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Love

             Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. (John 14:23)

for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:13)

Ouch. Today’s verse is one we tend to not like. The world positively hates it. Love equals obedience? What about the “unconditional” part that so many add? What about acceptance, inclusion, diversity, and all that? What about us? Jesus does promise that if we love (and therefore obey) Him, that God will love us and will come and make their home with us.

The verse in Philippians addresses our obedience further. God works in us so that we will and act according to His purposes. We know God is with us if we are changing; if we are aware of things we want to change so we’re more in line with His will; and if we develop the capacity to do other than as we’ve done.

I’ve mentioned the story My Heart, God’s Home (Robert Munger), and I’ve said that I think his description is inaccurate. As I describe it, Jesus doesn’t show up as Margaret Stewart or whoever your housekeeping guru is. He shows up as Bob Vila, Ty Pennington, or whoever your construction guru is. But whether you see God as the Housekeeper or Construction Boss, the point is that He doesn’t leave things or us alone.

C. S. Lewis described it in terms of a dog. We don’t take a dog from the streets into our home and just let us be. We act to make it look and smell better. We act to remove parasites. If we have any wisdom at all, we train them to do their business outside, to get out of the way when we’re walking, that it’s wrong to destroy things or spend all our time barking, stealing our sibling’s dinner, or biting people. There are people who let their dogs do these things, of course, but they aren’t doing the dog any favors.

There’s a meme that addresses the situation. The speaker isn’t God, but wants to be. It says that if the poster has to go outside to smoke, the smoker will not be coming back to visit. Most people who comment say something like, “Good-bye!” God is like the smoker in a way. If you think you’re going to set the rules about His presence in your life, He’s likely to remind us about who He is.

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