JOHN 14:15
"If you love me, you will obey my commandments.”
JESUS is telling us here that the authenticity of our discipleship will be readily evident in how we respond to what He has told us. If we do not love our neighbors as ourselves, if we do not forgive as we have been forgiven, if we are hypercritical and judgmental, if we hold anger and resentment in our hearts, if we do not love as we have been loved, in spite of what we profess, irrespective of what we might claim, we are not His disciples. His true disciples practice what He has preached.
They are not practicing what He preaches in order to become His disciples, but rather they are practicing what He preaches because they have been transformed; they love Him and have been enabled through His power to keep (obey) His commandments. So salvation is not through works but is evidenced by our works.
JESUS is clearly calling for a positive response to His commands—message. He is calling us to hear and to obey.
He is asking us to take a long hard look at our own lives to see where we are spiritually.
2 Corinthians 13:5
“Test yourself to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you not recognize for yourselves that JESUS CHRIST is in you - unless you fail the test?"
JESUS is calling us to a serious time of self-examination because the results of our response to His message are eternal. Our obedience matters.
Because JESUS Is LORD,
Pastor Wally & Sister Mattie