Tuesday after Quinquagesima Sunday
Posted on March 1, 2022 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
Jesus said in today’s reading, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.” A person can quickly think, “Oh great! This is supposed to be uplifting? I don’t keep Jesus’ commandments. So now what?” That is how you should feel when confronted by God’s Law. Nobody keeps God’s commandments. So how are you supposed to “love” Jesus when you can’t even do what He expects?
“We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). And how did God show us His love? “But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). God’s call to sinners is to turn to Him for mercy and forgiveness, which are the result of Christ’s death on the cross. Christ tells us, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14:1). To believe in Christ is to trust you are forgiven all your sins. Jesus’ perfect life is now counted as your very own, for through faith you are united to Him. God now sees you as perfect, holy, and righteous because you are in Christ.
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, Who liveth and reigneth with the 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.
