Jesus is our friend and yes he loves as the Bible tells me so… “No longer do I call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master does.”
And what does a friend do but give us good advice that we can count on, trust in that it will make our lives better.
Jesus: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do the things I command you. No longer do I call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. These things I command you, that you may love one another.
Wow, I always took for granted, without really thinking about it, that the ‘Golden Rule’—to love one another as we love ourselves—was one of the Ten Commandments, which were first written and listed in the Bible in Exodus Chapter 20. But it wasn’t—No other gods, No idols, Don’t use the name of the Lord in vain, Keep the Sabbath holy, Honor your father and mother, Don’t kill, Don’t commit adultery, Don’t steal, Don’t commit false witness against your neighbor, and Don’t covet anything of your neighbor’s—no ‘love one another as we love ourselves!’
Which makes sense as the law only did not work out the way that God intended the law only to work out. So He sent His only Son Jesus Christ into the world and Jesus is our human example of how to make life work out according to God’s Ten Commandments.
As God sent Jesus into the world so too did he take him out of the world as a Savior for us and our human sins, then, now and forever.
Jesus: “If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to dwell with you forever, The Spirit of Truth to whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him or knows him. But you shall know him, because he will dwell with you, and be in you.
Jesus also informed us that, like He, the Holy Spirit will be a teacher of all things and a reminded of what He has said to us through the disciples.
Jesus: “These things I have spoken to you while yet dwelling with you. But the Advocate, The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your mind whatever I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, or be afraid.
Jesus cautioned us not to be dismayed with the world of worldly ways or their likely hatred of us for God and Jesus will be bearing witness through The Holy Spirit: But when the Advocate has come, whom I will send you from the Father, The Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness concerning me. And you also bear witness, because from the beginning you are with me.”
And as though he is explaining things in as simple ways as possible, not different than a parent explaining to a child that they must go to sleep if Santa Claus will come Christmas morning, Jesus reassures us that he must go to make the world a better place per the plans of His Father. We must take action to demonstrate Jesus’ presence in this world.
Jesus: “But I speak the truth to you; it is expedient for you that I depart. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you: but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he has come he will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in me; of justice, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more; and of judgment, because the prince of this world has already been judged.”
Jesus: “Many things yet I have to say to you, but you cannot bear then now. But when he, The Spirit of Truth, has come, he will teach you all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he will hear he will speak, and the things that are to come he will declare to you. All things that the Father has are mine. That is why I have said that he will receive of what is mine, and will declare it to you. A little while and you shall see me no longer; and again a little while and you shall see me, because I go to the Father.”
The Holy Spirit can guide us through eternity and for sure through the duration of any individual life here on earth.
But the disciples were sad that Jesus was leaving them, no different than how we feel when a close friend or cherished relative passes on. Or even when we are on the decline and aging towards our own death, Jesus and The Holy Spirit will be our great comfort when needed, always when needed.
Jesus: “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many mansions. Were it not so, I should have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you. And If I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and I will take you to myself; that where I am, there you also may be. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
How comforting, how meaningful, with so much hope and joy. When I first read this early one abstinent morning it completely changed me—my thoughts, my feelings, and my perspective of life and of the day, this day that I have awakened to so blessed by God to be here to live another day with those I love and the life I love! I am so grateful for God, Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirit. To truly know Their Love, Their Will for the rest of my life, and Their Power to carry out that will. Truly blessed. TROML Baby!
Day 100: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; The Commandment of Jesus, Our Friend: Love One Another!
Read and inspired by the New Testament, The Gospel of Saint John Chapter 14-16.
Bible Notes:
The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John
Saint John, the disciple and Apostle whom Jesus loved, was the brother of James and the son of the fisherman Zebedee and Salome.
First a disciple of John the Baptist, he was called to follow Christ.
The purpose of his Gospel he states as follows: “these are written that you may believe the Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing you may have life in his name.”
John Chapter 14: A word of comfort; Christ is the way, the truth, and the life; He and the Father are one; Promise to send The Holy Spirit; His love for His disciples; The Holy Spirit will teach us all things.
Jesus: “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many mansions. Were it not so, I should have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you. And If I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and I will take you to myself; that where I am, there you also may be. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
Thomas to Jesus: “Lord, we do not know where thou art going, and how can we know the way?
Jesus: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. If you had known me, you would also have known my Father. And henceforth you do know him, and you have seen him.”
Philip to Jesus: “Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for me.”
Jesus: “Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known me? Philip, he who sees me sees also the Father. How canst thou say, ‘Show us the Father’? Dost thou not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I speak not on my own authority. But the Father dwelling in me, it is he who does the works. Do you believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? Otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do he shall also do, and greater than these shall he do, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
Jesus: “If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to dwell with you forever, The Spirit of Truth to whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him or knows him. But you shall know him, because he will dwell with you, and be in you.
Jesus: “I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world no longer sees me. But you see me, for I live and you shall live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. But he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Lord, how is it that thou art about to manifest thyself to us, and not to the world?”
Jesus: “If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you have heard is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.”
Jesus: “These things I have spoken to you while yet dwelling with you. But the Advocate, The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your mind whatever I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, or be afraid. You have heard me say to you, ‘I go away and I am coming to you.’ If you loves me, you would indeed rejoice that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it has come to pass you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the prince of world is coming, and in me he has nothing. But he comes that the world may know that I love the Father, and that I do as the Father has commanded me. Arise, let us go from here.
John Chapter 15: Union with Christ; Love for one another; The world’s hatred.
Jesus: “I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vine-dresser. Every branch in me that bears fruit he will take away; and every branch that bears fruit he will cleanse, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remain on the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he shall be cast outside as the branch and wither; and they shall gather them up and cast them into the fire, and they shall burn. If you abide in me, and if my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done to you. In this is my Father glorifies, that you may bear very much fruit, and become my disciples. As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love, as I also have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”
Jesus: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do the things I command you. No longer do I call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. These things I command you, that you may love one another.
Jesus: “Of the world hates you, know that it has hated me before you. If you were of the world, the world would love what is its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I have spoken to you: No servant is greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them works such as no one else has done, they would have no sin. But now they have seen, and have hated both me and my Father; but that the word written in their Law may be fulfilled, ‘They have hated me without cause.’ But when the Advocate has come, whom I will send you from the Father, The Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness concerning me. And you also bear witness, because from the beginning you are with me.”
John Chapter 16: Persecution predicted; The role of Advocate; Christ speaks of a little while; They wonder at His words; His explanation; Christ will now speak plainly.
Jesus: “These things I have spoken to you that you may not be scandalized. They will expel you from the synagogues, Yes, the hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering worship to God, And these things they will do because they they have not known the Father nor me. But these things I have spoken to you, that when the time for them has come you may remember that I told you. These things, however, I did not tell you from the beginning, because I was with you.”
Jesus: “And now I am going to him who sent me, and no one of you asks me, ‘Where art thou going?’ But because I have spoken to you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. But I speak the truth to you; it is expedient for you that I depart. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you: but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he has come he will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in me; of justice, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more; and of judgment, because the prince of this world has already been judged.”
Jesus: “Many things yet I have to say to you, but you cannot bear then now. But when he, The Spirit of Truth, has come, he will teach you all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he will hear he will speak, and the things that are to come he will declare to you. All things that the Father has are mine. That is why I have said that he will receive of what is mine, and will declare it to you. A little while and you shall see me no longer; and again a little while and you shall see me, because I go to the Father.”
Some of the disciples: “What is this he says to us, ‘A little while and you shall not see me, and again a little while and you shall see me’; and, ‘I go to the Father’? What is this ‘little while’ pf which he speaks? We do not know what he is saying.”
Jesus: “You inquire about this among yourselves because I said, ‘A little while and you shall not see me, and again a little while and you shall see me.’ Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned to joy. A woman about to give birth has sorrow, because her hour has come. But when she has brought forth the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for her joy that a man is born into the world. And you therefore have sorrow now; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one shall take from you. And in that day you shall ask me nothing. Amen, amen, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in my name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.”
Jesus: “These things I have spoken to you in parables. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but will speak to you plainly of the Father. In that day you shall ask in my name; And I do not say to you that I will ask the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again I leave the world and go to the Father.”
His disciples: “Behold, now thou speakest plainly, and utterest no parable. Now we know that thou knowest all things, and dost not need that anyone should question thee. For this reason we believe that thou camest forth from God.”
Jesus: “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each one to his own house, and to leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have affliction. But take courage, I have overcome the world.”
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