If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. John 14:15
Scripture Says...
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. (John 14:15)
He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him. (John 14:21)
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love (John 15:10).
This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, (1 John 5:2-3)
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. (1 John 2:3-6)
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in My word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:31-32).
If We Love Him...
Jesus says that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. These “commandments” involve the entire scope of Christ's revelation, not just the Ten Commandments. They encompass all of Jesus’ words in Scripture, which are God the Father’s words too (John 14:23-24), and they are not burdensome. Therefore, loving Jesus is not a mere feeling since biblical love is not an abstraction but an action (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Rather, loving Jesus is an active, abiding, and continuous relationship of following and obeying Him as our loving Master.“We know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3).
When Jesus speaks, we do well to listen. When Jesus repeats Himself, we do well to listen even closer. In John’s Gospel, three times Jesus emphasizes the need for keeping His commandments as evidence of our love for Him and the Father. We are not saved by anything we do or by keeping a list of rules through mere external acts of obedience (which is legalism). But we are saved by grace through faith alone, which produces a love for God. Saving faith and true love for Jesus are inseparable from heartfelt obedience to His will.
Of course, we will have far from perfect obedience with how fallen we are, but the habit of practicing righteousness through the process of sanctification is evidence that we have the Holy Spirit living within us. It is the Holy Spirit who gently convicts us of sin and helps us walk according to God’s will through faith. Right after Jesus makes the statement “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” He adds, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever” (John 14:16). Jesus knows that to keep His commandments in this fallen world, it will require God's grace in the form of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our hearts. We can't do God's will or keep His commandments by our own human merit or willpower. That's impossible. Rather, our obedience and good works are expressions of the faith and love we have for Jesus, which is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). This is consistent with the teaching of James 2:14-26 that true saving faith manifests itself by works produced by God in the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
If We Abide in His Word...
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in My word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:31-32).
Furthermore, Jesus says if we abide in His Word, we are truly His disciples. When we abide in His Word, we prove to be His disciples. The word, "abide" here means to habitually hold fast to Jesus' teachings and persevere in obedience to Scripture. The word “truth” here speaks not only that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and to the Gospel Truth but also to the teachings that He brought to us in the Scriptures. Trusting in Christ as Savior ( His person and finished work of redemption on our behalf) goes along with submitting to Christ as Lord (abiding in His Word). Believing in Jesus is not just a one-time occurrence or intellectually agreeing with the historical facts of the gospel. It is a daily walk and lifelong commitment to trust in Jesus.
A genuinely saved follower of Jesus will know, understand, and habitually walk (abide) in divine truth, which brings freedom from the bondage of sin. Only those who believe and receive the truth of who Jesus is as the Way, the Truth, and the Life are set free and in turn “abide in His Word” or keep His commands. The only way we can detect and fight the lies of sin is by trusting in Jesus, which produces a love for God and the truth of His Word. Believers can struggle with sin in this life and still be saved, but a believer cannot go on freely practicing sin or believing both sin and God are good. We will either serve one or the other but not both (Romans 6:16).
It’s not what we do that frees us from the bondage of sin. It’s what we believe that sets us free, and our actions will naturally reflect what's in our hearts. May we love and treasure Jesus in our hearts, for it's Jesus who sets us free.
Dear Heavenly Father,
I praise You for Your saving grace! I praise You for gifting me with the Holy Spirit. He is my Helper who will be with me forever (John 14:16). He guides me into all truth and helps me keep Your commandments. Help me to trust in You with all my heart and not lean on my own understanding. In all my ways help me submit to You, as You make my paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).
All glory belongs to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ Name I pray Amen.
And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. 2 John 1:6
He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul,
But he who is careless of conduct will die. Proverbs 19:16