Keep His Commands If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
Love is an easy issue to talk about. Countless songs have been written and sung on the subject. The general public reads romantic novels by the multitudes. They are then turned into movies, plays, and television programs. Poets and bards have written volumes of love poems and sonnets. Their materials fill libraries.
Jesus, however, didn’t say, “If you love Me you’ll write beautiful music and poetry about it.” He made it very concrete and obvious: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways,”[i] began the poet. But Jesus counts only one way: “Keep My commandments.”
What are the Lord Jesus’ commandments? What is it that He specifically asked us to do? And how do we know we’re keeping them? Notably, we are to “believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23, nasb). After all, the greatest compliment, expression of trust, affirmation, and devotion is to believe someone.
But this is more than to believe someone—to accept his word as true. It is to believe “in” the person—to place confidence, hope, and trust in not only his spoken claims but also his very essence as a person.
A story is told about Charles Blondin, the great nineteenth-century high-wire acrobat. After crossing Niagara Falls on a high wire several times and even pushing a wheelbarrow across it to demonstrate his skill, he could get no volunteers to get into the wheelbarrow.
Trust in Jesus, however, is getting into the wheelbarrow. Keeping His command in the first essence is to say yes to Jesus and to trust Him with our lives and our souls. It is to believe Him as our Savior.
How else do we keep Jesus’ commandments? He said we must love one another (see John 13:34). The succession is clear. If we trust, believe, and love Jesus, then we will love what He loves most—people! Such love and obedience to His command will follow naturally. That’s why He stated that His commands are not grievous (see 1 John 5:3).
If we love Him, we will do what He says. We will want to please Him.
Dear Lord, thank You that Christianity is not a creed; it is a living Christ. Help us to choose to love Jesus and keep His commands. Amen.
[i] Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “How Do I Love Thee?” Sonnets from the Portuguese, 1850.
