Do You Love Jesus?

If you ask the typical Christian if he/she loves Jesus, you may get a strange look and a response such as, “Of course I love Jesus!”  But do we really?  Jesus provided us with a simple test for our love for Him.

John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

The word translated “keep” has the sense of keeping one’s eye upon something.  It can be translated “guard”, “fulfill”, or “maintain”.  Those who truly love Jesus Christ have their focus upon His commands and seek to keep them close and fulfill them through their lives.  Since Jesus is God, His commandments include all that is commanded by God in the Old and New Testaments.

Jesus commented further upon this concept of love later in the same chapter of John.

John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

Here He states that those who keep His commandments will see Jesus manifested (shown openly) to them.  Could it be that the reason why Jesus seems so distant to some Christians is that they are not following His commandments and therefore are not demonstrating their love for Him?  This is not legalism, this is practical Christian living.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The best works we can do involve obedience to Jesus’ commandments.  A good place to refresh our memory of Jesus’ commandments would be in His “Sermon on the Mount” found in Matthew chapters five through seven.  Let’s endeavor to show our love for Jesus Christ by obeying Him.