For today read John 14:15-21. The epistle reading for today from 1 John 3:11-18 is what really makes the connection between our Old Testament reading about Cain and Abel and our gospel reading from John today. So I would encourage you to read that as well as the reading from Genesis 4. The common tie between all of these readings is that our lives now go on obeying God’s commands of love-mastering sin, unlike Cain did with Abel.
Using Jesus’ words here in our gospel reading for the sixth Sunday of Easter identifies a marked shift in emphases in our Easter season part of the church year. That shift begins to move away from just basking in the meaning and comfort of Christ’s resurrection, His victory, what it means for us personally, I would say, almost internally, the setting of the heart to be at peace within itself about our relationship with God. Yes, we confess our sins, we admit to our sinfulness because we’re set free from our fear of the shame of having to own up to our wrongs because we know that God has punished them in His Son. Because of Jesus, God’s at peace with us. What a relief! But what it moves to, what it shifts to in emphasis now is living with that knowledge until whenever the Lord calls you home. The resurrection proves to us our eternal future is secure. Now, until then, what are we going to do? How are we going to live?
As we sing those Easter hymns and extend our celebration of Easter in this season, we eventually come to realize that, like our lives in general, this earthly life is not just a neverending party about which you have no care of how to pay for the expenses of that party. We realize in our grown up adult thinking that if I’m going to be able to care for myself in the future when aging means I cannot work, that I can’t be a spendthrift now with no thought for the future. To be able to afford a retirement from work, sort of an extended party of life, then you have to put in the time working and doing the work of saving up to make that future possible. Earning that pay and that savings is where the rubber meets the road in our earthly lives.
The difference between our earthly lives and their future and our spiritual lives and their eternal future is that we know our eternal retirement forever with God is covered by our Savior. That’s that same peace of mind of sins forgiven from a couple thoughts above. But that difference regarding our eternal future already guaranteed and our earthly future dependent on our present action is like a difference between night and day. When it comes to our earthly future the rubber meets the road in that I have to work, to put in the long hours to make that future possible. When it comes to the eternal future the rubber meets the road in that now this path of loving God and loving our neighbor flows from my circumstance that my eternal future is already guaranteed. I can work because I want to.
Certainly, loving your neighbor is work. Commands, like the Ten Com-mandments, are things a boss declares. But what a difference it makes when it’s something you have to do versus something you want to do. A person who works on cars because it’s his hobby to race them is totally coming at that work from a different perspective than a person who works on cars for a future he hopes to enjoy someday. The difference is when you’re enjoying it. The hobby work you’re enjoying right now. So the hobby work can be the exact same kind of work as the have-to work, but the attitude with which you do that exact same work makes a world of difference.
So, when it comes to loving your neighbor, doing that commandment-work, or not neglecting that commandment-work, because you want to do it versus have to do it comes down to how our God has made it possi-ble for us to enjoy helping out our neighbor. When in our text Jesus says, “I will not leave you as orphans,” and, “I will give you another Counselor who will be with you forever. He will be in you,” you can compare that to the joy you have in doing your hobby. With that joy on the inside, the hard work you do on your hobby you don’t even think of it as work. Similarly, with the joy of our faith in Jesus in our hearts–remember, it’s the Holy Spirit who gets you to believe in Him and continue to believe in Him–so then the words “I will not leave you as orphans; He will be in you,” is an invitation by Jesus to believe Him. The fact that you do believe Him, that you have the relief, that you’re full of the joy of the assurance of sins forgiven already, the knowing you’re at peace with God internally means you are one of His own already. As one of God’s children you then find joy in doing His commands, you find joy in doing His commands no matter how hard that work is, not because you’re saving for the future, but because you’re already saved for the future. That’s why for us Christians, our Savior is the best boss to work for.