August 14, 2023
Passage Read: John 15-16
Meditation Verse: 15:6
Thought
It's either remain in Jesus or perish. There is no other option. To remain in Jesus requires obedience to His commands and holding fast to them. His number one command is to love other believers as Jesus loved His disciples. He's speaking specifically to the Eleven, and He loved them by teaching them the truth about Himself and His Father before dying for them. He modeled compete obedience to His Father, which is love for God and results in love for people. Even in His submission to death, He is showing compete obedience to His Father.
Application
Jesus taught His disciples many things, and the Spirit continued teaching them and reminding them of Jesus' teachings. They in turn taught those who believed through them all that Jesus taught them, and their teachings have been collected in the Scriptures. To remain in Jesus, I need all the Scriptures; to remain in Jesus' love I need to seek to understand and obey all He has commanded. And John says later that His commands are not burdensome, not to those who truly surrender themselves to Jesus. It does require a complete change of worldview and life priorities, but then it all becomes clearer.