Love and Commandment

The sixth week of Easter, May 17, 2020 

  1) Not many Christians have read the entire chapter of John's Gospel calmly, consisting of 21 chapters from beginning to end. Compared to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Gospel of John is very speculative and requires patience to read. If the Synoptic Gospels is a epic novel, it can be said that the Gospel of John is an ideologically recorded philosophy book. The genres of writing are different, but both sides are the same in their core content. If you can follow the Gospel of John as well, you can read it as spiritually and dynamically as the Synoptic Gospels. So is today's text. The first verse, verse 15, is like this.

 

If you love me, keep my commandments.

 

  The last phrase was written with more of this first passage. Let's read verse 21.He who keeps my commandments loves me; he who loves me will be loved by my father. I will love him and present myself to him.

 

  The keywords in the two phrases are love and commandments. In verse 15, love comes out first as conditional, followed by commandments, and in verse 21, commandments come first. Similar content and structure sentences are also found in the Ma 7:15-21 parable of "trees and berries." They said that only good trees can produce good fruit, and they can recognize trees by looking at the fruits. A good tree is a dimension of existence and a fruit is a dimension of action. In connection with the content of today's sermon, a good tree is love, and a fruit is a commandment.

  Which do you think comes first in love and commandment? This question is whether the power of love is the only way to practice commandments, or thinking the practice of commandments is evidence of the power of love? These questions are not just theoretical, but directly related to our real lives. Among Christians, some love God with fervor but actual life is not so great. On the contrary, there are Christians who live very personal and respectful lives but do not seem to have much faith. If Korean Christians are good at believing and exemplary in real life, they will receive a lot of praise from the world.

  More fundamentally, you can ask these questions. Who lives a more meaningful life, between a person who has nothing to offer but lives a Christian identity and a person who lives respectfully in the world without coming to church? Those who recorded the Gospel of John would not have known this problem. Let's go into this, hoping that the Gospel of John will give us an answer.

 

2) The story of love and commandment cannot be easily dealt with in a word or two. This is because everyone's relationship is tied to this. There is a relationship between parents and children, there is a relationship between couples and lovers, and there is a relationship between friends. Friends can also be seen from the perspective of love and commandments.

It's easy to understand the relationship between parents and children in blood. All parents love their children. With that love, I do my best to help my child become independent. Because of love, I accept the hard work for my child as a joy. The painstaking practice is what the text says today.

It's the same in your child's situation. I practice something because I love my parents. It would be a lie if you say you love me and you don't take any responsibility for it. Sometimes they say they love their children, but they actually project their desires on their children. On the contrary, children who are immature try to confirm their parents' love only by toys and snacks.

The simplest example is, when a child is picky, is it love for a parent to wait until their child becomes hungry and wants to eat anything, or is it love to give the child what he wants right away? These judgments vary from time to time. There are times when you have to refuse, and sometimes it's better to feed. The words in today's text, "If you love me, keep my commandments," or "If you keep my commandments, you are the one who loves me." mean that it is a legitimate proposition, but it is not always clear in real life.We can see this in our whole life. Experts are talking about the cause of the Corona 19 crisis that has panicked the world over the past few months. We don't know the full answer yet. One of the things to listen to is climate change. Climate change has led to the outbreak of the mutated virus. It has not been decided whether this opinion is correct or not, but it is probable. The diagnosis that climate change can put the entire global ecosystem at risk, not just virus problems, is agreed by all anthropologists and earth scientists.

How should Christians, who believe in God as their Creator, keep certain commandments at what level to restore or slow down the climate change on Earth? Praying unconditionally does not solve this problem. Basically, it's going to be necessary to cut back on private cars or to cut down on meat and energy consumption. No one would disagree with this way. The problem is that it is difficult to set specific standards for how far we should put into practice. Between love and the practice of commandments, there is a troublesome difficulty for us to analyze and judge comprehensively. If Christians insist that faith can overcome such difficulties at once, then Christian faith will sound empty or burdensome.

 

3) The Gospel of John was fully aware that Christian life was not solved graphically. So in the first and last passages of today's text, we just re-ordered the relationship between love and commandment, and we mentioned the intermediate steps to reach that answer. That is, the bridge between love and commandment. The bridge is the real content of Christian faith. Only with that content can the relationship between love and commandment sound convincing.

The Gospel of John explained in the verse 16 that Jesus seeks from his father to send another adoration. The adoration, or 'paraculetos', translated as consolation, is the spirit of truth (17). It means that with the help of Parachletus, the spirit of truth, you can actually live within the relationship between love and commandment. Then there are a few other explanations. Among them, verse 20 is the key.

 

On that day you will let me know that I am in my father, that you are in me, that I am in you.

 

  This expression does not touch modern people. It is not because it is difficult to speak, but because it misunderstands the Bible language. Even modern people exchange these words with their loved ones. "You know you are me, I'm in you, you know, right?" People who date don't understand the words in the Bible because they have some preconceived ideas.

In verse 20, there are three relationships between father, Jesus, and his disciples. First, Jesus is in his father. Second, the disciples are in Jesus. Third, Jesus exists in his disciples. In means united. It can be seen as a very sincere relationship or a priestly relationship. Listen again to the three alliance relationships that the text says. Jesus and Father God were united. The disciples were united with Jesus. Jesus was united with his disciples. Jesus exists between the father and his disciples Jesus is the middle medium through which the disciples can unite with their fathers. Jesus is united with God and Father, and at the same time with his disciples. Therefore, the disciples were united with God's Father through Jesus.

 

4) The fact that the disciples allied with Jesus means that the disciples bet their future on the teachings and fate of Jesus. Such relationships occur between true lovers and between a friend who does the same thing together. The disciples were called upon by Jesus, who proclaimed the kingdom of God, and became disciples of Jesus like a married monk. The choice of disciples is a holy adventure. We don't know how desperate or great the choice of our disciples is, because we've never responded to such a call. Those who play with water in shallow waters cannot experience holy life because there is no holy adventure like those who go deep into the water and swim freely.

John's statement that the disciples allied with Jesus means that he recognized and believed that Jesus existed in God. The basis of such awareness and belief is the resurrection of Jesus. The sentence "I am in the Father" indicates that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Resurrection is God's ultimate life event that will be realized at the end of the world. Because the life event occurred in Jesus, the disciples believed that Jesus was accepted by God. It is said that Jesus exists in God because it is accepted by God, that Jesus has allied with God.

This explanation doesn't really feel real in our daily lives. No objective evidence can be given to the demand to show evidence. Because the resurrection of Jesus is not an event that can be shown through the TV screen. When you have a special experience of Jesus like his disciples then you can experience the resurrection of Jesus. Not only resurrection but also God's experience. People who do not believe in God think Christians strange. They think Christian go to church because they don't have confidence in life or fear of death. No matter how much I explain it in words, I can't convey the fact that it's not. Even best friends and couples can't overcome this perception. Please be aware. The resurrection of Jesus is a life event that only the disciples who loved Jesus can experience.

 

5) So today, verse 21 of the text says love over and over again "Those who love me will be loved by my father. I will love him and present myself to him." He who loves Jesus will feel the love of God and the love of Jesus. And Jesus, who died, 'presents himself alive'. Here, love is not simply about liking him or the vague expectation that good things will happen if you get close to him, but about a whole union with him. It exists in the "in" expressed in verse 20. Jesus love is a very complex event. It includes understanding, trust, passion, and compassion. You can shorten it and express it with faith and love. Since I believe in Jesus and love him, I cannot help but think that I should live by the commandments of Jesus.

We Christians are people who believe in and love Jesus. I confess whenever I worship that I live in solidarity with him. But sometimes Jesus, the object of such faith, remains a doctrine. Jesus is the Son of God, so he is a worshiper, not a love. To love Jesus also means to understand the whole human existence of Jesus. We must seriously consider what Jesus said and what he thought before hanging on the cross, and what hope he lived with, Jesus as a historical real-life figure.

It is said that Jesus left home at the age of 30. It seems that he wasn't married until that age. How did the world look in his eyes? There is no detailed story about this in the Gospel, but if you look carefully, you can see it to some extent. Jesus couldn't help but think that the world worked very unfairly. Although he was completely obsessed with the kingdom of God, the reality of the world seemed to be dominated by religious and political power, not God. I can imagine how Jesus felt when he was crucified and shouted, "My God, my God, why are you forsaken me. It's hard to love someone like that. "I" refers to the person on the cross, which is referred to by the word "who loves me." It is very scary to say that only those who love the crucifixion will be loved by those whom Jesus called Father. Have we ever actually loved Jesus? Wouldn't it be absurd to say that you want to be loved by God when you don't have one?

 

6) What is it specifically that you love Jesus? Does it mean that you pray and read the Bible diligently without missing worship? Such a pious life is one way. Just as exemplary students review and prepare well without skipping school classes. That process is necessary, but the content is more important than the process. The content is Jesus' teaching, behavior, and destiny. It is not easy to enter the contents of life in the name of Jesus because everyday life dominates us excessively. It may not be possible for people living in Korea at all. In particular, young people are not interested in anything other than worldly life, so it is hard to accept the Jesus case as a reality of life. Parents with young people as their children will all feel this. I come to church well until high school, but when I enter university, I move away, or when I go to society, I usually fall apart.

This is not just a problem for young people. It is not much different in that even the established Christians in the church are not actually interested in the specifics of Jesus' love. For example, have you seriously considered the kingdom of God (Basileia to Dew), which burned the soul of Jesus, and what justice and peace are? Have you ever truly faced your own ultimate future and death? There are Christians like that, and there are people who don't. Some people will deepen their love for Jesus in their lives, while others will become thirsty. Which way are we?

Listen again to this 14:15. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." If you love Jesus, you will know how to live in the world, and you will treat life from a mysterious depth. Yes, for us Christians, Jesus is the real content and center of life. As much as you love Jesus, your life will stand out. So John testifies in John 21:15, Jesus to Peter three times, "Do you love me more than these people?" ...then feed my sheep."