When someone you love gives a promise, you can count on it. This is especially true if that one is Jesus. Jesus promised, “If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John 14:23). What a powerful promise!
Jesus is both the source and goal of life. When you love Jesus—in relationship, not ritual—you will trust His personal leadership in your life. As you trust Him, He enables, empowering you with His divine life. Thus you will keep His words. When you love Jesus, you live Jesus.
Jesus explained that the one who is having His commandments (faith) and is keeping them (faith accessing grace) is the one who is loving Him (John 14:21). The order of things for a believer begins with love, leads to trust, and concludes with accessing grace to obey. Then Jesus promises that the one who loves will experience more of the Lord: “I will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).
Love, trust, obey. Love produces trust. Trust accesses enablement. Enablement empowers obedience. This paradigm is freedom. In contrast, trying to obey in order to prove your love leads to the bondage of a performance-based acceptance.
The freedom mode of operation focuses on Jesus. The focus of a bondage mode is a mere system. One mode is relational; the other is ritual. The former relies on a divine person, but the latter depends on human performance. True, biblical Christianity is a relationship not a religion, and thus real Christian growth in grace is realized through relationship and not religiousness.
Jesus assures us, “If a man love me, he will keep my words.” It’s a promise! Take hold of this wonderful promise and experience Jesus today!
John Van Gelderen
Post Author
Brother, this is so mind-renewing! How many times has this passage been used to guilt ourselves/others into obedience? Yet the context is John 14-17- the Spirit. How much we have missed that. Praise the Lord for the New Covenant- it’s all from Him, through Him, and unto Him! Thank you for sharing what you have seen.
It truly is liberating!
Thank you John for the directing our thoughts to clarity here. I love Him because He first loved me. I so appreciate how your ministry always brings us back to, so to speak, in the beginning God. He does, I respond. It reminds me again I just need to bask in the love of my Father and delight in Him, He will direct me, and correct me. As He does I need to depend and respond. It is so easy to get tangles up with “I” when I just need to look at Jesus.
Looking at Jesus is what we need!
I’m curious to know your thoughts on the word “keep” in the text. It isn’t sinlessness else we don’t need 1 John 1:9, Gal 6:1. If it is faith why are we commanded to love our neighbor as ourself? It seems that “keep” only means obey in the text. So if I sin, I do not keep but break his commandment. I know I love him but I have not always kept his commandments. I ask humbly hoping to learn. I’ll admit that Satan has quoted this text to me often and with all the commandments resting on Romans 13:9,… Read more »
Actually, I went back and read your statement again and the Holy Ghost revealed the truth to me. If I just love him, He in me will keep his commandments! Wow!!! What victory I’ve just been given!
Beautiful!