{"id":412,"date":"2025-03-19T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=412&2025"},"modified":"2025-03-17T18:00:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T00:00:45","slug":"the-key-to-love-john-14-15-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/the-key-to-love-john-14-15-31\/","title":{"rendered":"The Key to Love: John 14:15-31"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Focus Passage: John 14:15-31 (GW)<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\">\r\n<p><sup>15\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cIf you love me, you will obey my commandments.  <sup>16\u00a0<\/sup>I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever.  <sup>17\u00a0<\/sup>That helper is the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him, because it doesn\u2019t see or know him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you.<\/p> <p><sup>18\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cI will not leave you all alone. I will come back to you.  <sup>19\u00a0<\/sup>In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. You will live because I live.  <sup>20\u00a0<\/sup>On that day you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me and that I am in you.  <sup>21\u00a0<\/sup>Whoever knows and obeys my commandments is the person who loves me. Those who love me will have my Father\u2019s love, and I, too, will love them and show myself to them.\u201d<\/p> <p><sup>22\u00a0<\/sup>Judas (not Iscariot) asked Jesus, \u201cLord, what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?\u201d<\/p> <p><sup>23\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus answered him, \u201cThose who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will go to them and make our home with them.  <sup>24\u00a0<\/sup>A person who doesn\u2019t love me doesn\u2019t do what I say. I don\u2019t make up what you hear me say. What I say comes from the Father who sent me.<\/p> <p><sup>25\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cI have told you this while I\u2019m still with you.  <sup>26\u00a0<\/sup>However, the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything. He will remind you of everything that I have ever told you.<\/p> <p><sup>27\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cI\u2019m leaving you peace. I\u2019m giving you my peace. I don\u2019t give you the kind of peace that the world gives. So don\u2019t be troubled or cowardly.  <sup>28\u00a0<\/sup>You heard me tell you, \u2018I\u2019m going away, but I\u2019m coming back to you.\u2019 If you loved me, you would be glad that I\u2019m going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.<\/p> <p><sup>29\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cI\u2019m telling you this now before it happens. When it does happen, you will believe.  <sup>30\u00a0<\/sup>The ruler of this world has no power over me. But he\u2019s coming, so I won\u2019t talk with you much longer.  <sup>31\u00a0<\/sup>However, I want the world to know that I love the Father and that I am doing exactly what the Father has commanded me to do. Get up! We have to leave.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"passage-read-more\">Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=John 14:15-31&amp;version=gw\" title=\"Read the passage on BibleGateway.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"hyperlink-underlined\">John 14:15-31<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Have you ever wondered how you can show God love? Since God is not physically present and touchable like a person is, any relationship we have with Him, or affection we show Him, will likely be a little different than it is with our significant other. Or is it really all that different?<\/p>\r\n<p>Many people believe that in order to show God love, we must love others \u2013 including orphans, widows, hospital patients, prison inmates, and, or maybe even especially, those who are the lowest in society and those who cannot help themselves. I am among those who agree with this description \u2013 and I stand on the foundation of several prominent parables\/teachings that Jesus shares in the gospels.<\/p>\r\n<p>However, in our passage for this journal entry, Jesus gives us a clear, direct answer to this question, and it might surprise you. While what has been believed is not wrong, it is only a partial truth.<\/p>\r\n<p>In verse 21, Jesus says, <strong>\u201cWhoever knows and obeys my commandments is the person who loves me. Those who love me will have my Father\u2019s love, and I, too, will love them and show myself to them.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>This must be an easy thing, since just one chapter before, Jesus gave the disciples a new command: <strong>\u201cI\u2019m giving you a new commandment: Love each other in the same way that I have loved you. Everyone will know that you are my disciples because of your love for each other.\u201d<\/strong> (John 13:34-35)<\/p>\r\n<p>But it isn\u2019t that simple. Jesus describes in our first verse (John 14:21)  commandments that are plural, and in the prior chapter\u2019s two verses (John 13:34-35), He tells us that is a \u201cnew\u201d command. Jesus isn\u2019t replacing any commandments; He is adding to them.<\/p>\r\n<p>What commandments is He \u201cadding\u201d to? Jesus is most likely referencing the Ten Commandments in these verses, which God spoke to the Israelites from Mount Sinai in Exodus, chapter 20.<\/p>\r\n<p>There are parallels to how John opens His gospel talking about Jesus being God that could be understood as referring back to Mount Sinai and Jesus as the One who spoke God\u2019s Law; but even if this wasn\u2019t the case, Jesus came as a Representative of the Godhead, and when He says \u201cMy commandments\u201d, it is just as true to refer to the Ten Commandments which were spoken from Mount Sinai by the Godhead.<\/p>\r\n<p>This means that when Jesus talks about obeying His commandments, He must be referring to all eleven \u2013 both the original ten as well as the extra \u201cnew\u201d commandment He gave to the disciples.<\/p>\r\n<p>Let\u2019s look back at our original verse, <strong>\u201cWhoever knows and obeys my commandments is the person who loves me. Those who love me will have my Father\u2019s love, and I, too, will love them and show myself to them.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>Jesus clearly states obedience is the way we show our love to Him. He did command that we love others, and that we love people who are in need, but that is only one commandment out of eleven \u2013 specifically the bonus one. It\u2019s good to get the bonus answer right, but it doesn\u2019t mean much if the rest of the test answers are wrong.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Jesus says that obedience leads to loving Him, and that loving Him will bring the Father\u2019s love into our lives, and that Jesus will love us too and He will show Himself to us. <\/strong><em>It seems that <strong>all this talk about love hinges on obedience.<\/strong><\/em> In our physical relationships, if we love someone and they ask us to do something, do we choose to \u201cobey\u201d (i.e. answer their request) or not? <strong>Does how we respond\/submit\/obey say something about our love for the other person?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<div id=\"aj-wrap-up--412\" class=\"aj-wrap-up\"><p><em>This thought was inspired by studying the <strong>Walking With Jesus<\/strong> \u201cReflective Bible Study\u201d package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, <a class=\"underline\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/\" title=\"Check out Reflective Bible Study!\">click here<\/a> and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!<\/em><\/p><p><em><a class=\"underline\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onClick=\"rbs_aj_inline_subscribe(this, '412');\">Subscribe<\/a> to this blog and never miss an insight.<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have you ever wondered how you can show God love? Since God is not physically present and touchable like a person is, any relationship we have with Him, or affection we show Him, will likely be a little different than it is with our significant other. Or is it really all that different? Many people [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[2],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Key to Love: John 14:15-31 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/the-key-to-love-john-14-15-31\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Key to Love: John 14:15-31 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever wondered how you can show God love? 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