Live to Love Scripture Encouragement

John 15:20 “Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”
Earlier in the evening, after Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, He had said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.” It was said in the context of Jesus’ telling them to serve each other as He had served them by washing their feet. In that case, the message was do as I do. In this case, the idea is the similar. It’s you’ll receive the same from others that I receive. Those who persecute Me will do the same to you, and those who honor Me by keeping My word will do the same with you and your words.
As we live to love with Jesus, those who reject God’s word will also reject our words. Love won’t make a difference in how they treat us or what they think about us. However, we should not shrink back from speaking God’s word in love. As we do, we can know that those who love God’s word will receive our words as we are faithful to say what He says. They will receive and honor our words because we are repeating Jesus’ words. That’s a vital aspect of living to love with Jesus. Because we love Him, we keep His words and share them with others in His name. As Jesus said, “If anyone loves 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 which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” (John 14:24).

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

John 15:19b “But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”
Jesus reminded them that they did not choose Him but He chose them out of the world. He chose them because their source isn’t the world, rather they are “of” God. The world hates those who go “out from them” to Jesus. It exposes them for who and whose they are. But let’s pause and consider. Those Jesus chose out of the world looked exactly like those of the world. He didn’t choose us, who are His friends, for any other reason than we have a different source. So how do we know who are His friends. Like He said in John 15:14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” We were “of God” and not “of the world”. However, we didn’t know we were of God until He chose us and revealed His love in us. For this reason, the world hates us. As you live to love with Jesus, humbly consider that you are blessed if the world hates you and speaks all manner of evil against you for His name sake.

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

John 15:19a “If you were of the world, the world would love its own;”
The word Jesus used for “love” in this verse has the same root as the word for “friends”. Philos, friends. Phileo, love. So we can understand that Jesus was saying that if the disciples were of the world, the world would be friendly toward them. Friendship with the world reveals that the world is your source. Friendship with Jesus reveals that God is your source. It is clear that John understood this principle because of what he wrote in his first epistle. “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:18-19). Then in 1 John 4:5-6, speaking of the same group who are antichrists and unfriended them, he wrote, “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
Those who are of the world only befriend those who think like them. They have the same lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, and boastful pride of life in this world. They love their lives in this world and so are friends with others who loves their lives in this world. This should speak to our hearts as it did the disciples’ hearts. We should not try to reach the world by being friends with them—showing them that we desire the same things in this world and boast of the same things as they do. If we live to love with Jesus, we can expect no one in the world, who is of the world, will consider us their friends. They won’t listen to the apostles’ writing or teaching, so they won’t listen to us either. Don’t let that discourage you. All who are His friends, will listen and will not reject your witness or love.

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

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.