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

A little later in the Gospel of John, chapter 20, we will find that the disciple Thomas says that he will never believe that Jesus is alive unless he himself can place his hands in Jesus’ wounds. Much of Christendom has found fault with Thomas due to this incident and yet to some extent we all have to come to a personal understanding of His wounds in order that we might believe. We all need to feel out our relationship with Jesus and know His suffering and His wounds that we may understand the sacrifice.

I’d say there are many Christians who have never reached out to touch Jesus and they don’t have any understanding of His wounds; of how He suffered for our sins. And so they go on with life as it was before Christ, living lukewarm at best and dishonoring the sacrifice of our Savior by living as if they are still in bondage to sin.

“If you love Me, keep my commandments,” is the crux of all scripture, but before you think this verse is about your love for Him, let me point out to you where the Bible says your love for Him comes from …

1 John 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.

Our love for Him comes from His love for us. You see, everything we do has to come from His love for us, even our own love for Him. Anything we do that He is not the source of can in no way please God. Now, let’s understand that love is more than just sentiment, love is quantifiable based on return … In other words love is more than words, it is actions – the evidence of love.

The evidence of God’s love for us is seen in Creation and throughout time culminating in Jesus taking on flesh and giving His own life as a ransom for ours. Thereafter, the further evidence of God’s love for us is our love for Jesus and our love for Jesus is evidenced by the desire to please Him with our lives. We please Jesus with our lives when we do those things that He told us to do and by the witness of our lives, others are drawn into a saving relationship with Jesus. A more fluid translation of what Jesus said in verse 15 would be, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” So there are expectations of those who follow the Lord. Loving obedience to Jesus is the chief characteristic of a disciple of Christ, and it’s not an unfair expectation that the undeserving redeemed of Christ should serve God and glorify His Name. After all, God withheld nothing from we who were underserving, even giving His own Son that we may be saved through Him.