Live to Love Scripture Encouragement John 12.49

John 12:49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.” The reasons these words that Jesus spoke will judge all men is that they were given Him by the Father. God commanded Jesus to say and speak these things. Therefore, to reject these words amounts to rejecting Jesus, which is the same thing as rejecting God, Himself. When Jesus said if you love your life in this world, you will lose it, and if you recognize that Jesus is Life and therefore hate your life in this world, your life will be saved from darkness, those words judge all men, because it is obvious what they believe. If they love their lives in this world, that is, think that expressing themselves to gain approval and significance in this world satisfies them, then they are dead and in darkness. If they love Jesus and think that gaining His approval and making Him significant by loving and loving with Him, then the judgment is that they have Life and walk in the Light just as He was in the Light. What is the judgment of these words about our lives? We are meant to ask that question because that was the question Jesus intended this crowd to ask themselves. We are being judged by these words everyday. There is no escape from them. They search us and declare the truth. Living to love with Jesus is the evidence that you believe the words which Jesus spoke on this day to the crowd, that they were from God. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com