Abiding in His love

Abiding in His Love

We sometimes hear retreatants suggest that their spiritual life has gone beyond just keeping the Commandments. We want to be sure what they mean because they have a point.

When we are very young, we do what we are told because we have to. That’s fear, which we properly outgrow. However, we don’t outgrow keeping the Commandments. We just keep them for a better reason. Jesus put it this way: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:10).

Mature Christians worship on Sunday, tell the truth, live chastely, and choose to be content with life—keeping the Commandments the way Jesus did: because He loves the Father and loves doing what the Father wants done—“as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”

Jesus also knew, and we learn, that the Commandments guide us to personal fulfillment: “my delight is to do your will; your law, my God, is deep in my heart” (Ps. 40:8). We don’t outlive the Commandments. We obey them because we love Him. This is both our personal fulfillment and abiding in His love.

Fr. Joe Tetlow, S.J.