Good morning. Just as the Father
has loved Me, I have loved you; abide in My love. 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. There’s that keeping His commandments thing again. Ya think
His mentioning it over and over again indicates that it might be important?
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your
joy may be made full. Keeping His commandments gives us joy? Actually it does.
Little children may get upset and rebel against their parents’ “Commandments“,
but inwardly they are actually happy to have the boundaries set; or so they
say. Christians are the same. We may get upset and rebel against God‘s
Commandments, but inwardly we are glad to have the boundaries set. OK, so what
are His commandments? Let’s see that long list. This is My commandment, that
you love one another, just as I have loved you. That’s it? Sure sounds easy. If
Christians had loved one another as Jesus loved us, that would’ve taken care of
almost all of the problems in the church. If you truly loved as Jesus loved
you, you would do nothing to harm your brother or sister in Christ. You would
do everything you could to meet their needs; in fact, you would put their needs
ahead of your own. Sadly that does not happen; and when it does, too many times
people take advantage of us. That makes us not want to do it again. Even though
Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray Him, He still kept giving Judas
chances over and over again to change his mind. Father thank You that Your
healing hand is upon the reader’s family. Continue to heal them and make them
whole.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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