.png)
This column represents the thoughts and opinions of The Rev. Carl Roth. This is not the opinion of the Elgin Courier. Needs the disclaimer 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 home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me” (John 14:23-24). As we celebrate the Church festival of Pentecost this coming Sunday, Jesus teaches that the Spirit works through Word and Sacraments in the Church to lead us to love Jesus and His Word.
Today people associate love primarily with emotions, but Jesus Himself shows us that the word “love” is not simply emotional when He proved His perfect love for His Father by laying down His life willingly on the cross, dying under God’s wrath against your sin to save you from hell and win everlasting life for you. Jesus loved the Father, and the Father loved Jesus by keeping His promise to raise His Son from the dead on the third day and exalt Him. God loved the world, including you, this way: by giving His only-begotten Son into death for the life of the world. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10) So God’s love involves not just feelings but also actions, and God’s love is the pattern that we are to imitate. Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep my Word.” Love involves action. To keep the Word of Jesus means to hear it, believe it, treasure it, and then put it into practice by living according to His Word. And just as the opposite of love is hate, so also the opposite of loving Jesus by keeping His Word is to despise Him by not keeping His Words, by refusing to hear His Word, by disbelieving the Word, or by failing to put the Word of Jesus into practice.
But on the other hand, look at the amazing blessings that come from keeping the Word of Jesus. He says that the Father and the Son (and by extension, the Holy Spirit) will love those who love the Word of Jesus, and the Triune God will come and make a home with them. Amazing! God certainly doesn’t need a home, since the entire universe was created by Him. And we certainly don’t deserve to dwell with God because of our rebellious sins against Him; we deserve a home in no other place than hell! But God wants to dwell with those who demonstrate their love for Jesus by keeping His Word. The almighty and eternal God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, whom we owe for life and every blessing— He wants to come to each of you individually and make a home with you. And in that home, He wants to be your dear Father, and you His dear child, since you have been purchased and won for the Father by the blood of Jesus Christ and you have been given new birth into the Kingdom of God by the Holy Spirit in Holy Baptism. St. John wrote, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1).
Therefore, how could we not want to keep the Word of Jesus, who has brought us into the loving arms of the Father? How could we not love the One who has saved us from sin and everlasting death? The only answer is unbelief, and so we pray that the Holy Spirit would guard and keep us against such unbelief. If we reject the Word of Jesus, then we throw ourselves into the devil’s hands, the one who hates Jesus. But when the Holy Spirit moves us to trust the Word of Jesus and keep it, then we are showing our love for Jesus and are wrapped up in the Father’s love, safe from Satan, death, and hell.
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). Love that Word, and keep it in your hearts and minds, and be assured that you love Jesus, and God loves you and makes His home with you. Amen.
