“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” John 14:21 (ESV) [emphasis added]
Looking through the New Testament, there appear to be anywhere from 37 to 125 commands given by Jesus, depending on which scholar you ask. The Jewish rabbis has determined that in the Old Testament there were 613 commands given to the Jews. As we consider John 14:21, we should consider the following:
The Jews could not keep the 10 commandments, 613 are insurmountable.
Jesus indicated in the Sermon on the Mount (found in Matthew 5-7) that righteousness is a matter of the heart, not just a performance of the body.
Looking for the commands of Jesus for the express purpose of only performing them leads to legalism.
Perhaps we might be better serviced to listen to Jesus’ words about the commandments in Matthew 22:37-40.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” [emphasis added]
When Jesus refers to “…all the Law and the Prophets” He is referring to the beginning and end of the Old Testament, and everything in between. In other words, the point of all the commands of Scripture are to love God, and to love those made in the image of God. Just as Jesus did.
Jesus repeatedly makes it clear that loving people is His most important command. In John 13, he reminds His disciples that ALL people will recognize them as His disciples by their love for one another.
If we want to demonstrate our love to Jesus, we must demonstrate our love for others, sacrificially, without bias or prejudice. If we fail to demonstrate our love of others, we fail to love Jesus. The reason Jesus came from Heaven was to demonstrate God’s love, by providing Jesus as the substitutionary sacrifice for all our sins, that we may be with God forever, when we repent of our sins and accept Jesus as this sacrifice, as Lord and Savior of our lives.
Jesus poured out His Life for us, in love. Have you poured your life out for him? Have you poured your life out into others? Jesus will show himself to us, in our lives, through our lives, when we live as He lives.
By Bill Emmerling
Pastor-Gallup Christian Church