Category: Obedience

Philippians 2: 8-11a–“…he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,”

…the decision to become human, and to go all the way along the road of obedience, obedience to the divine plan of salvation, yes, all the way to the cross…It was a decision about what it really meant to be divine…to be equal with God. As you look at the incarnate son of God dying on the cross the most powerful thought you should think is: this is the true meaning of who God is. He is the God of self-giving love. [Wright, N.T. Paul for Everyone, Philippians]

This is God’s good order that Jesus lived and secured, and when the Holy Spirit came to live in each of us, we also received this good order that reorders our entire being and existence. The obedient love of Jesus became God’s eternal victory, and He gave this victory to us! When we confess ‘Jesus is Lord’, we are also believing and receiving this victory – His Lordship over our lives. This is our faith. This is our loving Jesus.

Let’s pray and ask God to help us daily offer and surrender every part of our lives to the Lordship of Jesus, that we may pour out our hearts and souls in living out obedient love in worship of Jesus, for He alone is worthy! As we pray, let’s also worship in song with Greatest Hallelujah (M. Redman) (click here).

-CH

John 14:22-23–Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” ²³ Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

The word “home” or “dwelling places” is the same word used in John 14:2 – In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

Jesus Christ, God-Incarnate, made his dwelling among the people. After His death and resurrection, He returned to the Father and is preparing a dwelling place for us in the Father’s house. But here and now, through the Holy Spirit, God is not just present with us, but is also making His home in the hearts of those who love Jesus and obey His commands.

This means that God will reveal Himself not only to us, but also through us by His Spirit. The life of obedient love is far greater than we can comprehend or contain, because it is beyond us. But the promise of God is that we will not only live it, we will also be transformed. As God makes His home in us, we become like Him. By the Holy Spirit in us, we are also given the grace of responding and reciprocating love for God through a life of obedient love.

Let’s pray and say yes, Lord, may there be more of Jesus and less of me.  Let’s ask God to fill us with His grace that we may love Him through a life of obedient love. As we pray, let’s worship God with this song – More Like Jesus (Passion) (click here).

-CH

John 14:21 – They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.

This dynamic union of loving the Lord and keeping His commandments is “not simply a matter of shared ideas or feelings but of shared life. The love is reciprocal – those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them. This verse does not deny the love God has for all his creatures, but rather speaks of the fulfillment of that love in a qualitatively new way for those who are in the Son. Believers are those who have entered into the same reciprocity of love that unites the Father and the Son. Jesus says that he himself will love such a disciple and will show himself to him or her. Thus, Jesus will remain in personal contact with his disciples…he will remain in relationship with them although the relationship will exist in a new form. [Whitacre R.A. The IVP New Testament Commentary, p.361,]

We, in Christ, share in the love that is between the Father and the Son! This love is the Father’s committed, intimate, life-creating, covenant love, perfectly reciprocated by the Son in obedient love. And then there is even more – the Lord will reveal himself to us! The key to obedience, to all of life, to worshiping God is to know God like this.  Let’s confess our need to know God like this. Let’s pray and ask God to deepen our roots in this love and also for His power to grasp and know how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.

-CH

John 14:18-20“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. ¹⁹ In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

The disciples may have wondered – “is Jesus abandoning us?” But Jesus promises that they will see Him.

The fact that the disciples will see him suggests his coming spiritual presence with them is not in view, and the fact that the world will not see him rules out the second coming. So, most likely, he is speaking of his appearance after the resurrection, at which time he will impart the Spirit to them. Not only will they not be abandoned, with Jesus’ return after the resurrection they will enter into the new kind of life he has been revealing throughout his ministry…This salvation is a matter of life: Because I live, you also will live. They will live because they will be united to him by the Spirit and thus come to share in the life of him who is resurrection and life. All of this is made possible by Jesus’ own death and resurrection. [Whitacre, R.A. The IVP New Testament Commentary, p.360]

We now share in Jesus’ resurrection life. Who we are and what we live is resurrection life from which obedience flows. “…I no longer live, but Christ lives in me…” (Gal 2:20). Let’s ask God to help us believe this truth even more, and let’s thank and praise God for His resurrection life – His obedient life of love that He has given us in Christ. Let’s also worship God in song with “No Longer I” (Matt Redman) (click here).

-CH

John 14:15-17

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. ¹⁷ This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

The uncompromising connection between love for Christ and obedience to Christ repeatedly recurs in John’s writings…The first entailment of the disciples’ love for Jesus is their obedience; the second is that Jesus will ask the Father to provide them another Counselor to be with them forever. [Carson, D.A. Pillar New Testament Commentary, pp.498-499]

“Advocate” – The Greek word translated to Advocate here is parakletos. It is also translated as Counselor, Comforter, or Helper.

“another” – The Greek word translated to another is allos and means another of the same kind… Jesus was comforting His disciples by assuring them they did not need to be troubled at his leaving because the Helper or Counselor he would send was just like him! There would be no loss in the exchange. So much are they the same that in Romans 8:9 the Apostle Paul calls the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of Christ.” [Hughes, R. That You May Believe, pp. 343-344]

Jesus’ promise has been fulfilled. The Spirit of Truth – the Spirit of Christ lives in us! This empowering presence of God enables us to love Him and obey His commands. This is who we are, so let us embrace this afresh today and pray for our lives and for our churches, that God would empower us more to believe and live obedient love.

-CH