Love...Keep

John 14:13-15,21,23 – And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. “If you love me, keep my commands.

Matthew 7:7 – “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

John 15:10 – If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

1 John 2:5-6 – But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

1 John 5:3-4 – In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

James 2:21 – Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

Application:

• ·         “In my name” is not simply prayer that mentions Jesus’ name but prayer in accordance with all that the person who bears the name is.
• ·         We are to persistently ask, seek and knock.
• ·         Love, like faith, cannot be separated from obedience.
• ·         Love for Christ and keeping His commands cannot be separated.
• ·         Love and obedience are linked.
• ·         “Keep…as I have kept” shows again the importance of obedience, and again the example of Christ.
• ·         God’s love for the believer is made complete when it moves the believer to acts of obedience.
• ·         The one born of God by faith is enabled by the Holy Spirit to obey.
• ·         Faith that saves produces good deeds.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV