Complete Joy

Are you keeping the commandment of Christ? Ok, maybe the first question I should ask is, do you love Christ? Well, seeing that I now have your attention, this is how I see it: to keep someone’s commandment, there are two fundamentals that must be established first: Love and Respect! To better explain this, I will use an analogy which I know best, and I am sure you do also; that is parenting. Children who love and respect their parents for who they are, demonstrate a desire to obey their rules. If you remove one or both from the equation, the child usually displays a rebellious, disrespectful behavior. So it is with us in regards to our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who said to us in John 15:10: “If you keep My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love.” Take careful attention to what Jesus said, “You will remain in My love”, He did not say He will remove His love from us, He didn’t die on the cross to stop loving us.  He said He will never leave us nor forsake us. We are the ones who take ourselves out of the loving embrace of Christ. When God created man, one of the attribute given to us was free will.  We are free to obey His commandments; we are free to accept His loving embrace.  The Bible said that God is love, and when you live according to His will, then you are in His love.

Our love for our Savior is the most important commandment to keep; it will literally determine who we are in Christ. This actionable love sets us apart as citizens of the Kingdom of God. It guides our actions every moment of every day. It determines our speech and how we interact with others. Jesus teaches that it is what comes out of a man’s heart that defines who he is, so let the love of Christ flow out of you.  This kind of Actionable Love and Respect toward the Lord Himself is one of the foundational establishment God put in place right after He finished His creation work, Genesis 2 said “By the seventh day, God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.” By obeying God’s commands for the Sabbath, the Israelites showed respect for Who God is, and by partaking in sabbatical worship they demonstrated their love for God, thus setting themselves apart as a Holy people, a people living according to God’s will which is His Love.

Now Jesus took this commandment to a new fulfillment, which was established because of His redemptive love. The importance of our love for Him was made clear by Jesus’ response to the Pharisees’ questions regarding the Mosaic laws recorded in Mark 12: One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them good answers, he asked Him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The first words Jesus uttered when answering the question is: “The Lord our God , the Lord is one”, that is respecting Who the Lord is, recognizing that He is the sole Supreme Being, no other, but Him. Once that was established, Jesus taught that the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and all your mind, and with all your strength”. I don’t know about you, but my interpretation of that statement is this: “love Him with every fiber of your being and then some.” To be a little more intellectual with my explanation:  the term “all your heart” is approaching the commandment with the senses that God blesses us with, such as our emotions or feelings; “all our mind” is the part of the commandment that invites us to use our intelligence and ability to reasoning. Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord”; “all your strength” is cautioning us that following the commandment would not always be easy.  It would take every effort and psychological fortitude as we seek to dedicate our lives to live according to Jesus’ command.

I was prompted to write this article as I was reading a passage in John. Jesus was teaching the disciples that to love Him, they must keep his commandment. What jumped out at me when reading the verse was how expressive Jesus was in explaining the importance of this actionable love towards Him, which leads to an obedient heart.  It was so important for Him to get this point across, that He demonstrated the relationship between Him and His Father in ways that showed His complete submission to God’s will and what the reward will be. John 15:9-11 “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. If you keep My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” Jesus made it known to the disciples that His love for us could not be measure by earthly standards.  He compared His love for us by the immeasurable love the Father has for Him. Just pause for a minute and try to imagine how great His love is for us, a love that is of a divine nature. This is the love that drove Him to the cross to suffer for our sake, yet all He asks of us is to keep His commands, and by so doing so remain in His divine love. This is Jesus’ desire for us. Why, you may ask? So the His joy may be in you and therefore, your joy may be complete.

JR Tracey