If you keep my commandments, you will abide ...

As the Father has loved me, so have I 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. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

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Love is the hallmark message of the gospels. In these apostolic writings we read that God so loved the world that He sent His Son and how Christ commanded his disciples to love as he loves. The heart and soul of the Christian message is love. It is impossible to abide in Christ and not lead a life of love for God and for each other. 

Yet the love that Christ speaks of here is the kind that keeps commandments. Once cannot love and commit murder.. neither can they love and bear false witness.. and who can love their spouse and commit adultery? In tying together love and obedience Jesus helps us to know what true love is. This beloved, is the love that brings a fullness of joy.

Lord, help me to remember that I love when I keep your commandments.