He [God] stuck His neck out. It is almost as if there is no guarantee of 'a return.' But He was willing to sacrifice Himself in the hope that our response to the demonstration of His love, through His Son, would fill us with such a sense of obligation and admiration that we, in turn, would dedicate our lives in obedience to Him.
That is so plain. That is how we demonstrate love to God - to submit to Him through His commands.
He is just rearranging the words here. And really He means all of His words. Not just a couple. Not just a few.
Do you see the difference between the way it is in that translation and the way it is in most of our English translations? He is showing that the keeping of God's commandments is an on-going, continuous, process. It is not something that we just do every once in a while. But, rather, it is a way of life with us.
It is a process. It has a beginning. It has an end. And it is actively moving toward that end.
What we have just read there is the whole meaning of life for a Christian. If we are loving Christ, we will be keeping His commandments, and they are from the Father.
I think that we understand that there is a pseudo-Christianity out there - which uses the name of Jesus Christ, but refuses to do His will.
Abide means to continue in, live in, in the sense of being part of a process. Love is defined as keeping the commandments of God. John 14:15: "If you love Me, keep My commandments." I John 5:3: "For this is the love of God, [Here comes the definition], that you keep His commandments." This is the definition of love. That is very basic to the Christian way of life, to understand that the keeping of the commandments is love. If we are going to live, or abide, or continue in the love of God, we are going to keep on keeping His commandments and not the traditions of men. That is the way Jesus lived.
There is nothing hard about that—to know, to understand. Do you love God? You can demonstrate that love by just doing what He says. There is nothing hard about that. It might be hard to do, but it is not hard to understand.
