Jesus said: "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."(John 14:23) We all need to take the time to stop and think about this for a moment. Jesus said: "If a man love me, he will keep my words." It sounds as if Jesus is saying that there is no better way for us to manifest our love for Him than by following His teachings and obeying His commands. Now, to be honest, Jesus did not say: "some of my words" or "only my words that you agree with." He said: "If a man love me, he will keep my words"; we are not given the option of picking and choosing what we want to obey. If we love Jesus we will follow all of His teachings and commandments; we will even obey the commands we find uncomfortable or difficult.
Jesus said: "I am the bread of Life" (John 4:48) and "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13-12) It is almost as if the New Testament has been presented to us as a spiritual meal: complete, with a main course and dessert. Most of us, however, are like young children who do not want to eat their vegetables. We want to live on dessert. Now I ask you: "If you love your child will you feed him just dessert or will you make him eat his vegetables as well?" Of course you will make him eat his vegetables; you know that a sound diet is necessary for the child to grow up strong and healthy. In the same way a spiritual leader does not want to feed his congregation a steady diet of warm and fuzzy sermons; but that is exactly what is happening in Christendom. I will agree, few people like a steady diet of vegetable but we must admit that such a diet will not hurt you. In fact, you could totally do away with dessert and your health would mot miss the sugar and starch one bit. The teachings and commands of Jesus are spread out before us on a grand banquet table where we can chose to partake as we see fit.
No one should be surprised, however, that Christians are flocking to the dessert side of the banquet table instead of the main course. Paul warned Timothy that the day would come when people would be drawn to those who would tickle there ears: preached warm & fuzzy sermons, which are pleasant to hear. People want to hear that God loves everyone and as long as you believe in Jesus everything is Ok. They want to be told God understand the situation and that He realizes we cannot help but be what we are. We cannot dispute the fact that these statements could be a part of the truth, if they were put back in the proper context of scripture. People, however, do not want to hear that, even though God loves them, He will hold them accountable for their actions. People also do not want to hear about Satan and his influence in their lives. That is why the vast majority of people, who call themselves Christians, have flocked to preachers with warm & fuzzy messages that tickle their ears.
People claim to love Jesus but they refuse to listen to all of the truth. In fact, people have such a deep resistance to the complete truth that they are turning away from the reality of Jesus' return. Yes, God loves us! In fact, Jesus loves us so much that He even warned us about what we could expect to encounter just before He returns. Jesus made it a point to tell us that we should: "keep watch," and to "Watch out that no one deceives you." In His Olivet Discourse (found in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew 24-25, Mark 13 and Luke 21) Jesus uses apocalyptic language to tell His disciples about the end times. Jesus points out key signs to look for and tells the disciples that people must be alert to these signs so that they will understand what is happening. In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus emphasized the need to be alert to "end-times" signs with three parables:
1. The parable of the faithful and wise servant;
2. The Parable of the Ten Virgins; and
3. The Parable of the Talents.
So you see, in spite of the fact that people do not want to hear about the realities of life or the fact that end times will come, we are instructed to be aware of what is going on around us and to be on the lookout for signs of the end times. It was through love that Jesus told us the complete truth; so that we might be on the alert and escape being caught up in the great deception, where we would lose our relationship with Him.
It almost seems that every since Charles Finney, the rate at which people are flocking to preachers who say what people want to hear has been increasing. Herein lies the real issue! How close we are to Jesus' return is irrelevant! What is important, is the fact that Jesus warned us to be prepared for the end times so that: we will know what is happening; we will not be deceived by false teachers; and so that we will be prepared to endure to the end. I realize that the warm & fuzzy messages of getting a ticket to heaven and the pre-tribulation rapture are sweeping through Christendom; but the popularity of a message does not make it correct. I myself like the idea of a ticket to heaven and I like the thought of escaping the tribulation; but I will not ignore scripture. Jesus did not warn us about something He knew we would never have to experience. Jesus knew that Christendom would be flooded with false teachers and that we would have to endure hard times. That is why He told us the complete truth! Now, we owe future generations, as well as ourselves, the complete truth. Teaching a distorted message, even out of ignorance, is not being obedient to Jesus and if you are not obedient to Jesus you do not love Him.
Loving Jesus means that we will obey all of His teachings and commandments. Loving Jesus means that we will not immerse ourselves in warm and fuzzy sermons or cloud our minds with the belief that spirituality is a replacement for obedience. Was Paul wasting his time when he warned us: Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:11-12) Was Paul nuts when he told us: For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:6-7) I think not! Paul told us the truth. The fact that life can be very difficult and full of evil is just plain hard cold reality. Now, I will admit that a steady diet of reality can be hard to handle, but sticking our head in the sand and making believe that we will not experience hard times is flagrant disobedience to Jesus' instructions. If we love our children and our grandchildren we will share with them God's instructions: obedience in the good times as well as in the hard realities of life. If we love Jesus we will always be in His word, even the part that does not tickle people's ears.