As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
We are not called to earn or to attain that love, but to remain in it. With God it is always the case that we can only love because he first loved us (see First John 4:19). It is not a matter of becoming good enough for God by way of keeping the law. This was precisely what Peter called "a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear" in today's readings from Acts. The only benefit to trying to attain to God by our own strength is that, in failing, we come to learn of our need for a savior. Once we realize this need God quickly appears in our lives in order to fill it.
And God, who knows the heart,
bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit
just as he did us.
He made no distinction between us and them,
for by faith he purified their hearts.
God did not grant the Holy Spirit only to those who were worthy and could earn it for themselves. Rather, in his abundant mercy, he granted it to all who would put their faith in the Lord Jesus.
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved (see Romans 10:9-10).
This faith would lead to the forgiveness and purification of the heart so that the Holy Spirit himself could dwell within it. What the law was unable to do God himself did in Christ (see Romans 8:3). It was by faith that people, no matter their background, could now share in that gift.
Faith required repentance, a change from a self centered way of life to one that was instead centered on God. This was a radical and revolutionary change. Prior to making this change it seemed that everything came down to the individual, even his relationship with God himself. Such individuals felt that they were the ones primarily interested in their salvation. Individuals who felt this way either despaired of themselves as sinners or else become convinced of their own righteousness in spite of evidence to the contrary. But whichever path they chose, they did so because it all seemed to come down to them and their efforts. After the revolution of faith individuals no longer needed to view themselves as the last line of their own spiritual defense. They realized that God was at work within them, more deeply interested in bringing about their salvation than they were in receiving it. The constant challenge would be to leave this prerogative primarily in the hands of God rather than to try to take things too much back into one's own control.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments
and remain in his love.
By faith it is possible to keep the commandments, motivated by love and empowered by the Spirit himself. To do so requires us something greater than our natural life can supply. That call is meant to cause us to rely on God who delights to provide. To those who have faith the commandments are no longer mere signposts of condemnation detailing where we fall short. They are instead descriptions of the ways in which we can reciprocate the love we first receive from Jesus, ways in which this love must be returned if it is to be genuine.
I have told you this so that
my joy might be in you and
your joy might be complete.
The commandments are not meant to be condemnation, meant to be more than merely obligation. With the indwelling presence of the Spirit within us they become genuine sources of joy as they lead us ever deeper into the life and love of the Triune God.
Announce his salvation, day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
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