Sixth Sunday of Easter; 14 May 2023; Easter 5A (RCL); Acts 15:22-31; Psalm 66:7-18; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14: 15-21.
If you love me, you will guard my commandments. Or even protect. τηρέω (tereo) means to guard something precious. So this is not about following the rules, but holding on to something precious. Jesus delivers these lines as part of the larger Farewell Discourse. In the first fourteen verses of this chapter (which we hard last week and often hear at funerals), Jesus promised that he was leaving, but he would come again to take his disciples to himself. He told them, “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
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