Jesus replied, ”Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
Today we complete the verse that we started in yesterday’s post. Jesus promises that love for Him opens the door to He and the Father coming into your life and living there. The last five words add a flavor to this verse that I find appealing. Jesus says that He and the Father will come and “make our home with them.” The God of the universe is willing to move into your life and take up residence!
In this context, the conditions of love and obedience take on a special meaning. God’s caring for us does not stop when we disobey. Willful disobedience is not an environment that God can sanction. In Matthew 5: 21-22 Jesus equates being angry with committing murder. How can the God of love live in a heart filled with anger?
It seems to me that the question posed here is important. At the same time, I do not want to be misunderstood. I am not suggesting that our salvation is contingent on what we do. In other words, I believe that Jesus is able to save anyone who turns to Him for salvation. Even people who struggle with harboring hate in their heart.
Yet if we want to live an abundant life while we are in this world, we need God in our life. To have God in our life every day, we must be willing to obey his teaching that we love Him above all else and our neighbor as ourself.
Let’s Discuss: What is the impact of having God move in and make his home in your life?
It means that God loves us enough that the sin is paid for and is thus gone. We are considered as innocent and justified because of the work of the cross. It is remarkable that He loves us and desires us so much that He will reside in a sinful person such as myself. He made us holy so that we could live with the holy dwelling inside us. Thus also means I desire to live a holy life that reflects my position in Christ.
The impact is that I am sanctified from the inside out, not merely by my own efforts. It also means that I am a Temple of the living God – his abiding presence is in me. So everywhere we go we are a temple – a place of worship to Yahweh. Everything we do should be holy and set apart as worship to the Lord.
Rich & Nathan,
I appreciate your comments! You are making me rethink the position I took in today’s post. I think my words sound more either/or than I intended. Rich points out, correctly, that God chooses to reside in sinful people (not just Rich! 🙂 ) and we all qualify on that score. God does this because of the work of Jesus on the cross.
The point I was trying to get to somewhat awkwardly is the idea that we choose to cooperate with our Lord or to resist Him. He gives us a clear goal; love. He defines the impact of that love by our choice to obey – at whatever level we are able. (At this point we are only able to look at ourselves, not others. Only God knows the heart.)
So I think I would qualify my post by adding that this is a personal challenge, not one for me or anyone else to judge another person on. I would also add that not being able to obey as we would like does not preclude God from working in our lives. Otherwise who would God be able to help?
There’s line in an old song that goes “and the things of this world will grow strangely dim, in light of His glory and grace”. I feel like that describes my answer to today’s question. With the holy spirit within me, I just don’t care about the things of this world the way I used to.
Thanks RS! What a beautiful comment!