Jesus told us that if we loved Him we would obey His word.
He spoke of it as a sign and proof but He also left it as a requirement as well. Now if Jesus Himself places so much importance upon any given concept, then it is our duty and should be of our utmost concern to seek out the significance and learn whatever we can about it. We would not suffer the thought of our dear Savior asking something of us and we pass by without fulfilling His desires or completing the tasks He sets out for us.
Therefore we should give every effort to understand and learn just what it is that our Savior is asking of us and what His desires are for us. Now many churches may place the final interpretation of Jesus to mean that there are black and white commandments where following them to the letter will satisfy the requirements the Lords has set for us. If this were true Jesus could have saved a lot of breath and not had so much to say on the subject when He was working here and instructing us.
Perhaps it would be good for most of us if we could wipe away all that we have learned about our common religious practices and read the Bible again like it was the first time. If we could draw our conclusions without any former ideology and listen carefully to each of Jesus´ words, I think it would be far easier for us to be instructed into finding His intentions for us.
To sit at Jesus´ feet and hear Him say that we must follow His words, we perk up our ears even more. We lean just a little closer to Him so that we feel closer and so that we don´t miss anything and can easily hear everything. We watch His actions which give weight to His words and show by example what He is trying to direct us towards.
So then just what is it that Jesus tried to tell us and would have us do? Once again, it might be highly productive for anyone who would seriously like to discover this for themselves, to try reading the books about the life of Jesus and list, label or categorize His teachings. When we attempt something like this we start to see again the direction of Jesus´ ministry and may begin to see where He put emphasis or how often He reminds us of certain truths or teachings.
Even if you do not make any significant new discoveries with your studies, it will still most surely bring many blessings in the fact that you are directing yourself and your attention to none other than Jesus Christ our Lord. That in itself is a noble effort and highly pleasing to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
One of the most important impressions I think you will find is that Jesus asked us to be so completely combined and attached to Him that we could say that He is ¨IN¨ us and we were ¨IN¨ Him.
In John 15:1-17 Jesus likens the process to us as branches which receive everything from the vine. We are so connected to Him that we produce fruit or not depending on whether we are truly receiving our nourishment from Him or if we are disconnected. We see a great example of the flowing and blending of natures and of what it means to be ¨IN¨ Him.
Jesus speaks in these verses again of our obeying of His words and He tries to direct our attention towards what He means by that. We see reflected here the love God has shown us and the unfathomable love Jesus demonstrated in His walk with us. We see Divine entities flowing so perfectly within each other in harmony and beauty. We hear Jesus´ voice and our own heart burns within us to hear and do whatever He asks us out of our love for Him. Then Jesus states in brief, that what would convert what is left of our independence and start that flowing of love from our Vine out towards the environment that surrounds us.
Jesus says in verse 17, ¨This is my commandment, that you love one another.¨
Now love, as the world loves, is still so filled with self that it is difficult for us to understand a love which is not given with the hopes of benefit or gain from the action or sentiment. However the love that Jesus demonstrates is a higher love. This love is selflessly given to us even when we do not deserve it nor return it. If we could possibly grasp part of this love which Christ demonstrates to us and encourages us to seek, much of the complication would disappear from religion today.
The only example we have of this kind of love is found in the Bible and flows from the Father and the Son. This is the only source and the only means of attaining it. Jesus walks us through the discovery of what it is and where to find it. He never detaches it from Himself nor from the Father. But He does say that it can be ours when we receive the flow from Him, our Vine. We receive His nature and His love as it flows from Him into us. It then produces fruit as it flows on to the rest of His creation and is offered up again to Him from where it came.
No man can make this kind of discovery for you nor spell it out so that you could accept it like an impersonal and detached logical conclusion. Only by choosing to seek and draw close enough to our Lord, may one be washed that clean that the waves of understanding wash over. Only to those who have sufficiently drawn near to Jesus will ever feel this kind of love flowing out of Him and into their own nature.
This is effect of the love of God, flowing out of the Son and into the adoring Christian and out again into His people, is highly desirable but so seldom sold to us in modern times. The churches of today seem to tolerate so much self-seeking motivation that we may never come to the discovery of God´s love.
What a wonderful peace and joy would sweep over the fold, if we were able to break the chains that bind us and keep us from coming to Jesus. If we could only draw close enough to Christ to be healed, instructed and infused with His love, then we would feel that love flowing through us as nourishment from a vine. When that love was so full and strong inside of us, it would flow again to all those around us and we could offer that love up to the One we love.
What beautiful discoveries we make in the spiritual realms and what love and joy are ours when we have nothing but Jesus Christ. Let us pay any price and make any sacrifice or effort to allow ourselves to be near the love of Jesus.
May you and I be found in Him today, and He in us.
Amen,
Scott W
Searching For Christ 
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