More Verses: Jesus Explains Himself

In these next verses, Jesus explains that He loves His own, meaning those who believe in Him, the Body of Christ, those God gives to Him to love.  This love He gives us, as given from God, is eternal--was, is, and shall be.  Jesus also tells us He has given us a model to follow, which is Himself, how He lives and loves.  We are to do as He does.

John 13:1b  He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.

John 13:15  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

Jesus reminds that this is so: If we receive Jesus, believe and remain in His love, we receive the one who sent Him, which is God the Father.  When Jesus sends us for souls, whoever receives us who are remaining in His love, receives Jesus.  This responsibility of remaining in His love heightens when we realize that Jesus sends us out to bring Him to souls, so that others may receive Jesus through us who remain in Him.

John 13:20  'Amen, amen I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.'

Jesus iterates His command to love others as He has loved us.  This is requisite so that others will know that we belong to Jesus, that we remain in His love and are sent by Him for souls.  All will know, Jesus says.  They will know that we belong to Him, are His devoted, personal students--His followers--if we love one another.

John 13: 34-35   I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.'

Jesus now explains the vast encompassment of God's realm, His kingdom come.  There is a place for each soul in God, through His Son's preparation of our souls.  Believe in Jesus, remain in His love, obey His command of love.  He takes us unto Himself now and forever.  Where He is, we will be also.  We will know the way of love.  How?  By remaining in His love (God is love), we will know. Love encompasses us all about.  

John 14:2- 4  'In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.'

Jesus continues His explanation.  We can only come to the Father through knowing Jesus.  This means to have a personal relationship, understanding, observation, and familiarity with Jesus.  How?  Through the Sacraments, Scripture, prayer, sheer belief, and remaining in His love.  He tells us that now, in this present moment, and henceforth, we know the Father as well as Jesus.  Believe!  His way is truth and life.
 

John 14:6-14  Jesus said to him, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.'...'Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, "Show us the Father?" Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

Jesus speaks and does what the Father tells and does in Him.  They are one.  He seriously means for us to believe that He and the Father are one in being.  Next Jesus explains that if we believe in Him (and thus remain in His love and obey His command to love others as He loves us) that we will be empowered to do the works that He does, and even greater works since He is going to the Father.  This is a matter of doing the Lord's will, for if we believe in Him we remain in His love, and we love others from within His love, as He loves.  We become united in His love, and His love is His will, and His will is love, which is one with the Father as well.

'The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.'

Of course, if we remain in Jesus' love, we will keep His commandments because Jesus' love is His will and His will is His love.  Therefore, Jesus promises thus to give us the Spirit of truth, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit to always be with us, and we will know the Spirit because it will be in us.  If we remain in His love and keep His commands...promise in truth.

John 14:15-21  'If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. 

Do we see this truth?  The Holy Spirit will dwell in us and help us see and live this truth.  We are not alone even if those in the world do not grasp.  We are not alone.  Jesus lives in us now and forever, and the Father and us are in Christ, and He is us.  All we must do is believe, obey His commands, and remain in His love.  Jesus loves and reveals Himself to us.  Believe!

'I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in the Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.'

Now we learn that if we remain in Jesus' love, and keeps His word, His commands, Jesus and His Father will love and come to dwell in us.  If we do not remain in His love, we will not on our own be able to keep His word or commands because His love is His will.  In His love, remaining in His love, we will be able to keep His word, His command, as we will be in His will, for this is not only Jesus' word or promise, but the Father's who sent Him to explain to us this and more.

John 14:23-24  Jesus answered and said to him, 'Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.'

And who will teach us this and more when Jesus is not physically with us?  Jesus says the Father will send the Holy Spirit of truth, in Jesus' name, as Advocate, to not only teach us everything but also to remind us of all that Jesus told in His word.  He explained this to His believers when on earth, and now they and we may believe because we have seen all He taught lived out through Scripture and in the lives of the saints living before us.  They believed in Him, remained in His love, obeyed His command to love one another as He did.
 

John 14:25-  'I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name--he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you....And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.'

Do we believe now?  If not, what more will it take?