Loving Jesus
If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15.
With the idea set forth in this verse we have arrived at a theme that the apostle John will drive home again and again: namely, if we truly love God, we will keep His commandments, and if we truly love Jesus, we will obey His commandments.
One thing to note is that the commandments of God and Jesus are not different. After all, another great theme in the fourth Gospel is that Jesus and the Father are one. While They are distinct persons in the Godhead, They belong to the same united Trinity and share the same principles--so much so that Jesus could teach that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father (John 14:9). In Scripture the commandments of God and those of Jesus are exactly the same. And at the foundation of all of them is one principle. Jesus identifies it concisely in John 15:12, in which He says: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (RSV). and in verse 17 He again says, "This I command you, to love one another" (RSV).
Earlier in His ministry Jesus had asserted that the greatest commandment of the law was to love God with all our hearts and minds, and that inextricably connected to that injunction is the need to love our neighbors as our own selves (Matt. 22:36-40). Thus we can sum up the commandments of both God and Jesus in one great principle: love. Out of it flow all of the more specific laws, including the Ten Commandments. But it is the caring, outreaching principle of love that must be the motivating force undergirding true obedience. Jesus demonstrated that love in not only coming to earth, but in His daily life as He related to others.
Of all the New Testament writers, John is the most persistent in his call for Christ's followers to keep the commandments. In the first letter he writes that "we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says 'I know him' but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:3, 4, RSV). And in the book of Revelation John makes it clear that God will have a commandment-keeping people at the end of time (Rev. 12:17; 14:12).
Like the disciples of old, we need to take Jesus at His word. Obedience in the spirit of love was absolutely central to Him.
Help me, Father, not only to obey Your word, but to do so in the spirit of love.
If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15.
With the idea set forth in this verse we have arrived at a theme that the apostle John will drive home again and again: namely, if we truly love God, we will keep His commandments, and if we truly love Jesus, we will obey His commandments.
One thing to note is that the commandments of God and Jesus are not different. After all, another great theme in the fourth Gospel is that Jesus and the Father are one. While They are distinct persons in the Godhead, They belong to the same united Trinity and share the same principles--so much so that Jesus could teach that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father (John 14:9). In Scripture the commandments of God and those of Jesus are exactly the same. And at the foundation of all of them is one principle. Jesus identifies it concisely in John 15:12, in which He says: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (RSV). and in verse 17 He again says, "This I command you, to love one another" (RSV).
Earlier in His ministry Jesus had asserted that the greatest commandment of the law was to love God with all our hearts and minds, and that inextricably connected to that injunction is the need to love our neighbors as our own selves (Matt. 22:36-40). Thus we can sum up the commandments of both God and Jesus in one great principle: love. Out of it flow all of the more specific laws, including the Ten Commandments. But it is the caring, outreaching principle of love that must be the motivating force undergirding true obedience. Jesus demonstrated that love in not only coming to earth, but in His daily life as He related to others.
Of all the New Testament writers, John is the most persistent in his call for Christ's followers to keep the commandments. In the first letter he writes that "we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says 'I know him' but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:3, 4, RSV). And in the book of Revelation John makes it clear that God will have a commandment-keeping people at the end of time (Rev. 12:17; 14:12).
Like the disciples of old, we need to take Jesus at His word. Obedience in the spirit of love was absolutely central to Him.
Help me, Father, not only to obey Your word, but to do so in the spirit of love.
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