Jesus: “If you love me, keep my commandments.”, so why don’t we?
Jesus said “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15), so why don’t we? I know what you are thinking: “I do love Jesus and I do keep His commandments.” To this I say, What are His commandments? How do you keep them?
There is no mystery to solve, no life long quest that we must endure to find the answer to this question. The answer is right under our face, Jesus told us directly saying “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”(Matthew 22:37-39) . So we are commanded to love.
It seems pretty easy to love God. He is our creator, he deserves our love, He is love. John said “We love Him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19).
Now for the hard part “love your neighbor as yourself”. Do we really love our neighbor as ourselves? Do we put stranger’s needs in front of our own needs? Do we love our neighbor so much that we give our own life to save theirs? Hardly, some won’t part with $1.00 much less their own life for a stranger. If we truly loved our neighbor wouldn’t we share the news of Christ continually without ceasing? Wouldn’t we be considered freaks to this world, strangers in a foreign land?
The ultimate question is are we living our lives for Jesus, are we following his commandments. Do we stand out from a crowd as followers of Christ, lovers of all or do we blend in with the rest. How else can we show Jesus our love for him except the way he instructed: through loving God first and our neighbor as ourselves second?