If Anyone Loves Me He Will Keep My Word

"If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me." (1)

None who receive God's word are exempt from difficulty and trial, but when affliction comes, the true Christian does not become restless, distrustful, or despondent. Though we cannot see the outcome of the future, or discern the purpose of God's providences, we are not to cast away our confidence in God. Remembering the tender mercies of God, we should cast all our care upon Him, for He cares for us, and with patience wait for His guidance.

Christ's promises are that if we love Him and keep His word, He will send His Helper, the Holy Spirit, to live with us and be in us. (2) His promise is to be with us "even to the end of the world." (3) Jesus and the Father both love us and "We will come to him and make Our home with him." (4) What promises and what a Presence we have the privilege to represent.

Jesus was continually receiving from the Father that He might communicate to us. "And the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me." (5) He lived and thought and prayed not for Himself, but for others. From hours spent with God He came forth morning by morning, to bring the light of heaven to men. Daily He received communication from God to share with His followers. "The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away." (6) This relationship He has with God, He promises to share with us.

In His last prayer with His disciples before His crucifixion He prayed, "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You, Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are... I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me." (7)

1. John 14:23, 24.
2. John 14:15-18.
3. Matthew 28:20.
4. John 14:23.
5. John 14:24.
6. Isaiah 50:4, 5.
7. John 17:9-11, 20, 21.