Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Tuesday after Quinquagesima Sunday (Esto mihi)

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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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 that is good comes through our knowing the Word of the Lord by faith and His grace. 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, striving to fulfill the Lord’s commands for His elect, you are living without any true meaning or hope. The world clings to its own understanding and refuses to repent of its disregard for God’s commands. Because it rejects His Word and wisdom, it rejects Him and the life He gives.
 
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, for this is as true as His promise that all who love Christ and keep His Word will be loved by Him and the Father. He is with us in His Church, makes us part of His Body and His Bride in Baptism, and gives Himself to us in a tangible way in the Supper. In all these things His grace is manifest to us!
 
Prayer: 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. Amen.
 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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