John 14:15-21 (NRSV)
Read John 14:15-21 on biblegateway.com
Verse 15"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Verse 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. Verse 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
Verse 18"I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. Verse 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. Verse 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Verse 21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."
Devotion
"If you love me you will keep my commandments." That seems like a reasonable response. The trouble comes when we try to keep them, because we always fail. Worse yet, we slip into the notion that we earn our way, or pay God back, by slavishly obeying the commandments. Because we have been saved already through Jesus Christ we respond by living as God would have us live. It is never the other way around. It is good to know that we can rejoice in response to what God has first done for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Counselor has been sent by the Father to be with us forever. Surely the Counselor will guide us in right living and acting as we live out our Christian life.
Prayer
Thank you, Lord, for the Spirit of truth. Amen.