If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15 ESV)
We often use this verse to justify or promote keeping commandments. If we love Jesus, we will keep his commandments, which we tend to translate into something similar to: keeping the commandments Jesus has given us proves that we love him, or we can prove to Jesus that we love him by doing the things he said to do.
That is not untrue. We can show our love by doing what we were told. But is that what we are trying to do?Are we trying to prove our love? Is our purpose to prove that we love Jesus? Or is it to love Jesus?
Let’s dissect the construction of this sentence:
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
It is a conditional statement. An “if-then” statement. You may or may not remember those from elementary school.
If you study, you will get good grades.
If you get good grades, you will get into college.
The part after the “if” is the hypothesis. The part after the “then” is the conclusion. The “if” may cause the “then,” but the “then” could possibly be caused by other things.
If you study, you will get good grades, but not all good grades come as a result of studying. If you get good grades, you will get into college, but not all college acceptances come from good grades.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
If you love Jesus, you will keep his commandments, but not all commandment-keeping is a result of loving Jesus.
The hypothesis here is not that you keep the commandments. It is the part about loving Jesus. The conclusion is not that we love Jesus.
This particular conditional statement does not communicate that keeping commandments results in love for Jesus. It communicates that keeping commandments is a result of loving Jesus. In other words, keeping commandments does not prove love. It is a product of it. We must first love Jesus, and from that will come the commandment-keeping.
What we do will come out of our love, not our love out of what we do.
