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Those who love Jesus will follow His commands.
John 14:15
John 14:21
John 14:15
John 14:21
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“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word
We are born again through faith.John 14:23
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.
It sounds like we first have to keep Jesus words (commandments?) before we can be born again (God the Holy Spirit takes his abode in us).
What's your understanding?
My thought exactly. But then why does it say "love and keep" first, then "we'll make an abode with" ?
My understanding is that the words of Jesus were said to show us we couldn't keep His commandments. God's standard is perfection (Matthew 5:48). Nobody is living up to that nor will they. God isn't grading on the curve. Jesus said these words so that in the midst of our failed attempts we would realize that the only way to enter heaven was by the grace and mercy of God. That can only be found through believing Jesus and accepting His perfect obedience to God's commands, His propitiating death on the cross which removed our sins for eternity, and the restoration of the life of God made possible through the resurrection. We can't love God through obedience to commands we can't keep. We can only be loved by God by accepting Jesus Christ's offer of salvation.John 14:23
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.
It sounds like we first have to keep Jesus words (commandments?) before we can be born again (God the Holy Spirit takes his abode in us).
What's your understanding?
John 14:23
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.
It sounds like we first have to keep Jesus words (commandments?) before we can be born again (God the Holy Spirit takes his abode in us).
What's your understanding?
I see the complete opposite to you, the reverse is true.It is a good question that deserves a good answer.
Revelation 21:27 tells us that nothing "defiled or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie" shall enter heaven.
And in Matthew 5:48 Our Lord urges us to "be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect." If Our Lord commanded us to be perfect, then it must be possible to do so. He would never command anything that is impossible.
So, perfection is possible and it is necessary to enter heaven.
Why, you may ask, do we need to be perfect to be with God in heaven? As St. Paul put it, because "light cannot have fellowship with darkness, justice no participation with injustice, Christ no concord with Belial". (II Corinthians 6:15)
The more a soul becomes perfect, the more it becomes worthy and able to come and remain in God's presence. For the same reason, Christ and His Father cannot and will not make their abode with us unless and until our soul is deemed able and worthy to receive Them and have Them abide within us.
When is our soul deemed worthy and able to receive Christ and His Father? If and when we love and obey Him.
Were that true, after conversion-rebirth, then God's seed is bringing forth the fruit of the devil.Everyone sins, so what is the difference?
Luke 18:10-14I'm listening..
Talking of perfection.Were that true, after conversion-rebirth, then God's seed is bringing forth the fruit of the devil.
Like fig trees cannot bear grapes, and grape vines cannot bear figs, we know the fruit designates the seed it came from.
1 John 3:8 says..."He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."
Is the bible wrong?
I agree, the law shows us that we are in desperate trouble. Which is telling us that we need Jesus. The law demonstrates sin but provides no cure. The law is all about the need for Jesus, after all, Moses did speak of Jesus.My understanding is that the words of Jesus were said to show us we couldn't keep His commandments. God's standard is perfection (Matthew 5:48). Nobody is living up to that nor will they. God isn't grading on the curve. Jesus said these words so that in the midst of our failed attempts we would realize that the only way to enter heaven was by the grace and mercy of God. That can only be found through believing Jesus and accepting His perfect obedience to God's commands, His propitiating death on the cross which removed our sins for eternity, and the restoration of the life of God made possible through the resurrection. We can't love God through obedience to commands we can't keep. We can only be loved by God by accepting Jesus Christ's offer of salvation.
Carry on, I'm still listening..Luke 18:10-14
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other;
John 14:23
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.
It sounds like we first have to keep Jesus words (commandments?) before we can be born again (God the Holy Spirit takes his abode in us).
What's your understanding?
Acts 2:John 14:23
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.
It sounds like we first have to keep Jesus words (commandments?) before we can be born again (God the Holy Spirit takes his abode in us).
What's your understanding?
John 14:23
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.
It sounds like we first have to keep Jesus words (commandments?) before we can be born again (God the Holy Spirit takes his abode in us).
What's your understanding?