The following first 1/2 of the post is by David Mathis (desiringgod.org). Afterwards, I have some follow-up commentary. I loved what David said, and wanted to continue his conversation. Check out what he has to say:
It’s one of Jesus’ best-known sayings: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). But we tend to miss his drift.
The mention of “commandments” may send our minds racing to the Sermon on the Mount and the various moral-behavioral demands Jesus makes elsewhere in the Gospels. That’s not all bad. Jesus has the right to.
But it’s worth asking, What does Jesus mean here in John 14? Let the larger context of this Gospel answer the question.
Surprisingly, we find very few specific moral-behavior commandments in John’s Gospel. However, we discover loads of commandments like: “Receive me” (1:12). “Follow me” (1:43). Get up, crippled man (5:8). Rise from the dead, Lazarus! (11:43). “Believe in the light” (12:36). “Believe in God” (14:1). “Believe me” (14:11). “Abide in me” (15:4). “Ask whatever you wish” (15:7). “Abide in my love” (15:9). “Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:22).
The kind of obedience Jesus repeatedly demands in this Gospel is the kind of heart-orientation toward him that only new birth can produce.
When Jesus tells us to love him, he wants us to want him, not just perform external deeds of obedience. He wants us to desire him. To treasure him. To prefer him. Crave him. Enjoy him.
This kind of heart — overflowingly satisfied in Jesus — is the kind that inevitably overflows into acts of love for others, and the kind of heart that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are eager to take up their home in, and even in the midst of suffering and pain, turn our lives this side of eternity into a veritable heaven on earth.
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Therefore, based on the given, fuller context of Scripture–and more particularly, Jesus’ commands–it would seem more accurate to suggest that the command “If you love me, you will keep my word” is not Jesus threateningly saying, “prove to me your love” or else! But, rather, He is stating in gentle love that “your love for me is proven by your obedience to me”.
Think of it this way: You are married. But your spouse does everything to prove his/her love to you, so that you believe he/she loves you. Now, you would have to be blind to not see through that bad acting of ‘look-I’m-loving-you’ love. Also, you would be concerned for your spouse–you don’t want him/her to feel like they have to keep proving themselves to you. Besides, that’s not real love to begin with… it’s enslavement to maintaining a perception of love with deeds (**NOTE: having to keep proving love in deed probably infers that you already feel like your love is not apparent enough in your heart). Rather, you want to simply enjoy love for one another–a love that is obviously not coerced to be proven in deed, but a love that is obviously organic in nature.
Similarly, Jesus wants our obedience to flow from love. Just like we detest and can see through phony acts of loving deeds, how much more does Jesus, who detests and can see through dry, love-absent obedience? If anything, He knows when we are trying to maintain a front of loving deeds behind a heart that lacks real love for Him.
But what we realize in the gospel is that He calls us to never prove our love in deed, but to “believe”, “accept”, and “abide in” His love for us. He proved his love for us in word and deed in his life and death. And God proved to us the legitimacy and sufficiency of Jesus’ love and obedience for us by resurrecting Him from the dead. Now, all we do is dwell on that love and respond in belief, acceptance, and abidance.
Indeed, “we love because He first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). Dwelling on the legitimacy and sufficiency of His love for us begins to produce real love in us for Him. JD Greear says it best: “God is not merely after our obedience; He is after a different kind of obedience”–with new motives, new delights, and no stipulations, conditions, or exceptions.
