“If you love me, keep my commandments.”
John 14:15 NKJV
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
John 14:15 ESV
What a world of difference two words … you will … can make… sjoe. Read the two translations again.
The two translations lead one to vastly different meanings. The second, which most translators use, means, if you have love for Christ, you will be a commandment keeper, its descriptive. The first translation is prescriptive. It is demanding something. The emphasis shift is palpable. One leads to performance driven activity, the other to joy fueled love-activity. Obedience is a consequence of love, love is not a consequence of obedience, yet the two are inseparable. Love lead labour! Labour of love doesn’t tire or get burnt out. We read the text as “Because you keep my commandments, you love me.” But did you know you can keep commandments out of fear and religious slavery and not love? Obeying commandments does not equate to love but love equates to obeying commandments. Obedience to the commands of Christ is not hard work per se, just as a flower results in fruit is not hard work, it grows automatically, without willful intention. So, obedience is a result of love. We are taught to teach obedience, yes, to the first and greatest commandment – love God! Loving God is alpha. It starts the virtuous cycle of obedience, prompted and sourced in love. Obedience sourced in duty or an iron will, will not last. Religion, that evil human attempt to please God outside of God’s enablement, says ‘Obey, so you can prove your love for God.’ This is a grievous trap and many fall into it. True Love captures you, subdues you. It captivates your whole being, it is all consuming and all demanding. When you are totally devoted, when you are lovesick and a prisoner of the beauty of Christ, nothing else matters or makes sense, except in relation to your discovered treasure. A life of dedicated service, on the other hand, can still leave you in control and at arms length away from Christ. The ego is a crafty snake!
Lasting missionary effort begins with the love of God, not the love of man. “He who loves men ought to do so for no other reason than that he may thereby love God the more.” St Augustine When the heart is filled with love, acts of love are automatic. Augustine also said “Love God and do as you will!” Obedience is a fait accompli, if you love Christ. Service is the overflow of another process at work, a human heart being captured by Christ. We have turned this thing the wrong way round … stressing service and commandment keeping, instead of the joy of ‘being in love’. The ‘doing in love’ kind of gospel is heard all over but the Mary of Bethany’s are seldom heard. Your service and obedience does not equate to love just as a wife making breakfast for her husband does not equate to love. It is a fruit of love, perhaps a proof of love but it is not love per se. Love is a relational disposition of the heart. We have equated acts of endless service as demonstrations of great love of God and this is a grave error. ‘Rend your hearts, not your garments!’ Love is Love. Being in love is a state of being, not a state of doing, though of course, true love obeys. It is a terrible deception to be seduced into a gospel of prove-my-love-works and not be a bonds lave of love to Christ. As Oswald Chambers truly and profoundly observes, “It is easier to serve than to be drunk with love and devotion.”First … and greatest i.e. there is no other bigger God idea, more clearly stated than love God. First is first! Keep things simple. Love God.
“Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. ’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Mt 22:37-40
Abiding, not striving. Not lack of effort its a lack of struggle and hustle. Hustle harder they say! No way!
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” John 15:4-8
Abiding produces fruit. Growth comes from abiding in the vine. There is a order, a rank, a sequence! Let us not deceive ourselves thinking the equation is true, that the greater my acts of service, the greater my love for God is. This is a lie! Heaven is going to reveal some shocking things I believe. It is less about the abundance of services you have done and rather with what abundance of love, you only did the things He ordered. Love is Love. He is way greater than mere acts as being is greater than doing. The greatest commandment, the being commandment, comes first – love God. The Second commandment, the doing commandment, comes second. It is secondary. Order matters! Because Jesus said so.
Doing ‘acts’ are much easier than being entirely captured by a spirit of adoration. You can have it together and still be in charge, while doing acts. But love demands surrender, capitulation, bondedness, enveloping attachment … love takes no prisoners and is all consuming! You lose self in love because the two become one, the Lord in you and you in the Lord. Union. Union!
Love in essence, in some sense, cannot be seen, it is invisible in its purest form, it dwells in the private space of the heart, its a heart reality, a matter of the heart, a reality that though unseen, is more visceral and potent than a thousand thousand outward visible acts of service and professed love.
“’These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Mat 15:8
The legalists, the love haters, have made acts of service equate to love and have tempted many lovers of God back into dry service. First love acts are not dry. ‘Lovers acts’, ‘first love acts’ are what matters, first love acts are what He is after, keeping the commandments because of a heart overflowing with devoted love. Lovers, paradoxically always out serve workers.
“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” Rev 2:4-5
Beholding, not Behaving A friend said “I was taught to behave, not to behold.” Eish. We become what we behold. When we see the Son and imitate Him, we are changed into His likeness. When we see Him, we see our true identity. This is the warfare in our minds – who are you? If love is like the pollinating of a flower, obedience is the fruit of it. “Around all the walls of the house he carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms.” 1 Kings 6:29 The Presence of God is full of open flowers and obedience follows as a result. Irenaeus said “The glory of God is a human being fully alive; and the life (zoē) of man consists in beholding God.” The more we love Him, the more we want to behold Him and the more we behold Him, the more we will become like the One we behold – holy!