from his parents? Simply receive the work of God in your life today, receive this commandment from Jesus as a commandment from your heavenly Father, and obey with a simple trust His purposes for you. You, we, have been called as little children to live to love with Jesus for the rest of our lives. What a privilege and honor!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I’m so glad you’ve joined me for today’s Live to Love Scripture Encouragement from John 13:33 “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.’” Why does Jesus call His disciples, “Little children” at this point? He hasn’t referred to them as children at all since they met in the upper room. However, obviously in Jesus’ mind it’s necessary and an expression from His Father to them. Jesus had taught them about the quality of abiding that little children have in relationship with their parents. A little child simply receives his life from his parents without question. On two occasions they had heard Jesus say, “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all” (Mark 10:15) and “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). He was telling them something that would be troubling if they didn’t receive it like a little child. Remember at the first of Chapter 13 we were told that all that occurs in this chapter flows out of His knowledge that His hour had come to depart out of this world, that His Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was going to go back to God soon. So now in this verse, He told them what He knew was going to happen before it happened so they would believe in Him. Basically He told them He was leaving them, and He was going somewhere that they could not go to at this time. The only way to receive such news peacefully was for them to remember that they were to receive the Kingdom, the work of God, like a child receives direction from his parents. He was about to give them direction that would become the direction for the body of Christ for the rest of the history of mankind. We’ll take that up tomorrow. For today, be encouraged to receive the kingdom of God, the work of God in your life like a child—with unquestioning trust and reliance upon God’s wisdom and purposes. It’s necessary to living to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Welcome to today’s live to love scripture encouragement from John 13:32. We’ve been diving into the ocean of the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ. After saying, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him,” Jesus said, “If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.” We have been considering that the primary motivation for living to love with Jesus is the glory of God, because that was His primary motivation for loving with His Father. That motivation lives in us if Jesus lives in us! What moved Jesus to tell Judas to go betray Him? It was the deep desire to make much of His Father and to see Him glorified in His words and actions. Why do we live each day to love with Jesus? We do it because the greatest desire of the heart of the Son of God dwelling in us is for God to be glorified in Him. Because pronouns can be confusing, as we are all witnessing in this perverted generation, I want to remove them and put in Jesus’ name. “If God is glorified in Jesus, the Son, God will also glorify Jesus, the Son, in Himself, and will glorify Jesus, the Son, immediately.” This helps us better understand what moves and empowers the love in Jesus. It’s His unity with the Father. This unity is vital for us to understand because it is the driving reality behind the administration and flow of God’s love in the world. When Jesus loved with His Father, He did so by abiding in His Father and His Father abiding in Him. If God is glorified as Jesus began the laying down of His life by telling Judas to betray Him, then God will glorify Jesus in Himself and do it immediately. In other words, from the initial act of the love of God revealed in Jesus, the glory of God immediately occurs. Perhaps what Jesus was referring to is that as all of heaven’s hosts watch the Son of God obey His Father, they see their unity of heart, mission, words, and actions and erupt in glorious praise and honor, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” If Jesus is glorified in us, He will glorify us in Himself and will do it immediately as we love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Today’s live to love scripture encouragement again comes from the last phrase in John 13:31 “Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;’ How was God glorified in Jesus when Jesus told Judas to go quickly and betray Him? We’ve considered how Jesus was glorified by the Father in that He was chosen and sent by Him to accomplish the work of redemption by God’s grace. We also saw that Jesus was glorified by the Father for His obedience displayed in laying down His life willingly and intentionally to accomplish our salvation. Now we focus on Jesus’ statement “Now…God is glorified in Him.” When the general achieves a victory on a mission for which he was sent by His Commander in Chief, who ultimately is recognized for the victory? It is not the general, it is the Commander in Chief. Seal Team 6 took out Osama bin Laden. Most people don’t know any of the Seal Team 6 members’ names, but we do know who was President and given credit for the mission: President Barak Obama. Seal Team 6 received glory and honor from President Obama in being chosen and sent. In their being glorified, President Obama was glorified in them. In the same way, because Jesus was operating in the name of God, the Father, it is the Father who ultimately receives the credit, the glory and honor, for every action taken in His name. Let’s let that sink into our minds, hearts, and into the depths of our souls. When Jesus loves through us in the Father’s name, God gets the glory in Him. When we love others in Jesus’ name, Jesus gets the glory in us. The moment we die to ourselves, lay down our lives, and suffer so that others might see the glory of God in Jesus Christ who lives in us, in that moment God is glorified. Today, God will place people in your path for you to love through the life of Jesus dwelling inside you. And every time you die to yourself and love, you are glorifying God. Amazing love!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
I would like to encourage you to live to love with Jesus by spending a few moments again in John 13:31. Jesus had just told Satan/aka Judas to quickly do what he was going to do, which was betray Him. We read this yesterday and again today. “Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;’” Yesterday we saw that the Son was glorified by the Father in being sent to accomplish the mission of redemption and then given the grace to successfully execute His command. How else is the Son of Man glorified? Earlier in this day, Jesus had said these words in the temple. John 12:27 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” In John 10:18, the apostle John recorded these words of Jesus that inform us as to the significance of Jesus telling Judas to go betray Him. “No one has taken it (my life) away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” Jesus should and does receive glory from God and from us in that He willingly, intentionally obeyed His Father’s command. Glory be to Jesus, our Savior and Lord! Jesus loved us in obedience to His Father because His greatest desire in life is to glorify the Father and receive His glory. Jesus contrasted Himself with the Pharisees in John 5:44. “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? This is how those who live to love with Jesus are motivated to lay down their lives and love with Him. They live seeking glory from the one and only God. They receive His glory in that they have been chosen and sent on mission to love in His name and they receive glory from God as they obey His commandment to love one another as Jesus loved them. We’ll look at this more carefully in a few days. Until now, let’s seek the glory that comes from the one and only God by loving with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:31 Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; Let’s visualize what we’ve been reading in John 13. Jesus fed Judas the morsel at the table. Immediately after that, Satan entered into Judas. Then Jesus said to Satan in Judas, “What you do, do quickly.” Immediately Judas left the upper room and Jesus declared upon Judas’ departure the significance of Jesus telling him to go betray Him. “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.” What did Jesus mean by this statement? How is Jesus glorified and God glorified in Jesus in authorizing His own death? Today I want to zero in on one reason Jesus is glorified by authorizing His own death. Jesus was sent by the Father for this very purpose: to lay down His life for those the Father gave to Him before the foundation of the world. To be chosen by the Father to serve His redemptive purpose is to be glorified by the Father. When the Commander in Chief chooses a general to accomplish a mission in a time of war and gives him the resources to be successful, the general is receiving glory from his superior. God glorified His Son by sending Him on this mission of redemption and in this historical account reveals how the Father has glorified His Son by giving Him the grace, the resources to carry out the mission. At the very moment that Jesus said, “What you do, do quickly,” the whole world is seeing God glorify Jesus Christ by giving Him the grace and power to do it. The writer of Hebrews speaks to this salient point about God’s glory, the bestowing of His grace, and Jesus’ death in chapter 2, verse 9. “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” Don’t miss this. God has sent Jesus’ disciples (that’s all of us who have His life in us) into this world to lay down our lives for others in His name and His love. When we live to love with Jesus, the crown of glory and honor rests upon us as it did upon His Son when He lived to love with His Father. It is a privilege and honor to love others in His name.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:30 So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night. Jesus fed Judas the morsel of bread dipped in the bowl. Then Jesus told Judas to go and do quickly what he planned to do. Then Judas went out into the darkness. Never to return to the Daylight. Maybe John wrote this warning in his first letter thinking of Judas. 1 John 2:11 “But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” Walking in darkness blinds a person’s understanding of what they do. John also wrote, 1 John 2:10 “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.” Today and forever, may we love others with Jesus as we walk in His light.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:28-29. “Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, ‘Buy the things we have need of for the feast’; or else, that he should give something to the poor.” We learned in John 12:6 that Judas had a greed problem. I’m commenting on Judas’ rebuke of Mary’s extravagant gift to Jesus. “Now he said this, not because he was concerned for the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.” This makes me think greed can hinder the flow of love or make one susceptible to the devil’s suggestions. May we be on the alert to greed for money, attention, significance, or pleasure that would lead us to betray the life of Jesus in us.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:27 After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly." Satan had already put the thought in Judas’ heart to betray Jesus before dinner that evening (13:2), and after eating, Judas gave Satan access to his body and soul to accomplish the evil deed. We can perhaps imagine a discussion in the heavenlies just prior to this between the Father and the devil—something similar to their discussion over Job. Gods targets Judas. Satan suggests a course of action that will entrap Judas. Judas will betray the Son of God and think he is doing something good. Then the Father grants the devil permission, and God’s plan flies into motion with neither the devil or Judas knowing that they are instruments in God’s hands to justify and love His own to His glory. With everything in place, Jesus authorized His own death in obedience to His Father’s command to lay down His life for those God had given Him. He sent Judas to work out Satan’s and His Father’s plan with haste. This is not as some call it “cosmic child abuse.” This is love defined. The sustained direction of the will toward the highest good, no matter what the cost. He laid down His life for His friends. So should we.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:25-26 He, leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom, said to Him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus then answered, "That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him." So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Not much time had passed since Jesus told His disciples, “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.” In these verses, we see the fulfillment of that promise. The other gospel accounts tell us that many of the disciples along with Judas asked, “Surely, not I? John’s query at Peter’s encouragement probably occurred then. At that point the betrayer was identified as Jesus dipped the bread into the bowl and gave it to Judas. We know that Jesus never acted on His own initiative. He acted in perfect concert with His Father. Even as He fed Judas, Jesus trusted His Father. Love flows as we trust in Jesus. There is complete surrender to the Father. May we give Jesus unhindered access to our lives today to be His channels of love.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:24 So Simon Peter gestured to him, and said to him, "Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking." It makes sense for Peter to ask John to clarify Jesus’ statement. If we know someone is close to Jesus, we assume that they know what is on Jesus’ mind. When we are troubled or in need of counsel, we should be drawn to those who lean on Jesus. It makes sense that as we lean on Jesus and live to love with Him, that others will notice that closeness and ask us to clarify the words of Jesus. I hope that today, we who have been loved by Jesus will lean into Him, take comfort, and listen to His heart so that we can love well and faithfully represent Him to those who want to know Him better.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:23 There was reclining on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. John’s personal testimony about his being loved by Jesus warms my heart. How about you? He reclined on Jesus’ bosom at the dinner table. Obviously he was next to Jesus. That seems strange unless we consider the context. Jesus had just told them that one of them would betray him. Perhaps the thought of losing Jesus so overwhelmed him that he leaned over on Jesus as a show of compassion. Or more likely, he leaned on Jesus for comfort because John knew Jesus loved him. We don’t know the reason why John was in that position, but we read that John knew he was loved. Isn’t it true that when someone loves us, we are concerned for them because they are so special to us? And when we are troubled, do we not lean on Jesus for comfort because we know He loves us? Would we say the same? “I am one of Jesus’ disciples whom He has loved.” We can’t live to love with Jesus if we don’t know that we are loved by Him. When we are confident that He loves us, we draw near to Him when facing troubling times.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:22 The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking. In many cases, it’s not easy to detect a goat amongst the sheep or the tares from the wheat. Apparently Judas fit right in with the rest of the disciples. They had just been told by Jesus that one of them was a betrayer, and they had no idea who it might be. Of course, Judas knew at that moment that he was the one, but do you think he came into the relationship with Jesus with the intent to betray and harm Jesus? I doubt it. This is sobering and humbling. Living to love with Jesus requires watchfulness and humility which Judas lacked. The potential for evil was within Judas, but he didn’t know it. He probably genuinely thought he was one of the bunch. In fact, maybe even greater than most because he was chosen to be responsible for the money box (13:29). The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.” The reason it is so important to live to love with Jesus, is that living with His purpose protects us from being self-deceived and mislead by the devil’s lies.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:21 When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me." Jesus told them ahead of time what was to occur, just like He promised. This was to bolster their faith in Him, which was a good thing. However, John noted that Jesus was troubled when He told them. We aren’t told what troubled Jesus except the knowledge that Judas was going to betray Him, which was to reject the one who sent Him, namely His Father. I don’t think this is because Jesus was concerned about His or His Father’s feelings. It is never in the best interest of anyone to reject the Father or His Son. It is troubling in spirit to see anyone spurn the love of God because we know they are in darkness and in grave spiritual danger. If it troubled Jesus when His Father was rejected, we may detect His troubled spirit also when others reject His love through us. Not for our sakes but for theirs. To reject us is to reject Jesus when we are loving in His name. If we are being selfish and they reject us, that’s understandable. When we live to love with Jesus, and that love is not received, let’s take care that we are not troubled by their rejection of us, but by the consequences that will befall the one who rejects Him. Although we don’t know this for sure, but it is most likely that Jesus washed Judas’ feet along with the others. He loved His enemies and was kind to Judas. As we know, He even greeted Judas with a kiss when he brought the soldiers to arrest Jesus. May we love like Jesus loved—and even love those who betray us.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:20 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me." Jesus was sent by God, His Father. When we receive Him as the way, the truth, and the life, we are receiving God. As we live to love with Jesus, we are sent by Jesus to love in His name. The one who receives our love receives Him. It is also encouraging to know that when we receive our fellow believers we are receiving Jesus. It takes humility to love with Jesus and to be loved by Jesus. The salient point is that love for Jesus, for His glory, is why we love and receive our brothers. It’s not determined by how we feel about them. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus today.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. Let’s be watching for what Jesus told His disciples was going to happen. Who can foretell events before they happen but God? Surely that’s what He meant when He said, “So…you may believe that I am He.” In a matter of minutes Jesus said it this way. “Do not let your heart be troubled. If you believe in God then believe also in Me” (John 14:1). If we believe Jesus is God, then we who believe in Jesus have the life of God dwelling inside of us! He who knows the end from the beginning and sustains everything by the power of His word lives to love in us! Let’s give Him access to all that we are for His glory.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:18 I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, 'He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.' Those who try to do these things—that is try to serve without Jesus are not blessed if they do them. He has Judas in mind, of course, when He said, “I do not speak of all of you.” This is a marvelous statement. Judas was chosen, not to live to love with Him, but to fulfill Psalms 41:9. “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” Judas was necessary to the salvation work. There will be other Judases in the church who are necessary to God’s sanctifying work in our lives. Was Jesus deceived when He trusted Judas? No. Was He misled when God lead Him to invite him to eat and walk with Him? No. He entrusted Himself to His Father in whose love He did abide. Like Jesus, we receive the Judases into our midst and trust our loving and wise Father’s administration of our affairs.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
What is the greatest deception that has been perpetrated on mankind? In this month's Live to Love blog, I'll propose the two greatest and most destructive lies that Satan has told to mankind throughout all of history. The lie continues to this day.
John 13:17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. What are “these things” we know to do? That Jesus, our Master and Teacher has given us an example of love for each other: humble service to those who belong to Jesus. That if Jesus humbled Himself to serve us, we ought to follow His example. What is the blessing if we do what we know is right? We are blessed with a clear conscience. We are blessed as we experience Jesus’ love for His own. We are blessed as we experience Jesus’ joy in our obedience. We are blessed when we know Jesus’ body is being cared for. We are blessed because the glory of God rests upon us. Can you think of some other blessings? Please write them in the comments.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Welcome to today’s live to love scripture encouragement from John 13:16. Jesus had just washed His disciples’ feet and in this verse is continuing to explain what they are to deduce from it. “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.” Jesus is our master and teacher. We are His friends who are sent to live to love with Him. If Jesus humbled Himself to serve His body and sent us out to do the same, then so should we humbly serve His body because we are not greater than He. Jesus was saying that He was sent by the Father and therefore it is logically assumed that He is not greater than the Father. In the same way, as we live to love in Jesus’ name we are saying that Jesus sent us and that He is greater than we are. Let’s make Jesus’ name great today as we love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
It’s a joy to encourage you with today’s live to love scripture from John 13:14-15. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Jesus had asked, “Do you know what I’ve done to you?” Now we have His explanation. As their only Lord and Teacher, He gave them an example so that they would do the same. Lest we miss it. They were to serve each other in love in His name. This was the direction and primary point of all that He taught them in His last hours with them. In perhaps less than 5-10 min He said, John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." How had Jesus loved them? He had served a basic physical need by washing their feet. Moms, don’t think it is an insignificant task to change a diaper, wash clothes, or fix a meal in Jesus’ name. Dads, don’t despise filling your wife’s car with gas, fixing your child’s broken bike, or holding the door for someone in Jesus’ name. That’s how Jesus loves His own to the end and taught us to love with Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:13 You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. Welcome to today’s Live to Love Scripture Encouragement. Today’s verse is John 13:13. “You call Me teacher and Lord; and you are right for so I am.” This verse makes me ask myself four questions. 1. What is Jesus to me? Which leads to 2. What is my relationship to Him? 3. Do I call Jesus Teacher and Lord? 4. Am I His student and servant? I’m thinking that the answers to these questions are related to my living to love with Jesus. Let’s let these questions search us today.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
Welcome to today's Live to love scripture encouragement. I would like to revisit John 13:12 So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? Do you remember what Jesus knew before He washed their feet? He was conscious of His relationship with His Father. John 13:3 “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God.” What did Jesus do to them? He did what His Father was doing. In a most menial task He was conscious of His Father’s heart, love, and will. This is important! Because in only a few minutes He is going to tell them that He abides in the Father and the Father abides in Him. To see Him is to see the Father. When we live to love with Jesus, that is what we are doing to them. We are showing them the life and love of the resurrected Jesus Christ. How Christ-conscious are we as we serve in His name? I hope today, we will abide in Jesus in the same way Jesus abided in His Father, regardless of how significant or insignificant the tasks are that we have to do for His glory.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:12 So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? Let’s put ourselves in the disciples shoes—well ok. They don’t have their shoes on. They’ve just had their feet washed by their master who asks this question. Do you know what I’ve done to you? Why did he ask the question? Surely He wanted them to consider what just happened. I think He also wanted them to understand it’s significance. Lastly, He wanted them to remember and replicate it. We probably should ask that question about everything God has done in our lives. He wants us to pay attention to Him. Today, when things happen in our lives, let’s pause and ponder what good thing God is doing to us. He is love. We are His. Abide in His love.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, "Not all of you are clean." In this verse we learn what Jesus knew when he said, “not all of you are clean”. Judas was not in Christ from all eternity. He was not cleansed by the washing of regeneration as Paul wrote to Titus. Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit”. This reminds us that the reason people are hostile to Christ is that they are not clean—they have not been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. This being said, let’s also remember that we were like them in that we were just as sinful and dirty and we needed to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. It’s not that the rest of the disciples were better than Judas. They weren’t. What was the difference? They have been cleansed by the grace and mercy of God and Judas has not. Oh to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:10 Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you. " Let’s not miss what Jesus said. He told Peter that he and some of the others were completely clean. He didn’t understand that then, but we do. If anyone is in Christ, then they were perfected by their union with His perfectly clean life and the washing of regeneration. Paul wrote to Timothy about God “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,” (2 Timothy 1:9). From all eternity Peter and all but Judas of the disciples (and us who believe in Him) have been completely clean before God. This is great news! This is why we live to love with Jesus. He has cleansed us for this purpose.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head." You gotta live this response! When Jesus explained what was at stake in His washing Peter’s feet, “If I do not wash you, you can have no part with me,” Peter’s zeal kicks in. "Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head." Peter kind of gets it. His feet represent his walk in this world. So his hands represent his actions and his head represent his thought-life. Cleanse it all! Father, may we have a zeal for personal holiness like Peter did in that moment. May we have a part in living to love with You today.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:8. We’ve been looking at Jesus’ loving service to His disciples in washing their feet. Peter offered some resistance. Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." There’s obviously much more to this foot-washing than meets the eye. Peter’s rejection of Jesus’ help at this point is tantamount to being an outcast. “If I do not wash you, you can have no part with me.” I think Jesus meant that Peter could have no part in living to love with Jesus. One can’t live to love with Jesus as a part of His body if he hasn’t experienced Jesus’ cleansing power. How can we serve in His name if we don’t know what His name is or what it means? He will say to them later, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.“So if we don’t have a part with Jesus, we will be apart from Him. Therefore we cannot live to love with Him. May we experience Jesus’ cleansing today of all that defiles us from holiness so we can participate in His loving service to His body.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter." I’m pretty sure all of us have been clueless about something Jesus has done in our lives. At the time, it didn’t make sense. We didn’t understand what He was saying to us or doing to us. Simon Peter was experiencing something in Jesus’ washing his feet that later he would understand. My guess is that the light didn’t turn on for him until after the resurrection and the Holy Spirit came. Probably within the hour of Jesus’ washing their feet, Jesus told His disciples, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26). At this point, however, Peter should have accepted that this foot washing was necessary, and that it was best that he trust Jesus and know that this foot-washing will make sense one day. Is there anything in your life like that? Is there something we don’t understand right now? It doesn’t make sense to us? If so, I encourage us that God is glorified as we wait upon Him and trust Him. He will give us understanding in time. Right now, like Peter, it is best for us to humbly receive what He is doing. The Holy Spirit will help us if we will wait and trust in Him.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:6 So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?" We might think that Simon Peter knew better than to question anything Jesus did, but obviously not. Why did John refer to him as Simon Peter? Jesus had given Simon a new name after he confessed that Jesus was the son of God (Matt. 16:16-17). Simon was his flesh identifier, and Peter was his new kingdom identifier. Maybe it’s because in this story, we see both identities surfacing. This response is a “Simon” response—looking at things from a fleshly self-conscious perspective. Is there some Simon in us? Of course there is. Do we think we don’t deserve or need to be served by Jesus? Do we think our feet aren’t dirty from walking in this world today? It not only took humility for Jesus to serve His disciples, it also took humility for them to receive His love. For a reason about which we can only speculate, Simon had a problem with Jesus’ expression of love. Jesus, do You wash my feet? The correct response, it seems, would have been for Peter to say nothing and humbly receive Jesus’ ministry to him. Jesus is still washing His disciples feet today as He lives to love in them. As His disciples, we need to humbly receive His love through our brothers and sisters in Christ and we have the privilege to humbly encourage those who are His on a daily basis. I hope that’s what’s happening this very moment as you listen or read this live to love with Jesus podcast. Jesus, do you wash my feet? Yes, please do!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Imagine a days worth of dust on each foot. It was a daily task of perhaps the lowest servant in the average home. Apparently this task had been overlooked by the event planner, but it was the will of the Father for His Son to exemplify His love in a way that foreshadowed what He wanted them (and us) to do to one another—serve one another by loving with Him. In the same way their feet got covered with dirt as they walked in this world, so did their souls get dirtied each day by living in this world. The writer of Hebrews wrote, “Encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13). Like Jesus, in humility, lowliness, gentleness, and passion for the glory of God, we can serve each other in love. It’s one way Jesus will love His own to the very end. So put on His towel and be prepared today to serve—that is, encourage, forgive, and pray the blood of Jesus over whoever He puts in your path.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:3-4 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Love humbled Himself to take the lowly role of a servant. The robe which would later belong to a Roman soldier was now exchanged for a towel. No pride. No vanity. No show. Before them stood the glorious creator and sustainer of the universe, the Lord God most high, the Almighty Father wrapped in a towel. What humility, lowliness, gentleness, and passion! This is Life, the light of men, shining in the darkness. This life and light lives in all who are His. He moves all who live to love with Him in the same way. Have we girded ourselves with His towel today? Humility. Lowliness. Gentleness. And Passion.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, From the previous verses we learned that Jesus knew His time to depart was at hand, He loved His own, and that intense suffering, grief, rejection, and shame was imminent. In this verse we learn that He also knew that all things necessary for Him to do the Father’s will were at His disposal and that in a matter of hours He would behold the joyful, loving, glorious face of His Father in heaven. With these things in mind He wanted His disciples (and us) to see what the humility-born love of His Father looks like in sandals. The same knowledge that Jesus had (listen or read this carefully), we have to motivate us to live to love with Him. Our time is short. We expect to suffer. We have everything we need to do the Father’s will. We will see our Father’s glowing face soon.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, In verse one, we learned that Jesus knew His time was short and was motivated by His enduring love for His own. In this verse we learn the setting: it was during supper and the betrayer, Judas, inspired by Satan, was primed and ready to act. Judas did not belong to Jesus. Can Judas say truthfully that the devil made him do it? No. The devil put the idea in his heart, and he chose to do it. Let’s be careful that we don’t blame others or the devil for our choices. Even so, this is the work of God and it is marvelous in our eyes! Judas was necessary for God’s love to be revealed and known.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. In this verse and the next 2 verses John tells us what Jesus knew that motivated Him to wash His disciples feet. In this verse we learn that Jesus knew His time had come to depart from this world. It is interesting to me that John didn’t write that Jesus knew it was time to die. He is the resurrection and the life. Even though He may die in this world, yet shall He live to God. So Jesus was thinking that He was in His last hours with them. We also learn that He was moved by His enduring love for them. This reminds us that our time with those we love is short and that we have the same love in us that Jesus had. So when we love with Him today we are sustaining His love for His own to the very end of time. What a mission! What purpose! What a privilege! What glory to God!
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:50 “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me." The words God commanded Jesus to speak, namely, that He is Life and the Light of the world sent by God to save us from the darkness of thinking that merely breathing in our bodies and pursuing satisfaction in this world is life, are the words of eternal life. They reveal what eternal life is! To know the Father and to know the Son is to know by experience the Life of God. Do you recognize that if you believe in and receive Jesus as the one and only Life—the source of life—then you have eternal life living in you! And you know you have it because God commanded Jesus to give it to you. Jesus prayed to His Father recorded in John 17:1-3. “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Have you believed God’s testimony that Jesus is His Life sent into the world to deliver you from the darkness and death of the natural self-life in this world? It’s actually easy to tell. You live to love with Jesus everyone He puts in your path for His glory. Listen to what John wrote in his first epistle. “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:14-16). Such is the judgment of God revealed in Jesus, whose love is the light of Life.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.” The reasons these words that Jesus spoke will judge all men is that they were given Him by the Father. God commanded Jesus to say and speak these things. Therefore, to reject these words amounts to rejecting Jesus, which is the same thing as rejecting God, Himself. When Jesus said if you love your life in this world, you will lose it, and if you recognize that Jesus is Life and therefore hate your life in this world, your life will be saved from darkness, those words judge all men, because it is obvious what they believe. If they love their lives in this world, that is, think that expressing themselves to gain approval and significance in this world satisfies them, then they are dead and in darkness. If they love Jesus and think that gaining His approval and making Him significant by loving and loving with Him, then the judgment is that they have Life and walk in the Light just as He was in the Light. What is the judgment of these words about our lives? We are meant to ask that question because that was the question Jesus intended this crowd to ask themselves. We are being judged by these words everyday. There is no escape from them. They search us and declare the truth. Living to love with Jesus is the evidence that you believe the words which Jesus spoke on this day to the crowd, that they were from God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:48 “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.” We continue to be amazed at the sayings of Jesus which He cried out in the temple just before His last Passover and His greatest demonstration that He is Life. To reject these sayings—namely that Jesus is the Life and Light of God sent into this world to save us from our darkness—is to reject Jesus. In the next verse, which we’ll take up tomorrow, Jesus explained what He meant when He said someone besides Him judges the world—that is judges those who are in darkness. The words we’ve considered the last few days are powerful to judge everyone. He said that He was Life and that He is the exact expression and representation of God, the Father. His life is the only life in this world. To believe in Jesus is to believe those words and act accordingly, which is to hate your life in this world, your all-consuming self-consciousness, self-importance, self-ambition, and self-approval and to love Him as the only source of Life in this world. Whoever rejects these words of Jesus, will be judged by them. Do we live our lives consumed with a consciousness of self, that is what we love, think, desire, and judge or with a consciousness of what Jesus loves, thinks, desires, and judges? These words are the foundation for living to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:47 “If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.” As we read this, let’s still hear Jesus’ voice raised to emphasize the importance of what He said. It is as if we hear Him almost yelling at us. What I am saying to you, namely, that I am the Life of God sent to be the light of the world so you can be saved from the darkness and death that you mistakenly think is life. He was saying to the rulers and the crowd (and to all men everywhere throughout all of history) that seeking approval and glory from men is living in darkness. To make it relevant, if we think life consists in collecting Facebook and Instagram followers, in having people who look up to us as a source of well-being and validation, in judging who is right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable, toxic and honorable, we remain in darkness. If we heard what Jesus was saying in this discourse, we would recognize how dead and empty all of that is and we would hold on to these words of Jesus that He alone is Life and Light. There is no other. Therefore we would view Facebook and Instagram as only of use if we can highlight Jesus as Life and Light. We would believe in Jesus as Life and love with Him to shine His light. He came to save us from ourselves and from the death that we think is life in this world. How does He save us? By believing and living by the truth of what His Father gave Him to say about Himself. He is Life and His Life is the Light of the world.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:46 “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” We’ve been considering the powerful words that Jesus cried out in the temple to the crowd just before Passover. He has told them about true saving faith, which focuses on the truth that Jesus is sent by God so we could see and believe that Jesus is the life and glory of God dwelling among us. I believe John wrote the following because of what Jesus declared in the temple on this day. He wrote, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (1:4). “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (1:14). Jesus’ life is the light enabling us to see that He is life and everything else about life in this world is darkness and death. To think that your natural and physical life in this world is life is to remain in the darkness. We think that we have life if we are breathing. In truth, if we are breathing in our bodies, we are dead due to sin. Everything that is not Jesus is death and darkness. And we love it! That is, we love our lives in this world until we see the light—that Jesus is the life of God come into this world so we can see what light is—the Life of God in Jesus. Have you seen that Jesus is Life and that Life is the only light? Have you seen that the love of God revealed in Jesus is the light of Life?
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:45. “He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.” "Jesus is the author and finisher of faith," wrote the author of Hebrews. Saving faith fixes on Jesus and sees that He is the exact representation of God, Himself (Heb. 1:3). One who believes in Jesus believes He is sent by God so that he can see the life of God, and in seeing the Life, is enabled to see that his own life in this world is not to be loved, but hated. Remember what Jesus said only moments before this? John 12:25 “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” Once we are enabled to see that Jesus is the life of God sent into this world by the Father, everything changes.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:44. And Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.” Jesus cried out. I take this to mean that Jesus’ statements before were made as commentary to the crowd in a normal voice. Then He raised His voice so all could hear and for emphasis. The next few days, we’ll consider what Jesus said. It is powerful and absolutely foundational to living to love in this world. To believe in Jesus is to believe in God. It is to believe that Jesus is the life of God in a human body. Jesus is going to put this great truth in the form of a command (John 14:1) along with the command to love one another as He loves them (John 13:34). “Do not let your heart be troubled. If you believe in God, believe also in Me.” Jesus was sent by God into this world to bring His life into this world of darkness and death. He was declaring to the crowd that believing in Him because of the signs wasn’t sufficient. That natural faith is still characteristic of death. Tomorrow we’ll consider what saving faith enables one to see.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:42-43 Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. This commentary by John about the rulers seems to have a contradiction in it. They “believed in Him, but.” John has said this before. There is a natural faith that is not saving faith. Natural faith believes because of what it sees. Like Nicodemus, one of the rulers of the Jews. “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing (John 2:23). “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2). And in John 10:41-42. “Many came to Him and were saying, ‘While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true. Many believed in Him there.’” To say that they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God is to say that they loved their lives in this world. They didn’t want to lose their position in the synagogue. They believed Jesus was a prophet and from God, but they didn’t believe that He was God in the flesh, THE life, and only way to God. There are many today who are in a similar state. They have accepted Christ and are fine with Him if He will give them a better life in this world, but they don’t believe that He alone is life. Consequently, they, like the rulers in Jesus’ day, hold on to their lives in this world rather than lose their lives to find true Life. This should be a reality check for everyone who says they believe in Jesus. The only way to live to love with Jesus is to believe that He is the Life and surrender your life in this world to Him. Have we given Jesus full access to our lives to live His life and love through us?
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. I wonder when John discovered Judas’ hypocrisy and thievery. What strikes me is that it was necessary for Judas to have responsibility for the money box so that God’s judgment would be just. Didn’t Jesus know Judas’ greedy heart when He gave him that job? Of course He did. Then why did He do it? We know why. Because His Father was doing it (John 5:19 “the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner”). God puts us in situations that bring out what He sees in us so that He may be glorified in His righteous judgment (in Judas’ case) and in His love revealed (in Mary’s case). In any situation, whatever we are filled with comes out. May we be filled with love for Jesus and others.
John 12:41 These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. Jesus said God revealed to Isaiah that all of these events took place for the glory of God revealed din Jesus’ sacrificial death. Maybe He saw the glory of God revealed in us. We live to love with the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Wouldn’t that be amazing?! We would not know what love is: the sustained direction of the will toward our highest good no matter what the cost. Having experienced His love through His resurrected presence, we can love with Him for the glory of God—which Isaiah saw. Incredible! Glory to God.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
John 12:4-5 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?" Not only was God’s grace to Mary revealed as she anointed Jesus’ feet, but Judas’ heart was exposed as well. Every situation is an opportunity for sin or love to be expressed by those present. If Judas had been a true disciple, he would have watched his master’s response to Mary and recognized that it pleased Him. He would have remained silent out of love and respect for both Jesus and Mary. When we live to love with Jesus we are less likely to jump to judgment and more careful about what we say that might be hurtful to others. Judas should have left the judgment to Jesus, and so should we. One expression of loving like Jesus is to leave the judgment of others to God and be gracious to those who don’t do what we think they should. You may have an opportunity today to love in this way. Don’t be a Judas.
John 12:39-40. For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, "He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them." We believe there is one God from whom are all things, and He is love. Isaiah also recorded this stunning declaration of God to Cyrus 400 years before He was born. Isaiah 45:6-7. “That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these.” As we hear or read Jesus’ reference to Isaiah regarding Israel, we should recognize and acknowledge that there is no other God besides the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. All of this calamity was done in love so we could live to love with Jesus.
Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com
This month's Live to Love blog is a report on the ministry in South Africa by Norm Wakefield and the Elijah Ministries prayer team. It's an example of the fruitfulness of praying to live to love with Jesus on a daily basis.
John 12:38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: "Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" John placed Jesus in the long line of prophets who testified to Israel, yet were not believed. The raising of Lazarus, as well as the healing of the blind and lame men, were displays of the strength (arm) of the Lord, yet there was no revelation given to Israel. Isn’t that amazing? Why not? So that they would do the greater will of the lord by crucifying Him for the fulfillment of prophecy and partner in the greatest display of love in the history of mankind. Check out Acts 4:26-28. “‘The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.’ For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.” May we be in awe of God’s love for us and let’s trust God’s wisdom as He gives revelation to whom He wishes as we live to love with Him.
John 12:37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. Seeing is not believing. The lame walked. The blind saw. The dead were raised. God’s work was displayed repeatedly. They saw, but did not believe. The darkness overtook them that quickly. The same is still true. Our churches can be crowded with unbelieving seers. They come and see God at work in their midst, yet walk out and continue walking in the dark. They live as children of darkness. They love their lives in this world. They live to find satisfaction and significance, to receive honor and glory from men rather than from God. I’ve been there and so have you. Maybe you are still there. In Jesus’ name I call you to turn to the Light, surrender and abandon your life and self-driven way to Jesus. Believe in Him and His love for you, and live for the purpose of loving with Him. You can find out more from my book, Live to Love, at livetolovewithjesus.com. His love is free and so is my book.
John 12:36 While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light." These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them. With these powerful words Jesus ended this encounter with the crowd. All of a sudden, the Light disappeared. Lest we miss it, let’s remember that the crowd thinks of themselves as sons of the Law and that the Law is the light. They asked about the Law in vs 34. Jesus was calling them to Himself, the true light. John made this point in the intro to his gospel when he wrote in John 1:9-13. “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Have you received the Light? Living to love with Jesus is to believe, receive, and walk in the true Light.
John 12:35 So Jesus said to them, "For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes." Jesus was to be among them for only a little while longer. He wants them to see where they are going and knows that once the light is gone from them, the darkness will overtake them and they won’t be able to see where they are walking. The reason I say so often, live to love with Jesus is this: to live is to walk. To live to love with Jesus is to walk in the Light of His life. When you live or walk in the light of His love, you know where you are. You are in God’s will, and you know where you are going. You are going to live with Him forever. You either live to love with Jesus or you stumble in the darkness. Can you see where you are going or are you stumbling around in the darkness trying to find your way in this world?
John 12:34 The crowd then answered Him, "We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up?' Who is this Son of Man?" The crowd must have understood that Jesus was identifying as the Christ. The disciples certainly knew it but had been told to tell no one. Matthew 16:20 “Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.” The same crowd that said they heard thunder when God spoke, expressed confusion over how the Christ, the Son of Man, could be crucified. Their understanding was that He was to live forever. The disciples thought the same. So the question was and still is. How does one die, yet live forever? The answer: Jesus is the resurrection and the life. To live to love with Jesus we must be convinced that we must die to (we must hate) our lives in this world in order to experience Jesus’ resurrection life which pours Himself out in love.
John 12:32-33. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. It’s like Jesus had been sitting in the secret council chambers of the Pharisees. He knew their plans, but unbeknownst to them, He would accomplish the very thing they were trying to prevent, namely, the whole world going after Him (12:19). They would kill Jesus by crucifying Him, and He would literally draw all—Greeks and Jews alike—to Himself. Remember, this conversation was initiated when the Greeks wanted to see Jesus. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Jesus we worship you and have been drawn to you because you were lifted up for us so we might know and express Your love. Glory be to God.
John 12:31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Now that God has testified in this world and confirmed that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, God’s judgment upon this world has come. The judgment is that this world hates God because its ruler is a murderer and an imposter. He and this world were judged, exposed, and condemned by Jesus’ presence and God’s word. Jesus prophesied regarding what His suffering would accomplish—the banishment of Satan from the throne of this world. Jesus now reigns as Lord of this world. When we live to love with Him we are testifying to the veracity of Jesus’ statement and the power of His rule in this world.
John 12:30 Jesus answered and said, "This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes." Was it thunder or the voice of an angel that was heard? Jesus clearly stated what was heard: the voice of God. And He declared that God spoke for the sake of everyone who heard and not for His sake. He didn’t need encouragement. He was resolute. He came to suffer for the glory of God and was confident God would honor His service. The voice of God responding to Jesus’ cry for God to glorify His name was for those who have ears to hear—both then and ever since. Are you consciously, intentionally, sacrificially living for the glory of God? It is the testimony that Jesus has been glorified in you.
John 12:29 So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, "An angel has spoken to Him." Some said they heard thunder, and others said they heard an angel speaking to Him. Probably those who were planning His death tried to explain it away by saying it was thunder—a natural occurrence. In contrast, those who were inclined to believe said they heard a distinguishable voice. The same thing happens. We can expect unbelievers to look for natural explanations for the supernatural testimonies of God. Those in whom God is working are looking for and expecting God to speak and testify to His presence. Have you considered that as you live to love with Jesus that you are a supernatural testimony—the voice of God per se—saying that He has and will glorify His name through the resurrected Jesus in you?
John 12:28 Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." What was the purpose for which Jesus came to His hour of suffering? He was consumed with glorifying His Father and making His name great. He cried out, “Father, glorify Your name.” Implied is, “Glorify Your name in My hour of suffering. Look how quickly the Father testified to those around Him. “Then a voice came out of heaven: ‘I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.’" It seems the context implies that the Father glorified His name in the resurrection of Lazarus and will do it again more powerfully in resurrecting Jesus to ultimately testify that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. We can count on the same promise that God will bear fruit “beyond our imaginations” if we serve Jesus with the same resolve and faith—the hope of His glory.
John 12:27 "Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour?' But for this purpose I came to this hour. Jesus’ death was in view, the divine grain of wheat must die. He knew the time was upon Him. Even in that moment, He contemplated the impact on those He loved— they too will serve Him by laying down their lives. To follow Him, they will have to despise the natural lust to be honored by men in this world. As He pondered His upcoming suffering, apparently the thought entered His mind that He might ask His Father to deliver Him from it. But No! He came to this hour for the purpose of suffering death in service to His Father and bear much fruit. He would serve His Father. He would follow Him. He would be where His Father is. He would do it to be honored by the Father with abundant fruitfulness. The question for us is this: Will we follow and serve Jesus by laying down our lives with His resolve?
John 12:26 If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. Three truths about the one who serves Jesus. 1). He must follow His lead in all things. 2). He will be present where Jesus is present. 3). He will be honored by the Father. Imagine. The One who deserves all the honor, honors those who deserve no honor. When you live to love with Jesus, you are serving Him. Don’t expect to be honored in this life—that is to love your life in this world. Expect to be honored with Him for eternity. You will be where He is!
June 17, 2022. John 12:25b He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. Today we consider the second phrase of this verse. Whereas the one who loves his life will lose it, the one who hates his life in this world will keep his life to life eternal. What does he mean by hate in contrast to love? I think He means a person despises his self life, is dissatisfied by his own efforts, knowledge, worldly desires, and religiosity. The one who hates his life in this world does so because he knows Jesus hates his selfishness and worldliness. So his hatred of his worldly life has come because he has seen the deadness of his life and the glory of Jesus’ eternal life. In comparison, he hates his life and love Jesus’ life. This reveals that the life of Jesus has become his life and so he will keep it. One can’t keep something he doesn’t already have. He who hates his old life and loves His life in Jesus is free to live to love with Him. Have you seen that Jesus is the life?
June 16, 2022. John 12:25 He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. Let’s just focus on the first phrase. Jesus stated it as a fact: he who loves his life loses it. He surely means “loves his life in this world” since he contrasts it with “hates his life in this world”. What does He mean by love? I suggest love in this context means that one identifies with, is attracted to, and draws satisfaction from the things and people in this world. He who loves his life in this fallen world is certainly dead. For Jesus is life, and He hates this fallen world, and it hates Him. Anything that isn’t of Him is dead. Again, Jesus alone is life. To love something that is dead is to reveal the lost state of the heart. When we live to love with Jesus we love what and who He loves. Loving life in this world is not what He loves. He loves His Father and the things above. In the Spirit, Paul wrote, “set your mind on things above and not on the things that are on the earth”. Do you have a love relationship with your life in this world? If so, Jesus said assuredly, you will lose it. There is a Hebrew word used at the end of an important statement in the Psalms. It’s the word “Selah.” It means to pause and ponder what is said. Selah.
John 12:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. How is the Son of Man to be glorified? Jesus stated it plainly so we would all know. And John recorded it faithfully. Jesus is glorified as He gives Himself over to be crucified. In doing so, He will bear much fruit. John is going to quote Jesus again later on in his gospel as He speaks to His disciples. John 15:5, 8. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” Let’s connect some dots. Death, resurrection, life, the glory of God, and fruitfulness. Jesus laid down His life. God raised Him to life. Both God and Christ are glorified. The result is much fruit for His glory. As we live to love with Jesus, we die to ourselves. He raises us to life with Him. He loves through us and bears much fruit for the glory of the Father and the Son. Today, let us die to ourselves and live to Christ.
John 12:23 And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." This is not what I would have expected to hear from Jesus had I been Philip or Andrew. I would have expected something like, “Great! Bring them to me.” or “Where are they? Take me to them, I’d be happy to talk with them.” Does Jesus’ answer surprise you? What is it about some Greeks wanting to see Him that signals that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified? I’ll give my two cents worth. Jesus knew that all things come from His Father and He only did what the Father showed Him. From His worldview, it was the Father who brought the Greeks to see Him. It’s a sign that God loves the world, the non-Jews, just as He does the Jews. It’s the fulfillment of what Jesus told Nicodemus when He told him that the wind (the Spirit) was going to blow where it wishes and that Nicodemus couldn’t know where it was coming from or where it was going. The Son of Man was to be glorified by laying down His life for believers from every tribe, tongue, people, or nation. God gathered representatives from all the nations of the world to witness the righteousness of God placarded for all to see and believe. The Greeks' arrival told Jesus what the Father was doing. The hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus is glorified as we seek Him as our Savior and Lord.
John 12:22 Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus. Philip and Andrew became intercessors for the Greeks. An intercessor is one who negotiates or acts as a link between parties. A go-between if you will. We can be like Philip and Andrew as well when we go tell Jesus about those He has put in our lives to love with Him. There are people in our lives that God is in the process of bringing to Jesus. We have the privilege, since we have access to the Father, through Jesus, to lift them before the Father in prayer. Praying for others, bringing them to Jesus, telling Him about them, is one way of loving with Jesus. He ever lives to intercede for us (Heb. 7:25), so our interceding for others is an expression of His life dwelling within and evidence that our lives are one with Him. I hope you’ll take a moment and tell Jesus about someone that you hope He will save.
John 12:20-21 Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." How did the Greeks know to talk with Philip? How did they know they could gain access to Him through Philip? I’m not sure how. My guess is that they watched from a distance and could tell who Jesus’ disciples were. There was an observable contrast between those who were there merely for the show and those who were dedicated followers of Jesus. These Greeks had heard of Jesus perhaps or they had just arrived at the temple and were curious about this man who received so much praise and adulation from the people. For whatever reason, they wanted to see Jesus, and they figured Philip was the man to go to for access to Him. If someone had heard about Jesus and wanted to see Him, would they know to come to you or to me? Would it be clear to them as they watched our lives that we could introduce them to Him? I think if we live to love with Jesus, we will have many opportunities to take people to Jesus.
John 12:19 So the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him." To the Pharisees, it looked like everyone had abandoned them and gone after Jesus. Oh, if that were the case! That same “world” was a fickle crowd, weren’t they? Within a very short time, they had turned on Jesus and were crying out, “Crucify Him.” Not everyone who appears to be following Jesus (that is, says they are a Christian) is a true believer. The greatest protection from being a fickle follower is to live to love with Jesus every day. Keep your eyes on Him. Be devoted to Him, not to a worldly cause, spiritual experience, or personal happiness. As Oswald Chambers wrote in My Utmost for His Highest, “A man with a vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue; he is devoted to God, Himself.” (Reading for May 2). Such a person will not praise one day, then blame another day. If you have had a true vision of God, then you know He is love and living to love with Him is a privilege and anchor.
John 12:18 For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. The raising of Lazarus from the dead would certainly catch my attention. How about yours? John explained why the crowd met Jesus before His entry into Jerusalem. Remember when Jesus told Martha that she would see the glory of God as a result of Lazarus’ death? Surely all of this was in view. The Father’s testimony regarding His Son spread throughout Jerusalem and was the cause of the fulfillment of Scripture regarding His triumphal entry to the city of Zion. I am amazed at how God works. Aren’t you? Today, as we live to love with Jesus and testify about His resurrection power and new life, let’s hope and pray that people will want to go meet Jesus. Every believer is a sign, a miracle of resurrection power and life.
John 12:17 So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. Even if they killed Jesus and Lazarus, how could they silence all the witnesses? They couldn’t. And so it is today. We are witnesses of the truth that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He lives in us. He loves through us. We once were dead, but now we live to love with Him. What were they testifying about Him? Here are my thoughts. Jesus told Martha that He was the resurrection and the life and that she would see the glory of God. After Lazarus was raised and the crowd saw the miracle, you know Martha had to remember what Jesus had said to her. Surely she was proclaiming something to this effect, “He said He was life. He has authority over death. This has to be the Messiah.” On top of that, the news of Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet at the dinner circulated. The testimony about Jesus continues today through us. As we live to love with Him, we echo the same truths testified to by Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and those who witnessed the miracle. Jesus is life everlasting.
John 12:16 These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. So often this is the case. Things happen in our lives that we don’t understand until we see Jesus glorified in and through them. Jesus mounting a donkey to ride into Jerusalem this one time, of all the times He had entered that city, didn’t strike them as all that incredible. However, it was! Think about it. Because God had spoken it through Zechariah centuries before, the event was God’s undeniable testimony glorifying His Son, Jesus Christ, as the anointed Messiah and promised King. John’s words, “Fear not,” could not be more appropriate and accurate considering the context of Zachariah’s prophecy where he promised to “camp around My house,” and “no oppressor will pass over them anymore,” and the “chariot” and “bow of war will be cut off.” Zechariah penned, “Rejoice greatly.” John wrote, “Fear not.” Are they not both sides of the same coin? Let us fear not and rejoice greatly, for now, we have seen Jesus glorified.
John 12:14-15 Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey's colt." Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zachariah saw Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem approximately 550 years prior to the event. Wow! Isn’t that amazing? One of over 300 prophecies verified in the life of Christ. This one alone should be enough for the world to bow the knee, lay down the palm branches, and proclaim Jesus as Lord and King. What does it speak to your heart? As we live to love with Jesus, we can rest assured that we are a living miracle and testimony of the indwelling King of kings. Hallelujah, King Jesus!
John 12:12-13 On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel." This was a worthy praise and adoration of Jesus. He was and is the King of Israel who came in the name of the Lord. Apparently the crowd got word that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, and they met Him before He entered the city with these praises. We can join them in giving Jesus glory today. “Hosanna! Blessed are You, Jesus, who has come into my heart for the glory of Your name, even my King, Savior, and Lord. Thank you for another day of life to know and love You and to live to love with You. Anoint and fill us with the Holy Spirit, Your presence and power, so we can love and trust You and love all those You put in our paths today for Your glory. Amen.
John 12:10-11 But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus. The Pharisees were creating a first century cancel culture—the ultimate cancel culture. Literally cancel the lives of those who threaten the way of life we have created for ourselves. Perhaps the apostle James best explains what lies at the heart of their evil scheme. “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing” (James 3:16). Jealousy and selfish ambition existed in Satan’s heart and Adam and Eve fell prey to the lie against the truth. The Pharisees not only planned to cancel Jesus’ voice, but Lazarus’ as well. We can expect the world to do the same with our testimonies of resurrection life. The more they try to cancel us, let us realize that God is simply setting the stage for a display of His power and love through us as we refuse to revile and hate in return. Instead may we show the wisdom of God as we love with Jesus.
John 12:9 The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. We died when Jesus died. That’s our first death. We were raised from the dead when He was raised from the dead. What was the difference between Lazarus before he died and Lazarus after he was raised? People wanted to know—a large crowd of people. I wonder if our new resurrection life after our conversion shouldn’t also draw a crowd. Not just for Jesus’ sake, but because they want to know what happened to us. How is it that once we were dead to Jesus and lived to only love ourselves, but now we are alive to Jesus and live to love with Him? What was it like to take off the grave clothes and see Jesus and dine with Him? Can we describe that experience? Well, I was dead and my selfish life stunk. Then I heard Jesus speak, and His life filled my soul and body and I began to live to love with Him.
John 12:7-8 Therefore Jesus said, "Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me." Certainly Jesus’ reply to Judas caught them all off-guard. First, He gave clear direction for the use of the remaining perfume, and it wasn’t to be sold to help the poor. Second, His reference to His burial. What? Couldn’t the one who just raised Lazarus from the dead, also rebuke the grim reaper when he came for Jesus? Wasn’t Jesus going to establish the forever kingdom of David? Third, “You do not always have Me.” Puzzling to them, but not to us. I am so glad that we live on this side of the cross and resurrection so we know exactly what Jesus meant. He came to die as our substitute so all our sins would be forgiven so that we might always have Him with us. It is precisely this confidence—His presence with us forever—that encourages us to live to love with Him today and everyday. Thank you, Jesus, for loving us and loving through and with us. We are so privileged and blessed!
John 12:3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. As John mentioned the perfume was costly. It was derived from a flower of the honeysuckle family found in the Himalaya mountains of China and India. This was no small display of love and honor to the one who brought such happiness and blessing into their lives thru the resurrection of Lazarus. It was extravagant. Have you ever considered that we all have the same opportunity Mary had to honor Jesus? He has come to abide (sit down and dine) with us. He has called us out of death into life through His resurrection power like He did Lazarus. We are at His footstool—His feet. This has helped me realize that I too can express my love, gratitude, and honor to Jesus. One aspect of living to love with Jesus is showering our love on Him. Let’s do that today.
John 12:2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. Imagine reclining at the table with Jesus, whose voice had called you out of the tomb. Maybe they were listening to Lazarus share his first thoughts upon re-entering his body in the tomb and hearing Jesus cry, “Lazarus, come forth!” Or maybe they were hearing him share about what he experienced while living outside his body. Or maybe they were listening to Jesus explain the significance of the miracle and its relevance to what was about to happen. Whatever it was moved Mary to honor Jesus in an expensive, extravagant, display of love. What about Jesus moves us to love like that?
John 12:1 Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. We don’t know how much time transpired between the miracle and Jesus’ return to Bethany after meeting with His disciples in Ephraim. It was a 14 1/2 mile trek and He timed His arrival to six days before Passover. I can’t help but see this as another expression of love for the family. It makes sense that He wanted to check on them following the exciting event. From what is about to occur, we also can deduce that the Father was setting the stage for another significant display of love and honor toward His Son. So it is with us today as we live to love with Jesus. God is setting the stage for us to love and honor Him.
John 11:57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it so that they might seize Him. The dragnet tightened. Their evil scheme was in motion. They were determined to seize and eliminate Him. We should be amazed at the wisdom and glory of God to allow men to scheme and carry out evil against His anointed as the means by which He overcomes evil, sin, and death. In the end times, it will be the same with His people. Evil men will be allowed to carry out their schemes against His Holy ones, but they will display God’s wisdom and glory as they trust in Him and lay down their lives in love for Christ and others. Jesus will prepare us for this time as He prepared Himself. Abide in Him today.
John 11:56 So they were seeking for Jesus, and were saying to one another as they stood in the temple, "What do you think; that He will not come to the feast at all?" Imagine the scene. Men straining their necks, searching the crowd for Jesus. They were wondering what He would do. Have you ever wondered what Jesus would do? Jesus did eventually come, but not when they expected it nor how they expected it. That’s often the case in our lives. We look for Him in the natural, reasonable ways, but His ways are not ours. Jesus always moves in a redemptive, God-glorifying path. Look for Him there today.
John 11:55 Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves. John lets us know the historical context surrounding the Passover celebration. Jerusalem’s population swelled with committed worshippers preparing for Passover. John implied that Jesus was expected to show up and that He would be easy to find. But Jesus didn’t need to purify Himself. He was perfectly pure. He was the Spotless Passover lamb. Remember the first Passover in Egypt? A lamb was slain so the death angel would pass over the home of the Hebrews. All who believe in Jesus will never die. His blood was shed that we might live to love with Him. Hallelujah!
John 11:54 Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples. Apparently Jesus knew of their plans and it wasn’t the Father’s timing so He avoided the conflict and spent time with His disciples. We can learn from this that there are times when we should avoid those whom we know cannot tolerate or handle the testimony of God in our lives. Love in this case stayed out of their path. It was best to love those who were yearning to learn and who responded to His love. He was making disciples. Who are we investing in who need to be loved by Him?
John 11:53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. The Pharisees made their evil plans as God established their steps. John wants his readers to understand that God accomplished His purposes through evil men who thought they were in control. God was working toward His greatest display of love and glory in the death and resurrection of His son. In the affairs of men it looked like darkness was prevailing, but in reality and truth, the stage was being set for the greatest revelation of God in all the history of mankind. May this encourage us that every situation is an opportunity to trust God and love with Jesus.
John 11:52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. As the Pharisees are meeting to plot Jesus’ death, God is working to make all of His children throughout all of history into one nation for eternity. We are so limited in our view and judgment of the affairs of men. We know so little. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12). What a glorious day it will be when we see all of God’s wisdom and glory in the affairs of men. This verse should encourage us to love and trust God in everything that happens in our lives.
John 11:51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, God is in control of Caiaphas’ prophetic statement. God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. He is working all things according to the counsel of His own will. This was true in this account as well as today in our lives. This gives us great confidence as we live to love with Jesus. We can rest assured that nothing occurs outside of His will and purpose to glorify Jesus in our lives.
John 11:49-50 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." Caiaphas got it but didn’t. He rightly recognized that Jesus’ death could be the means of salvation for the nation, but was totally blind to the salvation God would accomplish. That’s how Satan’s temptations work. Suggest that the evil planned is really good and advantageous. It tripped up Adam and Eve, and it worked with the Pharisees. Be on guard for a spirit that reasons it’s a good thing to harm people for a greater collective good. Also be amazed at the wisdom and knowledge of God who uses Satan’s lies to accomplish eternal redemption, reconciliation, and glorify His son.
John 11:48 "If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." People who react to love feel threatened by it. In this case, their concern is their significance and position of authority. Implied perhaps is a jealousy of His success. Contrast that with what we want. We want all men to believe in Him. We want all the glory to go to Him. That’s why we abide in Him so we can love with Him. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.
John 11:47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil (Prov. 16:4). Our salvation would not have happened without the chief priests and the Pharisees plotting Jesus’ death. We already know from John 8 that they are doing the work of the devil. Their blindness and hostility to Jesus’ miracles was stunningly, supernaturally evil. We are watching a similar blindness and hostility to truth today on the political stage. Let us remember that God is always at work to glorify His son as we love the truth and those He puts in our paths.
John 11:46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. Stunning darkness! They see God testify with such power and authority and still do not believe. Before we judge them, let’s consider that if God had not given us ears to hear and hearts to believe, we would have done the same thing. How easy it is to give a bad or twisted report of someone we don’t like to another person we want to impress and knew that they also didn’t like them? We can also expect those who oppose the truth today to do to us what they did to Jesus. Let’s not let that stop us from loving and testifying of Christ. It didn’t stop Him. He knew this would happen.
John 11:45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. Many of those who came to comfort Mary saw God’s testimony of glory regarding Jesus and believed. Believers are testimonies of God’s grace and power for His glory. He is still testifying of His son through us as we love people and share the gospel. Be alert. Be ready for those God puts in your path.
John 11:44(2) The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." Before moving on to vs 45, another thought came to mind. A day is coming, and not too far away, when Jesus will say, “My bride, come forth!” In that moment, all who are His will come forth with Him as one and there will be no more death. Glory to God in the highest! The best way to prepare for that moment is to abide in Him and live to love with Him. Let’s give ourselves to Him with no reservations.
John 11:44 The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He has all authority over heaven and earth. He commanded Lazarus to come out of the tomb in his body, so Lazarus returned to his body and obeyed. The greater event however was the Father’s testimony glorifying Jesus by raising Lazarus. When Lazarus came forth, the cry heard throughout heaven and earth was, “Jesus is my beloved son sent to give eternal life to all who believe!” He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
John 11:43 When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." So those standing around might believe, Jesus cried out with a loud voice to Lazarus. He wanted everyone there to witness God’s testimony about Him when He speaks and God raises Lazarus. The miracle of a dead man coming back to life is sensational, but that’s not the highlight of this event. The spotlight is on God doing what Jesus commands. HE is the resurrection and the life! God says He is, as He speaks and Lazarus rises and walks out of the tomb. Dear believing friends. We are walking testimonies that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. We once were dead in sin and selfishness, but we have been raised with Christ to love with Him in this world. There was a day in my life when Jesus said, “Norm, come forth.” and I was raised to life with Jesus. The same is true for all who believe. Glory be to God through Jesus Christ, His Son.
John 11:42 Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me." Here we have explicitly stated, the aim of the miracle God was about to do. It is to glorify the Son! It wasn’t primarily for Lazarus or Martha or Mary that this miracle occurred. It was for them, but primarily it was so that those who came from Jerusalem to comfort them might believe that Jesus was sent by God. This gives us insight into how we might pray when we don’t know what to do to love someone. We might pray, “Father, I know You hear me because I am asking in Jesus’ name that You would do whatever is necessary for others to believe that You sent Jesus into this world to give us resurrection life.” When we live to love with Jesus, and Jesus loves through us, it shows that God has performed a miracle: we have been raised from death to life by the power of God through Jesus Christ, His Son, whom He sent for that specific, glorious purpose. Jesus said that it is through our union with Him that the world will know that God sent Him (John 17:20).
John 11:41b-42 Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me." What a blessing to have this expression of Jesus’ heart for His Father in print! First, let’s notice Jesus’ heart of gratitude and confidence in His prayer. Second, this is not His first prayer with regard to Lazarus. He said, “You have heard me.” Perhaps He first started praying about it when He heard of Lazarus’ sickness or when Martha remarked, “Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." His response then was, “Your brother will rise again.” It was as if He told her what He had asked for. Jesus knew then, when He prayed, that His Father always hears Him. We have this same confidence because Jesus told us so. He taught His disciples to pray to our Father who is in secret and know that He knows what we need before we ask Him. Heavenly Father, hallowed be Your name. Thank you for hearing us. It’s not that we doubt it, we know you always hear us. We are Your children, and You love us. May You be magnified in our lives today as we live to love with Jesus those You put in our paths.
John 11:41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. Upon considering the promise of seeing the glory of God, they believed and removed the stone. They gave Jesus access because they believed they would see the glory of God revealed in Jesus. And as soon as the stone was removed, Jesus continued His intercession for them. My heart takes courage and comfort from this. I hope yours does also. Let us give Jesus access to everything in our lives, knowing that He loves us and will take up our case before the Father.
John 11:40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" Do we believe that all things occur so God may glorify Himself through His Son, Jesus? Jesus had told Mary that she would see the glory of God if she believed. We have been told in God’s word that for all of those who are His, He is at work for good and for His glory in this fallen world (Romans 8:20-21 “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God). He loves us, and nothing can separate us from His love. He is for us! Who is against us? Neither death nor life. Tribulation, distress, persecution, nor anything to come can prevent God from glorifying Himself through Jesus in our lives. Let’s not settle for anything less than seeing God glorify Himself in our lives. Let the Lord be magnified!
John 11:39 Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days." Are we ever afraid to go to a place where we’ve been hurt or disappointed with Jesus? Have you sealed that event or problem up like this cave was sealed with a stone? We’re afraid to roll back the stone. It protects us from something that we think is dead and stinks. We can’t see any benefit to letting Him have access to it. We’ve buried it and don’t want to suffer more. Jesus could have spoken and moved that stone, and He could do the same with the stone we’ve placed to protect ourselves. But, He tells us to remove the stone just like He told them to remove the stone. To remove the stone is to give Jesus access to the dead thing in our lives that needs to be resurrected for the glory of God. Is Jesus telling us to remove the stone and give Him access to something that has been decaying and stinking in our lives?
John 11:38 So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. The “so Jesus” indicates that Jesus responded to the accusation that He could have prevented Lazarus’ death. His delay was misunderstood. The work of God was to glorify His Son through Lazarus’ death. They couldn’t see that. Perhaps when we have the same misunderstanding and wrong judgment, Jesus is deeply troubled. Is there anything in our lives that we look back on and say, “God, You could have prevented it from happening, but You didn’t.” Is it possible that in our unbelief and pain, we judged wrongly and misunderstood God’s purpose for the event? We should be deeply troubled when we don’t trust God’s love, wait upon Him, and look for how Jesus can be made much of. Take Jesus to that place. Show Him the “stone” that lies in the way. Then wait upon Him there in worship.
John 11:37 But some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?" Hm. Maybe Martha and Mary got the notion that if Jesus had been there, Lazarus would not have died from the Jews who came to mourn with them. However, that doesn’t seem very consoling, does it? The tone of this seems accusative. John shows us again the division that existed among the crowd with regard to Jesus. Some think the best of Him—He loves well. Others think the worst of Him—He could have prevented this. We will find this to be the case in life. Regardless of what you do and how you authentically express Jesus’ love, there will be some who can see it and others who can’t. Maybe this is what troubled Jesus so deeply to the point of tears. Which is more troubling? That a man dies or that a man is walking death? What do you think?
John 11:36 So the Jews were saying, "See how He loved him!" The Jews interpreted Jesus’ tears as an expression of love for Lazarus. I’m sure Jesus did love Lazarus. But I wonder if His tears were out of love for Mary. She was the one in His path. She was the one crying. She was the one in anguish. I’ve experienced Jesus’ empathetic tears before for someone who is suffering. When it has happened, it has come from deep within and often because I am overwhelmed with their helplessness as well as my own. Love is merciful and compassionate. Jesus’ love was obvious. As we live to love with Jesus, may His love expressed through us also be obvious—for His glory.
John 11:33-35 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. “Weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). We see a loving expression of empathy in Jesus. Although He knew Lazarus was only “sleeping” and that God was going to raise him for His glory, He still wept. John seems to imply that Jesus’ tears were motivated by a movement of God deep within His spirit which was troubling. What do you think was troubling? Was it that he saw familiar faces—Jews who caused trouble the last time He was in Jerusalem? I wonder if He always felt that way when He saw death—it was always troubling to see the affects of sin on His creation, wasn’t it? It’s what He came to conquer. For whatever the reason, Jesus was ready to look death in the face in the power of the Holy Spirit with His Father. But still He wept. Filled with the hope of glory, Jesus wept. Isn’t God’s love amazing? Lord, I worship You.
John 11:32 Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." We observe Mary’s great love and reverence for Jesus as she fell at His feet. It’s interesting to me that Martha didn’t fall at Jesus’ feet when she came to Him. At least, it’s not reported. There’s an attitude of surrender and humility that convicts me. Not many people respond to God this way when going through difficulties. That’s what makes me think that Mary isn’t blaming Jesus when she says what she says. Obviously Martha and Mary were both of the opinion that if Jesus had been there, Lazarus would still be alive. But they aren’t blaming Him. They can’t see anything but their loss, but in their loss, they still have confidence in Jesus. In her pain and loss, she presented herself humbly to the Lord Jesus. May we also walk in such humility and love.
John 11:30-31 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. God gathered the crowd to display His glory in His Son by having Mary not follow Martha in the beginning but stay with the friends who came to console her. When Mary finally heard that Jesus was on the way and called for her, they followed her. God is always at work providentially moving people into place to accomplish His will. This will happen today in our lives as God places people in our paths to love with Him. He loves them and wishes to do it through us for His glory even as He loved Mary, Martha, and those who mourned Lazarus’ death. Let’s be alert to everyone we see today. God planted them there.
John 11:29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him. When Jesus calls us, how quick do we respond? Mary was probably surrounded by people. We read two verses later that she was being consoled by the Jews who came from Jerusalem. I think John wants his readers to see another example of Mary’s love for and devotion to Jesus. We are disciples of Jesus as was Mary. Today, He may call for us to come at a time that is most inopportune. May we be like Mary, and get up quickly to express our love and bear our hearts to Jesus.
This month's Live to Love blog by Norm Wakefield will encourage you in your walk with Jesus and prayer life.
John 11:28 When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." What more needed to be said. She knows she’s in right relationship with Jesus. She believes. Apparently her answer was affirmed by Jesus. He sent her to get Mary. Look at Martha’s love for Mary. She knows her time with Jesus will be filled with emotion, so secretly informs her of His arrival. I think this is atypical to Martha’s personality. Remember, she’s the one that interrupts Jesus and without sensitivity to either Mary or Jesus, suggests He ought to make Mary help out in with meal preparations. However, in this instance, Martha shows a loving sensitivity. This a good example to us of living to love with Jesus—think about Jesus and think about others. How do we best facilitate one’s relationship with Jesus?
John 11:27 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world." What did Martha believe about Jesus? She believed He is the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world to save us from eternal death, which we deserve. This declaration ranks right up there with Peter’s, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). Will we join Martha’s voice in worship of Jesus Christ? I hope so. Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of God, who comes into the world to save us from our sins. We worship You.
John 11:26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" Never dies! Faith in Jesus is the difference between eternal life and eternal death. Martha was asked if she believed in Him. Jesus might as well be asking the question of everyone who reads these words. Is He asking if we believe Jesus existed? Is He asking if we believe He was the best man that ever walked on earth? Do you believe that without Him, you don’t live? According to Jesus, if you don’t believe in Him, you are the walking dead. Everything done has the curse and stench of death on it. But if you believe in Jesus, everything done in Him has the blessing and aroma of life everlasting. Who do you believe Jesus is?
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, These are not the words of a crazy man, a lunatic, or a religious fanatic cult leader. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Lord, we worship You as the resurrection and the life. Everything and everyone around us who is not in You is in a state of perpetual death. There is no life but in You. This is what makes living to love with Jesus so exciting and hopeful. Think about it. If Jesus loves through us, then that deed lives forever for the glory of God. Every other deed is lifeless and dead. Therefore, everyone who believes in Jesus, that is, trusts in His life within as the fountain and source of his life, always lives even if he stops breathing—he’s united to eternal life! What a statement about Lazarus. Even if he no longer breaths in his body, Lazarus still lives. What a comfort to Martha—and to us!
John 11:24 Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Again, Martha’s faith and confidence shines. She believes that death does not have the final say in the lives of believers. It’s why we celebrate when a loved one who knows Jesus leaves the body at the last breath. This is pretty amazing since this event is a pre-resurrection occurrence. Anyone with such faith should not be afraid of death. We know that all who are in Christ will be raised on the last day that this fallen, cursed world breathes its last breath. What a day that will be! Rejoice today in this wonderful hope of joining all the loved ones who have gone before you in the presence of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
John 11:23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." This is stunning! Wonderful! Amazing! It seems reasonable that Jesus is telling her what He asked of God. He asked that Lazarus would be raised from the dead, and He is confident that His Father has heard and will give it. In Romans 8:26-28, Paul gives us the same confidence in Jesus’ intercession. We may not know how to pray, but that’s not our confidence. Our confidence is in God always doing His will with regard to us, and that is to work everything that happens for our greatest good and His greatest glory through the intercession of the Holy Spirit and our Lord Jesus Christ. We also know what our highest good is and what brings Him the greatest glory, namely, that everything is being used to conform us to the image of Christ. Another way of saying this is that God is working everything so that we become vessels of Jesus’ love for His glory. Lazarus’ death was so that God’s love and glory could be revealed as Jesus took authority over death. Whatever assails us is just the setting for God to reveal His love and glory in Jesus as He takes authority over it. Settle for nothing less than resurrection power revealed in love.
John 11:22 Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." Are we like Martha in this regard? She expressed a trust in Jesus’ intercession “even now” with Lazarus being dead 4 days. What was He to ask of God? Her words “whatever you ask” remind me of the words of Jesus to His disciples found in John 14:13. “Whatever you ask in My name that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” and 15:7-8 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” Jesus told them they could ask whatever they needed to obey His command to love with Him, and it would be given, so the Father could receive glory. Isn’t this the same case? She knows Jesus loves Lazarus and them, so she knows He could ask the Father for whatever is needed to love them for God’s glory. Therein lies our confidence in Jesus’ intercession. We know He loves us. We know He asks for whatever is needed to most glorify God. Then we trust Him. We can’t live to love with Jesus if we don’t trust that His will and intercession are motivated by His love and glory.
John 11:21 Martha then said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. We are all like Martha. If from our perspective, something bad happens, we conclude it happened because God doesn’t love us or wasn’t there. We naturally have the “If only…” syndrome. If we think God should orchestrate the affairs of our lives according to our desires, we forget that God’s ways are higher than our ways. His goal is not our comfort and convenience in this world, but to glorify Jesus in this world. The Fall and its resulting pain, sorrow, suffering and death are His stage upon which He displays His love, comfort, mercy, forgiveness, preeminence, power, authority, and glory (just to name a few). Lazarus’ untimely death, from Martha’s perspective, is actually perfect timing for God’s purposes. Had He been there, and Lazarus not died, none of what we know and see about Jesus in this narrative would have occurred. You can almost hear Jesus say in response to Martha, “Exactly! I need Him to be dead.” As you look upon all of the events of your life and are tempted to think, “If only…” remember that everything has occurred exactly like God planned to glorify His Son. We can’t see it yet because of our self-centered perspective. We only need to wait for it.
John 11:20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house. Someone went before Jesus and alerted Martha that Jesus was coming. As soon as she heard, off she went to meet Him. As we know from other accounts of Martha, she’s a woman of action, and she’s not afraid of speaking her mind to Jesus. In contrast, Mary is the focused one. She’s not easily distracted and prone to busyness, so she stayed in the house with her guests. Now, let’s look at God at work. As we will see, it was necessary for Martha to meet Jesus away from the house and for Mary to stay in the house in order to get the crowd in place for God to glorify His Son. Always keep your eyes on Jesus, not people. The ultimate, glorious will of God is being done on earth as it is in heaven—always. Trust in God today. He loves you. He’s at work in all things and in all people—for His glory.
John 11:18-19 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off; and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. As Jesus delayed, the crowd of Jews, perhaps many who had previously conspired to stone Jesus, was gathering in Bethany at Martha’s and Mary’s house. Did God know this? Not only did He know it, He was orchestrating it. He is preparing to glorify His Son in their midst. For some, it would be sufficient for them to believe in Jesus. For others, it would be further reason to get rid of Him. In both cases, God accomplished His purpose with the ultimate outcome in both of their responses, the Son of God being glorified. The works of God always test and reveal what God is and isn’t doing in the affairs of men. His works and words always expose the condition of the hearts of those who observe or hear them. The same is true today. We are not responsible for what people do with what we say or do. We are responsible to love, obey, and speak His word faithfully while trusting God to accomplish His purposes in everyone He puts in our paths. So today, let’s love with Jesus and trust Him.
John 11:17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Jesus waited two days before beginning the trip to Bethany (vs. 6), and apparently it took two days to travel to Bethany. For Lazarus to be in the tomb 4 days means that he died the day Jesus heard that he was sick. Mary and Martha must have sent word two days before he died because we assume it also took them two days of travel. That’s six days of waiting for Mary and Martha to hear from Jesus. How long have we waited to hear from Jesus when we’ve been desperate for His presence and comfort in our storm? The six days of waiting for Mary and Martha and the four days in the tomb were necessary for the glory of God to be seen. Let’s remember that is always the case with our storms. He loves us. He purposes to glorify His name in our situation. Whatever delay we are experiencing is necessary for His glory to be revealed. Trust and pray as we wait.
John 11:16 Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, so that we may die with Him." Doesn’t Thomas give us hope? Sometimes we are like Thomas, the ever-doubting, pessimistic Thomas. But I wonder if there’s something more admirable revealed here. I don’t know if he was being facetious or not. “Yep, let’s all just go with Him. We’re all gonna die anyway.” Or if he seriously thought, “If he goes to Judea, they’re gonna kill Him, and we might as well die with Him as live without Him.” Have you come to the point that you would rather die with Jesus than live without Him? How often have you been faced with the fact that if you have to love a certain person, it’ll kill you? So rather than go with Jesus and die with Him, you decided to preserve your life and live without Him. Interesting thoughts, Yes? What do you think? Apparently the rest of the disciples thought about it, and decided it was better to die with Him than live without Him. What do we have to die to to live to love with Jesus?
John 11:14-15 So Jesus then said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him." Not only did love for Mary and Martha lead Jesus to delay His response, but love for His disciples also. God orchestrates the affairs of life in order that we may believe in Jesus—that our faith might be displayed as wrought by God. The more helpless and desperate the situation, the greater the potential for God’s glory to be manifested as He gives us the faith of the living Jesus Christ. They needed to see that they could trust God in the face of death or any kind of suffering, for that matter. It is faith that overcomes in those times. This is true for us as well. We may learn with the disciples through this story. This didn’t just happen for their sakes, it happened for our sakes too. Watch what happens to your faith as we continue on in John 11 and go to Lazarus with Jesus.
John 11:12-13 The disciples then said to Him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover. Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep. We can’t see what Jesus sees in any situation any more than the disciples could understand what Jesus understood about Lazarus’ situation. Their limitations were understandable as are ours. This should teach us to trust Him and not lean on our own understanding. Let’s remember, from their perspective, going back to Judea wasn’t a good idea. Death awaited them. So when Jesus spoke of awakening Lazarus from sleep, they still thought, then there’s no need to go. If sleep was the problem, then the recovery can happen without Jesus. From Jesus’ perspective, death was mocking Him, and God had put this in His path. It was time to reveal His authority over death. If sin and death is the problem, then the waiting, going, and the power of Jesus were indispensable—He had to go, regardless of the dangers. Jesus showed us that even as death stared Him in the face, He was not afraid to look death in the face. Let’s remember today that God’s love conquers all our fears.
John 11:11 This He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep." The love of God that is the Light of the world, knew Lazarus had not died the death that occurs because of sin, but had “fallen asleep.” Love was going to awaken him. This must have excited Jesus! Jesus wasn’t concerned about any danger to His life, as the disciples were. His eyes were on what the Father was doing—displaying His glory in His son. God had given Him authority over life and death, and it had been revealed to Him that this sickness of Lazarus and the despair of the sisters was the perfect setting for this hope-inspiring expression of love. Blindness is a great darkness, but death in the grave is a greater darkness to conquer. Jesus expects to see His Father work through Him. As we live to love with Jesus, we also can expect Jesus to work through us for His glory. We have hope because we know that Jesus can awaken those who are spiritually dead and in darkness. Don’t let someone’s spiritual state discourage or disillusion you. All He has to do is speak and the dead will hear.
John 11:9-10 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." How do we know how to make decisions if we want to live to love with Jesus? Jesus explained His decision to go to Judea where His life had been threatened. His explanation is that He follows the light of God given to Him. If you remember what John wrote about Jesus in John 8-10, you remember that He testified that He was the Light of Life and the Light of the world. He opened a blind man’s eyes to see the Light of the world while the Pharisees and Jews stumbled around blindly in the dark. They couldn’t see Jesus because there was no light in them. Jesus made this decision to go to Judea because the Father had given Him love for Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, and that was The Light. Where God’s love is directed, there is daylight. The night has no love in it. John wrote the same in his first epistle. 1 John 2:10-11 The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. How do we make decisions? Live to love with Jesus and you’ll walk in the light.
John 11:8 The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?" Remember that twice the Jews had picked up stones to kill Jesus. If left up to the disciples, the decision to return to Judea would have been made based upon natural reasoning, outward circumstances, and history. They were concerned for His welfare and probably their own as well. They would have missed God’s will and seeing God’s glory. How many times have we done the same? We chose the path of least resistance or the road which offered what looked like a happier and more comfortable outcome. To The Spirit’s point through John: that’s not how we make decisions as we live to love with Jesus. If we don’t make decisions based on our natural reason, outward circumstances and history, then how do we know what to do? Tune in tomorrow to find out.
John 11:7 Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." This is all about timing. Jesus knew to wait upon His Father. It was the only way to glorify Him. He always abided in the Father. He said, “Let’s go,” because His Father said, “Let’s go.” The only way we can glorify Jesus is by abiding in Him and living to love with Him. We should go because He goes. We should love as He loves. We are in this world as He is in this world, wrote John (1 John 4:17)—for the glory of God. Waiting for believers shouldn’t be difficult because we have surrendered our lives to Him and want His glory. Therefore we don’t want to move or speak without Him. May we learn that when He bids us wait, He is loving us. How important it is to learn this lesson early in our lives.
John 11:5-6 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was. Now Jesus loved…so He delayed. Wait! How do we respond when the love of God delays to act and bring healing and relief? John clearly wants us to know and believe that it was love for the sisters and Lazarus that motivated His delay. We may conclude from this that when He delays to relieve our suffering or answer our prayers, it is because He loves us and knows our greater need and highest good is to see His glory revealed in Jesus through the suffering. This lesson is life-changing, and only Jesus’ disciples have this understanding and apply in their lives. Something glorious happens when we wait on the Lord. God is at work when we wait upon Him in the faith and trust of Jesus who lives in us. Jesus was waiting on the Father, and so the sisters were waiting on Jesus. Their faith and love were being purified from self-focus to the glory of God focus. Where is He doing that in our lives so we may glorify Jesus by trusting His timing and love?
John 11:4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, "This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it." This verse deserves more meditation. Yesterday, I commented that God’s purpose for all things in the lives of those He loves is to glorify Jesus in them. This is a distinctively Christian foundational truth to be applied often, everyday of our lives. This means we know God is working all things together for good—His glory (Rom. 8:28) — and that every situation is an opportunity for the faith of Jesus to be revealed in us as we trust Him. The temptation to manipulate people and circumstances to get what we want or think is best faces all of us just like it did Mary and Martha. Contrary to natural fallen thinking, our best is not our comfort and happiness in this world. It’s seeing God make much of Jesus in our situations and suffering. This changes everything. Let God be magnified (Psalm 70:4)!
John 11:4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, "This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it." Lazarus’s sickness (which is a result of the Fall) has a greater end than the death he deserves—the glory of God. God’s purpose for the sickness was to glorify (bear testimony to) His Son. Is this a unique situation? I think not. It’s what Jesus believed about all of life and every difficulty the Father placed in His path. He believes the same about every storm God wills that we face. Jesus in essence said, “Don’t look at Lazarus’s condition, trust in God’s purposes and power in Me.” He is saying the same to us today about whatever troubles, afflicts, or assails us. God’s purpose for all things in the lives of those He loves is to glorify Jesus in them. This is a distinctively Christian foundational truth to be applied often, everyday of our lives.
John 11:3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." Mary and Martha knew Jesus loved Lazarus and would want to know of his illness, so they sent word to Him. Makes me wonder if others can see Jesus’ love for someone through me. I don’t think Jesus’ concern was to be seen to love. His love was as steady, constant, and genuine as His Father’s. He lived to love and it was obvious to the sisters. So they thought Jesus would want to know that Lazarus was sick. May God’s love be obvious in us today.
John 11:2 It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. This event isn’t covered by John until the next chapter, but it indicates how impressed John was with her extravagant love for Jesus. He wants us to be impressed as well with her reverence for Him. Maybe it’s to show us something about Jesus’ love for His Father as it relates to His love for Mary. We are often faced with pressure to please someone who is special to us more than pleasing Jesus. If we are going to live to love with Jesus, we need the lesson the Holy Spirit through John is to teach us about Jesus. Stay tuned.
John 11:1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. As I think about Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, I’m reminded of dear friends that God has given to us as gifts of His love. The Father gave them to Jesus so He and Jesus could love them. Who has God put in your life as special, dear friends that He wants to love with you? The idea comes to write a note of appreciation to them for being special friends. Love them with Jesus today.
John 10:33 The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” If it had been anyone else, they would have been right in their assessment. Even today, there are blasphemers who make themselves out to be God. By the way, be on the alert for the lie that suggests that we are all one with God because we are part of His creation. Jesus wasn’t making Himself out to be God, He is God. For Jesus to say that He was one with the Father and that His works are the works of the Father, distinguished Him from everyone else. I wonder what people think when we say that we are one with God and the works that we do are the works of Jesus. Let’s be clear in our testimony that we are not saying we are gods or are equal with God. However, we can say with humility and amazement, “We are united with Jesus and He lives, works, and loves through us for His glory.
John 10:32 Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” Jesus showed them the works of the Father. Works of healing on the Sabbath. The Jews couldn’t accept that the works of Jesus were the works of God, His Father, so they considered Him a sinner and an imposter. Does anyone see the disconnect? The disconnect was that they didn’t know God. If they had known God, they would have recognized the merciful and gracious works of Christ as the works of God. In the Law, Exodus 34:6, God proclaimed His name, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” Look how patient and kind Jesus was to direct their attention to His good works. That’s probably a good thing for us to do also. As we love with Jesus, let’s do His works (love) and give Him glory as Jesus gave His Father glory.
John 10:31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Did you notice the word “again.” After Jesus had said that He was the Light of the world and the Light of life, He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” In John 8:59, it says they picked up stones to throw at Him, but He hid Himself. Twice Jesus spoke plainly that He was the Son of God and was God in the flesh, and twice they took up stones to kill Him. It was the same evil spirit that rose up in Cain, a spirit of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. When bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are at work, a person is ready and willing to do harm to others. They wanted to kill Jesus because they didn’t like His truth. If His truth was truth, then “their truth” was a lie. My friends, we are watching the same spirit at work today. For those who think life is about being happy, significant, and being your best “you”, anyone living to love with Jesus is a threat to their living to love themselves. They will pick up stones to kill you. They are doing the work of their father who hates the work of God, the Father, revealed in His Son in us. But let’s not let that stop us from living to love with Jesus. Let’s love them with His love for His glory.
John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.” “Snatch them out of My hand,” said Jesus, and "…snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” Jesus told them plainly that He was the Christ—just like they asked Him in vs. 24. Jesus wasn’t a good man showing all mankind how to be your best you. He wasn’t a mere mortal who for a time had the spirit of the Christ upon him. He was the Christ in flesh. He was God the Father’s hand in this world. He was perfectly united with His Father. To see Jesus was to see the Father (John 14:9). To know the Father, and the one whom He sent, Jesus Christ, is to know and have eternal life. For the Jews, He was saying the truth. “When you look at Me, you are looking at God, the Father.” Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will, toward those with whom He is well-pleased. Jesus is Immanuel.
John 10:29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. Jesus’ sheep are given to Him by His Father. He is greater—more powerful—than any one who would like to snatch His sheep out of His hand. His sheep can’t be snatched out of His hand because not only are the sheep in Jesus’ hand, they are in the almighty, all-powerful Father’s hand. Our security isn’t based on what we do or don’t do. Our salvation isn’t based upon our good works. We are saved and have eternal life because of the Father’s sustained will toward our highest good, even if it cost the Shepherd’s life. He created us in Christ and gave us to Him forever. That’s security! However, those who are not His don’t need to be snatched out. They aren’t in the Father’s hand. They do not believe because they are not His sheep. They refuse to listen to His voice because they do not know His voice. We are living through a time in history where it appears that the devil is snatching sheep out of the midst of Jesus’ flock. He doesn’t have to snatch them, he can just call them. Progressive “Christianity”, which isn’t Christian at all, is calling his sheep out from His flock. The apostasy has begun. God is separating the world’s sheep from His sheep before He brings them into the fold.
John 10:28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. Don’t you love this verse?! Jesus is the giver of eternal life and every single sheep will be safely drawn into the fold—not one will be lost. What a comfort it is to be in the hand of Jesus Christ! How do we know if we are in His hand? We hear His voice and follow Him. We do not follow the voice of another shepherd. There are some sheep who are not of Jesus’ flock, who for a time, mix and mingle amongst the sheep of His flock while they are out in pasture. But they will never get into His fold because they are not His. Living to love with Jesus is the primary characteristic of Jesus’ sheep. It is God’s way of keeping His sheep in Jesus’ hand. Living to love with Jesus is the heartbeat of all sheep who have eternal life. They will never perish.
John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; Living to love with Jesus is like being an impersonator who sounds like another. We want to be sure our “voice” is the same as our Shepherd. He will speak through us if we speak with His words and His Spirit in love and care for His sheep. We can trust God to give His sheep ears to hear His voice as He puts them in our paths. May we speak of Him and His love. His sheep are waiting to hear His voice, and they will follow Him to the praise of His glory.
John 10:26 “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. Those who don’t believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, the Door, the good Shepherd, the Light of Life, the one who lays down His life for us, don’t believe because they are not His sheep. They follow another shepherd, the shepherd of the world. They recognize the voice of their shepherd, Worldly-wiseman, and they believe he is the door to significance, security, acceptance, and self-glory. Unbelief in God and in Christ characterizes all who are not His. You could tell them about Jesus all day long, and they will not have ears to hear. However, we can’t tell who are His sheep or who are not His sheep until we love and speak in Jesus’ name.
John 10:25. Jesus answered them when they asked Him, "If you're the Christ, tell us plainly," "I told you, and you do not believe the works that I do in my Father's name. These testify of Me."
What do these works testify of regarding Jesus? Just to name a few, the miracles testify that God is with Him. They tell us that Jesus's passion is for the name of His Father. They tell us that Jesus is the Christ, God in a body like ours. These testify that Jesus's words are true. As people hear, listen, and follow Him, it testifies that Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
Those who live to love with Jesus should say the same. We should say, "The works that I do, I do in the name of Jesus Christ. These testify of me that I'm a child of God and that Jesus lives in me." Jesus taught this in John 14:12-14. Let's think about this today: Are all of my works bringing glory to the name of Jesus? Do they accurately testify of who He is, and who I am as His disciple?
John 10:24. The Jews then gathered around Him and were saying to Him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.
Some people want to know who is the Christ. God may put one or more of them in our paths today. How can we tell who they are? Love them for their highest good, which is pointing them to Christ. When possible, make a statement that might beg a question. For instance, if you pray the live to love prayer daily, you could say, "It's nice to meet you. I prayed for you this morning." Then when they look at you with a puzzling inquisitive look, you can share what you prayed.
Don't keep them in suspense. Then say, "I prayed for you. I just didn't know your name, but God knew you and he loves you. Do you know Jesus?" Then if there's an opportunity, tell them plainly. Now that's a live to love with Jesus adventure.
John 10:22-23. At that time, the feast of the dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was Winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple and the Portico of Solomon. In 165 BC, when Judah Maccabee recaptured the temple, after it had been desecrated by a Syrian king, he ordered it to be cleansed, a new alter to be built and new holy vessels to be made. After these steps, the temple was rededicated to the Lord. However, unadulterated, undefiled, pure olive oil from the seal of the high priest was needed for the menorah, or the lamp stand, in the temple, which was required to burn throughout the night, every night. Unfortunately, only one flask was found with only enough oil to burn for one day.
Yet when the Jews poured in the oil, and lit the menorah, it burned for eight days. Well, of course, eight days is the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of kosher oil for the menorah. It is this miracle that is commemorated during the feast of dedication. It's also called the festival of lights or Hanukkah.
Jesus went to the temple to celebrate this wonderful work of God. That's what love for God does. Plus He is the light of the world. Jesus has recaptured our temple that has been defiled and desecrated by the world. Let's celebrate the work of God today that restored His temple so that it could be a holy place of worship to God. We celebrate that by living to love with Jesus.
John 10:21. In verse 20, there were some, many in fact, said, "He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to him?" Then John says, "Others were saying, 'These are not the sayings of one demon possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind can he?'"
Although many are afraid of Jesus, there are others who cannot deny what Jesus has done and who He is in spite of what we don't understand about Him, we believe and follow Him. Don't let what we don't know or understand hinder us from responding to what we do see, know, and understand. Jesus is the light of the world, and that light is His love.
Live to Love Scripture Encouragement, John 10.20. John 10:20 Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?” Hm. Why did people listen to Jesus? Let’s see. In the last 24 hrs, God testified about Him by healing a lame man and a blind man. He claimed that God was His Father and that He is the Light of life, the door to safety and peace, and the good shepherd. No one ever spoke with authority like Jesus. This being said, there are many people today who will think we are insane to listen to Jesus and love with Him. Let’s not be distracted or discouraged. Love on with Him!
Welcome to today's Live to Love Scripture Encouragement. John 10:19 A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words. The words of Jesus often cause division. They bring out what’s in the hearts of people. If there’s a good heart, humility gives Jesus access to their lives. If pride, His words are toxic to them and they find ways to dismiss, change, or censor them. Sometimes, when we love people, we must speak the truth, the words of Jesus (there are times when it’s loving to remain silent). But when we speak the truth, we should expect divisions to occur among those who think they know better than Jesus. The divisions are necessary to that we might demonstrate the love of Jesus through patience, forgiveness, empathy, or whatever expression of love He wishes to show for His glory.
The Live to Love Blog by Norm Wakefield for April, 2022. If we are serious about obeying Jesus' command to love in His name, then certainly it will be a primary focus of our prayer lives. This month, Norm introduces the "Live to Love" prayer, which will focus your heart on the heart of God and His purpose in your life.
John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” Jesus is the Door and the good Shepherd in Jesus’ parable. He’s a good shepherd because He will do whatever it costs to save His sheep—even to laying down His life. He is prophesying what He will do to save us and give us abundant life. God’s love: the sustained direction of the will (He lays) toward the highest good (salvation) of others (the sheep) no matter what the cost (His life). What a good shepherd we have! We are His sheep. We are saved! We are loved! Jesus, You are good indeed!
John 10:12 “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.” A new character enters the story. The hired hand. He’s not the thief or the robber. He has no ownership of the sheep and therefore won’t lay down his life for the sheep. When the wolf comes, he runs, which leaves the wolf free to snatch at will and scatter the sheep. So it is in churches where there are no shepherds, but the leaders are in it for themselves. They are afraid to love the sheep and confront the wolf. Who is the hired hand? The leader for hire. Who is the wolf? The devil and sin. Jesus came to face the wolf head on and lay down His life in order to save the sheep. That’s what love looks like. Have you put yourself into the hands of a hired hand (someone on earth that you pay with money or praise as your counselor/guide/shepherd) or have you given yourself to the good Shepherd? Be careful, there are many hired hands on the internet and social media.
John 10:13 “He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.” The hired hand is only concerned about his or her pay and personal safety, not the sheep. He or she cares only about the sheep to the degree that it results in reward, whether money or significance. Just like Jesus is the door and the shepherd, the Pharisees were the thieves and robbers and the hired hands. As we live to love with Jesus, let’s continually search our hearts and sanctify ourselves by dying to a desire to get a reward for loving others. As good shepherds, let’s lay our lives down willingly and lovingly for the sake of His sheep.
John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,” Jesus repeated His claim to be the good shepherd. He certainly didn’t want them to miss what He is. How comforting it is to know that He knows His own. He knows everything about us individually as well as collectively. And we each know Him. We know His voice. We know when He is near. We know that He loves us and will not let the wolf (sin) get us. This highlights two characteristics of both Jesus and His own. Of Jesus: He longs to know us and to be known by us. Of us: We know we are His and we know who He is (God’s Son), what He is to us (our Door and Shepherd), and what He does for us (saves us from sin). The man who had received sight was the subject in view. He no longer was blindly following the Pharisees who were also blind, hired hands, and thieves and robbers, but he knew He belonged to Jesus, knew His voice, and was following Him. We praise and thank You, Jesus, for knowing us and enabling us to know You.
John 10:15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” We are known and loved by Jesus as Jesus is known and loved by the Father. We know and love Jesus as Jesus knows and loves the Father. Don’t miss this. Jesus is going to unpack this relationship more in John 14. The Father and Son relationship is the pattern and source of the relationship between Jesus and His sheep/disciples/followers. Attitudes of trust and surrender permeate both relationships. This begs the question: Would God see these attitudes of trust and surrender permeating our lives and our relationship with Him? Love flows where trust grows, and it looks like surrender (laying down our lives). Jesus knows us like the Father knows Him. Out of that love relationship (of trust and surrender) between the Father and Son, flows our salvation and our lives, for our lives are hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).
John 10:16 “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.” Can you see, “What does He mean?” displayed over the faces of the Pharisees? I can’t help but think He was referring to the Gentiles—that’s all of us who were not born of Jewish descent. We have become one flock with all of the Jews who also heard His voice and followed Him. This “must bring them also” is the only reason Jesus hasn’t returned yet. Peter explained Jesus’ delay in returning based upon this great truth recorded in 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you (the beloved sheep), not wishing for any (of the beloved sheep) to perish but for all (of the beloved sheep) to come to repentance—and be brought into the fold. There is one sheep that will be the last one who He knows like the Father knows Him, and when that one has been brought into the fold, Jesus will return in glory to gather His flock into the fold. What a day that will be!
John 10:17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.” Isn’t this an amazing revelation? Jesus told the Pharisees why the Father continuously loves Him. It’s because He continuously lays down His life (implied for the sheep). “So that” is a purpose clause indicating that He gets His authority to take up His life again because He willingly, obediently, and continuously lays down His life. Resurrection follows death, not only in Jesus’ life, but also in ours. Living to love with Jesus is a continuous laying down of our lives willingly and obediently, knowing that God will raise us up with Christ. What humility, surrender, love, and glory are displayed in the life of Jesus, our Savior. Let’s remember and be amazed that His humility, surrender, love, and glory live in us.
John 10:18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” On the front side of the cross, you can see why the Pharisees were constantly scratching their heads as they listened to Jesus. However, from our post-cross perspective, our heads explode with wonder and awe. We know exactly what He was saying. The Father commanded Him to lay down His life and take it up again. So if the Father commanded it, then He has authority to do it. His death won’t be because He is a victim of men’s hatred and plotting. He put Himself into their hands (probably the very hands of the Pharisees to whom He was talking) to be killed of His own initiative in obedience to His Father. He knew they were trying to kill Him (Jo. 7:19; 8:37, 40). He wanted them to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He and the Father were in complete control. As we live to love with Jesus, let’s remember that we are never victims. We are in the hands of our Father, who loves us through our good Shepherd, who is with us. We lay our lives down by confronting sin, speaking the truth, forgiving, and loving those who who hate us and wish us harm.
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” If the voice isn’t that of Jesus, then loss, death, and destruction come upon those who follow the thief. Jesus came so the sheep may have abundant life. Why didn’t Jesus just say, “Hey, guys, follow Me and leave everything else behind”? I think it’s because He was jealous for the work of the Spirit. He simply and clearly stated who He is, who He came for, and why He came. Then He trusted the Father to work through the Spirit and open their ears and eyes to see and follow. That’s love for God and love for men being expressed. This helps us know what to do as we love those God puts in our paths who don’t know Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is the Door to God’s house. Who did He come for? He came for anyone who will hear, believe, and enter. Why did He come? He came t0o save us by leading us out of death into abundant life. Thank you, Jesus!
John 10:9 “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” Jesus spoke lovingly and clearly. He is the door through whom anyone may be saved and find satisfaction for the hunger of the soul. Such a simple gospel! When I read this, I leave this world behind and run into Jesus. He is my door, my salvation, my pasture. My soul runs to You, Jesus. I want to be in You, rest in You, and be satisfied in You so that You may be glorified. Thank You for enduring with me until my deaf ears were opened and my blind eyes received sight. I love You, enjoy You, am filled with You. Amen.
John 10:8 “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.” The sheep had been waiting for a long time for the voice of their shepherd. As He delayed in coming there were apparently many voices, voices of the thieves and robbers, calling out to them. Jesus explained to them why some people, like the man who received sight, followed Him instead of them. They finally heard the voice of their shepherd and could see to follow Him. The thieves and robbers are wolves in shepherds’ clothing. The entertainment, social media, academic, and religious world is filled with thieves and robbers. They try to get people to follow them instead of Jesus. We are not seeking to testify of ourselves, draw attention to ourselves, or make disciples for ourselves. That voice is distinctly different from Jesus’ voice. The sheep can tell the difference. Who one listens to and follows reveals something about one’s identity. Let’s help people distinguish between the voices.
John 10:7 So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. Look at the incredible patience of Jesus. They don’t understand, but He endured with them. If we live to love with Jesus, we will endure with those who don’t understand who Jesus is or who we are. Watch in this and the following verses how Jesus is clear and concise. In the figure of speech he used, He is the door. The way into God’s fold through whom God’s sheep may enter into a place of safety and warmth. To use a similar figure of speech, Jesus is the door to the ark. Jesus is our way into peace and security in a world with prey who are out to devour us. Stay outside the Door and be afraid. Enter through the Door and rest in peace. Thank you, Jesus!
John 10:6 This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them. Mark 4:11-12 gives us insight into God’s love for us. “And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.” God’s love for us is revealed in that He gives us ears to hear, love, and understand His word. As we love people, we will find some will understand and receive our love as from Him whereas others will not, just like the Pharisees to whom Jesus gave the figure of speech regarding Himself and the shepherd. Do we get what He said to them? If so, we are inside His fold. Rejoice and give thanks today! If not, ask Him to teach you.
Welcome to today's live to love scripture encouragement from John chapter 10:5. Jesus is speaking. He says, "A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." Pharisees were strangers to the now seeing man. He was fleeing from them because his heart had been taught to recognize Jesus for who He is.
The voices of the Pharisees were now foreign to him. He could no more follow them than a sheep would follow a stranger out of the fold and into the field. The fact that he would not follow them, said something about who they were. They were thieves and robbers, wolves in sheep's clothing. The voice of the world has no appeal to God's sheep. They will flee.
Does that describe you and me? It begs the question: who do we listen to? Who do we listen to reveals who we are. And it reveals whose we are. If we live to love with Jesus, we listen to Him and run from the voice of the world.
Thank you for joining me for today's live to love scripture encouragement from John chapter 10:4. "Jesus said, 'When He puts forth all His own, He goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice.'" Jesus takes the lead in the same way that a shepherd goes before the lead of the flock.
He sings, they follow. He speaks, they follow, because they know His voice. I say we live to love with Jesus. With Jesus, because the shepherd is always with his sheep. He guides by His Word, we follow, and we love all those He leads us to as we go through our day. Jesus was of course, describing His ministry to those who were His, like the blind man who was healed and could now see and know His voice.
The blind man was following Jesus instead of the Pharisees Now. That was obvious to them and it bugged them. They considered Jesus an imposter, the thief and robber of whom Jesus spoke. Quite the contrary. The now seeing man followed Jesus because he had become one of His sheep and he recognized Jesus as his shepherd.
The message seems clear enough for us today. If we are His sheep, se will follow Him because we know His voice.
Welcome to today's Live to Love scripture encouragement from John chapter 10:3. Jesus is still speaking. "To Him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear His voice and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out." In this statement, Jesus reflects on the shepherd and sheep leaving the fold. His focus, however, is still on the doorkeeper and the sheep recognizing the shepherd.
Who is the doorkeeper? It is God who lets both the shepherd and the sheep in and out. God recognizes Jesus as the one who has authority to bring the sheep in and out. The sheep also hear His voice. The sheep know they are His by name and will follow Him out.
I love this picture, don't you? We have a refuge, a haven of rest that Jesus leads us into for safety. Each day, we follow Him out into the world, trusting that He cares for us and will be with us.
We're living to love with Him. Imagine yourself today tuned into His voice and following His lead into the paths of righteousness, Having times of rest by quiet waters, and enjoying the restoring power of His love.
Welcome to today's Live to Love scripture encouragement. It comes from John chapter 10:2. "Jesus says, 'But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.'" Here, Jesus reflects on the entrance to the fold. The shepherd has access to the sheepfold. Jesus was saying that He has access to God. It's another way of saying, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father, but by Me," as it is written in John 14:6. The Pharisees considered themselves shepherds, the leaders of the people. Yet, here they were, unable to see the way into God's sheepfold. Instead, they were trying "some other way." This serves as a warning to us, that we need to have discernment about who we listen to.
Are we listening to the good shepherd? Or to someone who thinks he or she has progressed in their understanding to the point that they have found another way, a better way to live life, than to submit to Jesus Christ and God's Word, which reveals Jesus Christ. Really? Has the door changed? Is there another door? Jesus is the God man who enters by the door to the holy of holies.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John 10:1. "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door, into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber." Jesus was still talking to the Pharisees who asked if they were blind. Jesus had told them that because they say they see, they were blind and that their sins remained.
Notice how Jesus answered their question with a parable about the sheep and the door into the safe haven of the fold. Speaking in parables reveals where God is working and giving sight to the blind, or, where he is blinding those who think they see. Basically, Jesus was telling the Pharisees that they were thieves and robbers who had entered God's house to steal God's sheep.
Those thieves and robbers are evident in the church today as well. Those who deny that Jesus's atoning sacrifice is the only door to right standing with God, are robbers. Anyone who cannot see that Jesus was God in the flesh, sent to be our substitute so that our sins could be laid upon Him and then removed by His death. They've come to cause destruction. There's only one door and one Shepherd. Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John 9, 40 and 41. "Those of the Pharisees who were with Him, heard these things and said to Him, 'We are not blind too, are we?' Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no sin. But since you say, 'We see,' your sin remains." The Pharisees thought that they saw the world accurately, but they couldn't see that Jesus was the light of the world.
They were blinded by their sin. So obviously they were still in their sins. The blind man, and those like him who could see that Jesus was the light of the world were not in their sins. How is that? If one sees who Jesus is, one sees because God has given them sight. If God has given them sight, then it's because he's placed their sins upon his Son and they are justified in Him. They are His sheep, and His sheep see and hear the Shepherd. If they aren't his sheep, they're blind and deaf to the presence and voice of Jesus. And that's a lesson for another day. Stay tuned tomorrow as we begin to look at John chapter 10.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John 9:39. And Jesus said, "For judgment, I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind."
When Jesus visits us, God's judgment is revealed. He is just to give sight to the blind because of His work on their behalf in Jesus Christ. He is also just to not give sight to those who are proud and think they see, those who are not justified in Christ. Those who know they're blind see. And those who think they see, become blind. The presence of Jesus in this world makes God's judgment evident. As we live to love with Jesus, God's judgment is also revealed.
Some will be blind to His love and others will see and understand his love. It's not our place to judge. Our place is to love. God judges them by putting them in our paths and into the presence of Jesus. He judges us also by putting them in our paths. Do we love them with Jesus? If so, then we see and know Jesus.
Live to Love Scripture Encouragement. John 9:38 And he said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped Him. Notice the power of revelation. It produced faith, and faith was expressed through worship. Faith isn’t something we can generate. It’s a gift that comes through the power of faith which comes from hearing. The hearing comes by the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). It’s supernatural, which gives us confidence that He loves us and wants a relationship with us. Faith then works through love. That love, generated by the revelation of Christ, then produces worship. It’s like seeing something absolutely beautiful beyond words. Your soul has to express the wonder of what is seen and experienced. When we read God’s word, hear with our hearts, and see the beauty of Christ, our faith grows and our worship is fueled.
Live to Love Scripture Encouragement, John 9:37. Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you." Revelation! Revelation is the currency of relationship. It’s not that the man went looking for Jesus. Jesus went looking for him to reveal Himself so there could be a relationship. When Jesus reveals Himself, divine power operates. Eyes are opened. Darkness becomes light. One receives ears to hear. Knowledge and understanding grow. The Father brought this man to Jesus, and then Jesus pursued the heart. Do we recognize the presence of Christ and do we know who is talking to us through the relationships and circumstances in our lives? Look at your circumstances and see if you can see Jesus at work. Stay focused there until you hear His voice. God is at work to grow your relationship with Him. He loves you.
Prayer Changes Things. The Live to Love seed prayer plants a seed in your heart that will change the way you live your life. This month's Live to Love blog by Norm Wakefield will give you encouragement to pray a simple prayer that will set your heart and mind on the right track as you begin your day.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 23, 2022.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John 9:33. "If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." True, and the same is true for us. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. If the love of God flows at all through us, then we are from God. It is the proof that we are His, and that Jesus is from God.
For Jesus said, "By this, all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." That's John 13:35 and, "I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them, even as You have loved Me." That's in Jesus's prayer to His Father in John 17:23.
We are from God. So we can do something. We can live to love with Jesus.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 22, 2022.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John 9:32. "Since the beginning of time, it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind." That's true. And Jesus healed more than one blind man. Matthew 21:14, "And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple and He healed them."
What love, what compassion, what a powerful testimony the Father gave to validate His Son, so that we might believe in Him. The Pharisees and the Jews were without excuse as are all who know someone who has been transferred out of darkness into His marvelous light. Before this man's time, no one had ever heard of blind eyes being opened.
Now, 2000 plus years later, there are millions of testimonies attesting to the power of God to open blind eyes to see who Jesus is. Those of us who live to love with Jesus are the light shining in the darkness, the evidence that Jesus is God in the flesh.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 21, 2022.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John chapter nine, verse 31. It says, "We know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is God fearing and does His will, He hears him." God doesn't hear sinners. Yet, God hears His people when they pray. How can God hear them since they still sin?
There can only be one explanation. We find it in Hebrews 10:14, and in Colossians 1:21-22, "For by one offering, He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him, holy and blameless and beyond reproach." Because of God's grace to us through Jesus Christ, we are God fearing and do His will. We believe in Jesus and we live to love with Him. And God hears us when we pray, like He heard His Son.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 20, 2022.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John chapter nine, verse 30. "The man answered and said to them, 'Well, here is an amazing thing that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes.'" This is an amazing thing indeed. Millions of people have been healed of spiritual blindness and testify to have had their eyes opened by Jesus.
Nevertheless, their testimonies are denied and censored because they are a threat to other people's autonomy. They want to be the light of their own world, rather than Jesus. They say, "We see," yet they are blind and in darkness. Such a condition should elicit compassion, mercy and love from us, not criticism and blame.
Remember, we used to be there. Father, forgive them as you have forgiven us when we were amazingly blind. Let us love the blind as you loved the blind man and healed him.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 19, 2022.
Today's scripture encouragement comes from John 9:29. "We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from." Jesus had told the Pharisees and Jews, that God had spoken to him, John 8:28, but I speak these things as the Father taught me. He had also told them where he was from John 8:23. You are from below, I'm from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world.
There were some who knew where Jesus was from, but were still confused. Nicodemus, for instance, had said, "Rabbi, we know that you've come from God as a teacher for no one can do the signs that you do, unless God is with him." That's John 3:2.
There are some even today, like Nicodemus, who, even though they know where Jesus is from, remain in the dark. The contrast is stark like light compared to darkness. Those who know where Jesus is from know that He is the light and therefore walk with Him in the light of His love.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 18, 2022.
Today's scripture encouragement comes from John chapter nine, verse 28. "They reviled him and said, 'You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.'" The Pharisees thought they were disciples of Moses. However, they weren't. Jesus said that the law of Moses, the prophets in the Psalms spoke of Him. That's in Luke 24:44.
And had they really been disciples of Moses, they would have recognized Him. Everyone is a disciple of someone. The Pharisees received glory from one another and they sought their own glory, which means they were disciples of the one who gave them the most glory. We live to love with Jesus for his glory. May all the glory go to Him as He disciples us to love.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 17, 2022.
Today's scripture encouragement comes from John 9:27. "And he (that's the man whose eyes were opened) answered them. 'I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too do you?'" Why didn't the Pharisees listen the first time? My guess is that they didn't want to listen because they knew they would have to give up everything that they knew and had to follow Jesus. It appears that was the man's conclusion as well. When our eyes are open to see Jesus, we know everything is going to change. Did you give up everything to follow Jesus or did you continue in the same path with the same lifestyle and values?
Jesus came to call us to be His disciples, followers who live to love with Him. That changes everything.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 16, 2022.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John 9:26. "So they said to him, (that's the Pharisees to the blind man) 'What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?'" Again, there's no compassion or love with the Pharisees toward the man. They were only concerned about proving that Jesus was a sinner and an imposter.
Because we are all sinners, we must also be on guard against the blinding power of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. The apostle James wrote that wherever those two evils exist, bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, there's no wisdom, and disorder and every evil thing exists. When we live to love with Jesus, our hearts are in tune with Him.
We have wisdom from above lighting our path and giving us vision to see how to love with Him. Light from above led Jesus to the blind man and his light conquered the blind man's darkness. When we love, we are walking in the light with the light of the gospel.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 15, 2022.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement is John 9:25. "The blind man then answered, 'Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.'" The healed blind man stated the obvious, which implied that the Pharisees were blind. He was blind, but now he was healed and seeing the world around him.
However, he also had spiritual sight that the Pharisees lacked. He had experienced Jesus's mercy, compassion, and love. His eyes weren't open just because Jesus had the power to heal. When we love with Jesus, we experience his mercy, compassion, and love flowing through us to others. It's His superpower that opens the eyes of those who've been blind to who Jesus is. Never underestimate the power of Jesus's love as you love with Him.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 14, 2022.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John 9:24. "So a second time, they called the man who had been blind and said to him, 'Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.'" They gave the seer a second chance to agree with their blindness. In essence, they were pressuring him. Ignore the science and agree with what we say.
However, someone who has once been blind, but has come to see light and truth cannot ignore reality and defend the lie any longer. Even if the whole world were a raid against them, they see. Suffer what they may, they have no desire to return to the darkness in which they were imprisoned and tormented.
Did this man surrender to their control? You can find that out tomorrow. Will we surrender to those who want to control what we think and deny what we've experienced with Jesus? Jesus came to set us free from that darkness.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 13, 2022.
Today's scripture encouragement comes from John 9:20-23. "His parents answered them and said, 'We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but how he now sees, we do not know, or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him. He is of age. He'll speak for himself.'" His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.
For this reason, his parents said he is of age, ask him. It's amazing how powerful the threat of rejection is by those we want to impress or whose approval we think we need. Have you ever experienced that fear, fear that if you didn't say what was politically correct, that you might be cast out of the in-group or censored or lose your place of honor?
Have you ever felt pressured to go along with the popular narrative, even when you knew it was wrong? If you have, then you can relate to the blind man's parents. Believing and loving Jesus will cost us right standing with the world. In their eyes, if we stand for Jesus, we are enemies, troublemakers, and the scum of the earth.
Be encouraged by Jesus's words, found in Matthew chapter five, verse 11. "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me." May we not be afraid to testify with Jesus today, as we live to love with Him.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 12, 2022.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John chapter nine, verse 19. "And they questioned him saying, [that is, the parents] 'Is this your son who you say was born blind, then how does he now see?'" Maybe the parents could get them out of the dilemma by testifying that this was their son, that he was never blind.
Then it could all be declared a fraud. Or maybe they had another explanation that would allow them to deny the miracle and expose Jesus as a charlatan. As we will see, they have already decided what is true. They had a narrative regarding Jesus. They would not accept the truth because it would undo what they wanted to believe about themselves.
Therein lies the heart and truth of the matter. They were sinners, they were blind, they were condemned and guilty of murder in their hearts. Do you remember when you saw that truth about yourselves? That painful truth is what enabled us to see Jesus and surrender our lives to him. How do we now see? We have been loved by Jesus.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 11, 2022.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John 9:18. "The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight." This narrative shows us how difficult it is for people to believe in Jesus who don't want to give up their lives.
The Jews were still looking for a way to escape the reality that Jesus is Lord. It's not possible to believe unless God opens their eyes to see Him. And in this case, He only opened the eyes of one. The blind man. Many are being called but very few are chosen. This underscores what Jesus taught back in John 6:44 and 45.
He said, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them. They shall all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me." If your eyes have been opened to see and believe in Jesus, take a moment and give Him thanks and praise. And if you come up short on words, look at the last post and declare who He is.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 10, 2022.
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John 9:17. "So they said to the blind man, again, 'What do you say about Him since he opened your eyes?' And he said, 'He is a prophet.'" What do we say about Him who opened our eyes? He is a prophet? The prophet, yes. But isn't He much more? Join with me in praising Him.
He is the Son of God. He is the lamb of God. He is the one who saved my soul from eternal darkness and torment. He's the one who forgave my sins and made me whole. He is my light. The light of the world. He is my life - eternal life. He is the way the truth and the life. He is the lover of my soul. He is God with me. He is my hope of glory. He is my righteousness. He is my greatest treasure. He's the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. He knows me. He loves me, and I am His.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 9, 2022.
Today's Live to Love encouragement comes from John chapter nine, verse 16. "Therefore, some of the Pharisees were saying, 'This man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath,' but others were saying, 'How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?' And there was division among them." Division. Some are out to get Jesus and others could not deny the testimony.
Sometimes division is a good thing. It reveals something. The healing of the blind man revealed those who could see, that is, believe, as well as those who were blind, or disbelieved. The apostle Paul attested to the value of divisions, he wrote to the Corinthians, "For there must also be factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident among you."
Divisions bring out those of whom God approves. They trust in God and love. Those who are not approved trust in themselves and try to expose in shame those who disagree with them. When there are divisions, let's remember to always love, and let God who sees clearly, judge and testify to that which is true.
Live to Love scripture encouragement for Feb. 8, 2022.
Today's Live to Love encouragement comes from John 9:15. "Then the Pharisees also were asking him again, how he received his sight." That's the blind man that had been healed. And he said to them, "He applied clay to my eyes and I washed, and I see." Jesus wants us to see how blind the Pharisees were when faced with the obvious truth that Jesus is the light of the world.
When people are blinded by bitterness and jealousy, they cannot see the light because they don't want to. Their blindness was willful. Had they ever been given sight before, they would have rejoiced with the man. The fact that they didn't rejoice with him in what Jesus had done revealed that they had always been blind.
They didn't know what they didn't know. So all they could do was try to find fault and place blame. Have you ever been there? Love rejoices in that which is good. Let's remember that today.
Live to Love Encouragement for Feb. 7, 2022
Today's Live to Love scripture encouragement comes from John 9, verses 13 and 14. "They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind." You know, the crowd knew the Pharisees would want to question the man whom Jesus healed from blindness. They were more concerned about tattling on Jesus than they were concerned about knowing who He was.
They were caught up in the technicalities because as John wrote in verse 14, "Now it was the Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes." All this occurred on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles, a Sabbath. Remember, Jesus stood up, invited everyone in the temple who was thirsty to come to him and drink. The officers in the temple were afraid to bring him to the Pharisees because they said no one spoke like this.
Some believed in him, but the crowd was skeptical and confronted Jesus as to who He said He was. He told them He was, I am, and the light of the world. That settled it for them. They were sure He had a demon and they sought to stone Him, but He hid Himself and went out of the temple. That's when He met the blind man and healed him on the Sabbath. Technically working on a Sabbath was a sin and they viewed a healing as work.
This exemplifies the essence of spiritual blindness. One can't see what God is doing in the light, because they're in the darkness. It's the same today. As you live to love, don't be surprised if those who are blind, can't see His love and think you are at the least misguided, out of the mainstream, or crazy. And at the worst they think you have a demon. Love on.
Live to Love Encouragement for Feb. 5, 2022
John 9:11, "He answered, 'The man who's called Jesus, made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, "Go to Siloam and wash." So I went away and washed and I received sight.'" His eyes were open to see the light was Jesus. Now his story is notice Jesus. He did this. He told me to do this. So I obeyed and now I have received sight.
Notice, he didn't say, "I see," as if he had the ability of himself to see. He knew it was given to him to have sight. He didn't accept it, as if to tell everyone they ought to accept it. His testimony was that Jesus gave him the ability to see. Likewise, that is our testimony. The spotlight is on Jesus, His mercy, and power. God glorified His Son by giving us sight through Him.
We are living witnesses of the Father's testimony regarding His Son, that He is the Light of the World. We do that by living to love with Him and giving glory to Him. What a difference, from, "Notice me," to, "Notice Jesus." To God, be the glory.
Live to Love Encouragement for Feb. 4, 2022
John 9:10, "So they were saying to him, 'How then were your eyes opened?'" The change should be obvious. The next part of our story is to answer this question: How did you come to see? Those who knew we were blind beggars living to be noticed and walking in darkness can see that we're no longer begging for attention. They will want to know what happened to us.
Has the change in us been obvious? From beggars in the dark, to loving with Jesus in the light? I hope so. How would you answer the question, how then were your eyes opened?
Live to Love Encouragement for Feb. 3, 2022
John 9:9, "Others were saying, 'This is he.' Still, others were saying, 'No, but he is like him.' He kept saying, 'I am the One.'"
Not everyone recognizes who we used to be. We will have to keep saying who we used to be for God to get the glory. In fact, that's why we were blind and then given sight. We were born into darkness for this: to testify to the glory of God who gives sight to blind beggars clamoring to be noticed.
So part of our story is, I'm the one who used to be blind and begging to be noticed.