“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15.

The marginal note in my Bible renders this verse this way, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

This wording is probably clearer because the love for Christ comes out of our appreciation of Him, rather than loving Him because we are told to; though the end result is the same in either interpretation.

“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation [payment] for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10.

“We love Him because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19.

These words, “…keep My commandments”, first spoken to the disciples, and now through Scripture to us do not mean that you have to keep Jesus’ commandments to receive salvation, because no one can keep His commandments before accepting Him as their savior.

The disciples were already saved and soon to receive the Holy Spirit; Christ is telling them and us that the proper temple within our hearts for the Spirit of God is one filled with love for Jesus and which lives actively for Him.

By this we can see why all Christians have the Holy Spirit within them, but not all have peace, they have no power, do few godly works, and do not come to the full measure of a man in Christ Jesus.

But what are His commandments? The first one is simplicity itself, though difficult to live out.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John 13:34.

If we were to be sticky about it we could add this other, since it is one of the Ten Commandments.

“The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31.

But the Lord seems to drop this entire first commandment; perhaps because He knows no one can do it, indeed no one but Jesus has loved the Lord God with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Instead He has asked us to do what we can do; love Him because we appreciate His rescuing us from an eternity in hell. So we keep His commandments out of love. But are there others; indeed there are.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. ‘Amen.’” Matthew 28:19-20.

The disciples therefore were commanded to evangelize the world. The everyday Christian may become a missionary, if led to, or support them.

Or simply talk to those God brings into their lives; howsoever they are led. But no matter how small, serve the Lord. Even the bedridden can pray or send e-mails.

Baptism, we are commanded to be baptized, as shown in Scripture, not infant baptism, or some other tradition. After a person accepts Christ as their savior, they are to be baptized. Every Christian should consider speaking to their pastor about this.

Some say that you are saved when you are baptized; this is putting the cart before the horse. Others say that if you are not baptized you are not saved; this is hitching the horse to the cart, and then shooting him.

You are saved and going to heaven when you accept Christ as your savior, whether you are baptized or not. But give baptism serious consideration please.

“…teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you”; it is not just up to the pastor to teach Christians the things that Christ commanded, it is up to everyone who can mentor, teach or host a Bible study, invite someone to a study, lead a class at church, or not be too busy to answer the questions someone brings to you.

If you do not know the answer to a question, do not adlib, help them find someone who can.

Just being a good example will speak volumes to those around you.

“You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 97:10.

“Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.” Psalm 34:14.

“Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” Romans 12:9b.

The Apostle Paul discusses Communion in 1 Corinthians 11:23-32, the main point being the following.

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:26.

There are other commandments but these should make the point of what the Lord said. Now here is something you may find interesting; there is no way any of us can keep these commandments without the indwelling Spirit.

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:16-17.

Notice this first, God will give the disciples another Helper. Who was the first Helper? The only possible answer is Christ. For these three and a half years Jesus was with them in the flesh and while with Him they were comforted, protected, and taught.

While the disciples knew of the Holy Spirit, He did not dwell within them, but as the Lord said He dwelt with them. Scripture tells us why the Spirit was not in them.

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. ‘But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.’” John 7:38-39.

This Helper is definitely identified as the Holy Spirit whom is called Paraclete in the Greek, which means one called alongside. He is also called an Advocate, which is used in a legal sense of the word.

“My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1 John 2:1.

In the case of the verse we are considering, the Paraclete is not only an Advocate, but He is also an encourager, helper, assistant, and as implied later, teacher.

“…that He may abide with you forever”, our comforter will never leave us, and this word forever, confirms that we will live forever. It would be senseless for Him to continue to indwell a corpse.

The comforter is also called “the Spirit of truth”, you will recall that the definition of truth here is; “Truth is the revelation of all things as they really are, from God Himself”, as defined by William Kelley.

If the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, then the things He teaches us through the Scriptures is the truth from God Himself, and can be trusted. Christians do not take enough advantage of this Person dwelling within us; the Spirit of God knows all of the things of God’s heart.

Why spend so much time reading books and going to seminars, and depending on the pastor to tell us about God, and not reading the Bible and asking the Holy Spirit dwelling within us to tell us the heart of God?

All of those things are helpful, but if we do not study the Scriptures too, they may even slow Christian growth.

The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit because they will not receive Christ; in fact the world is at enmity with Christ.

“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18.

The word orphan conjures up such a sad picture. Here is a question all Christians should consider: what would our life be like if there were no Christ living in it today and no Holy Spirit dwelling within us? We would indeed be orphans of the most pitiful sort, would we not?

There is more here though that needs to sink deep within our hearts. Most of us have thought to ourselves, “Wouldn’t it be nice if Jesus would walk into the room, sit down next to me, put His arm around me and say something like, ‘I understand what you are going through.’” or words to that effect.

We may think, “I am having such terrible problems that I do not know what to do. I wish Jesus would just walk into the room and tell me face to face what to do.”

The Lord told the disciples that the Spirit would be in them, and then He told them, “I will come to you.” Those are significant statements meaning that Jesus Himself will be within us in the person of the Holy Spirit.

A few verses later He said this; “…I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Think of it, Jesus dwells within us, “I in you”, all of these questions can be answered by the Christ within us. Again Jesus confirms the intimacy that is possible when a person receives Him as savior.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20.

“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:11-16.

“…the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:26-27.

“…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:16-19.

Well and good, one might say, but it has never been my experience. The reason for this is that they have not bothered to keep Christ’s commandments; the main one being, to love one’s neighbor as one’s self.

“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well…” James 2:8.

A person cannot go through life with anger and bitterness, either with others, or as with many, anger at God, and expect great things to happen in their life, or even have a peaceful life.

As for those who cling to anger and bitterness and a lack of forgiveness, if they are content with their lives, do nothing and nothing will happen, this will, at least confirm their belief that the Spirit does nothing in their life.

However, for a change of pace one could go to the Father and ask Him for help identifying and turning from their sins, cleansing the temple within their heart.

A person must confess the sins they are aware of and ask Him to point out the others not immediately recognized. This is good advice for all Christians.

The Spirit of God will begin to work and things will slowly come to mind. In fact if this is your desire, something may have come into your mind as you read this, it is the Holy Spirit at work in your heart.

The things to confess are not just a lack of love, but lusts, anger, gossip, cruelty, or selfishness, to name a few. See Galatians 5:19-21 for a comprehensive list.

One does not achieve perfection overnight, in fact we may never achieve it in this life, I believe God knows this and cuts us a lot of slack. The main point here is that we are striving to achieve the goal of keeping Christ’s commandments to perfection.

As we move toward the goal of obedience to the Lord we will feel the working of the Holy Spirit, feel His presence, and some have heard His voice.

Even if you never hear His voice, He will speak to you through the Scriptures, hence, the need to study them daily.

None of us need ever say, “I wish Jesus would talk to me.” the Lord Jesus is in us and talking at all times; we just need to learn to listen.

“Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gate.” Amos 5:15a.

In love establish justice in your heart always.

No Longer Orphans, John 14:15-18 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 4-3-13, updated on 2-5-18.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.