Live to Love Scripture Encouragement

John 15:25 “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, 'They hated Me without a cause.’”
I’m not sure where in the Law Jesus was referring, but in Psalms 69:4 we find these words. “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies.” To say that they “hated without a cause” is to say that the hatred was within them. There wasn’t something that Jesus did that caused them to hate Him. He healed people, which they could’t do, and they hated Him. He spoke with God’s authority. It brought out hatred in them. He spoke the truth, but they hated the truth and therefore hated Him. God doesn’t cause people to hate Him. They hate Him because they have sin within them. Hatred for God is the fruit of sin whereas in contrast, love for God is the fruit of righteousness.
That’s why living to love with Jesus gives us confidence in the judgment as John wrote in 1 John 4:17. We know love for God and others isn’t natural. Rather it’s a supernatural work of grace in the heart of a person, which shows that God has loved them with an everlasting, redemptive love. It reveals that the righteousness of God has been given to them and His righteousness flows through the vine into the branches and bears much fruit—the fruit of God’s love. Hatred for God has been replaced with hatred for sin and love for God. If this describes you, then rejoice in the Lord! Give Him praise and thanksgiving for the privilege of living to love with Him.

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

John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.”
It’s miraculous and supernatural for anyone to live to love with Jesus. It takes a work of grace and glory to transform a hater of God into a lover of God. Look what sin has done to mankind. We live to hate God. We don’t know we hate God until He shows up and does what only He can do. He does the works of God—works that no one else has ever done or can do. We all died when Adam sinned. Death is all we know, and we think it is life because our hearts are beating and we are breathing. So it was with that generation at the time of Jesus’ coming. They didn’t know they were dead in their sin until Jesus came and revealed the life of God. They saw His works, heard His words, and hated Him because He did things they could not do. He exposed them. John described the coming of Jesus this way in John 3:19-20. “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
The same will be true of all those who are His and who walk in the Light of Christ. God is light and the light is love. As they love with Jesus, it will expose those who walk in darkness. Their love is a supernatural love just as the works of Jesus were supernatural. Like Jesus, they will be hated because in everyone who has sin ruling their lives, the love and works of Jesus bring out hatred for Jesus and His Father. Father, give us courage and the love we need to walk in Your light today. Accomplish your work for the glory of your name.

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

John 15:23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also.”
Hate is a strong word, isn’t it? In Deut. 5:9, God speaks to us. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.” Hatred for God is judged and revealed when we put anyone or anything in His place. He alone is worthy of our worship and service. This foundational understanding of hatred for God expressed through idolatry seems to relate to these words of Jesus. Another way of stating this truth is this: He who is most delighted and satisfied in Jesus above all else loves Him and loves God, the Father, also. Whoever hates Jesus and His words, also hates God. What great truth underlies this statement? Jesus and God, the Father, are one. Let’s follow the line. Jesus and the Father are one. If you hate one, you hate the other. Believers in Jesus and Jesus are one. If you hate one, you hate the other. The converse is also true. If you love the Son, you love the Father. If you love those who are His, you love Jesus. What a privilege it is to love with Jesus each day. We are expressing our love for Jesus and the Father, for His glory.

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

God has spoken. Man has no excuse for sin.
John 15:22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.”
Notice the importance of Jesus’ words. They judge sinners. Jesus said this earlier in the day that He said these words recorded in John 15:22. 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.” The same reasoning applies in both instances. Jesus spoke. The only reason one would reject His word is that they have sin in them. His word became the occasion for the revelation of their sin. There is no excuse for the creature who rejects the word of his creator. This reminds us of Romans 1:20. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” The apostle Paul explained how God’s wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. It is revealed in the fact that God has revealed Himself, and they suppress the truth that God has spoken or revealed Himself.
God came and spoke to Adam and Eve. In speaking to them, He spoke to all of mankind, to them, and to us. “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Had He not spoken to us, we would not have sin. But that word judged all mankind, even us, for God’s Word also says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Rom. 5:12-13). And so we are without excuse for our sin. For Paul also wrote, “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:19-20). Jesus’ words are the words of God. They are like the law to us. They are spiritual. They show where the Spirit of God is working and where He is not working. God has spoken to us in His Son. Are we listening to Him?

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

John 15:21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”
What are “these things” that Jesus referred to? Persecution and rejection of what you say. The reason we will be rejected, ignored, and dishonored will be for Jesus’ name sake. If we live by and keep His words, then we identify with Jesus, His name. Those who know God, know that Jesus was sent by the Father and that His words were His Father’s words. Jesus commanded His followers to love one another because God is love, and He came to live to love with His Father. So those who know God will love. John expounded on this in his first epistle. “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. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him” (1 Jo. 4:6-9). Today, we live because Jesus lives. We have His life in us, which is the manifestation of God’s love for us. To God be the glory.

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