Like this:

“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

I got to thinking about this verse the other day, and wanted to say a few words about it.

Typically, the way we see this verse approached is the opposite of what I think is the real logic of Jesus’ statement.  Most often, I’ve seen commenters start with the latter clause, “keep my commandments,” and work backwards to the part about loving the Lord.  In other words, keeping His commandments is something we do, and from that, the fact that we love the Lord is shown.

Okay.  I can’t disagree with that line of reasoning, per se, though I do think the emphasis is a bit off.  After all, what Jesus did is make an if-then statement.  If you do one thing, then the other is shown.  The starting point is the love, not the keeping. 

The reason I am taking pains to make this point is because it is very easy for Christians to go from the backwards reasoning above, to a backwards outflowing in action.  Rather than worrying about heart attitude, simply “doing” the right things becomes the focus.  This was the same mistake that the Pharisees and the Jewish leadership made.  They thought that they were pleasing God merely by going through the motions externally.  For them, God’s law became 613 things you had to do just because.  Because somebody would stone you if you didn’t, or you’d be put out of the synagogue, or be a social outcast and not be able to support your family.  Loving God, as the Lord took pains to show when He confronted the Pharisees about their religion, was lost from the equation.

Now, this all being said, please understand that I am (emphatically) NOT criticising the things that, for instance, “young fundamentalists” and New Evangelicals will criticise when they talk about “love” versus “law.”  Instead, I encourage us to consider that Jesus was telling us that the person who truly loves the Lord will WANT to keep His law.  Not for salvation, but out of a heart-felt desire to please God.  This is because – as we should understand very simply – obeying God’s Word pleases Him, while breaking it angers and hurts Him.  It’s as simple as that.  And therefore, if we love Him – if our heart’s desire is truly to bring as much honour and glory and pleasure and blessing to our God as we typically say we do with our mouths, then we MUST obey God’s Word.  Anything less is a lack of love on our part.  This begins with the heart attitude of love and gratitude – and therefore approaches Jesus’ if-then statement from the proper direction.

“Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.” (Psalm 119:24)

“Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.” (Psalm 119:40)

Is this your attitude toward God’s Word?  Is this my attitude?  If not, it ought to be. 

If it’s not, then we can’t say that we love God, because to love Him is to love His Word.  To love Him is to be willing to obey even the least command of His scripture.  To love Him and truly be submitted to Him is to be willing to accept that His commandments are not grievous.  It is to be willing to obey even those “legalistic” standards that evangelicals and young fundamentalists hate so much – things like standards of dress that affirm God’s distinction of the sexes, or accepting that He has promised to preserve His Word and therefore we don’t need unbelieving scholars to “reconstruct” 95% of it for us.  A person who is unwilling to heed the teaching of standards drawn from the application of God’s Word is a person who has already shown that they are not loving God in their heart attitude. 

In short, complaining about “legalism” and using that as an excuse for antinomianism is not loving God, and shows that it doesn’t understand what love for God is. 

Love for God is faithfulness with a purpose.  It doesn’t keep standards and doctrines unthinkingly and by rote, nor does it reject those standards and doctrines out of a desire to give itself an excuse to please itself.

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