Loving God and your neighbor….. part 5

Loving God and your neighbor….. part 5

“in Spirit and in Truth”….

Wrapping up all that we have covered may seem impossible at the moment. Never the less, here it is. The gospel of John 4:23 “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.”

YHVH is seeking out those people that will worship Him in the Spirit or your inner most being. This is the part that brings to fullness the concept of “by faith through grace”, as spoken of by Paul, which is not a new concept. Noah found grace in the eyes of God and Abraham was accredited (given grace) his righteousness by faith.

Also, YHVH is seeking those that will worship Him in truth. What is the truth? We all know the quote by Jesus “I am the way, the truth and the life.” But do we know what that details? The psalmist did. Psalm 119:142 “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.” The righteousness imparted by YHVH is everlasting AND his law IS truth!

The prophet Malachi tells us of Jesus and his coming centuries earlier when he says “The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.”

That is what the truth, the law or commandments of God are supposed to do, turn many from iniquity (Strong’s H5766 ‘evel: wicked, unrighteousness). This is the reason Jesus told them to go and make disciples. Once a person had accepted the freedom of salvation by grace through faith they needed to know the commands of God.

They were to create in these new converts a discipline of study. Paul does the same in his ministry and in all the letters back to the people with whom he shared the Gospel. 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” This was not simply sitting there listening to someone rattle on in a church service for an hour. This was a dedication to learning how to love YHVH in the way YHVH wants to be loved.

The fact that Jesus is described as “The Word” in the beginning is no accident. He says he is the way to salvation, the truth meaning the word or commands of YHVH and the life or eternal life. Loving God means loving the word and thus the commandments. The psalmist again has it penned perfectly:

Psalm 119:97 “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.”

Psalm 119:165 “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.”

Loving your neighbor as yourself can be summed up this way. Would you want to be lost, or outside of the grace of YHVH? Not at all! Then it is up to you to become a disciple whereby you can deliver the truth in love. When we deliver the truth of the Word we have to address the sacrifice of Christ along our faith and trust in YHVH will bring us into eternal life. Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”