Daily Reading for Sunday, Jan. 27: Passion

“Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” 1 John 3:24

We started this study with the greatest commandment given, and we end this study with the observation that when we obey his commands, we live in him and he in them. Passion is Christ! We have heard about his passion, and we often equate it only to the terrible suffering and anguish he went through on the cross. But his passion was much more than that. His passion was to do the will of the Father and nothing else. His passion was to express those things the Father had placed inside him, so that a fallen world would see the love of God personified, his mercy exemplified, and his creation glorified. As Christ followers, we too have a passion to reach the lost, to heal the sick, to see the lame walk and the deaf hear. We long to express the riches of Christ to those who are hungering and thirsting. If we define our passion solely as something we want to do or to be, we will miss the purpose of the passion, and we will be, as Paul states, like a clanging cymbal., incapable of producing the sweet music the world needs and the Lord desires. Our passions must produce the fruit of lives being touched for Christ. Nothing we do to further our passion will be counted as worthy on that great day, if it does not further our fruit bearing work. So follow your passion! Obey his commands and live in him! And know, by the Spirit, that he is living in you as you walk out your faith and as you live out your passion.