Bible Studies

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The Gospels
John 14:15-21 - By Our Love
Key Verses: (NRSV)

• 15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments." - Being like Christ and doing as He would have us do is an act of love.
  
  
• 16-17: "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. ¹⁷This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, because He abides with you, and He will be in you." - We do not need to search for the Holy Spirit in our lives; we don't even have to be pray for God to fill us with His Spirit. He is already there, abiding, living within, guiding, and walking beside us.
  
  
• 20: "On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." - Calming their Upper Room fears, Jesus tells His disciples to have no fear. He is not leaving them "orphaned."
  
  21: "They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." - Keeping Christ's commandments is not a rite of passage or trial of worthiness. If we love Christ, then we will love as He commanded. Our actions are a byproduct of our belief in Christ and His love reveals the wonders of God living within us.
  

Points to Contemplate:

• Do you love Christ? Are you keeping His commandments? Which commandments should you keep? Are you supposed to adhere to Mosaic Law in its entirety? Perhaps you should simplify things and focus only on the Ten Commandments. Or has this list of law proven to be unattainable as well? Remember Jesus' words on this topic? He said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40 NRSV) Do you love Christ?
  
  
• Can you find the Holy Spirit? Can you hear His voice? Have you experienced His guidance? Or felt His presence? Do you know when He is speaking? Leading? Teaching? Walking beside you? Or are you struggling to find evidence of Him in your life? Think about these words of Jesus: "This is the Spirit of truth." and "You know Him because He abides with you and He will be in you." Do you see that you do not need any special skills or gifts of discernment to find the Holy Spirit? If you think about it, haven't you heard the Spirit of truth speaking to you? Hasn't He been guiding you all along? Isn't it time to grasp His hand, call Him by name, and begin a journey filled with the knowledge He is always with you?
  
  
• Where is Jesus? Where is God? Do you look to the Cross and still see Jesus hanging there - paying for your sins over and over? Do you need to look to the heavens or out towards a beautiful sunset in order to find God? Do you only find evidence of God when you go to church or when you attend a Bible study? Are you are seeking God and having difficulty finding Him? Perhaps it is time to look inward. St Augustine suggested that to know your self is to know God. Is this what Jesus meant when He said: "I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you?"
  

Promise of the Gospel:

The manner in which we live our lives should be as a direct response to Christ's love for us. We are loved so we should love. This instruction of love is not a directive from above, written on stone tablets or faxed and emailed with God's signature. It is simply this: because we are loved, we shall love.

"We are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord. We are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord. And we pray that all unity may one day be restored. And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love."<sup>1

1</sup>"They will know we are Christians," ©1992 Lorenz Publishing Company - David Paxton and Peter Scholtes

FUMC Devotionals
Faithwriters Magazine

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