Love, devotion, and cohabitation

This week's verses are John 14:22-24:

 

He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) *said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

 

Judas (not the naughty one) asked Jesus basically why some people are his close disciples and others are just stuck there warming the stadium seats. The gospel writer makes it sound like Jesus is talking in riddles, but Jesus is laying out some truths about who becomes a disciple and how the process works.

So we have three concepts that make up discipleship as Jesus describes it:

1. Love of Jesus
2. Loving Obedience
3. Invitation and Cohabitation

First of all, what does it mean to love Jesus? Is it enough to call yourself a Christian? Is it enough to tell everyone you love him? Is it enough to do good things and give money and say "Jesus made me do it?" Jesus tells us the answer: He says "he who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me" and "he who does not love me does not keep my words."

Do you keep his commandments? Like are you actually doing what the Bible says, what God tells us to do? Are you faithful like that? Or are you just there for the lattes and the likes? When Jesus talks about this kind of discipleship, is it the kind of discipleship you had in mind? Do you love him enough that you have the respect to do what he asks of you, even if it isn't your first choice? After all he's done for you?

Jesus says if we love him and do as he says, God will invite us to come live with him. This is very much like the apprenticeship process at the time in history when this gospel was written down. When you studied under someone seriously, you moved in with them and followed them around and picked up their pattern of life. It wasn't some night class you attended two days a week. It was life together.

 

Is that where you're headed? Is it even where you want to go? Are you really a "let me dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life" kind of person?

But these are the questions we have to ask ourselves when we wonder what kind of Christians we are. Do we love Jesus in the way he describes love to be? Do we follow him seriously, faithfully, like someone who is apprenticing under a master? Do we actually, in the end, want to live in God's presence 24/7 under the rules of his house? Many people don't. We have to make our choice.

If you love God you do what he says and you go live with him. Discipleship is as simple as that.