I’ve never been a parent; in fact I won’t be for a very long time at least. And yet I think I can still offer a fundamental piece of advice for every parent’s parenting style. It’s as simple as this: teach your children John 14:15. If you love me, you obey me. And then once you’ve done that, let yourself remember that you yourself are a child of God, and your Father taught you that same thing as well. Follow his commands, because you love him. Not because you’re afraid of Hell, not because you want to seem like a better Christian than others, but simply because you love the Lord—and loving him means obeying him.
But how do we do that? Realistically, our sinful nature makes that hard! But Jesus did not leave us ill-prepared to face life after his ascension. God remains present with us. God sent his Holy Spirit to us as an advocate, or helper, or comforter, to finish the mission and make us righteous. And the Holy Spirit’s work in us is truly incredible indeed! Whereas human minds are sick and corrupted, the Spirit heals us from worldly blindness and gives us eyes to see the Truth—that is, the truth of how glorious God’s gospel really is and how worthy of our love he really is. The Spirit fills us with love by filling us with truth. That, of course, is how he makes us obedient to God’s commands.
Jesus apparently thought it really important that we understand how to live as Christians after he’s gone. Five of the twenty-one chapters in John’s gospel are dedicated to these last words of Jesus’ at the Last Supper. So now we wait for Christ to come back, but we do not wait idly. The Spirit is sanctifying us. He is awakening us to the wonderful Truth that the world cannot see, and he is making us more like the Son of God, our friend and savior. We have the Spirit, and the Spirit shows us what love looks like. Do we love Jesus? Then we should give him our everything and obey his commandments. So follow the Spirit’s leading!
