Tuesday after Quinquagesima Sunday
Posted on February 13, 2024 by under
Scripture: St. John 14:21-24 (NKJV)
14:21 “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.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “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. 24 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. “
Devotion
This text is presenting the fact that all good works come through knowing the Word of the Lord by faith and grace. For only through a truly faithful knowing and understanding of God’s inspired Scripture can we hope to live a life that is worth living. If you are not living a life of faith by His grace, striving to fulfill the Lord’s commands for His Elect, you are living without any true meaning or hope. The world does not hear His Word or do His works because it clings to sin and rebellion. It is only through His gracious gift of the Spirit that we are brought from the world’s death to life in His Word and will.
By receiving and inwardly digesting the Word, Jesus Christ is manifested to mankind through His precious Means of Grace, which deliver Him and all He offers for this life, and the eternal one to come. This is what the Lord’s divine statements about coming to us and loving Him are presenting. This is as true as His promise that all who love Christ and keep His Word will be loved by Him and the Father; both of whom will make their home with them who know the Lord’s Word.
Collect: O Lord, we beseech Thee mercifully hear our prayers, and, having set us free from the bonds of sin, defend us from all evil; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
