God- Love Me. Jesus- Love Me.
Exo_20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Pro_8:17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
Pro_8:21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.
Joh_8:42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh_10:17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
Joh_14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Joh_14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Joh 6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Joh 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Jesus spoke these words Himself- If ye love me keep my commandments.
Does that make His love conditional?
Or is it a natural result of our love for Him, keeping His commandments?
Can we say that if we aren't keeping His commandments that we don't love Him?
We can't keep His commandments and by our own works receive salvation, that's a fact. Our actions cannot save us, beyond believing in Jesus Christ's sacrifice. Salvation doesn't come by works- we are saved by grace not of works, God's word tells us so. (Ephesians 2:8,9)
Then where does the keeping of the commandments out of love come in?
Again, it's LOVE first, the GRACE first, by which we are saved that precedes our keeping the commandments, right?
We can't exclude the keeping of the commandments as if they don't matter especially when Jesus' own words tell us that IF we love Him we will keep them.
If we aren't keeping His commandments does that mean we need to examine our love for Him to check whether to see if it is genuine or not?
What prevents us from keeping his commandments after we love Him?
The standard has to be an ever seeking to live as Jesus would have us live and when we fall short of the mark, we seek forgiveness with true heart repentance.
We cannot make our seeking of forgiveness something that is perfunctory, because that is not true repentance, right?
Whenever we realize we've acted in a way contrary to loving as Christ would have us love- by keeping His commandments (summed up in two- Love God, Love Others, but detailed in the Royal Law, the Ten Commandments) - we have to repent from the heart, recognizing our failure, recognizing our constant need of forgiveness.
We run into great trouble when we are lulled by the words we speak without any attachment to our heart.
In Jesus' day he spoke of those who put on a great show of belonging to God, but they did not. This is a warning for us today too.
We have a guideline to salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Him, and He, as the spokesperson for the guideline goes far beyond - For God so loved the world that He gave His uniquely begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Our belief in our Savior goes way beyond being simple, it is to be incorporated into every aspect of our lives. It is a living faith.
John 3:16
John 14:15
These are all Jesus' word.
Jesus wouldn't tell us to keep anything if we were to stop at simply believing. It's not mere acceptance and then forgetting and going about our lives as usual. To believe in Him and not perish- is to know who we are believing in. A living Savior who left us a wealth of information on what it means to believe in Him and love Him.
We can never let ourselves forget these words--
'You believe one is God. Well you are doing! Even demons believe (that) and shudder.'
(Direct Greek Translation) James 2:19
Demons believe God exists.
The entirety of this passage- KJV version-
Jas 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
Jas 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
Jas 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Jas 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Jas 2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
Jas 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
Jas 2:24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
The work is to believe, and that belief is realized in our actions, our lives. There comes a result from believing and it's not our boasting that at some point in our life we accepted Jesus as our Savior. It's being able to say that at some point in our lives we accepted Jesus as our Savior and we NOW live for Him!
