If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments: A Call to Obedience

“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
John 14:15

In John 14:15, Jesus shares a powerful truth that goes beyond emotions. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” This command calls every believer to demonstrate their love for Christ through actions, not just words. It also declares that genuine love for God is inseparable from obedience to His Word. But what does it truly mean to follow Christ’s commandments, and how does our obedience reflect our love for Him?

Love is evidenced by obedience

True love for Jesus is not just shown through emotional expressions or outward profession of faith but through obedience and keeping His Word and commandments. As James wrote, faith without works is dead (James 2:26), so faith in Christ without any evidence of divine love flowing out of our lives is dead.

True love lays down its life for the brethren, a life of sacrifice, humility, and surrender. It is the very life of God, desiring goodness for all, nothing less, and never anything else. God is love, and if He is in you and you are in Him, then love should be the fruit that shows His life flowing through us.

This love is also shown in our willingness to face opposition, trials, and tribulations and still keep faith in Christ with all our strength. The world will hate us, as it hated Him, and the world will refuse the light that He shines through us, but we are called to continue in the faith, continue in love, and continue to press forward to the prize.

This is why Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” If you love what I Am, what I came to do, and ultimately who you and I will be for all eternity, follow my life, words, and actions. See to it that you are like-minded and have the same mind and heart as me, which is to love, serve, and hold dear to God’s will for our lives. Jesus isn’t saying to love Him, keep his commandments, and you will be saved; that’s positional righteousness and is like filthy rags before God. God doesn’t want our right living; he wants our hearts and souls to desire Him and His life over ours. This is the greatest love we can give God, which ultimately is us loving others. For how can we say we love God and hate our brother (1 John 4:20)?

We need power to live a life of obedience

Jesus began his ministry on earth right after his baptism. The Spirit of God came down, entered into Him, and became the source of His ministerial life. The same should be true for us; just as on the day of Pentecost, all the disciples were told to remain until the Spirit of God came down and filled them. God has made it clear from both examples that we are not to do anything until we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the source of our lives here on earth. He wars with our flesh, prays for us, guides us into all truth, brings to remembrance Scripture, helps us in our troubles, empowers us to preach, heals the sick, and does even greater works than Jesus did while He was here on earth.

He is also love, and the fruit of that love is joy, peace, patience, goodness, and faithfulness. He is the source of this love that Jesus tells us we can have. It’s not the emotional love that Peter had when he said he would stand strong next to the Lord, but when stretched out through fear, he denied Him three times. As zealous as he was, his love was not perfect, so we are to rely on God’s love, not ours.

I learned from William Law that love is not something we can possess; it is something we can experience, but it is not something we can have for ourselves. Love is God, and we can only receive that love and allow others to receive that love through us, but we can never have that love in and of ourselves. The same goes for righteousness, holiness, and every other virtue of God’s character. As Jesus said, it is not me that does the works, but the Father in Me that does them.

Faithful obedience is a matter of nature, not a willingness to obey God

In His ministry, Jesus emphasized that those who love Him will naturally follow His teachings. In John 14:21, He says, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.” What is meant by “natural” is “by nature.” By nature, we were children of wrath before we were born again.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them (Eph 2:3-10).

Now that we have been born again, raised from the dead, and given the very life, the seed of God within us, we can produce and bring forth His life on this earth. By nature, we are now inclined toward obedience rather than disobedience. It’s the inner battle we face, as described by Paul in Romans 7, where he desires to do God’s will but struggles to do so. The things he does not want to do or the sins he hates get the best of him. This internal conflict leads him to seek freedom, and ultimately, he expresses gratitude to Jesus Christ, as He is our only way out of the flesh.

By trusting in Him and the process of sanctification, we can be assured that we are saved. If there is no inner conviction and no new life warring with the old life within us, which is in rebellion against God, we should question our salvation. Having this inner struggle lets us know that we are born again and children of God.

There will come a day when we will receive our glorified bodies and live within a new heaven and a new earth. Currently, the entire creation of God yearns for the children of God to be revealed. Even though we are currently in conflict with this world system, our flesh, and the devil, we are not fighting for victory; we are fighting from victory.

Upon our physical death and departure from this sinful body, we will have complete power over all principalities, sin, and evil. Every tear will be wiped away forever from our eyes. We will never again face the temptation to do evil, sin, or fall short of the glory of God. His life will be entirely ours, and just as He cannot sin, we will never sin again. This joy awaits those who love God, believe in Jesus and desire His life above their own.

Soon, we will no longer face the temptation to do wrong, sin, or fall short of God’s glory. His life will become ours completely, and just as He cannot sin, we will never sin again. This is the reward and the future for all those who love God, believe in Jesus and prioritize His life above our own.

Loving One Another: A Commandment to Keep

At the core of Jesus’ commandments is the directive to love one another. In John 13:34-35, Jesus gives a “new commandment” to His followers: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another.”

This love is not superficial or conditional but reflects Jesus’s sacrificial love. John 15:12 repeats, “This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” This commandment is the greatest way believers can show their love for Christ. It is a love that goes beyond affection and manifests in action, sacrifice, and service to others.

Closure

The command, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15), is not only a command but a window into the heart of true Christian discipleship. To love Jesus is to obey Him, and this obedience is backed by the Holy Spirit, who guides and strengthens us. As we reflect on the significance of this command, we are reminded that the true evidence of our love for Christ is never to be found in words but in our actions — our willingness to follow His commandments, love one another, and not be defiled by this world.

Written by: David Matthews Jr