Obedience and the Fulness of the Holy Spirit

1^st August 2010

In the space of just a few verses, Jesus said:

John 14v15
"If you love me, you will obey what I command."

John 14v21a
"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me."

John 14v23a
..."If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching."

There's no getting around it: If you love Jesus, you will obey Him.

No-one obeys Jesus perfectly all the time. But when we became Christians (if we have become Christians) we were born again through repentance and faith. We repented: we decided to obey Jesus instead of doing what we think is best. And we put our faith in Him, believing that He had paid the price for our sin by dying on the cross, and that He would receive us into God's family and look after us. Thus we accepted the love of Jesus and chose to obey Him from that moment on. And although we still get it wrong sometimes, we want to obey Him, we know we are better off when we do, and we are convicted of our sin when we don't. If we really don't care very much whether we obey Jesus's commands or disobey them, then we're not Christians.

Now let's look at those verses again, this time with the words that immediately follow them:

John 14v15-17a
"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever — the Spirit of truth.

John 14v21
"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

John 14v23a
..."If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

Jesus promises us a reward for our obedience. He promises that God the Father and God the Son will come to us through God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will be our Counsellor. Through the Holy Spirit Jesus will show Himself to us, and through the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son will make their homes with us. If we love Jesus.

And if we love Jesus, we will obey His commands.

In the same passage, Jesus said:

John 14v24
He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.

Am I preaching a "gospel of works and not grace"? I don't think so. I'm doing little more here than quoting Jesus's words.

Everything we receive from God is His gift to us and is more than we deserve or could ever earn. But God is not mocked. He will not continue to pour out His power and love, He will not offer deep intimate relationship with Himself, to those who remain indifferent to His commands.

This leaves me with the question: If I were to more perfectly repent of my selfishness, laziness and judgementalism (for example) would I have a greater experience of God through His Holy Spirit? The answer is surely "Yes".