I have been in a journey through John 17, examining what is commonly referred to as Jesus’ High Priestly prayer. He has spent the Passover evening teaching his disciples what was crucial to their understanding of what was about to happen in his arrest, abusive trial, and crucifixion.
The strange thing is that we are following a
scene leading up to the most horrific experience of Jesus’ life. What we have
revealed to us in John 13-16 is such a collection of life-giving words to
prepare us for anything we could ever go through that we need to remind
ourselves that Jesus taught these things on the verge of HIS unimaginable
suffering!
I know what it is like to be consumed with
fear of something that is going to happen to me so that I can barely think of
anyone because of what I anticipate for myself. So, when I see Jesus’
consideration of his disciples on the night before his worst-case-scenario-ever
experience, I am blown away by how we see “God is love” in the face of
Jesus Christ![1]
The point is that Jesus knew that the
horrifying thing about to happen to him would be horrible for them as well, and
so he not only spoke to them the clearest words of comfort, help, and even joy,
but directed the apostle John to write his teachings down in his gospel account
to make sure we could benefit from those words as much as the apostles did.
In the next verse of my journey through John
17, Jesus says, “these things I speak in the world, that they may have my
joy fulfilled in themselves.”[2]
Because of Jesus’ focus on, “these things
I speak,” I was drawn to survey John 13-16 to highlight Jesus’ main
teachings of that night that would summarize what he was referring to because
these are obviously the words that would fulfill our joy while he is away from
us. I didn’t get past this:
“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.”[3]
That was like the most zinger bull’s eye
ever. If we are not keeping Jesus’ words, it is because we don’t love him. THAT
is the cancer that needs healing!
However, our love for Jesus never begins
with us. Whenever God talks about us loving them it is always as a living
response to their love for us. As God himself says in his word, “We love
because he first loved us.”[4]
This means that the invitation in Jesus’
words is to so know love-relationship with him in such a real and personal way
that keeping his words is a delight instead of a drudgery. There is such a
strong “Father-Returning-Us-to-Joy” message here![5]
To clarify:
this is NOT a message of works where we must love Jesus and keep his word for
him to love us. Look at the way this whole section begins to make sure we have Jesus’
love as the foundation to understanding everything he calls us to do to walk in
love:
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.[6]
Jesus’
disciples (of our present generation as well) are the Beloved.[7]
The cross has expressed God’s love completely.[8]
The issue is how we are responding to his love. If we cannot love someone who
has “so loved” us,[9]
there is something terrifyingly wrong with us, something that NEEDS to know his
love![10]
This
next verse is very personal for me. It has gripped me for a long time. Please
make sure you understand me so Satan isn’t able to surround your heart with WoLVeS
that torment you about it.[11]
It is such an invitation into God’s love!
“If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.”[12]
NO, this
is not driving us to do the good work of trying our hardest to love Jesus who
is so unloving as to detest us if we don’t. This cannot be understood at all
without looking at someone responding to the greatness of God’s love poured out
for them.
After
all, this is I CORINTHIANS! It contains the “love chapter”. If anyone can read through a letter like
this and respond by saying in our hearts that Jesus is not worthy of us letting
our hearts feel affection for him and loyalty towards him, we ought to be
detested for being so pridefully self-centered and so arrogantly
Christ-denying.
I should
also clarify that, if anyone is feeling conviction about this, do not let Satan
turn you to despair about it. God’s work right now is that we would know, “that God's kindness is
meant to lead you to repentance (changing our minds about who we think is more loveable, us or him).[13]
God shows us the truth about things like this to draw us into his love.
Since
this is my sharing, I’m not trying to make it say something to you that is not
God’s word for you today. I’m only emphasizing what it is doing in me that
keeping Jesus’ words is all about a love-response to his love. If I am lacking
any kind of love-response to him, I want to throw myself down in his loving
presence and plead with him to overcome my WoLVeS, my self-protection, and all
my insipid self-justification, and bring me to know his love in the most real
and personal of ways EVER!
And, to
encourage us in this, God even teaches us how to pray about it:
“I pray that according to the riches of your glory you may grant us to be strengthened with power through your Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith—that we who are already rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of Jesus’ love, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.”[14]
And all
God’s people said, “AMEN!”
© 2021 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K
1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles,
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
[1] God is love: I John
4:7-8, 16; God’s glory in the face of Christ: II Corinthians 4:6
[2] John 17:13
[3] John 14:23-24
[4] I John 4:19
[5] I learned the
principle of returning children to joy in our daycare and have been delighted
to see how it works. It isn’t so easy with self-protective adults, but it is
all through God’s word that he is constantly working to return us to joy. He is
the most joyful person and wants to break through all our self-protection to
get to our inner being where he can bring us to know his love, joy, and peace
as never before.
[6] John 13:1
[7] Here is a link to a
biblegateway.com search of the word “beloved” in the Bible: https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=beloved&resultspp=250&version=ESV
[8] Romans 5:6-8
[9] John 3:16
[10] I was just singing
this song to Father the morning I finished this blog post: https://youtu.be/Y-jrwSwZN_w
[11] Thanks to Marcus
Warner for the WoLVeS acronym. It simply summarizes the way our Wounds affect
us when they are not brought to Jesus for healing. The devil comes in and Lies
to us about everything, we make Vows about how to protect ourselves from ever
getting hurt again, and this turns into a Stronghold where we keep finding
ourselves acting the same way in the same kinds of circumstances.
[12] I Corinthians 16:22
[13] Romans 2:4
[14] Ephesians 3:16-19
(paraphrased)
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