Love and Obedience: Tayt Thomas
The following homily was shared at our Sunday Evening Eucharist Service 5/10/26.
Gospel Reading:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” (John 14:15-21)
In John 14, Jesus says to his disciples: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” This is not a commandment, this is a statement. If you love me, then you will keep my commandments. It seems from the verse that keeping Jesus' commandments is not so much a matter of obedience as it is an act of love.
Later in this scripture Jesus says,
"Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him."
So then, Jesus seems to say the converse of the previous statement, saying, "If you keep my commandments, then you love me."
Since I've been a Christian, a lot of my life in Christ has been about obedience. I have gone to “Two by Twos”days, I have sat with people at LBL, and I have tried to do the work that has been set out before me. But, honestly, it has seemed to me that it has been about obedience, and not so much about love. Or at least that's what I've thought. On a hangout the other day, my hangout said something like, "Oh, it's your job to hangout with me." Which is true. But the reason I'm doing the job is because I care about people like you. Maybe you've had a similar experience.
There have been times, though, when I have wondered if, because I don't feel loving all the time, that my actions are empty. But I don't think this is the case. I would not be doing the things I do if I did not care. I also don't believe this because of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to us on Earth, and though he has ascended to the Father, he has asked the Father to send us an Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Those who have received the Holy Spirit have not been abandoned.
And so, I don't believe that when I'm being obedient and following his commandments that they are empty. The Advocate that has been sent by God the Father, asked to be sent by the Son on our behalf, is with me. My actions are only empty when I obey myself, and even then, I am forgiven and get to participate in Jesus' love for me.
To conclude, neither I nor you need to be worried about whether or not we have enough love in our actions for them to count as being done out of love. If you are being obedient in keeping his commandments, then you are doing it out of love, and if you are doing something out of love, then you are being obedient. Amen.
Tayt Thomas is an ACF missionary intern and LA Tech alum from Shreveport, LA. He graduated from Louisiana Tech with a major in Interdisciplinary Studies. Kind, patient, and easygoing, Tayt’s presence at ACF has been a huge source of encouragement to our community. He enjoys camping, bird watching, video games, and sci-fi media. Tayt is a tremendous blessing to us, and we love him dearly! We are excited to see how he will continue to impact students’ lives as an intern this year.