Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Home ownership is the cornerstone of the American dream,  but as a part of that dream society paints the picture that your home reveals who you are, and who you think you want to be.  The bigger the home, the more important and prosperous person you must be, has been the conventional wisdom that many people have held for years.  Passersby see a large mansion and think wealth and importance lives there, but when they see a small run down cottage they see the abode of poverty and degradation.

Our homes are places where we surround  ourselves with decorative accessories that range from magnificent collectibles to something as simple as a wall covered with family photographs.  We customize our homes to reflect our inner selves or whatever we think that happens to be or we want it to appear to be.  Everyday we see advertising that is so compelling we can hardly resist, Decorate your home! Equip your home! Maintain your home! Enjoy your home! Worry about your home! Your home reveals who you are, and who you want to be.

But the bottom line is that it makes no difference if your home is one of those places that contemporary culture refers to as a McMansion, supersized beyond need or commonsense; it makes no difference if it is 3 bedroom ranch in a suburban community, it makes no difference if our home is  in a large city or a small rural community, a house, an apartment, a manufactured home, or even a cardboard box in a forgotten back alley of some city, it just makes no difference, our homes are our homes.

When  Christ spoke in John 14 verse 23 we find that he is saying that those who truly love him, and follow his teachings and instruction, he promises to us in his words “my Father and I will love them.”  Our Lord doesn’t specifically state which of his instructions such as the 10 commandments or as he told the lawyer in Matthew 22:37 to 39 “ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.   And the second commandment is similar, Thou shall love your neighbor as you love would yourself.  But rather he is saying that if we love him we will abide by all of his sayings and wisdoms.  Then he goes on to say “we will come to them and make our home with them.”

Now the question arises, what would we do if we found out that God and our Lord Jesus Christ were going to move into our home with us?

Knowing what Jesus said to the wealthy young man in Matthew 19:21  “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” Would we sell our Mc Mansions buy a simpler home and give the rest to the poor?  Would we get rid of everything in our homes that God and Jesus might find objectionable?  Would we dispose of anything that might incriminate us as living a lifestyle contrary to Christian traditions?  Would we clean, paint, fix up or otherwise make our homes more acceptable to God and Our lord to live in?  Most of us probably would.

But in today’s lesson Jesus is not indicating that he and his Father are going to move into our physical earthly homes, but rather that inner home.  The home that exists in our hearts and minds.  But then again even considering this concept, what would we do to make that inner home more acceptable to God and Christ?

If we would sell off our physical Mc Mansions were the Lord to come to live in our physical home, would we dispose of our attitudes that equate success with accumulation of the material, for remember he said Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Would we clean our homes from top to bottom riding them of anything objectionable to God for Christ said Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.  If we learned that God was going to move in would we fill our homes with everything necessary to develop a strong and continuous desire of progress in religious and moral perfection, “tools” necessary to find spiritual justice, for he said Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill?

If we give in to the advertising that seeks to compel us to Decorate our homes, Equip our homes, and Maintain our homes, why do we as a society in which 80% identify themselves as Christians, fail to decorate, equip, and maintain our inner homes so as to be acceptable to God?

Let us resolve to each do a “spiritual” house cleaning, making our inner homes acceptable to our Lord.  Let us not seek to hide behind a façade of brick and mortar when we are lacking in spiritual prosperity nor feel less than perfect if we live in what society sees as squalor. Always remember that while society might see our outward physical home as a sign of our success and place in society, God knows the condition of our real inner home.  God does not see a sign of prosperity in a mansion nor an indication of poverty in a cardboard box, he knows who is his.

So it makes no difference if we live in a cardboard box in a back alley or in a Mc Mansion in an exclusive gated community, if we truly love God and Christ and we follow his teachings — all of them — he is there in our home with us.

In this day when so many authors are attacking conventional traditions of translating the Bible literally and disavowing Old Testament laws that literalists hold  to in a steadfast manner, those same literalists and Christian apologists tend to label ministers who propose concepts as well as the authors of pieces such as that above, as decidedly “New Age,” when in actuality the above commentary was authored by an 18th century minister whose “Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible” is widely revered as a corner stone of Christian Literature and thought. Matthew Henry (1662-1714) was a Welsh-born, English nonconformist minister and Bible commentator. He is remembered for his practical and devotional multi-volume Exposition of the Old and New Testaments which is still published. [1]

• Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace. Galatians 5:4

Simply put, falling away from grace, is that state in which we enter when we become preoccupied with acting out the laws that have been authored by man and presented as God’s Holy word for all peoples.  The Galatians in the time of Paul’s ministry, were criticized by the Apostle as trying to emulate and reestablish those same ideals and traditions that the Pharisees held to which Christ constantly preached against, and in the same respect, today,  we are not 2000 year old Jews either.

• The Pharisees were a sort of men that pretended to (have) more knowledge in, and zeal for, the divine law, than other people; yet they were the most inveterate enemies to Christ and his doctrine. They were proud of the reputation they had among the people; that fed their pride, supported their power, and filled their purses……[2]

When we become so involved with the acting out of or the performance thereof regarding traditionally held legalisms, we separate ourselves from God by failing to get the point of Christ’s teachings and doctrine as did the Pharisees, which Matthew Henry noted in this quotation.  In the time of Christ’s ministry, the Apostle Paul’s ministry and even today, there are those that profess to have a clear and concise vision of God’s word and demand we recognize the necessity of adhering to the ancient legalisms when in reality their rhetoric is diametrically opposed to the core of Christ’s teachings.
These teachings do not honor God nor Christ but only serve to maintain the control over the people and the egos of the human authors of faith based legalisms.  Therefore when we turn our backs on the light of truth as defined by Christ and replace our devotions to God with devotions to these laws of man, we become nothing more than trainable animals that have fallen from Grace.  We become slaves to dogma and doctrine that divides us from God rather than following the greatest of commandments the greatest of legalisms as outlined by Jesus;

• Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment.  And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets. Matthew 22:37-40

• On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets; that is, This is the sum and substance of all those precepts relating to practical religion which were written in men’s hearts by nature, revived by Moses, and backed and enforced by the preaching and writing of the prophets. All hang upon the law of love; take away this, and all falls to the ground, and comes to nothing [2]

Today, many faith based groups use hate and discrimination as a tool to energize a support base.  To encourage their supporters, they demonize minorities or issues, which in turn diverts the members minds and attentions away from not only the real issues that face society but also the word of God.  This gives their leaders control over the hearts and minds of their folowers as well as the bank accounts of those same mislead congregants.  While “love” for God and your neighbor is the law, these groups incite hate instead, sometimes for profit.  By focusing on legalisms,  we loose sight of the real issue of loving God above all else, a condition of falling from Grace.

[1] from: Christian Biography Resources, Wholesome Words, http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biorphenry.html
[2[ from: Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible