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"If you love me, you will obey what I command" · Accidental Bible Scholar

• Jeff Ward: Okay, welcome back to the Accidental Bottle Scholar podcast. We are somewhere around 14 so far. This we're going to talk about a question that I've heard or we've heard where John says, if you love me, you obey my commandments. And what does mean? New covenant? you know, the Moses What are we supposed to obey? What is John talking about? Randy's going to look into that. So, Randy. Okay. Well, let's just read an example of it. Let's go with John 14, 15. It just says what you said. John 14, 15 says, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. And I'll read 16 because we're on a bench to go there. Then I'll ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to be with you forever. So that's the Holy Spirit. And then John 15, 10, John 15, 14 is another play, two other places. a total of five times that Jesus says this. And he says that I think, believe in every bit, it's 14, 15, and 16 in those chapters of John is where he says it. It's only place he says this. He doesn't say this in any other gospels. Okay. And then, so five times here and then in first John, I didn't count them all because there's so many different nuances of that same statement. It's, it's at least five more, probably more than that in John that he says something similar to this. Right. So the question is what commands, right? Right, is he talking about the 10 commandments? Yeah, 10 commandments. All the old law? Yeah, the whole thing. Is it greatest commandment in the old covenant? So, and I'll tell you, that's what comes to people's mind, because we see the word commandment and we want to relate that word back to the 10 commandments or the greatest commandment or name it. You know, there's like 600 plus commandments I've been told. I've never done the counting, but you know, in the Old Covenant or the Old Testament, in the New Testament, there's like 800 and something. So, ones are they? And if you go, well, it's all of them, Randy. Okay, well, yeah, I got that. Well, if it's all of them, then how does that not make the gospel works? And then we'll go in a minute and talk about the context here. And the context, one of things we always look at is what covenant is in effect and what covenant is being talked about. This is one of those areas where we can kind of highlight how we use that technique of interpreting scripture because the old covenant is in full effect here. But in John 14, 15, 16 and 17, Jesus is talking about the new covenant. So he's an old covenant man talking about the new covenant. Sometimes he's an old covenant man talking about the old covenant, which is the greatest commandment in the old covenant. we'll go look at all that. One thing when I say things like the greatest commandment in the old covenant, is obsolete or the Ten Commandments are obsolete. Obsolete is a biblical term, Hebrews 8-13. Romans 7-4 would say we're dead to the law. A very astute, understanding person would say, yeah, but I'm a Gentile. I've never been subject to the law, which is true. But you can use the word religion in there. What the law is and what religion is is a way, it's a to-do lists that we have in order to become right with God or in to become righteous, in order to become holy, in order to become approved by Him, in order to find favor with Him. These things are all stuff that we do in order to achieve that. The new covenant, as we know, is flip that on its head. We start from there as a gift. So righteousness, being right standing with Him is a gift. Holiness is a gift. Being chosen by Him to be holy. And then we live our life from there. doing right things is in order to become righteous, but we were already righteous. Doing right things now is a fruit of being righteous. And that's, that's a, maybe a nuance in words, but it's massive difference in how we live and the way we think. So I think you've talked about it like a tree. Yeah. The roots are from righteousness, the fruit of that. Yes. Is good works. Right. Not to be saved, but the fruit of righteousness is our acts. Yes. Whereas the Old Covenant was starting from position of the law. Obedience achieved the fruit of righteousness, which was impossible. Didn't work. ⁓ Didn't work. But the time time, the Pharisees had convinced themselves that it didn't work. Right? And probably throughout the whole time the old covenant was in effect. But the point of the old covenant was not to become righteous. The point of the old covenant was to show your need for its savior. It was supposed to lead us to desperation. And account for sin. Yes. Yeah. And so the greatest commandment and I had in the old covenant, what all we think is the greatest commandment, that's the same thing. It's been upgraded. It's been made obsolete. And it's no longer, we don't do that in order to become something. Even that commandment was supposed to lead us to desperation. leads to the point of, can't do that. I need a savior. so- Is the commandment you're talking about, love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind? Yes. That Jesus upgraded? Right. Okay. And the new covenant upgrades that. And we'll look at that. First John 3.23, I think is the greatest in the new covenant. And when I say upgraded, here's just an example. For instance, when somebody says, well, the 10 commandments have been made off sleep and they no longer apply. That is absolutely true. And I can show you the new Testament I've already mentioned. Or that's true. What I'm using the word today, upgraded, is, for instance, the old covenant, the 10 commandments said, not commit adultery. And we've talked about this before, but the new covenant says, husband loves your wife, says Christ loves the church. That's the same commandment. It's just one's at a level of one out of 10. The other one is level out of 10 out of 10. And all the new covenant commandments are that way. They're actually a higher standard, not a lower standard. It's just that those now that higher standard is accomplished as a fruit of who we are. It's done in order to become something. But all these commandments, if you consider them the old covenant commandments of one out of 10, we weren't even able to do them, right? Yeah. Now they've upgraded to 10 out of 10. And the only way we were able to do that is through the power of Holy Spirit working through us. And we're already righteous. And as a righteous person, having the fruit of righteousness, which is love your wife. as Christ loved the church. So that's what I mean by upgraded. So we're not let off the hook. We're put on the hook more, but we're not on the hook at all. Both, right? It's a of the Holy Spirit working through us. We'll talk about that as more. ⁓ one thing talking the new covenant versus old covenant and the way religion works versus the way the new covenant works. The Old Covenant, we did these things in order to achieve righteousness and or favor. the question that we need to continually ask ourselves under the Old Covenant is, do I measure up? So I'm continuing to ask that question, do I measure up? That's a very self-focused. That's a very sin-focused way to live. And many of us ⁓ believers the West, ⁓ at probably believers It's hard to let go of that. So our theology, even though we can hold, try to hold onto that, and it becomes very self-centered and very sin focused. In other words, am I measuring up? Have I done this right? Have I done these things right? ⁓ I've sinned, so I gotta something to, in order to be forgiven for it. I do X, Y, and Z to be forgiven for sin, but when it actually, then it'll come, we're already forgiven of our sin. All our It's once and for all sacrifice. Hebrews multiple times talks about once and for all, once and for all, once and for all. So the new covenant is now I live from a position or from a state or from a foundation of righteousness, holiness, of favor. I woke up this morning already in God's favor. I woke up this morning already with his approval as a gift by the works of Jesus Christ. And so now the question is not do I measure up? The question in the new covenant is does Jesus measure up? And that's a resounding yes, always. I go, well, I proved? Am I righteous? Let me check. Does Jesus measure up to God's standard? ⁓ yeah, he measures up. So yeah, I'm righteous and I'm approved. mean, that's 10, 2, and in that whole section, it makes the bold statement in that because of Jesus Christ that I am now no longer to have a consciousness of sin. That's how. much my sin problem has been solved is that I'm not even supposed to walk around thinking about it. I'm supposed to be walking around focused on Christ. So I'm gonna give a short answer and a long answer. The short answer to the question, what is the commandment in Jesus? mean, commandment that Jesus is talking about in John 14, 15 and 16. And here it is. And I'll tell you how we get there in a little bit. 1 John 3.23, I think is the greatest commandment in the new covenant. Now that's my opinion because There's not a on this one that says this is the greatest commandment like there is in Matthew 22 and the other in Mark and Luke. But let me just read you. First John 3 23 says this, now this is a commandment. So that's pretty, listen up right now. This is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just he gave us the commandment. Just as he gave his commandment. If we'll go back and look at John 13 34, which we will learn in It says, that commandment that he gives multiple times, it says, a new commandment in John 13, 34 says, love one another as I have loved you. So again, we're not talking about loving our neighbor as ourself. That's hard enough. That's a one out of 10. But that's been upgraded. And I love others as Christ has loved us. That's a 10 out of 10, or probably 100 out of 10. Right. Right. And the point of this whole lesson I want to get across to us is there is great freedom in this. No longer are we required to kind of within ourselves generate this love for God. feels inauthentic and it's hard to get there frankly. But now what we can do is we glory in His love for us. And now as we focus on and glory in His love for us, then we let that love produce love for Him and love for others. I understand how fully loved I am. It makes me fall in love with him. And now I'm free to love others because I don't need anybody to love me because I'm fully loved by ⁓ Christ. So that's kind of where we're headed. But I want ⁓ to of map out how we get there. Okay. Can I ask a question? Yeah. Jesus says, you know, he defines the two greatest commandments as love the your God. Yeah. And love your neighbor as yourself. Yeah. He defines those, but he's really summing up the old covenant. Yes. And this that you're talking about is the, a new covenant commandment that's upgraded that. Yes. Okay. It's those same commandments upgraded from the one to the 10. Right. Right. So when Jesus says these are the greatest commandments, he's not necessarily saying these are the two. He's just talking about a summation of the 10 commandments. Yeah, or the 600 commandments. Or the 600. The old covenant commandments. Okay. That's a great leading because let's go exactly there. I'm going to cover that. what you were going to do? That's what I was going to do. Dang it. We're going to talk about how the greatest covenant is actually, the greatest quote unquote greatest commandment is actually old covenant and how it's been upgraded. Okay. Then we're going to look at what biblical interpretation methods do we go through to get us to John 3, 1 John 3 23, which I just read. And then the third thing we'll look at is I just want look at the impact that that change of mindset from the old covenant to the new covenant about God's love for us and our love back for him, how changing the covenants and changing the commandments, how that impacts our life. So that's where we're going. So if you don't mind, since you brought it up, we're going look at the greatest commandment and we're going to look at the one in Matthew. So go to Matthew 22, 34. through 40. So we're at seven verses. We'll read a little bit of a chunk. So this is Jesus' interaction. The same interaction is in Mark 12, and it's also in Luke 10. Those three gospels, not within John. So read that if you don't mind. Sure. Now in the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they assembled together. And one of them, an expert in religious law, asked him a question to test him. Teacher, which commandment? in the law is the greatest. Jesus said to him, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. Okay, so that first thing starts with, hey, Jesus just schooled the Sadducees, and so the Pharisees huddle up, and they're gonna come up with their thing. So, to count a little bit of background, the Sadducees, only believed in the first five books of the Bible and the books of Moses, and they also didn't believe in the resurrection. So these two, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, would argue that was the thing. know, the Pharisees are trying to prove the resurrection and the Sadducees are trying to prove and say that no, there is no resurrection of the dead. So they present that question to Jesus and Jesus schools them. And now the Pharisees going, ⁓ wait a minute, well, that one's Jesus schooled them. Let's come up with ours because Within the Pharisees who are experts in the law, their question that they always, which is the greatest commandment? There's 650 or whatever commandments there are, which is the greatest. So now they're going to present their question to Jesus and they're going to try to school him if you will, because he just, they just, he just schooled the Pharisees. Right. Our turn. Yeah. So now their turn, right? They huddle up and who's asking is an expert of law. So within the Pharisees, there were these guys that were even more precise in their interpretation of the law. they would, if you had a question law, you would go to these guys and they would tell you. So that's who's asked the question. So first of all, let's just go use how use the covenants, what's enforced at time and what's being talked about. So first of all, let me ask you questions then you can either answer them or I can answer it. Okay. What covenant is in effect at the time of this discussion? Old covenant. Old covenant. Because the new covenant is not in full effect until Acts chapter 2. It starts at the past, it's just like the old covenant. It begins at the Passover and ends at Pentecost. The new covenant, same way. The new covenant coming into existence begins at the Passover and ends at the Pentecost, Acts chapter 2. So yeah, so this is before that. this is in force at the time is the old covenant. So who's asking the question we've already talked about? the Pharisees. First of all, they're Jews. So they're under the old covenant. So these are men who are under the old covenant asking. And in fact, these are the experts of the day in the law of Moses, right? And to who are they asking the question to? The man himself. The man himself, Jesus, right? Yeah. Well, what covenant is Jesus under right now? Old. Old covenant. Galatians 4, 4 says that... Jesus is a man born under or born subject to the old covenant. Okay, or the law I think is what Paul uses in Galatians 4.4. But Galatians 4.4 tells us clearly that Jesus is an old covenant guy his first 33 years here. Okay, and what's the question referring to? The law. The law says, hey what is the greatest commandment in the law? Right? Yeah. And what does Jesus answer refer to? The law. He quotes from the law. He quotes from Deuteronomy 6.5. So he quotes from the law of Moses itself. we have both all the men in this conversation are under the law. Part of them are experts in the law. The other one is the author of the law, but they're all under the law. The question is, what's the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus quotes from the law. And yet, because It's Jesus speaking, we go, well, that's new covenant. Right. That's way to think. Sure, it's a natural way to do it. Yep. But this is a little covenant, therefore it's obsolete. Hebrews 8.13, Romans 7.4, and many others. It's been fulfilled, it's done. Romans 10.1 through 4 is another example we might go to. But so, this is, you cannot get around that this is law and that the laws were made obsolete. So, let's talk about a crazy thing real quick. Quick side note. But this blew my mind. It may not blow anybody else's mind, but it blew mine. Acts chapter two, there's no commandment to love God. And that almost seems crazy to say. You're like, no way. Well, I've looked at it and I've searched it over and over multiple times. What I have found is nine times. Believers are described as people who love God. So we are to love God, certainly, but it's not a command. It's a fruit fruit. Yeah. So, but we are described as people who love God. nine times. 30 times is as Jesus or God loving us. Yeah. to a factor of three to one ratio, God expresses his love for us three to one believers being described as people who love God. So not once have I ever found, and I don't think it's there, a commandment to love God after Acts chapter two. A quick side note, the greatest commandment in the Old Covenant, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. The second one is love your neighbor and yourself. Those two are referenced a few times. Paul references them in Galatians, and he references them in a couple other letters. Those are referenced, but they're always in reference to the law that these fulfill the law. They're never told that we are to follow laws. Certainly, Galatians would be the last book you would ever find somebody saying, Paul saying, you got to follow law. They're just talked about in the same way referring back to this conversation with Jesus, but it's never given as a command. And I put here, well, maybe God just forgot to tell us that. Right. Right. Maybe he just assumed we'd take that through the cross and do it. it's not only intentional that he didn't tell us that, it's genius. Right. That now no longer is it, the Lord God with all our heart and soul, and now believe in the name of Jesus. The genius behind that, it's hard for me to describe because I'm not a genius and Jesus is. The real greatest commandment, the greatest commandment in the new covenant, it's the only command in the Bible that we can't turn into religion. We can't make that about us. about him. All we do is believe. We either believe in his name or we don't believe in his name. But we can't make that a self-serving or self-righteous law or rule or command. That's genius of it. And included in that, There's a lot that includes, and we'll talk about that, believing in His name. But part of that is believing in His love for us. So while that doesn't cover that whole command, it certainly covers the part that the greatest command. So the greatest commandment in the Old Covenant is, the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul. The greatest commandment in the New Covenant, part of it is, believe in His love for us. OK. Believing in His love for us changes everything. And we'll talk about 1 John 4.19. We'll go read that here in a second. It says, we love because He first loved us. I'm putting it, religious people see the miracle of the gospel is that Jesus reduced the law to only two commandments. We go, there's 600. Oh, well, really, if we just focus, we can find there's 10. And praise the Lord, Jesus took it from 600, from 10 to two. And we go, man, there's only two. The problem is we can't do those two any better than we can do the 600. 600. Yeah. So we have to love him from our first breath to our last breath. with all of our heart, mind, and soul, every second of our existence that we're breathing on earth. Yeah, I can't do that. Can't do that either. No. So see, this just the 10 or just like the 650, was supposed to drive us into desperation and see our need for a savior, which is one of the primary purposes of the law, right? Yeah. I put here, deep down there's no spark. We're commanded to love God, but where's the power, the passion, the In the end, this commandment is just merely another opportunity for shame and guilt that is never meant to be ours under the new covenant. Martin Luther, quote from him, Martin Lutheran says that the dilemma of the greatest commandment is it commands the very thing that cannot be commanded. I have this heartfelt affection for Jesus. Now, maybe you command the decision with mind, I can decide to love, but I can't, it's hard to command the heart. That's what Martin Luther would say. So in other words, well, I'll just slow down for a second. God's commanding us to love, which is something you choose to do. ⁓ the problem with it. Well, Luther says it's he's saying we can't. doesn't this. say, you know, loving your wife is a choice. It's very basic. But does she really want that? Right. ⁓ I love you because I have to. Right. No, she wants my heart. My wife wants my whole heart. Yeah. That's the part that you can't be commanded. Right. Now, when times get tough. Yeah, I love her no matter what. Right. But but that's not just what God wants. Right. But even that we can't you know, from our first bread to our last in total perfection, right? Yeah. I put this is freedom from loving God to gain his favor or gain his affection or gain his approval. talking about the love, said, would that kind of love be acceptable in any relationship? In other words, the love, I love you in order to get something from you. Right. That's called manipulation and control. That's witchcraft. We're accusing God of witchcraft when we... when we do that, or we're trying to manipulate him by loving, if I love you, will you give me this? If I love you, will you give me approval? If I love you, will you make me righteous? I'm gonna love you so that something, that's not love. the part that's, that's the part that trips up the greatest commandment is because it's, by it's, you're doing something in order to gain something and that is not love. So the very point that is a command negates it being command or achievable. Yeah. Does that make that sense? Atheists up here, atheists correctly argue that all religion is ultimately self-serving. It's ultimately I'm doing X, Y, and Z in order to gain X, and Z. Right. And atheists are correct. So that's when I say the Old Covenant or the greatest commandment in the Old Covenant is what we, everybody, or what most people think of as the greatest commandment. Yeah. But it is Old Covenant. It has been made obsolete. It is upgraded by 1 John 3 23. So that's point one of explaining the biblical interpretation that shows us that that's old. Any questions or comments before we go on to the next one? No questions. All right, so here's my next point. What points to John's commandment or the word commandment? Sometimes it's plural, sometimes it's singular. Commandment or commandment is being these two that we see in 1 John 3.23. I we've, I can't remember if we talked about this, the method, a couple of things is context, what covenant is being talked about. What covenant is in effect, what covenant is being talked about. And then when you're looking at a particular word like commandment, you look at the local context. So let's look at it, you know, in the, in the teen chapters of 1 John, I mean, of John, not 1 John, the gospel of John. And then you expand it out. If you can't find something there, then you expand it out to look at the whole book of John. And then if you can't find something there, which we'll be able to find it, but we'll expand out to look at 1 John, so other writings of that author. Because we want to know what that author meant when he used that word. So we're going to and go look at where he uses that word and what he means by that. And that will help us understand what means by. by if you love me, follow my commandments or my commandments when quoting Jesus. Because the Holy Spirit wrote every word in the Bible, but he didn't, he somehow kept the human part of it, kept the author's personality, the author's vocabulary, the author's thinking, his are all, know, God redeems all that. He doesn't squash it. like some religions do. But anyway, that's the method that we are going use here. So let me go. OK, so let's just read. I'll read it again, what I read. It says, this is John 14, verses 15 and 16. If you love me, you will obey my commandments. Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to be with you forever. So the question is, which commandments? Notice. Verse 15 and 16 is an if-then statement. If this happens, then if verse 15 happens, then what is in verse 16 will happen. And what's in verse 16? The Holy Spirit will be sent. So if you do verse 15, then Jesus says, I'll send the Holy Spirit. I'll ask the Father and He'll send the Holy Spirit. So right there, we see that this greatest commandment is linked somehow to salvation because At the salvation is where Jesus sends the Holy Spirit. Okay. And that's another topic of learning where that happens. We can talk about that later, but I don't mean let's not get tied down on that or anything. words that I use there. Right. Some other things we can look at is John is the only New Testament writer that expresses these expresses this. And like I said, he does it five times in these three chapters and he does it more than five times in the book of first John. He's the only gospel writer that does not mention the interaction with the Pharisees that we just read about in Matthew 22. And he doesn't ever refer back or quote Deuteronomy 6.5. So anyway, he's the only one, like I said, that does that. I put here, John also, John is the disciple that talks the most about Jesus' love and about believing in Jesus. In John's 25 times in the Gospel of John, John quotes Jesus telling us to believe in him. No other Gospel writer does that. So 25 times he says, believe in me. So that helps us point to 1 John 3.23 as the greatest commandment of believe in the name of Jesus. That also, if-then interaction in John 14-15 ⁓ and 14-16 also leads us to that, believe in the name of Jesus, that command as being the greatest commandment. Three times John quotes ⁓ Jesus us a new commandment. Okay, let's go to John 13-34 and read if you don't mind. I'm referencing it early, but let's read it. ⁓ I give you a new commandment to love one another just as I've loved you. You also are to love one another. Okay. That's a new commandment. Why is it new? the old commandment was love your neighbor as yourself. The new commandment is love others as I have loved you. And you say, okay, this is new. Right. It's going to, it's going to re he doesn't call it replacing, but as we look at it, it's a one for one place and it's goes from, like we said, it's an upgrade. Yep. From. loving like I love myself to loving like Jesus loves us. That's a huge upgrade. Other thing about John talking about love, five times John refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loves. And we've talked about before, but that's the correct way of all of us have seen ourselves. We are all the disciple whom Jesus loves. Are you going to talk about that more in a few minutes? That idea? Or John saying that? No, go ahead. You say it. you, uh, maybe, but maybe not what you're talking about. Go ahead. Well, that's another interesting point that I've always read and I've heard people say, well, uh, John refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. And they add on the most. they say that literally or they think that in their mind. Yeah. And think what a snobby or a pecking order statement. Hey, he loved me the most or junk like, dude, how can say that? Right. Kind of cocky or thinks more highly of himself. You know, he's the type of him Jesus loved. Yeah. That kind of didn't didn't sit right to you. What you just said. put some light in it that he understood who he was now is someone who Jesus loved. It place him anywhere besides someone who Jesus loved. he doesn't, doesn't mean Jesus divided it up. He can love you and me, right? 100%. Absolutely. And he just loves us. And what a way to go through life. If you just told I'm Jeff. Yeah, disciple whom Jesus loves. Yeah. It sounds weird to say that. Yeah, but it's true. Because it sounds like, well, you don't deserve that. You're like, yeah, you're right. Right. And if you have that, that's a very humble view. It is. It sounds arrogant to some, but it's very humble. Yeah. Because you're believing what the Lord of God says. And isn't that what the first commandment is? Believe in the name of Jesus. I reworded it a little bit. It says believe in his love for us. you what John is doing and what you were doing when you say I'm Jeff I'm the sop of Jesus loves you are Lining up with and obeying the grace commandment in the new covenant is I believe in the name of Jesus and a part of that Not all of it, but a part of that would be to believe in his love for us You're exactly right So let me back up just a minute because we've heard it we've heard it says I've heard people quote John as saying the disciple whom Jesus loves the most. Yep. We've also all of us have added that in there. Yep. Maybe not consciously, but we read it that way. Right. We read it as him bragging and he's arrogant. And really, it's a super humble place to be to be loved by Jesus Christ. Here's my comment. If that to the degree that you do that or to the degree that that that statement sounds funny or to the degree that that statement when read that in scripture it's it it just go I don't like that yeah John you and you scoff John or something or two to the degree that you're with that to the degree that you add those other criteria to that that degree is an indication of the degree to which you are under religion or under law ⁓ and have received the full freedom the New Covenant. Right. there's a great test for us that we make up. We can't deceive ourselves. Here's the test. When you read that, are you offended? Does it feel funny? Or do you go, amen? Right. And to that degree that you're on there on that science scale is the degree to which you are either still slave to Old or slave to religion, or you are experiencing the freedom and the love of being in the New Covenant. Yeah. And we'll discuss the love. I'm gonna read some verses here that just blow me away when I read them every time about God's love for us. And that's the point, His love for us, because now as He loves us, I love Him back. That's what 1 John 4.19 says. I'm gonna go look at that. But yeah, you're exactly right. But that's a great test for ourselves that we can't deceive ourselves with. So if you're offended by that, then you need to work on the number one greatest commandment, which is believe in the name of Jesus, or said another way, believe in His love for you. Meditate on. And we'll talk about that, but meditate on, live out, think about his love for you and glory in his love for you. And second commandment ⁓ take care of itself. Loving or the grace commandment in the old covenant will take care of itself. You'll just follow that effortlessly. Loving others, you'll just, same thing, you'll follow that effortlessly. Can I one more thing? Yeah. And I think you've in a Sunday school class a long time ago, that John is the one that is still at the foot of the cross. Peter who said, I love you Jesus, right? I will never stop loving you. And he But John was disciple whom Jesus loved. And he was the that was still there at the foot of the I've word it like this. word it like this. Peter. bragged on his love for Jesus and he denied him three times and ran away. John bragged on Jesus' love for him and he never left and he was at the foot of the cross. That's a huge difference. That's an old covenant mindset and a new covenant mindset. Are you gonna brag on your love for Jesus or are you gonna brag on his love for you? changes the way you live. It the way you ⁓ read It changes everything about you when you believe in his love for you. Right, brag on his love for you. Roast in his love for you. Right. Right? Yep. Yeah, it's huge. And Peter and John are two great contrast in seeing that. Right. Phenomenal. I'm glad you brought that up. You probably were going to get there. Maybe, but maybe not. Let's read 1 John 3 23 and then we'll look at the life impact. Go ahead and read that. Do you have that? What is it? 1 John 3 23. 1 John 3.3 says, Now this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ love one another just as he gave us the commandment. Okay. And just as we read that it's multiple times love, love ⁓ another as I have loved you. that's that this to me, although not labeled such in the Bible, I'm not saying it is, but this to me is the greatest commandment in the new covenant. And is where we need to spend our time and our energy and our meditation and our thinking and we don't need to do that in the old covenant grace commandment the old covenant yeah so believe in the name of Jesus it is through believing in his name I think every every in the New Testament refers many times to believing in the name of Jesus we talked about gospel John 25 times yeah but everyone of us and there's a benefit and a power associated with every instance of that. But we believe in his name for salvation. We believe in his name for answered prayers. We believe in his name for power for walking in and speaking in power. And we believe in his name for knowing how much love he has for us. You know, the paraphrase is believe in his love for us, but that's just small facet of that number one. commandment. But anyway, huge. We can stop there. There's great freedom in that. Right. I'm no longer trying to generate love for God. Right. In order to be approved or in order to do anything, in order to look pious, in order to be the cool guy in Sunday school. Right. I'm no longer doing that. I am now glorying in His love for me. Right. And that produces the fruit of my love for Him. and my love for others. wake up in the morning, I don't wake up in the morning to be loved by my wife. I wake up in the morning fully loved by Jesus, ready to love my wife. To love the cashier at the checkout, in the checkout line. To love the other on the road. He wants to get in front of me. My mind goes, no. And then I'm like, wait a minute. He can get in here. can It's called denying yourself. And I can do that because I'm fully loved. and I can deny myself while I revel in glory in his love for me. Do you have anything else for me keep going Well, mean, just to keep going a little bit is, mean, it cuts out any comparison. Yeah. Like, well, I'm a little better today comparing yourself to yesterday or comparing myself to you. Yeah. And now, well, it's just we're all loved 100 % fully, incredibly by the Jesus Christ, the Father that we are just loved. Yeah, fully loved. So now this love overflows to those around me. Right. Overflows back to the Father. Yeah. It's one of the ways and one of the mechanisms that you fall in love with is work. Right. And you just can't get enough of it. Yeah. When you meditate on and confess out loud, it's love for you. Right. And you understand everything he's done. Right. And it takes religion and just makes it a distant. thought in the past, right? with the old covenant and religion. puts in the past, me trying to earn something in order to gain approval. Right. You know, even believers, we still struggle with, I got to do X, Y, and Z, or I don't feel approved. Right. Well, if you just understand how much he loves you and you see what he did for you at the cross, your approval is in that alone and nothing else. You can't get any more. You can't get any more. Right. Yeah. I mean, that's like you said, is earth, earth religious shaking, life changing. Yeah. And I would, I would let those who were listening to let that be kind of a gauge that you judge yourself by or you measure yourself by. Yeah. The degree that you're uncomfortable with me saying the greatest commandment has been made obsolete. the degree that you were uncomfortable with that is the degree that you were still religious. Right. Right. It's to the degree that you're still trying to earn something from God. It's the degree that you don't feel or understand His love for you. And if many of us deep down were to admit the ones that are trying to do that, trying to love God, trying to generate a love for God, the affection just isn't there. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And you want the affection of being in love with God? That's what you want. Meditate on how much he loves you right? That's all you got to do. Yeah, and it's not natural That's not natural is not that we think right we want to earn it right we want to do it the old-fashioned way we want to earn That's not that is the old-fashioned way, but that's not the new covenant way right it was earned on our behalf. Yeah By Jesus's faithfulness. Yeah, we talked about that a couple podcast. Yeah go the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, okay, let's if you don't mind flip to ⁓ 1st John 2.15 and I'm going to flip to 1st John 4.19. read 1st John 2.15. Do love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Okay. Here's the way we all read that. Same way we read, we add stuff to what John says about himself as a disciple in Jesus. We read this different too. Here's where you read this. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anything, if anyone loves the world, so far I'm reading exactly, we change, but this and that, we don't, what it says is the love of the Father is not in him. How do we change that? We change that, we go the love for the Father is not in him. change that from a grace-based he loves me to a works-based I love him. And we all read it that way. ⁓ won't say we all, but that's tendency, the natural tendency is to change of to for. The love for the Father is not in him. That's what we got. Well, you love the world, the love for the Father is not in you. That's not what it says. It says, if you love the world, you don't understand how loved you are. The love of the Father is not in you. I could have a hard time reading it that way right now. Yeah, you do. mean, just by the transforming power of God's love for us, we overflow with the love for the Father because of the love of the Father. Yeah. So we overflow. with love for Him because the love of Him, because of His love for us. It's transforming. I said, you wanting, and this was said, I'll just read it here, but you want to know how to truly love God with all your heart, mind and soul effortlessly? The answer is what I've given several times. Then focus on, meditate on, contemplate God's love for you. right. 1 John 4.19 says, we love because he first loved us. We're going to read that good section of 1 John 4. mean, it's a great, mean, the amount of love there's, mean, the speaking or talking that John does there of love is crazy, but we love because he first loved us. Most of us are going, well, I'm going to try to love him. No, if you'll meditate, contemplate, focus on his love for you, then 1 John 4.19 will become a truth in your life. It is a truth. It'll become a fact in your life that you love him because he first loved you. But if you're focused on your love for him all the time, you'll never get there. have to focus on his love for you because as he loved you first, then that generates love. A bit of God's love for us is the entire point. focus on and do all those things. Loving God and loving others is a fruit of His love for and in us, and us making that awareness. There's great freedom in not trying to work up love for God or trying to prove it by trying to keep the law imperfectly. The freedom comes when we glory in God's love for us. Then we relax and let God produce the fruit of loving Him back and loving others. That's kind of the conclusion of this whole thing, although we're gonna read some scripture here. it.