Today's Gospel

The Love Test

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Remember each day we are looking to the gospel for a word or phrase or an idea to anchor our life that day in the gospel. Today's reading comes from John 14:21-26. "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot, said to Him, 'Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?' And Jesus answered him, 'If a man 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. 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. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to you remembrance of all that I have said to you.'"

What jumps out at you today? The word that jumps out at me today is His commandment. Jesus talking about, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me." So He's teaching us the fundamentals of love here, right? Love isn't what love says. Love is what love does. Sometimes people say to you over and over again, "I love you. I love you. I love you." But then all of their actions say, "I don't love you. I don't love you. I don't love you." Jesus is teaching us fundamentals of relationships right here. It says, "He who hears My commandments and lives My commandments, that's the one who loves Me." But the thing that struck me as I was reading this, just the word commandments. What came to my mind was the idea that we live in a troubled time. We live in a tortured time. And you read the news, and it's like it's beyond disturbing, right? And sometimes I read it and I think, "Okay, which commandments are being broken in this one news story?"

And then I read it in the other direction. It's like, "If we just live the commandments, how much of the world's suffering and troubles would just simply be over with?" And I think that is a simple but a profound message for us to keep in mind. Those 10 commandments-- they are powerful. And they are powerful spiritually. They're powerful individually, but they're also powerful as an organizing principle for a society. And a society that organizes itself around those principles will thrive. And a society that neglects those principles or rejects those commandments is headed for disaster and catastrophe. And we see that playing out in our own lives when we reject the commandments. We see that playing out in our own families when we reject the commandments. And we see that playing out in our society that, sadly and tragically, appears to be rejecting the commandments on an ever-increasing basis every day. Let's get out there today. Let's live bold lives. Let's live the commandments. And remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself. All that God created you to be.