¹⁵ “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Repetition is a key to interpretation. Jesus uses the phrase, “If you love Me…,” repeatedly in the Upper Room. The grammatical form is identical to the previous statements of our Lord, “If you ask Me anything in My name …” In the Greek language, there are four different ways to make conditional statements, each carrying a sense not always conveyed well in the translation to English. In this case, the “If” carries the sense of being hypothetical (Greek scholars call this a third class conditional statement), with no sense that Jesus is assuming the case to be true. In other words, “If you love Me, (and I am not stating whether or not you do love Me, I am making a hypothetical statement), then the following will happen.” In this case, that which follows is keeping His commandments.

We must be careful in handling this text or we can fall into a works oriented relationship with God. What is in question is the disciples’ love for God, not their works or obedience. Now obviously, the two are connected (as the book of James points out) but not in the wrong causative sort of way. Jesus is not saying, “Keep my commandments, which is what is really the important thing here. When you do obey me, that will result in causing you to love Me..” The apostle Paul embellishes this in his celebrated love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, where he runs through a series of good things that Christians can do and how they can live, yet if they don’t have love, it all is for nothing.

Jesus is saying, the causative goes in the other direction. Genuine love for Christ will lead to good works, which are the evidence of authentic love. Real love will be displayed by acts of devotion. That is the nature of love. Just to be clear, Jesus is not saying, “The essence of Christian love leads to a works oriented salvation.” Absolutely not. Who of us could ever work or obey enough to rise to the level of love worthy of salvation?

But love is not just a word or a feeling. Love is an action, it is a movement from one person to another. And of all the writers of the NT, John uses this word the most. He was especially tuned to Jesus’ words and most willing to record this aspect of the Master’s ministry, because he himself understood that he was the one “whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23, 19:26, 21:20, etc.). The person who knows he is loved by God and who in turn responds in love (“We love because God first loved us” 1 John 4:19), will surely be the person who obeys what Jesus taught. And that is the goal of the great commission to, “teach them to observe all that I [Jesus] commanded you” (Matt 20:20).

Lord, I love You and desire to obey You in every area of my life. Help me do so.