Did Jesus tell us we need to love Him to keep His commandments?
"If ye love me, keep my commandments." John 14:15. Jesus gives us a clue when He tells a lawyer questioning Him what the first and most important commandment is, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." Matthew 22:36-38. We do not need laws if we love as Jesus loves us, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." John 13:34 and "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Romans 13:8. Those who love do not steal from the one they love. They do not commit adultery with the wife of the one they love nor kill the one they love. So, if we love everyone, we do not need laws to force us to demonstrate our love for others. Therefore, our love for Him is sufficient. We do not need to add laws to it.
There is one who will judge us. However, God does not want us to judge others. When we judge others, we push them away from the lawgiver who loves them, "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." Matthew 7:1-5.
The principle of examining our own sins first is why He told us the story of the woman caught in adultery, "So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." John 8:7-11. She broke the seventh commandment of the moral law, and yet Jesus told her accusers they should not accuse her since none of them was without sin, and He told her He did not condemn her either. Notice the man involved in the adultery was not being accused. Well, that is for another blog.
Why is loving Jesus so important? It is a matter of priorities. If we love anything more than Jesus, we will choose that thing instead of following Jesus, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Matthew 6:24. This is why He calls us to abide in Him, "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." 1 John 2:3-6.
It is simple: we show love through our actions. So, if we do not love God, we will not love others, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." 1 John 4:7-8. We might say we love our spouse, but do we really do those things that prove it? And, if we do not love God, we certainly cannot love our enemies, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;" Matthew 5:44.
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