What “if” means …

I have long thought the “if’s” in the Bible are fascinating.

That’s because they’re so very important!

A key value of the “if’s” in the Bible is they help us understand a poignant truth: What is real manifests itself.

Take, for example, the “if” in the following statement of Jesus:

“If you love me, obey my commandments,” John 14:15.

The “if” in this sentence helps us to understand that Jesus expects something to flow naturally from loving Him; in this case, that something is obedience. If we really do love Jesus, then we will obey Him. If we don’t, we won’t. What the reality is will manifest itself.

Jesus said something similar in John 8:31, again using an “if” statement:

“Jesus said to the people who believed in him, ‘You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.'”

Again, what is real will manifest itself. In this case, we can honestly claim to be disciples of Jesus only “if” we remain faithful to His teachings. Those who are not faithful to what Jesus taught, yet profess to be His disciples, are not truly His disciples.

What is real will manifest itself. Put another way, the expression of the life will validate or invalidate the profession of the mouth. David Hamburg illustrates this point in the following story …

An article in the Hartford Courant (Connecticut) told about a man who was a promiscuous homosexual. He had contracted AIDS ten years earlier. Instead of practicing abstinence he infected his last partner. He was visited by a priest and made his confession.

“I made my confession today,” he said. “I feel better. I didn’t apologize for anything in specific. I’m not sorry for my lifestyle. I don’t regret that. I just said I was sorry for whatever sins I may have committed.”

“Sorry, not sorry” is a popular attitude today, embracing the fallacy that it’s fine to say one thing but express another with our lives.

What is real will manifest itself.

Scotty