John 13
1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he
should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the
world, he loved them unto the end. 1) Jesus loved
His own to the end. This word can give you life or death.
It's not a small thing when someone endures to the end. Many start
well but they are not faithful to the end.
John Bunyan in his book "Pilgrim's Progress", describes
two pilgrims, who at the gate turned aside to rest and never awoke again. They were
Disregard and Neglect.
Jesus even loved Judas Iscariot to the end. He was even entrusted
with the finances but he was not trustworthy and stole of it.
When the woman came to the Lord Jesus with the costly perfume and
anointed His feet, Judas complained that it should have rather been sold and the money
given to the poor not because he cared for the poor, but because he had access to the
money bag and stole from it. Eventually his money became a curse to him.
But the Lord Jesus still loved Judas so that he might forsake his
sin.
Judas regretted what he did and in stead of going back to the Lord
and asking for forgiveness, he went and hanged himself.
Jesus knew Judas was going to betray Him, yet when He had dipped
the bread He gave it to him, further showing His love to him. It was only when Judas even
rejected this final act of love and went out that satan entered into him.
Don't act like Judas among God's people, putting on a smiling face
as if all is well but when you're outside you do the things of the world.
Peter too boasted that he would never deny the Lord, yet it was
shortly after that he denied the Lord. But he went back to Jesus and asked for forgiveness
and was restored.
Someone said, "how can a loving God put a person in
hell?" It is precisely because of His great love that there is a hell for those who
would reject this great love and trample on it.
2) Your love for the Lord. Do you love the Lord, since He first
loved us.
Remember your first love and how it burned at first for the Lord.
Is that fire still burning?
The Lord said to the church at Laodicea that they had forsaken
their first love. Do you still have your first love?
In Corinthians it says that we should test ourselves whether we be
still in the faith. See the state of those who loved the Lord at the first and have
forsaken their First Love.
The Bible also says that if you say you love God and do not love
your brother, then you're a liar.
In Ezekiel we read of the river of God getting wider and deeper as
it goes. Is that your experience of God's love in your life? If not then you must repent
and return to your First Love.
Unfortunately there are many river beds that flows for awhile, but
then becomes a dry river bed. Is that your life, or does it continue to flow and reach the
sea?
What had caused your love to grow cold? Are you busy on the
internet to defile yourself with smut and pornography and time wasting and that's why your
first love is gone?
Remember how you used to love God's children. Are you still loving
them or simply have excuses why you don't love them, but actually the problem lies with
you?
If your love is not growing stronger, then forget that you have a
testimony and have been converted so many years ago. You need to repent before all these
wasted years be exacted from you in hell fire.
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