Live to Love Scripture Encouragement

John 15:18. "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”
John 15:18-25 comprise Jesus’ commentary on the unbelieving world. The previous verse revealed the most identifiable characteristic among the believing community—love. They love one another because they love Jesus and He lives in them. In contrast, verse 18, reveals the most identifiable characteristic of the unbelieving world—hatred for Jesus expressed in hatred toward His followers. Jesus said, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” Hatred for Jesus precedes hatred for those who are His. Let’s keep in mind that Jesus told them of these things before they happened, so they would know that He is the Son of God. Up to this point, Jesus had been the target of the unbelieving ones, such as the Pharisees and Scribes. But within days, their bitterness became focused on Jesus’ followers.
Nothing has changed since the moment these words passed through Jesus’ lips. The world still hates the vine and therefore hates the branches of the vine. The branches of the vine that do not bear fruit for the glory of God are the world of which Jesus spoke. If branches suck up the blessings of life from the vine, yet fail to produce fruit, their love for their existence in this world is destructive and counter to the purpose of the vine and the branches. Hatred flows through the branches and produces hatred for Jesus and His followers. Why tell this to His disciples? So they would know when it happened to them that Jesus is the Son of God and that they belong to Him. As we live to love with Jesus, we may expect to be hated by those who hate Him. The point is: don’t think that you did something wrong when others hate you. You may or may not have done something to offend them, but they hate you because they hate Jesus. If they loved Jesus, they would gladly forgive your offense(s) because they too have been forgiven of their sins and have believed Jesus’ commandment to love as they have been loved by Him. So do not be discouraged to live to love with Jesus. Even more so, love as you’ve been commanded.

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

Worship in Spirit and Truth

Welcome, new subscribers to my monthly Live to Love blog. I’m honored that you would join us here at The Spirit of Elijah Ministries International in turning our hearts to God.

John 4:23-24 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

I have chosen truth as my word of the year, therefore each month I aim to encourage us to love and pursue truth. Truth is reality, and reality is what God says, does, hears, and sees. If God says it, it is reality. If He speaks, it happens. If He hears something, it truly occurred. If He sees something, it happened. Truth is reality.  

John 4:23-24 are from Jesus’ encounter with a woman at Jacob’s well near the city of Sychar. He spoke about the time period that began with His coming and ends when He returns. We are in that era, the time when worship of God, the Father, is in spirit and truth. We learn from these verses that today, God is seeking such worshipers. I pray that He will find you and me among that number. 

Soul-satisfying, eternal love

Soul-satisfying, eternal love comes from worshiping the Father in spirit and truth. Honest, truth-loving worship in the presence of God satisfies our souls because we were made to worship God. The source of love is not external worship of a material nature. When we realize in our hearts that God is spirit, we know the truth. Our consciences recognize that God is always with us and has seen everything about us. To worship in spirit is to believe Hebrews 4:13. “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Since truth is what He sees, we know that we are known, which makes us honest. Jesus, was God, inviting the woman to worship His Father in spirit and truth as He revealed to her that He knew the truth about her. 

He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly” (John 4:16-18).

When we know that we are known by God (that’s worshiping in spirit) and come to Him as He sees us (that’s in truth), we experience His soul-satisfying eternal love which produces worship—the kind God seeks.

John 15:17 This I command you, that you love one another.
This is now the third time Jesus commanded His disciples to love each other since they had finished the evening meal. The Father really wanted His disciples to get the point of their existence and relationship with His Son. I don’t want us to miss the point. We were saved to live for one purpose: to glorify the Father through loving others with His Son. This verse also makes it very clear what fruit Jesus had in mind when He said in the previous verse, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain.” The fruit of love is the fruit of the vine, the life of Jesus. Again Jesus underscored that it is His command. We’ve learned that it is love that makes such a command. God loved His Son and commanded Him to lay down His life, and the Son has loved us in the same way by commanding us to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters in Christ. What a privilege, honor, and adventure with Jesus! On this side of the cross, we know what it means to love. On their side of the cross, God’s love was in the process of being defined and revealed. How can this Scripture encourage us today? What comes to mind are the words of the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 10:24-26. “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” In a sense, we are now assembled, as we listen to this podcast together to be stimulated and encouraged to love. The day is drawing near that Jesus will return. What will matter is if we lived to love with Him. I hope this scripture will encourage and stimulate you to love with Him today.

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

John 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”
These words were shared for the purpose of giving His disciples confidence and honor. They were His friends because He wanted to befriend them. Let us remember, Jesus’ enemies intended to shame Him by calling Him a “friend of sinners.” The transforming power of His love was bestowed by grace. He did not call them friends because they initiated the relationship. Rather, they found favor with Him because of God’s grace and an eternal purpose determined by His Father. The apostle Paul commented on this great gospel truth of God’s election when he wrote, “God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2 Tim. 1:9). What is the purpose for which we were chosen by God in Christ Jesus? To love with Him. To go through life with Him, laying down our lives, suffering for the sake of the gospel, displaying the fruit He produces in answer to prayer inspired and encouraged by the knowledge of God’s will for them to be fruitful branches. Do we live with that awareness of His purpose, promise, and honor? He has honored us by choosing, appointing, and empowering us to live to love with Him for the glory of the Father. Be encouraged today in the eternal purpose of God revealed in you as you live to love with Jesus.

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

Let’s live in John 15:15 for another day. Jesus said to His disciples, “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
The transformation from slave to friend occurred as He loved them as the Father had loved Him. The Father had given His Son the word that contained the power to set them apart from everyone else in the world. What were those words? To love. “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you” (John 13:34; 15:12). Those were the words that pruned them. They removed the worldly, fruitless purposes that had governed their lives to this point. Without this new commandment, the defilement of worldly pursuits would clog up the life-carrying arteries of the branch. In giving them the command the Father gave Him to give to them, they were set apart to a new purpose or vision for their lives, namely, to live with Jesus to love everyone He loved for the glory of the Father. Through them, the Vine would love His own to the very end of time. As His love sap flowed through them, His friends would show the world that He lives.
In the previous two verses, Jesus had told His disciples that the greatest expression of love is laying one’s life down for his friends and that His friends were those who obeyed His command to love as He has loved them. In giving them the word of the Father, to love with Jesus, they had been transformed from slaves to friends for whom He was laying down His life. The word of the Father has been preserved and delivered now to us in this generation, making us His friends if we believe in Him, receive them, and obey. Receive the pruning of the Father. Let all who hear these words, repent of living for selfish, worldly purposes. May we glory in His friendship and live to love with Him for the rest of our lives.

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