By JASON HILES, Chair of Christian Studies Louisiana College
According to John’s Gospel, as Jesus was preparing the apostles for his imminent death, resurrection, and return to the Father, He drew their attention to the vital relationship between love and obedience.
He articulates this relationship concisely in John 14:15 by declaring, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
In fact, Jesus’ words are so concise and this statement so simple that one may be tempted to pass over it quickly, failing to appreciate the depth of insight captured in so few words.
The more familiar one is with the verse, the stronger the temptation tends to be, especially because we are used to hearing this passage preached as if it is yet another command to obey Christ.
Of course the New Testament contains many directives relating to obedience, some of them directly issued by Christ himself. Certainly the present passage can be understood as suggesting that one should obey the Lord’s commands, but the careful reader will note that Jesus’ words do not actually constitute a command.
Rather, he is making known to the apostles the condition necessary for obedience.
This would mean that obedience is a consequence of a particular condition; namely, that of loving Jesus Christ.
Distinguishing between a condition and a command may appear to be little more than fancy wrangling that makes little practical difference.
But this is simply not the case. With this statement Jesus indicates precisely what amounts to obedience and, by extension, what amounts to disobedience.
Since love is a pre-condition for obedience, then one who performs an action that Jesus commands but does not do it with love in his heart for the Lord has failed to obey.
Failure to recognize this condition for obedience leads many to suppose that the Muslim, the Hindu, and the Buddhist who are faithful to their spouses, love their children, and show kindness to their neighbors are basically good people just like proper Christians.
Unfortunately for such people, all their faithful, loving, and kind acts are improperly motivated by love for false gods.
A Muslim serves Allah while Hindus and the Buddhists may serve any number of gods or no god at all. Regardless, none of them serves Christ Jesus nor do they love Him.
This heart disposition, Scripture insists, renders all their righteous acts as worthless as “filthy rags” before the Lord (Isaiah 64:6).
Among Christians, the same truth is commonly overlooked when we meet with one another for the purposes of discipleship and accountability. We are prone to ask our brothers and sisters in Christ about their prayer life and about their quiet time.
At points we may inquire about Bible study or other spiritual disciplines such as Scripture memorization.
Yet all too often we fail to ask about one another’s heart condition, as if we can somehow carry out the disciplines mentioned above without loving God. Jesus makes no such mistake as He calls His disciples’ attention to their love lives.
I am not suggesting in any way that prayer, quiet time, Bible study, and Scripture memorization should be set aside in the name of love. Of course such things can serve as means to the end of growing in the knowledge of God.
The problem, however, is that all sorts of activity that is intended to honor God can quickly devolve into rituals that dishonor God for precisely the reason that Jesus draws out in John 14:15.
When these activities are performed without love they are no longer methods for increasing obedience but merely pretty rituals by which we sin against God. They just happen to look religious enough that we may fail to recognize them for the iniquity that they are.
This sort of false piety was the idol of the Pharisees and the false god of the Sadducees, but it cannot be allowed to reign over the true children of God.
The danger of acting as if we are doing things for God without genuinely loving God is commonly known as legalism. Legalism poses a deadly threat to the church because it sets aside the gospel of Christ while pretending to uphold all righteousness by carrying out the commands of the Lord Jesus.
But according to Jesus’ own words, such actions cannot possibly be viewed as genuine obedience because they fail to meet the non-negotiable condition of love.
What, then, is the Christian to do in order to escape the trap of legalism?
Much like married couples who have begun to go through the motions of honoring their spouses out of habit or in order to avoid conflict, we must carefully consider why we are doing the things that we are doing.
For instance, a husband who takes out the trash regularly, helps clean up around the house, and abstains from adulterous affairs may find himself doing so because it keeps him out of trouble with his spouse.
Likewise, a wife may do the shopping and cook supper primarily to insure that things run smoothly for the family. In each case the actions performed seem right and proper but they are not motivated by love so much as practical concerns.
So long as tasks are completed as necessary and no conflicts arise both may presume that the marriage is healthy. However, loveless marriages leave hearts unsatisfied and make fallen people prone to wander.
Similarly, in the spiritual realm a loveless relationship may appear to fulfill the practical obligations of the faith, but this situation will inevitably lead to temptation because wandering hearts tend to seek out new loves.
Once a person takes his or her eyes off the Lord, it is only a matter of time before something or someone else attracts one’s attention and begins to compete for one’s affections.
To His glory the Lord is faithful even when we are not, though He is intensely jealous and will not stand by idly while we consider other lovers.
Fortunately it is the faithfulness of Christ that commends Him to us above all false gods and causes us to marvel at the multitude of His excellencies.
If we are careful in moments of temptation and even failure to compare the glory of Jesus to the inglorious nature of His many competitors, we will see that He is worthy of our love and full faithfulness.
In order to fix our eyes on Christ, then, we must stop looking to those idolatrous attachments that demand our attention. And we will stop looking to them as we come to see more clearly that He is superior to them all.
Faithfulness of the kind demanded by Christ is not possible apart from love, but neither is love burdensome. It springs naturally from a transformed heart that has been filled with the love of God poured out liberally by the Spirit of God. Therefore after noting the requirement of love in John 14:15, Jesus promises to give the gift of God’s Spirit in verse 16.
God draws near to us in Christ and fills us with the Holy Spirit because of his great love.
In turn Christ calls us, not to empty works of obedience as the proper response, but to love, which issues in increasing faithfulness and obedience to the Beloved. Thus, when we truly love Jesus we will truly keep His commands.