John 14:22-24 – Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him. He who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word which you hear isn’t mine, but the Father’s who sent me.

Jesus had two disciples named Judas. Evidently, it was a popular name at that time. John tells us here that the Judas speaking wasn’t Judas Iscariot. Remember, Judas Iscariot had already left to betray Jesus. This Judas was one of Jesus true disciples. I had forgotten that there was a good Judas too perhaps we can remind each other of that fact because it sounds like this Judas really cared about others enough to ask Jesus about it. He realized that even though it was great for them to know about Jesus, but why not tell the whole world?

Jesus says that it will be by doing what He commands that we show our true love for Him. Then God will know that we love Him and both the Father and the Son will live with the one who really loves Jesus and obeys. A person who doesn’t obey, doesn’t really love and a person who doesn’t really love doesn’t really believe in Jesus the way that He expects us to.

We should keep in mind that as humans, we cannot always see the hearts of others. We may think that some people are nothing but sinners, but in their hearts, they may actually believe and be keeping the words of Jesus without much observable success. They may be suffering because they are attempting to do it all without trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit. On the other side, there are many who look good on the outside like Judas Iscariot. Everyone thinks that God likes them, but He doesn’t because they are not doing anything out of a motive of love for Jesus. Although, we may not be able to see the difference, God can see it easily. We need to trust in God to do the separating. We cannot see things the way He can. We should not be judging people. That is God’s job. We must, however, not allow people to go on sinning as if it is ok. If people are sinning, they should called out and expected to stop in our churches. Even though we cannot judge the salvation of another person, we must promote the purity of the bride of Jesus and expect change when sin is found.

An interesting thing about obeying Jesus is that, when we do, we actually show others why they should believe in Jesus too. Love and purity starts a grassroots movement that spreads. People want it even though everything tells them otherwise in this world.