LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Value Of The Word
For unbelievers, followers and disciples
John 5:38; 8:31-32; 14:15, 21, 23-24.
We will choose three of the Lord's statements, from John's gospel, regarding the Word of God, which are directed to three different audiences. They will clarify for us the place the Word of God occupies in the life of a believer who aspires to walk with Christ.
The unbelieving Jews
In John 5:38, the Lord Jesus has a specific claim against the Jews: –You don't have the word of God dwelling in you; for you do not believe the one he sent.
The Jews possessed a glory, and one that Paul also recognized: they had been entrusted with the very Words of God (Romans 3:2). From their origins as a nation, in the Sinai, they were the executors of the Word of God.
They all possessed a culture for preserving it, for studying and teaching it. In Jesus' days, several theological schools existed, which competed with one and other in their zeal for the orthodoxy of doctrine. They instructed their children rigorously -masterfully - in the law of Moses.
However, the Lord Jesus demolishes their glory by telling them that they didn't have the Word of God living in their hearts. They had the word from the outside, but not from inside. In other words, they knew a great deal about the word, externally, but had none of it dwelling within them.
They knew the Word of God as a doctrinal system, as a dead body that is the object of theological dissection, but not as daily sustaining food.
The Lord's words to these Jews left no room for hope; they were a strong and definitive judgement. As a result of not having the Word dwelling within them, they could not believe in He who the Father had sent. Their eyes were blinded and they could not see God; their ears had been deafened, so they could not hear God.
It is the Word dwelling in man that makes the heart docile, it makes the soul submissive, and makes the spiritual senses willing to please God. Without the word dwelling within, none of this will occur.
In spite of their vast knowledge of the prophecies concerning the Christ, the Jews could not discern that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. The extensive references that they had learnt regarding the prophets were merely memorized studies, not a revelation from God through the Spirit. In the precise moment in which they were required to apply that knowledge, they didn't have the spiritual capacity to do it. Having the knowledge that Jesus was from Nazareth, they could not see how that could complete the prophecy that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem. As if God were not able, just by a small movement of His finger, to make both things possible at once.
The Jew's blindness in Jesus' time teaches us that the study of Scriptures as a mental exercise, and not as spiritual quest, carried out in humility and brokenness before God, doesn't serve for much. Rather than bringing clarity to the soul, it will tend to confuse.
The Scriptures gave testimony of Jesus, but because the Jews studied them with presumption they didn't benefit from them. If they had studied the Scriptures with a contrite heart, trembling before the Word, they would have come running to kneel at Jesus' feet, they would have recognized that He was the one about whom the scriptures testify.
The Jew's attitude -which we ourselves find to be absurd - is not strange in our days. In spite of this sad precedent, there are still those who fall into the same error. When the Holy Scripture is studied with scientific or humanist methods -as if were just another book - it devalues its message, makes its demands relative and makes the voice of God invalid. Excellent Christians have strayed from God, when by getting entangled in the entanglements of theology, and in the thousand intricacies of doctrinal subtleties.
This is extremely delicate.
If the Word isn't dwelling within us, we won't be able to discern the direction in which God is working. We may be able to understand -by examining history - how He acted yesterday, but that does not necessarily help us to know what He will specifically do today.
God's paths don't repeat themselves. His purpose doesn't advance in circles, but rather in a straight line that has a beginning and an end. God usually surprises those that follow him only in their carnal senses (flesh and blood). In order to truly follow him, something more is required.
The believing Jews
On another occasion, Jesus said to the Jews that had believed in him: – If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:31-32).
These words were for the Jews that had believed in him. There is therefore a different panorama here from the previous one. These men haven't closed the door; on the contrary, a fortunate road opens up before them, which begins with a demand. If this demand is accomplished, a remarkable advance could take place in their condition before the Lord: they would end up being his disciples, and they would know the true freedom of Christ.
The required condition for all this to happen is plain and simple: that they hold to his teaching.
The Jews whom we spoke of earlier didn't have the Word of God living in them; here the demand is to remain in the Word, which implies that they already possess it. They have it, but they must remain in it. This demands an intimate, personal experience, with the Word of God. It is not enough to know it, but to remain in it, that is to say, to become familiar with it, to attach it to the heart, to eat of it, to like it, to believe it, to live for it.
Just as children in schools learn those long poems to recite in ceremonies, the believer must internalize the promises, exhortations, and thanksgiving that enrich the spirit. In turn, they are a blessing to others when they are spoken. A river of life flows from the lips of the Christian when the Word is spoken opportunely and fluidly.
We find then, that for each necessity, or affliction; for each test or joy, there will be a word that blossoms from the lips, or a memorized word that will suddenly appear by the prompting of the Spirit.
By dwelling and remaining in the Word, Christ's followers will reach the dignity of being a disciple.
What is a disciple? A disciple is one who walks in the Teacher's footsteps, and who walks as he walked (1 John 2:6). It is the one that has learnt, from the teacher, how to react in each circumstance, how to respond to necessity; and what's more, how to think, how to feel and how to love. In short, it is one that ends up being like him.
This will bring, in turn, knowledge of the truth. Notice that although these Jews had believed in him, they were still not his disciples, nor had they known the truth. As Jesus is the truth, they still had not appropriated him to themselves.
To know the Truth - in uppercase - as a global and comprehensive reality, was not enough. Christ is the Truth, but from Him, thousands of truths are broken down which, when applied to the believer and to his to walk, allow him to know the Truth in its fullness.
The believer brings with him a retinue of lies from their past without Christ, of half truths or open deceit that must be denounced, corrected or eradicated. A truth of God must be established in the heart, replacing each one of Satan's lies.
What is the Truth of God regarding our form of thinking, of laughing, of singing, of dreaming, of waiting, of loving, of getting angry, of acting and reacting; of our relationship with the world, with the boss, with the neighbor, with our wife or our children? What is the truth regarding the spiritual victory, of the unity among believers, of heaven and of hell, of life and the death?
If we continue in His Word, myriads of small truths will be discovered before our eyes, which if we believe, accept and follow, will truly make us free.
These truths -all emanating from the Truth - will settle in the heart and will produce the emancipation of the believer from all ties of the past. All these truths come from Jesus Christ, the absolute, luminous, and perfect Truth. For that reason, one can say with conviction: "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36).
For the Twelve
In John 14 the Lord addresses an even more intimate audience than the previous. They are the twelve apostles that, gathered on that last night before the cross, to receive from the Lord's mouth the last and most precious teachings.
The Lord speaks to their heart, and he tells them:
- "If you love me, you will obey what I command... Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him, and I will show myself to him... If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My father will love him, and we will come to him, and we will make our home with him. He who does not love me, will not obey my teaching..." (John 14:15,21,23-24).
Here the tone is familiar. The Lord has been with them for three years, so he can appeal to their love. And it is because they love him that they will keep his word.
There is, however, still a conditional expression, as if he was still uncertain about their feelings towards him. So he says to them: –If you love me...
In order know if they really loved him, there would be no surer way for Christ to know that they loved him than this: that they would keep his commandments.
What it means to "keep"
Today, the term to "keep" has a very faded meaning in some Christian atmospheres. It is spoken of as a simple observance, as the "keeping of a day", as "keeping" some holidays (1), etc. It normally suggests an external act, without greater significance or spiritual application. Its use is like that which the rich young man used in his dialogue with the Lord Jesus. (Matthew 19:20).
In the Greek New Testament there are two words that are translated as keeping, one is 'tereo' and the other one is 'phylasso'. The first one means an obedience from the heart, and the second suggests a mere external observance. When the Lord tells the rich young man that if he wanted eternal life he would have to keep the commandments, he uses ' tereo '; but when the young man answers him, he uses ' phylasso '. The Lord used it correctly, but the rich young man answered in an insufficient way.
The second one means to perform a merely external act; to shine before others, to reach one's own righteousness. 'Tereo' on the other hand, indicates an obedience of love, like its portrayed John's passage.
Indeed, keeping Jesus' commandments is a matter of love, of internal devotion. The Lord detests an offering of the lips that doesn't contain the warmth of the beloved's heart. It is love, and no other motivation that must impel a disciple to obey his Teacher.
The Word brings God
Verse 21 emphasizes "having" and "keeping" the commandments. Hence the glorious promise for those that fulfill this is: he and the Father will love them, and they will show themselves to them and they will make their home with them.
Obedience brings with it a greater recompense, because there is not a more glorious a reality in the world than this: that the Father and the Son make their home in the heart of a man. Therefore, one's whole life has a purpose for Jesus Christ, and will find full satisfaction even in the darkest of days or amid the pain and the adversity.
Jesus speaks firmly to the unbelieving Jews; he exhorts the believing Jews; and to the twelve, he speaks to the heart, and commands them through love.
Keeping his word is and nothing more than this: the confirmation that the heart truly loves him. The word will be received with the fruit of honey that distills the honeycomb and with the longing solicited by one who searches for beautiful pearls and finds them. The word will be received with the joyful expectation of one that finds a rich reef of gold, and exploits it gram by gram, because he doesn't want to lose any of it.
Then, that well kept and retained word, will serve as a light for us. It will be the only light for our daily walk during the days in which it is necessary to live in the earth as foreigners and pilgrims. When the tide of unbelief increases, and humanist philosophy is imposed in Christian circles, we can return to the pure and precious Word of God to find there wisdom that flows from its mouth.
The received and well kept word, brings with it the same God that inspired it. His presence will be a comfort to the soul, and refreshment to the bones.
God comes through the Word, and He is its permanent resident. It will show us the way
In the Word we will also find the guide to help us take steps of faith in the right direction. We will not only know what God did in the past, but also what God is doing today, and what he wants to do in the coming days ahead. The same blessed God that has come to us will speak to us every day.
Through the Word, God will persuade us to follow him, closely, depending on his voice alone. He will show us the way and he will give us the strength to walk in it. How sweet is the path which we walk with him, and with the guidance of His Holy Word!
(1) The Reina-Valera 1960 Bible used in Chile translates "obey my commands" as "keep my commands," and these phrases, 'keeping of a day', etc. are used in the Chilean language.