To Love Jesus Is to Obey Him

(John 14:15 NKJV) “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

Jesus must be the only person I know who can say this, and get away with it. Maybe a parent could say it sincerely to a young child; but even then, it could sound manipulative. Saying, “If you love me, do what I say,” certainly wouldn’t work in a peer-group or with adult children. So, how can Jesus say this to us without any manipulation or a domineering attitude?

The answer begins with a truth that he revealed to them earlier in the day; he is Lord:

(John 13:13 NKJV) “You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. (14) If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

Jesus is Lord! This is clearly confirmed by the Holy Spirit, along with why Father gave him this calling:

(Philippians 2:8–11 NKJV) “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (9) Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, (10) that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, (11) and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

(See also: Luke 2:11)

“He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore …” This gives us the reason God gave Jesus the eternal role of Lord; he humbled himself and became obedient to his Father’s will—even to the point of death. The Holy Spirit urges us to take on the same attitude in relation to Jesus that he had towards his Father:

(Philippians 2:5 NLT) You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

Jesus is the Lord and King of the entire universe, including all created beings; he is King of kings and Lord of lords. God the Father gave this title, function, and job to Jesus, and to him alone; no one else is Lord. To him, “Every knee should bow.”

The Holy Spirit then went on to say:

(Philippians 2:12 NKJV) “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

So Jesus said that if we love him, we would obey him. The Holy Spirit confirmed it here through Paul, and he gave us a third witness through the writer of Hebrews:

(Hebrews 5:9 NKJV) And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.

“Thus matured, He became unto all who obey Him, The Cause of Eternal Life.”4

In this passage, God the Father confirms why he requires obedience from those who love Jesus their Lord; obedience is the way he saves them. “Salvation,” means temporal as well as eternal safety, rescue, deliverance, and provision. The Father’s loving intention in stating the need for obedience is two-fold:

The first can easily be illustrated by a loving parent hoping for implicit obedience from their child, when they tell them not to touch the red heater element, the hot stove, or to dive into super-hot bath water before testing it.

The second reason a loving God says that if we love Jesus, we would obey him, is … God is looking for children suited for his eternal paradise. What’s more, he is hoping to find them among the sin-addicted children of fallen Adam. His first step, therefore, is to draw them through the gospel of the suffering and resurrection of his primary son. Then, when he finds those who respond willingly to his gospel, he feeds, provides for, and teaches them.

However, God knows that his love for his children is not what qualifies them for his kingdom; they have a part to play. The first step of which is their response to God’s love, as demonstrated in Jesus’s gospel; and then it is their willingness to deny self, and take on Christ-likeness—his character, and love. So, in his wisdom, God allows them to undergo testing and re-testing; he monitors their responses to, and supervises their refining in, the fire.

Father God constantly trains and assesses his children, shaping them for his planned eternal abode and purpose. Seeing pride was the original sin, one of the characteristics God is looking for in us is the opposite; and Jesus modeled it—humility as demonstrated by his submissive obedience to his Father. We can demonstrate our humility, by our own humble obedience to the one the Father appointed as Lord over us.

Not only does obedience to Jesus keep us safe, it clearly demonstrates: our love for him, our humility, and our willingness to relinquish pride and all of its recalcitrant rebellion.

One of the characteristics of love is that it wants others to fulfill their God-given calling and assignment; it wants them to be all God envisioned in his heart when he gave birth to them. In other words, love honors and desires to release people into the full function of the gifts, talents, callings, and graces that God intends for them.

In Jesus’s case, God’s current function for him is Lord. In other words, Father set him into the role and responsibility of being the one supreme in authority, that is, the controller of our lives (See: Strongs G2962). So, for us to love Jesus fully is to fully release him into his role as Lord over our lives through trusting obedience to him.

From Phil. 2, we earlier read the words:

(Philippians 2:12 NKJV) “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

The Holy Spirit emphasizes obedience, and then adds the phrase: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” What does this mean? Does it mean we need to “work” for our salvation? Obviously not; that would go against all the other statements he made about salvation being a free gift; it is something we cannot earn or deserve. So, what does it mean?

The nlt sheds some more light by saying, “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying …”

(Philippians 2:12 NLT) “Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.”

Translating the Aramaic version into plain English yields:

(Philippians 2:12 APE) Therefore beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not when I am near to you only, but now when I am far from you, all the more, with awe and with trembling, do the service of your life.

This translation has it as, “do the service of your life.” As we have seen repeatedly, “life” is an intangible zest for living that flows to us from God, and which is carried to us in Father’s commands and Jesus’s words:

(John 12:49–50 NLT) “I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. (50) And I know his commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say.”

(John 6:63 NKJV) “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”

Again, we come to the same conclusion: life floods into us when we hear God speak, when we drink in his love, when we receive his affirmation, and when the Holy Spirit illuminates his words to us. If those words are promises, we receive the life they carry when we believe them; if they include instructions, we receive the life they carry when we obey them. Our obedience demonstrates our trust in him and his role as Lord.

When I was young, my parents blindfolded me, put me on a piece of timber, and pretended to lift me up near the ceiling. They told me to jump off. Despite the perceived danger, I trustingly jumped only to find I was still very close to the floor. But I obeyed because I trusted them.

Today, if you love Jesus, you can clearly demonstrate it by trusting him enough to do what he tells you—personally, in his word, and through his delegated authorities. (Note: the Holy Spirit will faithfully confirm in your heart when the directives of your leaders are from God—not to mention that anything God wants you to obey will certainly not contravene his word.)

Remember: Jesus is Lord. That is his God-given title, position, and function. He loves us by serving us with his gift; his gift is being Lord, so he loves and serves us by instructing us. Because God gave him that responsibility, we would frustrate his loving intentions towards us if we don’t do what he says; that’s his way of saving us, protecting us, serving with his gifts, and loving us through his grace.

(John 14:24 NKJV) “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”