• "Love Should Move us to Obedience"
• Sermon for Pentecost or Whitsunday
• May 15, 2005
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

If Jesus says something once, we are bound to follow what he says. But if he says it three times it calls for special attention.

In today's gospel (John 14:5f.) Jesus says, "If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper" Then he says, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Then, he says, "If any one 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" (NKJV).

Three times Jesus says that love for him is shown by obedience. And three times Jesus says that one who obeys will receive the Holy Spirit-for the word, "Helper," refers to the Holy Spirit and the promises that "I will manifest Myself" and that "We will come to him and make Our home" are alternative ways of referring to the gift and presence of the Holy Spirit.

Now, at first glance, there appears to be a problem with what Jesus says here. It seems to make the gift of the Spirit dependent upon our obedience to the commandments. Since we are sinners who fall short of perfect obedience, the gift of the Spirit would seem to be a most uncertain promise. But the commandments Jesus speaks of here are not rules we must obey in order to somehow merit the gift of the Spirit. Jesus is talking about a relationship with God rooted in trust and love.

John's gospel, from which today's gospel comes, has a unique stress on believing. There are only four chapters of the twenty-two in John's gospel that do not have some reference to the call to believe in Jesus Christ. For example, Jesus said, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent" (6:29). And, "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life" (6:40). And, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die" (11:25). Indeed, John tells us that he wrote his gospel for the purpose "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (20:31).

Jesus also gave a specific "new commandment" in John's gospel at the Last Supper. He said, "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you... By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (13:34).

Thus, the commandments we must keep in order to receive the gift of the Spirit are the command to believe, to put our trust in Jesus Christ, and the command to love. As 1 John 3:23 says, "This is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment."

Jesus commands us to believe because the Original Sin, and all subsequent sin, is rooted in a lack of faith. God said not to eat of the fruit. The serpent said, "Eat." The first humans doubted God and put their trust in the words of the serpent. Their lack of faith in God led to disobedience and then to spiritual death.

It follows that the undoing of sin and the beginning of new life is to believe. Jesus Christ came into the world to reveal God's will and call mankind to repent and believe. As Jesus said to Thomas a week after Easter, "Be not faithless, but believing" (John 20:27). When we put our trust in Jesus Christ and begin to obey God rather than the contrary voices of the world, the flesh and the devil, God sends us his Holy Spirit and causes us to be born again, to be raised from death to life.

The Original sin led to hatred, the repaying of good with evil in the murder of Abel by Cain. The experience of redemption through faith in Jesus Christ leads to love: the repaying of evil with good from a pure heart through the practice of good works after the pattern of Jesus. Where faith and love are found, the Comforter is present; Jesus is made manifest; the Father and the Son make their home.

Faith requires acts of obedience that give expression to our trust in God. Jesus says, "Believe in me." Then he calls us to new and challenging courses of action. Perhaps a change in the nature of a relationship. Perhaps a change in a job or vocation. Perhaps the change from a nominal to a committed practice of the faith. Perhaps the taking of a public stance on some issue. Perhaps putting an end to some disobedient pattern of behavior. Perhaps the beginning of some new area of ministry or service.

When we believe and begin to obey, the Comforter comes alongside to strengthen us. We see Jesus in new ways. We are led into deeper communion with the Father and the Son. We see many examples of this in the Scriptures. Moses, in faith and obedience, walked toward the Red Sea. And the Holy Spirit went before him to part the waters. Jesus commanded the leper to go to the priest. As the leper believed and began to walk in that direction, the Holy Spirit came and healed him. Jesus told Peter to come to him on the Sea of Galilee. Peter obeyed and began to walk on water.

But, of course, Peter became fearful. He doubted and began to sink. We might be afraid that our faith is too weak and our love too imperfect. But God honors even weak faith, faith as a mustard seed, when it leads us to begin to do what God calls us to do. We must begin to believe and obey with such faith as we have. We must begin to love with such love as we have. And Jesus will send us the Holy Spirit to help us grow in faith and love.

"If you love Me keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper." Let us believe in the Son of God and begin to do the things he calls us to do. And let us love one another as Christ has loved us and so prove to be his disciples. Then Jesus will send us the Comforter; he will manifest himself to us; the Father and the Son will make their home within us. We will become, as Ephesians says, "a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (2:22).