So You Think You Love Yeshua & YHVH, Let's See

 

So You Think You Love Yeshua & YHVH…
by py thomas
© August 29, 2013

 

We talk about the love of Yeshua (Jesus), but do we really know what the love of Yeshua is?  Yeshua himself tells us:  ¹⁵ “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15).

Remember those arm wristbands that said “What would Jesus do?  WWJD?  Well Yeshua tells us clearly and plainly how to express our love for Him and the Father…

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 Yeshua 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.  (John 14:21-24)

The love of Yeshua and the Father is supposed to dwell/live in us, and according to Yeshua, it can only dwell, live and abide in us if we keep the Father’s commandments (plural).

⁹ “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. ¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. ¹¹ “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. ¹² This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  (John 15:9-14)

Yeshua gave the definition of love to His disciples and us leading up to His impending crucifixion.  For us to remain in His love, Yeshua tells us to keep the Father’s commandments.  Note that the word commandments is plural, not singular – denoting more than one commandment. 

The Father’s commandments were given to us in the beginning.  The first beginning was when YHVH gave His commandment to Adam .  The commandment then was a call to obedience in His instructions to Adam not to eat of that one tree in the Garden of Eden.  Adam’s sin of disobedience, led to his being separated from the Father, ELOHIM, in addition to every descendant of Adam & Eve, which is all of mankind.  Adam and Eve grieved and sorrowed greatly for this sin.   Yet, YHVH’s merciful love was  demonstrated to us by His giving His only son Yeshua for the sole purpose of redeeming us from the corruption of sin that entered into His original creation that we would have another chance to “be holy as He is holy.”

In His instructions to the disciples, Yeshua added one commandment that we” love one another,” as He was about to demonstrate by the laying down of His life for our behalf as the manifestation of love (see John 15:12-14).

So when we share about Yeshua and YHVH being love, we should know that love carries the requirement of obeying YHVH’s commandments (all of them).  Do we love Him enough to study, learn and apply the Father’s commandments to our lives, just as Yeshua did?  If not, you may want to think twice before you talk about how much you love the LORD. 

I may speak in the tongues of men, even angels;
but if I lack love, I have become merely
blaring brass or a cymbal clanging.

² I may have the gift of prophecy,
I may fathom all mysteries, know all things,
have all faith — enough to move mountains;
but if I lack love, I am nothing.

³ I may give away everything that I own,
I may even hand over my body to be burned;
but if I lack love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

There is no true love of Yeshua or YHVH apart from obedience to the commandments left on record for us in His word.   Our obedience to YHVH’s commandments will keep us from becoming like the irritating noise of a “blaring brass or a cymbal clanging;” a side-show freak of faith that has the ability to trust, but not willing to trust YHVH and Yeshua enough to obey; and lastly give away everything for show, but be left completely spiritually bankrupt because of disobedience and exposing the perversion of who we really are and are not.

True love obeys and bears righteous fruit when its branches are pruned.  False love is self-seeking , breeds unrighteousness, hurts and maims others; and its branches are good dry and withered and only good for firewood.

Truth or Consequences:  And just how to do we respond to YHVH’s love?  Obedience or disobedience to His commandments?  We should be cautious of taking His mercy and name in vain…He will not strive with us always.

⁸ Adonai is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in grace.
⁹ He will not always accuse,
He will not keep his anger forever.
¹⁰ He has not treated us as our sins deserve
or paid us back for our offenses,
¹¹ because his mercy toward those who fear him
is as far above earth as heaven.
¹² He has removed our sins from us
as far as the east is from the west.

¹³ Just as a father has compassion on his children,
Adonai has compassion on those who fear Him.
¹⁴ For He understands how we are made,
He remembers that we are dust.
¹⁵ Yes, a human being’s days are like grass,
he sprouts like a flower in the countryside —
¹⁶ but when the wind sweeps over, it’s gone;
and its place knows it no more.
¹⁷ But the mercy of Adonai on those who fear Him
is from eternity past to eternity future,
and His righteousness extends
to his children’s children,
¹⁸ provided they keep His covenant
and remember to follow His precepts. (Psalm 103:8-18)

Let us pray diligently for one another – be willing to deal with the areas of rebellion in our lives first, and then we’ll know and see clearly how to help others around us.