“Do we love Jesus Christ?”

            John 14:15–21 ¹⁵[Jesus said:] “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, ¹⁷even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

            If you break one commandment you have broken them all, there is a formula to prove this.  Let’s say you broke the eighth commandment, this is actually the commandment broken most if you could single a commandment out.  First you gossiped about your neighbor, friend, or family member, this we all know.  Second you broke the second greatest command (Mark 12:31) which means you did not love your neighbor as yourself or as God loves you.  The second greatest command summarizes the last seven commandments, oops, here we go!

            When you slander someone you have stolen their reputation, harmed their reputation, and somewhat tried to kill their reputation.  You just broke commandments 5, 7, and 8.  Wait, we’re not finished, I know, oh darn.  You coveted the person’s life as well as you are trying to take away from them their own very personal property, “and anything that belongs to him. (10^th Commandment)” Now you broke commandments 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10.  You say commandment 9 deals with the persons house…, well is that person like yourself not a temple of God?  

            Matthew 25:40 ⁴⁰ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

            What we do or not do to one another we also do or not do to God.  That is breaking the greatest command (Mark 12:30), loving God, which summarizes the first three commandments.  So how can one keep the Sabbath day holy if he is sinning against his brother?  When we slander one another we also slander God and use His name in vain, we are supposed to love one another through God’s commands, grace, and mercy.  And when we feel that we are greater than one another that we can slander our neighbor, friend, or family member, we become the idol and we put ourselves before God.  Wait a second, if this is all true then none of us loves God because none of us keeps God’s commandments!

            Well…, why do you think our Christ knew we needed a helper and gave us one?  We all govern our actions based on our desire that comes from our sinful nature, maybe not all of the time, but surely a lot of times.  One’s nature is one’s characteristics of self governing and personality; we look at our own desire first and then others at times, and God’s desires last. 

            Can we change our sinful nature, no, can we change our desires, yes, but only if you really want to?  The change is easier with the Helper and the Word of God, which is, the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures and the salvation we receive through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Christ wanted to make sure that there is always a means to escape the prisons we put ourselves into.  And the best part of Christ’s plan is that we do not have to do it alone, one, and two He gives us freely the ultimate escape through our salvation that He paid for Himself.  What do you think loving God and loving your neighbor means?

            Ephesians 4:16 ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

            This is a faith family of which is in the likeness of Matthew 25:34-40 that we love one another, and realize our love for one another transfers to God (Matt 25:40). Yes! We do love God at times!  Though we love God at times we certainly do not do this perfectly and we act more like orphans who have no parental guiding.  That is why Jesus Christ also said…

            John 14:15–21 ¹⁸“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. ²¹Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

            Christ did not leave us on our own because He knows that none of us can be perfect enough to bring us into the fold of God’s love.  So Christ took the punishment for our sins so that we are forgiven and adopted into His love.  The punishment has been served, our repentance has been noted, and God our Father looks down upon us and sees a people He has called us to live in His love.  It is true, Christ died so that we can live in an eternity filled with love, joy, and pure relationship with our God.  This is Gospel, this is love from our Father in heaven who sees though we rebel, we are still worth loving, and He sees it through the loving lens we call Jesus Christ the Father’s only begotten Son.  Amen.