John 14:22-24 Judas said to him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?… I. THE LOVE OF CHRIST WILL PRODUCE OBEDIENCE TO HIS WORDS. Because — 1. It presupposes a sense of the evil of sin and a desire for righteousness. 2. Love desires to please, and ever shrinks from grieving its object. 3. Love is essentially imitative. To love evil is to be debased; to love goodness is to be ennobled. 4. The affections exert a strong influence on the will. The strength of evil lies in the love of it, and so the strength of goodness. II. WHOSOEVER LOVES AND OBEYS CHRIST WILL SECURE TO HIMSELF THE FATHER'S LOVE. 1. This is natural. There is no nearer passage to a parent's heart than to love his child. 2. God loves Christ in a manner and degree of which we can form no conception; and if you love Him, too, although your love may differ in manner it is the same in kind. So you are partakers of the Divine nature, which is love, and as God loves and delights in Himself, He will love and delight in you. 3. To love Christ is to be like Him, and for the same reason that God loves Christ will He love us. God loves us in our unholiness, and if He so loved us when we were enemies as to give His Son to die for us, how much more will He love us now we are His friends? III. LOVE TO THE SON AND THE LOVE OF THE FATHER WILL RESULT IN THE INDWELLING OF BOTH. Love ever seeks to dwell with its object. The effect of its indwelling is — 1. Peace and satisfaction. God's presence constitutes the joy of heaven, and where He comes He brings heaven. 2. Hungerings and thirstings after righteousness and God. So sweet is God's love that appetite grows on what it feeds upon. The tasted drop begets a longing for the ocean. 3. Privilege and honour. (F. J. Sharr.) Parallel Verses KJV: Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? |
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