Live to Love Scripture Encouragement

John 12:49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.”
The reasons these words that Jesus spoke will judge all men is that they were given Him by the Father. God commanded Jesus to say and speak these things. Therefore, to reject these words amounts to rejecting Jesus, which is the same thing as rejecting God, Himself. When Jesus said if you love your life in this world, you will lose it, and if you recognize that Jesus is Life and therefore hate your life in this world, your life will be saved from darkness, those words judge all men, because it is obvious what they believe. If they love their lives in this world, that is, think that expressing themselves to gain approval and significance in this world satisfies them, then they are dead and in darkness. If they love Jesus and think that gaining His approval and making Him significant by loving and loving with Him, then the judgment is that they have Life and walk in the Light just as He was in the Light. What is the judgment of these words about our lives? We are meant to ask that question because that was the question Jesus intended this crowd to ask themselves. We are being judged by these words everyday. There is no escape from them. They search us and declare the truth. Living to love with Jesus is the evidence that you believe the words which Jesus spoke on this day to the crowd, that they were from God.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 12:48 “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.”
We continue to be amazed at the sayings of Jesus which He cried out in the temple just before His last Passover and His greatest demonstration that He is Life. To reject these sayings—namely that Jesus is the Life and Light of God sent into this world to save us from our darkness—is to reject Jesus. In the next verse, which we’ll take up tomorrow, Jesus explained what He meant when He said someone besides Him judges the world—that is judges those who are in darkness. The words we’ve considered the last few days are powerful to judge everyone. He said that He was Life and that He is the exact expression and representation of God, the Father. His life is the only life in this world. To believe in Jesus is to believe those words and act accordingly, which is to hate your life in this world, your all-consuming self-consciousness, self-importance, self-ambition, and self-approval and to love Him as the only source of Life in this world. Whoever rejects these words of Jesus, will be judged by them. Do we live our lives consumed with a consciousness of self, that is what we love, think, desire, and judge or with a consciousness of what Jesus loves, thinks, desires, and judges? These words are the foundation for living to love with Jesus.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 12:47 “If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.”
As we read this, let’s still hear Jesus’ voice raised to emphasize the importance of what He said. It is as if we hear Him almost yelling at us. What I am saying to you, namely, that I am the Life of God sent to be the light of the world so you can be saved from the darkness and death that you mistakenly think is life. He was saying to the rulers and the crowd (and to all men everywhere throughout all of history) that seeking approval and glory from men is living in darkness. To make it relevant, if we think life consists in collecting Facebook and Instagram followers, in having people who look up to us as a source of well-being and validation, in judging who is right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable, toxic and honorable, we remain in darkness. If we heard what Jesus was saying in this discourse, we would recognize how dead and empty all of that is and we would hold on to these words of Jesus that He alone is Life and Light. There is no other. Therefore we would view Facebook and Instagram as only of use if we can highlight Jesus as Life and Light. We would believe in Jesus as Life and love with Him to shine His light. He came to save us from ourselves and from the death that we think is life in this world. How does He save us? By believing and living by the truth of what His Father gave Him to say about Himself. He is Life and His Life is the Light of the world.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 12:46 “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.”
We’ve been considering the powerful words that Jesus cried out in the temple to the crowd just before Passover. He has told them about true saving faith, which focuses on the truth that Jesus is sent by God so we could see and believe that Jesus is the life and glory of God dwelling among us. I believe John wrote the following because of what Jesus declared in the temple on this day. He wrote, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (1:4). “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (1:14). Jesus’ life is the light enabling us to see that He is life and everything else about life in this world is darkness and death. To think that your natural and physical life in this world is life is to remain in the darkness. We think that we have life if we are breathing. In truth, if we are breathing in our bodies, we are dead due to sin. Everything that is not Jesus is death and darkness. And we love it! That is, we love our lives in this world until we see the light—that Jesus is the life of God come into this world so we can see what light is—the Life of God in Jesus. Have you seen that Jesus is Life and that Life is the only light? Have you seen that the love of God revealed in Jesus is the light of Life?

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 12:45. “He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.”
"Jesus is the author and finisher of faith," wrote the author of Hebrews. Saving faith fixes on Jesus and sees that He is the exact representation of God, Himself (Heb. 1:3). One who believes in Jesus believes He is sent by God so that he can see the life of God, and in seeing the Life, is enabled to see that his own life in this world is not to be loved, but hated. Remember what Jesus said only moments before this? John 12:25 “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” Once we are enabled to see that Jesus is the life of God sent into this world by the Father, everything changes.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com