Scripture: "If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments."—JOHN xiv. 15.
In the Gospel of St. John, our Lord Jesus Christ speaks six times of our love to Him consisting in the doing of His will. "If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments" (xiv.15). "He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me" (xiv.21). "If a man love Me, he will keep My •word" (xiv.23). "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love" (xv.10). "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you" (xv.7). "Ye are My friends if ye do the things I command you" (xv.14).
It is not enough to read these words once. Take your Bible, and go over them carefully, and notice how in each verse there is a wonderful promise. Then you will realize the blessedness of the life of the one who loves Christ, keeps His commandments, and abides in His love.
Notice the striking promise in verse twenty-three of this chapter. "If a man love Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." The Father and the Son dwell in the hearts of those who love Jesus and keep His commandments. Such can say with St. Paul, "Christ lives in me," and will love the brethren and all around them with the love wherewith God loved His Son.
St. Paul says to all Christians: "Know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?" (2 Cor. xiii. 5). Many Chris¬tians do not realize this, or the love Christ has for them. If we are strengthened through the Holy Ghost, Christ will dwell in our hearts by faith, and we shall be rooted and grounded in love. Then it will be quite natural for the love of God to work within in divine power, and we shall learn to love Him, even as He loved us, in the love of the Father.
Dear Christian, as Christ loved you, and you abide in His love, you will be enabled to keep His commandments. The measure of His sacrifice for you will be the measure of your willing surrender to Him in all things.
