A Thought For The Week Of July 17, 2017

"If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love -  just as I have kept the commandments of My Father and am abiding in His love." (John 15:10) At first glance, this verse actually seems rather difficult. It speaks about keeping commandments. It seems out of place in the Gospels; legalistic, and therefore extremely difficult. But there is, of course, reference to different kinds of commandments here, and the distinction between them is surely important. Jesus said that he had kept his Father's commandments and therefore remains in his Father's love. That would be a reference to the Jewish law; the law of Moses. Scripture tells us that in fact Jesus did not sin. We read his own words, that "I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfil it." And fulfil it he did. Over and over again the Pharisees tried to find the smallest points of the law of Moses that Jesus had violated, and over and over again they failed. It's true that Jesus may not have always fulfilled the law as the Pharisees thought it should be fulfilled - but when push came to shove they could never trap Jesus by demonstrating that he had actually violated the law. So, Jesus fulfilled the law. But there's no doubt that Jesus also re-interpreted or re-defined the law and how it was to be understood. The commandments of his Father may have been the law of Moses with all of its details, but the commandments of Jesus were the essence or the spirit of that law - the law of Moses boiled down to only that which really mattered. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself." Jesus said the law could be summed up with those words. To keep the commandments of Jesus means to live in love for God and for the world; to always look out for the best for others; to place the needs of others above our own. To keep the law of Moses with all its minute details is impossible apart from Jesus. To understand that, you should read A.J. Jacobs wonderful book "The Year Of Living Biblically." But to keep the commandments of Jesus means basically to deliberately care for those around you, which is a much less daunting task.