Introduction. When we express a desire for something and someone we love quickly acts to fulfill it, we know they care for us. But if we express our desires year after year and are ignored, that too sends a message. How we respond to the needs of our spouse is a clear way to measure either our sincerity and devotion or our selfishness or insensitivity.
In the committed relationship of our marriage, God wants both love and respect. “Husbands” are to “love their wives... as Christ loved the church, ... “as Christ gave Himself up for the church, ... “as their own bodies” and ... “as himself.” “Wives are to submit” to the needs and desires “of their own husbands” ...“as to the Lord,” ...“as the church is subject to Christ” and ... “in everything” (Eph. 5:22-23). Truly our proverb, “your slightest wish is my command” fits these commands. We are to live attuned to the needs of our spouse. When a reasonable need or desire is expressed it is done.
Our relationship with Jesus is based on exactly the same principle. He said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn. 14:15-24; 15:10-14). When we keep His command we show love and devotion. When we set aside His command we reveal insensitivity and selfishness
In the committed relationship of our marriage, God wants both love and respect. “Husbands” are to “love their wives... as Christ loved the church, ... “as Christ gave Himself up for the church, ... “as their own bodies” and ... “as himself.” “Wives are to submit” to the needs and desires “of their own husbands” ...“as to the Lord,” ...“as the church is subject to Christ” and ... “in everything” (Eph. 5:22-23). Truly our proverb, “your slightest wish is my command” fits these commands. We are to live attuned to the needs of our spouse. When a reasonable need or desire is expressed it is done.
Our relationship with Jesus is based on exactly the same principle. He said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn. 14:15-24; 15:10-14). When we keep His command we show love and devotion. When we set aside His command we reveal insensitivity and selfishness
Jesus asked far less from us than what He has done for us. Hours before His crucifixion, He said: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” The real depth of these words are revealed when we learn who Jesus was before He became a man. He was “existing in the form of God.” Yet did not “grasp” this “equality with God,” but “emptied Himself,” “becoming obedient” “unto the death of the cross.” When the “Word was with God” “and was God,” He created all things. When the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” He “emptied Himself.” (Phil. 2:6-8; Jn. 1:1-3). The eternal and deathless Word “emptied Himself” to “become flesh” so He could “lay down His life for His friends!”
Using the depth of His sacrificial love as the standard to measure our own, where do we stand? How we feel about Jesus is only the first step. The gratitude and devotion for this sacrifice is not the love Jesus sought until we “keep His commandments.” Words and feelings alone are not love. James captured this: when he asked “what is the profit” if we say “be warmed and filled, but do not give them the things which are needed” (Jas. 2:16). So what is the profit if we say we love Jesus, but do not keep His commandments?
Jesus repeated this many times that last night He was on earth. “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him.” Note in our relationship with Jesus only deeds reveal love! Only if we keep Jesus’ commands are we among those “who love Me,” and only then will “My Father ...and I love him.”
A start contrast: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word”, but “He who does not love Me does not keep My words.” Again, say what you want to say and feel what you want to feel. If they don’t lead to full obedience of all His commands they are meaningless. When Paul was moved by Jesus’ love for him, he could only say, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20). Paul showed his love by obedience, not words.
Jesus demonstrated His words: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.” What Jesus did to manifest His love to the Father is exactly what He expects us to do to show our love for Him. This is summed up in Hebrews. “When He came into the world, He said: ... ‘Behold, I have come ... To do Your will, O God. ... By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Heb. 10:5-10). When Jesus entered the garden, sweating “as great drops of blood” and “with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him” (Lk. 22:24; Heb. 5:7), His love for God was manifested in His obedience. That is the same standard we must strive for. As He kept God’s commands and thus abode in God’s love, so also only when we keep His commands can we continue to abide in His love.
Conclusion. Whether for convenience, gain, or ease, when we set aside any command of Jesus we are showing Him the true depth of our love. Regardless of the intensity of our feelings, it is our obedience that reveals our devotion, not our words. If we would be a friend to Jesus, words are not enough. “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” We must never forget “if you love Me... you will keep My commandments".
Using the depth of His sacrificial love as the standard to measure our own, where do we stand? How we feel about Jesus is only the first step. The gratitude and devotion for this sacrifice is not the love Jesus sought until we “keep His commandments.” Words and feelings alone are not love. James captured this: when he asked “what is the profit” if we say “be warmed and filled, but do not give them the things which are needed” (Jas. 2:16). So what is the profit if we say we love Jesus, but do not keep His commandments?
Jesus repeated this many times that last night He was on earth. “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him.” Note in our relationship with Jesus only deeds reveal love! Only if we keep Jesus’ commands are we among those “who love Me,” and only then will “My Father ...and I love him.”
A start contrast: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word”, but “He who does not love Me does not keep My words.” Again, say what you want to say and feel what you want to feel. If they don’t lead to full obedience of all His commands they are meaningless. When Paul was moved by Jesus’ love for him, he could only say, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20). Paul showed his love by obedience, not words.
Jesus demonstrated His words: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.” What Jesus did to manifest His love to the Father is exactly what He expects us to do to show our love for Him. This is summed up in Hebrews. “When He came into the world, He said: ... ‘Behold, I have come ... To do Your will, O God. ... By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Heb. 10:5-10). When Jesus entered the garden, sweating “as great drops of blood” and “with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him” (Lk. 22:24; Heb. 5:7), His love for God was manifested in His obedience. That is the same standard we must strive for. As He kept God’s commands and thus abode in God’s love, so also only when we keep His commands can we continue to abide in His love.
Conclusion. Whether for convenience, gain, or ease, when we set aside any command of Jesus we are showing Him the true depth of our love. Regardless of the intensity of our feelings, it is our obedience that reveals our devotion, not our words. If we would be a friend to Jesus, words are not enough. “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” We must never forget “if you love Me... you will keep My commandments".