He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
Not keeping Christ's teachings proves a person does not love Him, and keeping them proves love for Him, and this is the test of love, loyalty, discipleship and genuine Christian character. His teachings and sayings are His commandments and words, which are the same as the precepts of the moral law that is perfect and the transcript of God's character, to be kept in steady willing daily obedience. The message heard from Him is not His alone but the Father's who sent Him, spoken with the Father's authority as God's voice and revelation of His character. Those who so love Him and keep His words are loved by the Father, receive His manifestation not given to the world, and have the Father and Son come to dwell with them with the Spirit of truth abiding in them forever. This divides all people into only two classes, those who obey God's law and those who violate it, and that loyalty or disloyalty in obedience decides future destiny and eternal welfare.
Setting in Farewell Discourse
The saying was given in the upper chamber after Judas had left, when Christ was alone with the eleven and looked upon them with divine love and tenderest sympathy concerning His approaching separation from them. It was spoken to keep their hearts from being troubled, as part of His farewell words in John 13-17, while a cruel death was just before Him. It belonged to the instruction He gave them there before leading them through the city toward the Mount of Olives. He first directed their thoughts to the great object of His mission which He kept ever before Him, His joy that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name.
It was spoken just before the crucifixion in answer to a disciple's question how He would manifest Himself to His disciples and not to the world. The disciples thought only of an outward, visible manifestation and did not understand a spiritual manifestation and an unseen spiritual presence. That promise to manifest Himself while remaining invisible to the world was a mystery to them, and they could not take in His words in their spiritual sense.
It belongs to the farewell words in John 13-17 and especially John 14, in which God's will is plainly outlined and is to be believed and lived out. That portion contains the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. It is full of instruction for Christ's followers, instruction that only the Son of God could give, which the Spirit enables people to understand with new enlightenment. It reveals a love that passes knowledge, with the ascension to prepare mansions and the promise to come again. It is to be studied by workers with hearts open to receive divine instruction, carefully and prayerfully with softened heart.
Its surrounding teaching is to be impressed upon minds as one whole, joined to the promise of the Comforter who teaches all things and brings all Christ's words to remembrance. With it belong the gift of peace that forbids a troubled and fearful heart, and the announcement of going to the Father and coming again to cause rejoicing and belief. With it belongs also the proof of love for the Father by doing His commandment when the prince of this world comes with nothing in Christ. The words carry the Father's authority, and loving Jesus is shown by keeping His teachings, for Father and Son work in partnership. That instruction presents a partnership in which people work while God works in them, with power and efficiency from God while responsibility rests with the human worker, and ministry built on Christ lest the work fail if divine agency is left out.
It gives words of courage and comfort near the close of His earthly ministry, words of encouragement and hope that give true believers strength and assurance to stand firm through trials. It made the disciples acquainted with His purposes and plans, reminded them of His love, and was meant to strengthen them for future trials and temptations. They were to be sorely tried, and the promise of the Comforter assured them they should not lose their faith under the most trying circumstances.
The chapter presents God's love for the world and teaches that when people draw near to God He draws near to them, and when anyone takes a step toward Jesus He advances toward them. Its words carry deep meaning, which the Holy Spirit makes clear when the Word is received into the heart and applied in cooperation with the human will, for merely reading its literal words or keeping truth outwardly does not bring understanding or transform character. Its promises are affirmed in Christ and faith is to be cultivated in practical life under every circumstance, including belief that Christ is the only Savior. When lived out in practical life this instruction cures dissension and brings unity with one another and with Christ in love, while dissension and self-seeking bring weakness. It teaches eternal life through Christ, so that the believer has the Saviour's life in him and his life hid with Christ in God, is made one with Christ in this present life to be one with Him throughout eternity, receives the more abundant life Christ came to give, and though he may die as Christ died will be raised up at the last day.
The disciples were slow of heart to comprehend such statements and understood them only imperfectly at the time, for which Christ reproved them. He promised that the Holy Spirit would recall His sayings to their minds as truths they had not before understood. This He fulfilled after the resurrection by opening their understanding of the Scriptures. They had yet to learn that the inward spiritual life, fragrant with the obedience of love, would give them the spiritual power they needed.
The instruction bears on the competing claims of heaven and earth, on the danger that love of the world can crowd out love for God, and on the need to keep a better world in view. Given shortly before the crucifixion, with obedience to Christ's sayings as the true mark of love for God and with Christ's words as the words of the Father who sent Him, it applies to those living in the last days.
Love Tested by Obedience
Failure to keep Christ's sayings proves lack of love for Him, while keeping them proves love, and this keeping or not keeping is the test of love for Jesus, of loyalty and disloyalty to Christ, of discipleship, and of genuine love and Christian character as opposed to mere words, profession, or a form of godliness. His sayings are His commandments, words, and teachings, and love is shown by having His commandments and keeping them and by keeping His words. That love is measured by keeping His commandments and words in steady, willing, daily obedience that is understood and lived out each day. Such obedience is possible only when a person is in Christ and Christ is in that person, and under the covenant of grace where provision for salvation has been made.
Christ's commandments are the same as the precepts of the moral law, which is perfect and is the transcript of God's character reflecting what God is. Obedience to that law belongs to the plan of salvation for which no other foundation can be laid, and it accords with the law Christ upheld and with the Father's will. That obedience does not make God's law abolishable and does not set aside God's principles of righteousness. Obedience does not earn God's love but follows receiving it as a free gift, and holding up Christ as righteousness does not do away with the law or detract from its dignity but glorifies it through light reflected from the cross, spiritually discerned.
Genuine repentance and conversion are shown not by words or profession but by forsaking sin and obeying God's commandments. Keeping His commandments means having light about what they require and refusing to disobey even when disobedience appears advantageous. Loyalty is shown by keeping His commandments and accepting God's word even when obedience involves a cross, and following Christ requires faithfulness to God's commands even when this sets believers apart from their neighbors. Keeping His word is the test of discipleship and requires openly following the truth rather than hiding faith to please neighbors. Christ's followers demonstrate love by obeying His words, which include teaching others to observe all He commanded.
Love is tested by faith working through love and purifying the soul, and keeping God's commandments includes loving God and neighbor. Claiming to keep the commandments without love is no proof of obedience, because love must be present. Indifference to His specified teachings misrepresents His character. A life of self-indulgence and self-chosen standards is not true discipleship, and a self-pleasing person becomes a disciple by accepting Christ's yoke of obedience and learning His meekness and lowliness.
Along with the surrounding sayings, the verse presents obedience to Christ's words as the measure of sincere love and as an expression of God's love for fallen humanity. It is connected with Christ's perfect obedience to God's Word and will, with Christ's life as the model of obedience. In that pattern living faith works by love, and those who do God's revealed will come to know the doctrine.
Word as Father's Word
The word heard from Christ is not His alone but the Father's who sent Him. His words were not spoken independently of the Father but come from the Father with the Father's authority. They are the voice of God, a message from God and the Father's revelation, consistent with revealing God's character. Those who claim to be Christians must therefore comply with its conditions. They are full of comfort, hope, and assurance, and they set the conditions of salvation, to believe the words given in the living oracles of God and to bring them into practice by doing them. To be a doer of His words is to have the Light of life and not walk alone in darkness.
Practicing His teachings means obeying the Father's word, and rejecting His words is also rejecting the Father's word. Obedience to Christ is therefore obedience to the Father. Christ's own obedience to the Father's commandment shows that His teaching and mission are in accord with the Father. This obedience distinguishes the obedient from the disobedient and helps identify what is genuine. Through His grace believers obey and develop the character God requires as proof of fitness for an inheritance with the saints.
Christ continually received from the Father so that He could communicate to others. Through communion with God and the Holy Spirit He received words freshly given from heaven. They were suited to bring light and timely help and to comfort the weary and oppressed. His ministry of giving heaven's light and words to others was for others, for He lived to serve rather than for Himself.
He took human nature to connect with man and to use the faculty of speech to make God known as He is. This is the highest practical use of speech, to communicate to others what God has communicated after reason has been set to learn of God. He was the greatest teacher the world ever knew, imparting knowledge with speech that was simple, clear, and plain.
Promises to the Obedient
Those who love Him by keeping His words are loved by the Father, receive Christ's manifestation while the world does not, and have the Father and Son come to make Their abode with them, with Christ abiding in the heart and the Spirit of God abiding with them. They receive another Comforter to remain forever, even the Spirit of truth, not merely a profession of truth or a form of godliness, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see or know Him, but His followers know because He lives with them and in them. God becomes their helper in emergencies and perplexities through steady, willing, daily obedience understood and lived out, which is possible only when a person is in Christ and Christ is in that person.
Dependence for keeping His word rests on the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends in Christ's name to teach all things and bring all Christ's words to remembrance, ready to cooperate with all who receive and are taught by Him. The promise to manifest Himself to disciples while remaining invisible to the world was a mystery to them because they thought only of an outward visible manifestation and did not understand a spiritual manifestation and unseen spiritual presence, and they could not take in His words in their spiritual sense though He longed to give them encouragement and comfort for sore trial. They had yet to learn that the inward spiritual life, fragrant with the obedience of love, would give the spiritual power they needed, and that the Holy Spirit as Christ's representative and Advocate would constantly plead for the fallen race that spiritual power might be given to overcome spiritual foes by One mightier than all enemies of God and man. All who lay hold on truth and are sanctified through truth are so united with Christ that they represent Him in word and action, having put on Christ with power to reveal truth to others and give the bread of life to those in transgression and sin with words as choice as gold.
That indwelling enables doing His will in watching, praying, and acting in harmony with His words in cooperation with divine agencies. Obedience brings abiding love and full joy so there is no joyless religion, and upon the obedient the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing. Whoever wears Christ's yoke walks cheerfully and bravely bears the cross, becoming a partaker of the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust. Continuing in God's love requires implicitly obeying all His commandments, and full and entire obedience brings abiding joy that is full, not mourning, doubt, and uncertainty.
Obedience is the first price of eternal life and the condition for Heaven to impart power through the revealed Holy Spirit and for fitness for an inheritance with the saints. Through Christ's grace believers obey and develop the character God requires. Those who believe and obey receive the richest endowment of grace making wise unto salvation, patient, forbearing, quick to perceive heavenly ministrations, quick to discern Satan's devices, and strong to resist him, while unbelief shuts out God's mighty works.
His words carry the Father's authority as the voice of God, full of comfort, hope, and assurance, and set the conditions of salvation to believe the words given in the living oracles of God and bring them into practice by doing them. Being a doer gives the Light of life and keeps from walking alone in darkness. Believers must look into the mirror of God's law to see whether they conform to the divine requirements, and if character is defective must not forget what manner of person they are but strive earnestly to overcome faults and banish all selfishness from the heart, and as they do this the joy of heaven will fill the heart, strength is found in the Saviour, He will enter as an abiding guest, His righteousness will go before them and the glory of God will be their rearward.
Keeping God's commandments and Christ's words is a condition for receiving God's gifts and having prayers answered, so those who act against His expressed will should not expect to receive what they ask. Following the light received leads to greater light. The joy of knowing Christ as righteousness, with ardent faith and hope, belongs only to those who so love and keep Him. Holding up Christ as the only source of strength, with the guilt of men's sins charged to His account and His righteousness imputed to man, does not do away with the law or detract from its dignity but places it where correct light shines upon it and glorifies it through light reflected from the cross of Calvary, complete and full in the great plan of salvation only as presented in the light shining from the crucified and risen Saviour, which can only be spiritually discerned.
Exposure of Disobedience
Not keeping His sayings proves lack of love and gives the test of loyalty or disloyalty to Christ, dividing the world into only two classes, those who obey God's law and those who violate it, the same two classes recognized in the Judgment. That loyalty or disloyalty in obedience is the test applied to every human being as it was to Adam and Eve and decides future destiny. Obedience or disobedience to His commandments decides eternal welfare, for now is the time of probation, test, and trial to be obedient and respect the commandments that are the rule of God's government in heaven and on earth. The word heard is not His alone but the Father's who sent Him.
Disobedience cannot be excused by saying God's commandments cannot be kept, for that plea repeats Satan's insinuation against God in heaven. Christ stands before God with the marks of crucifixion upon His body as a living witness that the law can be kept, proving the problem is not inability but refusal to yield a stubborn will. The disobedient give testimony by their lives that they love not Christ and choose the risk of being bound up in bundles with the transgressors of God's law, while those who love give living testimony that they are commandment-keepers, loyal and true. All are therefore pressed to decide whose side they are on, to leave the banner of revolt under the great rebel and stand wholly under the banner of Christ.
Refusing a plain Thus saith the Lord to accept the word and commandments of men dishonors God's law and compels consciences to respect human laws and enactments. Such a course exalts the human above the divine, refuses Christ as ruler, receives and teaches the commandments of men as the commandments of God, and joins the first great apostate. The choice between obeying God's commandments and accepting human commands in their place affects eternal welfare, and exalting human authority above God rejects Christ's rule.
Those who do not love and obey do not know or value the truth because they do not see or love Christ and the Father, and this distinguishes those who serve God from those who do not. Rejecting that word places a person with the world that rejected Christ, for loyalty is shown by keeping His commandments and accepting God's word even when obedience involves a cross. Disobedience and failure to practice His teachings lead to variance among His people, for self-will and choosing one's own way are contrary to God's will. Those who disregard His words lack His love, wisdom, peace, light, and mind.
Casting His words behind to seek refreshment from human sources, or hugging unbelief, doubt, anxiety, and complaint, leaves the soul without peace or comfort. That course grieves the Spirit, separates from God's care and guardianship, and leaves without excuse, for His words carry the Father's authority and are the voice of God, full of comfort, hope, and assurance, setting the conditions of salvation to believe the words given in the living oracles and bring them into practice by doing them. Losing dependence on Him and ceasing to press petitions to the throne of grace breaks connection with Him in whom Father and Son make Their abode and the Spirit abides, and leaves a person to be seized, separated from the Lord, misdirected and misled by satanic agencies.
A profession of love for Christ is contradicted when a person does not keep His words, which carry the authority of the Father who sent Him. This exposes the character of religious professions, especially among those entrusted with sacred responsibilities: those who choose their own methods and standards instead of following God's counsels misrepresent Christ and betray truth, justice, and righteousness. Professed righteousness without obedience is hypocrisy, for obedience to God's commands is the test of loyalty. His words in this chapter are not heeded when people engage in unkind talk and pass judgment on others, and such conduct needs the Holy Spirit's cleansing.
Practical Call to Obey
The saying gives pure, unadulterated truth to be represented by individuals, families, and church members as His family, bringing eternal life when received and properly digested though it is not half comprehended. It specifies duties as Substitute and Surety to be carefully studied and earnestly practiced by those who honor God and Christ whom God sent. Neglect of what it commands cannot be afforded, because doing those duties bears divine credentials to the world that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life. Actions speak for themselves and show whether things of eternal consequence have arrested attention and impressed the mind instead of time given to unimportant matters.
Its lesson makes keeping God's commandments the special point of John 14. The chapter presents God's love for the world and teaches that when people draw near to God He draws near to them, and when anyone takes a step toward Jesus He advances toward them. Half-hearted service does not satisfy the believer or please God who bought people with His precious blood, so parents and children should give themselves fully to the Lord and He will accept them. The saying is applied to keeping God's commandments, teaching that love for Christ is shown by keeping His words and that those who do not love Him do not keep them, with His words coming not from Himself apart from the Father but from the Father who sent Him.
Believers must follow the light they receive, which leads to greater light, and press petitions to the throne, watch, pray, and act in harmony with His words. Loyalty to Christ is shown by keeping His commandments and accepting God's word even when obedience involves a cross, while refusing His teachings evidences not loving Him and places a person with the world that rejected Christ. Accepting the Sabbath is such an act of following truth even when it may cost employment and make support of family difficult.
When lived in practical life, this instruction cures dissension and brings unity with one another and with Christ in love, while self-seeking brings weakness. Christ's words about keeping God's law are clear and must be heeded, helping people become firm in faith and ready for the coming shaking. Disobedience brings variance, so heeding that plain will for His people expressed in John 6 and 13-17 unites believers when lived out.
Not keeping Christ's teachings proves a person does not love Him, and keeping them proves love for Him, and this is the test of love, loyalty, discipleship and genuine Christian character. His teachings and sayings are His commandments and words, which are the same as the precepts of the moral law that is perfect and the transcript of God's character, to be kept in steady willing daily obedience. The message heard from Him is not His alone but the Father's who sent Him, spoken with the Father's authority as God's voice and revelation of His character. Those who so love Him and keep His words are loved by the Father, receive His manifestation not given to the world, and have the Father and Son come to dwell with them with the Spirit of truth abiding in them forever. This divides all people into only two classes, those who obey God's law and those who violate it, and that loyalty or disloyalty in obedience decides future destiny and eternal welfare.
Setting in Farewell Discourse
The saying was given in the upper chamber after Judas had left, when Christ was alone with the eleven and looked upon them with divine love and tenderest sympathy concerning His approaching separation from them. It was spoken to keep their hearts from being troubled, as part of His farewell words in John 13-17, while a cruel death was just before Him. It belonged to the instruction He gave them there before leading them through the city toward the Mount of Olives. He first directed their thoughts to the great object of His mission which He kept ever before Him, His joy that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name.
It was spoken just before the crucifixion in answer to a disciple's question how He would manifest Himself to His disciples and not to the world. The disciples thought only of an outward, visible manifestation and did not understand a spiritual manifestation and an unseen spiritual presence. That promise to manifest Himself while remaining invisible to the world was a mystery to them, and they could not take in His words in their spiritual sense.
It belongs to the farewell words in John 13-17 and especially John 14, in which God's will is plainly outlined and is to be believed and lived out. That portion contains the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. It is full of instruction for Christ's followers, instruction that only the Son of God could give, which the Spirit enables people to understand with new enlightenment. It reveals a love that passes knowledge, with the ascension to prepare mansions and the promise to come again. It is to be studied by workers with hearts open to receive divine instruction, carefully and prayerfully with softened heart.
Its surrounding teaching is to be impressed upon minds as one whole, joined to the promise of the Comforter who teaches all things and brings all Christ's words to remembrance. With it belong the gift of peace that forbids a troubled and fearful heart, and the announcement of going to the Father and coming again to cause rejoicing and belief. With it belongs also the proof of love for the Father by doing His commandment when the prince of this world comes with nothing in Christ. The words carry the Father's authority, and loving Jesus is shown by keeping His teachings, for Father and Son work in partnership. That instruction presents a partnership in which people work while God works in them, with power and efficiency from God while responsibility rests with the human worker, and ministry built on Christ lest the work fail if divine agency is left out.
It gives words of courage and comfort near the close of His earthly ministry, words of encouragement and hope that give true believers strength and assurance to stand firm through trials. It made the disciples acquainted with His purposes and plans, reminded them of His love, and was meant to strengthen them for future trials and temptations. They were to be sorely tried, and the promise of the Comforter assured them they should not lose their faith under the most trying circumstances.
The chapter presents God's love for the world and teaches that when people draw near to God He draws near to them, and when anyone takes a step toward Jesus He advances toward them. Its words carry deep meaning, which the Holy Spirit makes clear when the Word is received into the heart and applied in cooperation with the human will, for merely reading its literal words or keeping truth outwardly does not bring understanding or transform character. Its promises are affirmed in Christ and faith is to be cultivated in practical life under every circumstance, including belief that Christ is the only Savior. When lived out in practical life this instruction cures dissension and brings unity with one another and with Christ in love, while dissension and self-seeking bring weakness. It teaches eternal life through Christ, so that the believer has the Saviour's life in him and his life hid with Christ in God, is made one with Christ in this present life to be one with Him throughout eternity, receives the more abundant life Christ came to give, and though he may die as Christ died will be raised up at the last day.
The disciples were slow of heart to comprehend such statements and understood them only imperfectly at the time, for which Christ reproved them. He promised that the Holy Spirit would recall His sayings to their minds as truths they had not before understood. This He fulfilled after the resurrection by opening their understanding of the Scriptures. They had yet to learn that the inward spiritual life, fragrant with the obedience of love, would give them the spiritual power they needed.
The instruction bears on the competing claims of heaven and earth, on the danger that love of the world can crowd out love for God, and on the need to keep a better world in view. Given shortly before the crucifixion, with obedience to Christ's sayings as the true mark of love for God and with Christ's words as the words of the Father who sent Him, it applies to those living in the last days.
Love Tested by Obedience
Failure to keep Christ's sayings proves lack of love for Him, while keeping them proves love, and this keeping or not keeping is the test of love for Jesus, of loyalty and disloyalty to Christ, of discipleship, and of genuine love and Christian character as opposed to mere words, profession, or a form of godliness. His sayings are His commandments, words, and teachings, and love is shown by having His commandments and keeping them and by keeping His words. That love is measured by keeping His commandments and words in steady, willing, daily obedience that is understood and lived out each day. Such obedience is possible only when a person is in Christ and Christ is in that person, and under the covenant of grace where provision for salvation has been made.
Christ's commandments are the same as the precepts of the moral law, which is perfect and is the transcript of God's character reflecting what God is. Obedience to that law belongs to the plan of salvation for which no other foundation can be laid, and it accords with the law Christ upheld and with the Father's will. That obedience does not make God's law abolishable and does not set aside God's principles of righteousness. Obedience does not earn God's love but follows receiving it as a free gift, and holding up Christ as righteousness does not do away with the law or detract from its dignity but glorifies it through light reflected from the cross, spiritually discerned.
Genuine repentance and conversion are shown not by words or profession but by forsaking sin and obeying God's commandments. Keeping His commandments means having light about what they require and refusing to disobey even when disobedience appears advantageous. Loyalty is shown by keeping His commandments and accepting God's word even when obedience involves a cross, and following Christ requires faithfulness to God's commands even when this sets believers apart from their neighbors. Keeping His word is the test of discipleship and requires openly following the truth rather than hiding faith to please neighbors. Christ's followers demonstrate love by obeying His words, which include teaching others to observe all He commanded.
Love is tested by faith working through love and purifying the soul, and keeping God's commandments includes loving God and neighbor. Claiming to keep the commandments without love is no proof of obedience, because love must be present. Indifference to His specified teachings misrepresents His character. A life of self-indulgence and self-chosen standards is not true discipleship, and a self-pleasing person becomes a disciple by accepting Christ's yoke of obedience and learning His meekness and lowliness.
Along with the surrounding sayings, the verse presents obedience to Christ's words as the measure of sincere love and as an expression of God's love for fallen humanity. It is connected with Christ's perfect obedience to God's Word and will, with Christ's life as the model of obedience. In that pattern living faith works by love, and those who do God's revealed will come to know the doctrine.
Word as Father's Word
The word heard from Christ is not His alone but the Father's who sent Him. His words were not spoken independently of the Father but come from the Father with the Father's authority. They are the voice of God, a message from God and the Father's revelation, consistent with revealing God's character. Those who claim to be Christians must therefore comply with its conditions. They are full of comfort, hope, and assurance, and they set the conditions of salvation, to believe the words given in the living oracles of God and to bring them into practice by doing them. To be a doer of His words is to have the Light of life and not walk alone in darkness.
Practicing His teachings means obeying the Father's word, and rejecting His words is also rejecting the Father's word. Obedience to Christ is therefore obedience to the Father. Christ's own obedience to the Father's commandment shows that His teaching and mission are in accord with the Father. This obedience distinguishes the obedient from the disobedient and helps identify what is genuine. Through His grace believers obey and develop the character God requires as proof of fitness for an inheritance with the saints.
Christ continually received from the Father so that He could communicate to others. Through communion with God and the Holy Spirit He received words freshly given from heaven. They were suited to bring light and timely help and to comfort the weary and oppressed. His ministry of giving heaven's light and words to others was for others, for He lived to serve rather than for Himself.
He took human nature to connect with man and to use the faculty of speech to make God known as He is. This is the highest practical use of speech, to communicate to others what God has communicated after reason has been set to learn of God. He was the greatest teacher the world ever knew, imparting knowledge with speech that was simple, clear, and plain.
Promises to the Obedient
Those who love Him by keeping His words are loved by the Father, receive Christ's manifestation while the world does not, and have the Father and Son come to make Their abode with them, with Christ abiding in the heart and the Spirit of God abiding with them. They receive another Comforter to remain forever, even the Spirit of truth, not merely a profession of truth or a form of godliness, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see or know Him, but His followers know because He lives with them and in them. God becomes their helper in emergencies and perplexities through steady, willing, daily obedience understood and lived out, which is possible only when a person is in Christ and Christ is in that person.
Dependence for keeping His word rests on the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends in Christ's name to teach all things and bring all Christ's words to remembrance, ready to cooperate with all who receive and are taught by Him. The promise to manifest Himself to disciples while remaining invisible to the world was a mystery to them because they thought only of an outward visible manifestation and did not understand a spiritual manifestation and unseen spiritual presence, and they could not take in His words in their spiritual sense though He longed to give them encouragement and comfort for sore trial. They had yet to learn that the inward spiritual life, fragrant with the obedience of love, would give the spiritual power they needed, and that the Holy Spirit as Christ's representative and Advocate would constantly plead for the fallen race that spiritual power might be given to overcome spiritual foes by One mightier than all enemies of God and man. All who lay hold on truth and are sanctified through truth are so united with Christ that they represent Him in word and action, having put on Christ with power to reveal truth to others and give the bread of life to those in transgression and sin with words as choice as gold.
That indwelling enables doing His will in watching, praying, and acting in harmony with His words in cooperation with divine agencies. Obedience brings abiding love and full joy so there is no joyless religion, and upon the obedient the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing. Whoever wears Christ's yoke walks cheerfully and bravely bears the cross, becoming a partaker of the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust. Continuing in God's love requires implicitly obeying all His commandments, and full and entire obedience brings abiding joy that is full, not mourning, doubt, and uncertainty.
Obedience is the first price of eternal life and the condition for Heaven to impart power through the revealed Holy Spirit and for fitness for an inheritance with the saints. Through Christ's grace believers obey and develop the character God requires. Those who believe and obey receive the richest endowment of grace making wise unto salvation, patient, forbearing, quick to perceive heavenly ministrations, quick to discern Satan's devices, and strong to resist him, while unbelief shuts out God's mighty works.
His words carry the Father's authority as the voice of God, full of comfort, hope, and assurance, and set the conditions of salvation to believe the words given in the living oracles of God and bring them into practice by doing them. Being a doer gives the Light of life and keeps from walking alone in darkness. Believers must look into the mirror of God's law to see whether they conform to the divine requirements, and if character is defective must not forget what manner of person they are but strive earnestly to overcome faults and banish all selfishness from the heart, and as they do this the joy of heaven will fill the heart, strength is found in the Saviour, He will enter as an abiding guest, His righteousness will go before them and the glory of God will be their rearward.
Keeping God's commandments and Christ's words is a condition for receiving God's gifts and having prayers answered, so those who act against His expressed will should not expect to receive what they ask. Following the light received leads to greater light. The joy of knowing Christ as righteousness, with ardent faith and hope, belongs only to those who so love and keep Him. Holding up Christ as the only source of strength, with the guilt of men's sins charged to His account and His righteousness imputed to man, does not do away with the law or detract from its dignity but places it where correct light shines upon it and glorifies it through light reflected from the cross of Calvary, complete and full in the great plan of salvation only as presented in the light shining from the crucified and risen Saviour, which can only be spiritually discerned.
Exposure of Disobedience
Not keeping His sayings proves lack of love and gives the test of loyalty or disloyalty to Christ, dividing the world into only two classes, those who obey God's law and those who violate it, the same two classes recognized in the Judgment. That loyalty or disloyalty in obedience is the test applied to every human being as it was to Adam and Eve and decides future destiny. Obedience or disobedience to His commandments decides eternal welfare, for now is the time of probation, test, and trial to be obedient and respect the commandments that are the rule of God's government in heaven and on earth. The word heard is not His alone but the Father's who sent Him.
Disobedience cannot be excused by saying God's commandments cannot be kept, for that plea repeats Satan's insinuation against God in heaven. Christ stands before God with the marks of crucifixion upon His body as a living witness that the law can be kept, proving the problem is not inability but refusal to yield a stubborn will. The disobedient give testimony by their lives that they love not Christ and choose the risk of being bound up in bundles with the transgressors of God's law, while those who love give living testimony that they are commandment-keepers, loyal and true. All are therefore pressed to decide whose side they are on, to leave the banner of revolt under the great rebel and stand wholly under the banner of Christ.
Refusing a plain Thus saith the Lord to accept the word and commandments of men dishonors God's law and compels consciences to respect human laws and enactments. Such a course exalts the human above the divine, refuses Christ as ruler, receives and teaches the commandments of men as the commandments of God, and joins the first great apostate. The choice between obeying God's commandments and accepting human commands in their place affects eternal welfare, and exalting human authority above God rejects Christ's rule.
Those who do not love and obey do not know or value the truth because they do not see or love Christ and the Father, and this distinguishes those who serve God from those who do not. Rejecting that word places a person with the world that rejected Christ, for loyalty is shown by keeping His commandments and accepting God's word even when obedience involves a cross. Disobedience and failure to practice His teachings lead to variance among His people, for self-will and choosing one's own way are contrary to God's will. Those who disregard His words lack His love, wisdom, peace, light, and mind.
Casting His words behind to seek refreshment from human sources, or hugging unbelief, doubt, anxiety, and complaint, leaves the soul without peace or comfort. That course grieves the Spirit, separates from God's care and guardianship, and leaves without excuse, for His words carry the Father's authority and are the voice of God, full of comfort, hope, and assurance, setting the conditions of salvation to believe the words given in the living oracles and bring them into practice by doing them. Losing dependence on Him and ceasing to press petitions to the throne of grace breaks connection with Him in whom Father and Son make Their abode and the Spirit abides, and leaves a person to be seized, separated from the Lord, misdirected and misled by satanic agencies.
A profession of love for Christ is contradicted when a person does not keep His words, which carry the authority of the Father who sent Him. This exposes the character of religious professions, especially among those entrusted with sacred responsibilities: those who choose their own methods and standards instead of following God's counsels misrepresent Christ and betray truth, justice, and righteousness. Professed righteousness without obedience is hypocrisy, for obedience to God's commands is the test of loyalty. His words in this chapter are not heeded when people engage in unkind talk and pass judgment on others, and such conduct needs the Holy Spirit's cleansing.
Practical Call to Obey
The saying gives pure, unadulterated truth to be represented by individuals, families, and church members as His family, bringing eternal life when received and properly digested though it is not half comprehended. It specifies duties as Substitute and Surety to be carefully studied and earnestly practiced by those who honor God and Christ whom God sent. Neglect of what it commands cannot be afforded, because doing those duties bears divine credentials to the world that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life. Actions speak for themselves and show whether things of eternal consequence have arrested attention and impressed the mind instead of time given to unimportant matters.
Its lesson makes keeping God's commandments the special point of John 14. The chapter presents God's love for the world and teaches that when people draw near to God He draws near to them, and when anyone takes a step toward Jesus He advances toward them. Half-hearted service does not satisfy the believer or please God who bought people with His precious blood, so parents and children should give themselves fully to the Lord and He will accept them. The saying is applied to keeping God's commandments, teaching that love for Christ is shown by keeping His words and that those who do not love Him do not keep them, with His words coming not from Himself apart from the Father but from the Father who sent Him.
Believers must follow the light they receive, which leads to greater light, and press petitions to the throne, watch, pray, and act in harmony with His words. Loyalty to Christ is shown by keeping His commandments and accepting God's word even when obedience involves a cross, while refusing His teachings evidences not loving Him and places a person with the world that rejected Christ. Accepting the Sabbath is such an act of following truth even when it may cost employment and make support of family difficult.
When lived in practical life, this instruction cures dissension and brings unity with one another and with Christ in love, while self-seeking brings weakness. Christ's words about keeping God's law are clear and must be heeded, helping people become firm in faith and ready for the coming shaking. Disobedience brings variance, so heeding that plain will for His people expressed in John 6 and 13-17 unites believers when lived out.