Love and Obey - John 14:15-24
We’re still in John 14 with Jesus and his disciples in the upper room and Jesus is still conducting his upper room discourse with his disciples, which continues through chapter 17.
But last week, the Apostle Philip piped up and asked Jesus to show him and the other disciples the Father. He wanted Jesus to just call down God because in Philip’s mind, that would add a lot of confirmation to the things that Jesus is saying there.
But it was an incredibly deflating question to begin with because Jesus, the Son of God, God in the flesh, was standing right in front of him. Jesus was looking at Philip. It also explains why Jesus said in verse 9, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?”
In other words, Philip, have you been overlooking me this whole time? Have you not heard and seen everything that I’ve taught and done?
Which is why Jesus transitions into verse 15, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
Love is a necessary ingredient for trust and keeping his commandments, which is obvious and something that we all intuitively know. But it appears that Philip needed that reminder. He needed to love and listen to Jesus as do all of us.
Because your love for Christ is the engine that will drive you to keep his commandments. And we see this in three ways this morning: first, to love is to obey (v. 15), second, Jesus reminds us all that we’re not alone (vv. 16-20), and lastly, he tells us that our lives will reflect our hearts (vv. 21-24).
To love is followed by obedience (v. 15)
Polarizing verse: some Christians use it as a battering rod, while others seem to avoid it.
Jesus famously states in verse 15, “if you love me you will keep my commandments.”
This is one of those verses that is life-giving when interpreted correctly, or soul crushing if misinterpreted. You might even say, there are ditches on either side of this particular verse.
One way to understand verse 15 is that the Christian life is nothing more than rigid, robotic obedience to Jesus Christ. And if your life does not reflect robot-like obedience then you probably don’t love Jesus.
You need to act a certain way and any failure on your part casts a large dark shadow over your salvation. If that’s your understanding of this verse then Jesus is teaching that the Christian life is all about your behavior.
And so many people who profess faith may think, well, I got mad yesterday, said a few inappropriate things, does that mean I’ve lost my salvation or wasn’t ever a Christian to begin with? We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. But this verse can easily be twisted to teach that if you’ve ever sinned, then you might not be a Christian.
Which is why sometimes you hear folks that profess faith make outlandish claims like, “I haven’t sinned in ten years!” People will say things like this because they fundamentally believe that their salvation is dependent upon the way in which they live any hint of sin means they’re not a true believer. And so they make these ridiculous statements in order to satisfy their own doubt.
Hopefully you can see why this is an incredibly dangerous misinterpretation of this verse because it will send you down a path of works-righteousness and legalism.
So, that’s one extreme view. That Jesus is promoting robot-like obedience. I don’t have a PhD and I haven’t thoroughly studied this, but it really seems like in the not so distant past, I don’t know, 30, 40, 50 years ago, works-righteousness and legalism was rampant in the American Church.
Now, I think the pendulum has swung so dramatically in the other direction to the point now you almost cannot even mention the word obedience within the life of the church without being called a legalist!
And so, within the life of the church we’ve almost forbidden any talk of commandment keeping or obedience because we don’t want to be known as a legalist!
And so we walk wide circles around verses like this one making a million caveats for it by constantly reminding everyone that, ‘we’re all broken sinners.’
Which is of course true, we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God, but does that mean you just get to ignore Christ’s call to keep his commands? Because that would imply that God is calling all of us to something we’re all incapable of doing.
God doesn’t demand that you climb Mount Everest in a sweater vest and a pair of cut-off jean shorts!
The key to unlocking verse 15 is that your love for Christ precedes keeping his commands, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
The Christian’s love for Christ is what compels him or her to keep his commands. The Christian should never think of the commands of God as a burdensome book-bag that simply prevents you from doing all the things that you want to do.
No, the Christian looks at the commands of God as something that he or she gets to do. Why? Because you love Jesus. Love for Christ is the engine that drives your desire to keep his commands.
We’re all sinners, but you and I can keep Christ’s commands. Not perfectly of course! But progressive sanctification, a steady growth in godliness, should be the fruit of a love for Christ.
A love for Christ will produce fruit in your life, namely, that keeping his commands is no longer a burdensome duty, but a glorious delight. What Jesus is teaching here is that your love for him propels you to keep his commands. You want to do it, because you love him.
You have to get that order correct: your love for Christ drives your obedience, not the other way around. We don’t obey and therefore love. No, we love and therefore obey.
You see, the Lord does call each of us to climb Mount Everest, but he’s going to give us all the equipment that we need and he’s going to personally lead us to the top.
The Christian is not alone (vv. 16-20)
The Christian life is hard, but it isn’t meant to be lived in isolation. Everyone here would readily admit the fact that life is hard, but we’re not alone. You’re not just slogging it out by yourself, the Lord Jesus has sent us all a helper. Look at verses 16-20 with me.
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
Here’s what’s going on: Jesus is going to leave his disciples when he ascends into heaven, and you’d assume that once he’s gone they’d be left there on their own. Jesus has gotten them across the fifty yard line and now they need to take the ball the rest of the way to score a touchdown.
But that’s not at all what Jesus says here. Even though he is going to leave them, they’re not going to be like little orphans. They’re not going to be alone, scared, and unsure of what to do, because Jesus is going to send them a helper and that helper is of course, the Holy Spirit. The word for helper is parakletos, which is where we get the word, “paraclete.” And a “paraclete” means helper, advocate, or counselor.
The disciples had a paraclete in Jesus Christ, but after his resurrection and ascension he’d be sending them a new paraclete in the Holy Spirit.
How would you react if you had been there? Jesus is there in the upper room and tells you, “I’m leaving, but I’m going to send you someone else.” You’d probably think, “Jesus, I’d really prefer if you stayed. I’m not really sold on the Holy Spirit.”
It sounds like you’re trading Gaston for Lefou. That’s a little Beauty and the Beast joke for you, but that had to be the disciples initial reaction!
But as one commentator put it, “the disciples aren’t becoming poorer, the disciples are actually going to become richer.”
Despite the fact that Jesus was leaving them, they weren’t trading advocates: they weren’t getting the Holy Spirit to replace Jesus, no Jesus was revealing to them that they were getting an additional advocate, because he was going to be their advocate in heaven and he was sending the Holy Spirit to be their advocate on earth.
Notice that Jesus said in verse 16 that he was going to send them another helper. It wasn’t a trade but an addition! Jesus wasn’t leaving them in order to hurt them, rather, he was leaving them in order to help them. But Jesus isn’t really going to leave them because he even says in verse 20, that he will be “in you” as well, which I think is a reference to the mystical union of the Godhead being three in one.
You can’t entirely separate the members of the Trinity because they’re all a part of the Godhead, and yet, they are three persons. But Scripture at various times gives special attention at times to the different persons of the Trinity. And no doubt, what Jesus has said in verses 16-20 is primarily focused upon the work of the Holy Spirit.
Outside of perhaps charismatic churches, Christians generally don’t give a lot of attention to the Holy Spirit. It can especially feel like we never talk about the Holy Spirit within the Reformed and Presbyterian world.
So much of our Reformed and Presbyterian heritage can be traced back to the reformer John Calvin. If you can believe it, the old Princeton theologian B.B. Warfield referred to John Calvin as the “pre-eminent theologian of the Holy Spirit.”
And I only bring that up because I think it’s to our shame we rarely talk about the Holy Spirit.
But really we neglect the Holy Spirit because his work is so ordinary, isn’t it? It doesn’t stand out so much because it deals with your soul. He works on your heart and my heart. He works on the inside of you and me. Think about the great doctrines of the Holy Spirit like regeneration or sanctification - both of those deal with the unseen realm.
One of the struggles of ministry is that it’s easy to count conversions and baptisms and base a church’s success or failure on those two things because you can easily measure and quantify them. But how do you measure growth in godliness, spiritual maturity, or just discipleship in general? That’s the work of the Holy Spirit and it really can’t be quantified can it?
He’s helping you put to death your sinful desires, which as we all know, is not an overnight process. For most of us it takes years and years and years and then one day you look back and think, “I don’t struggle with this sin or that sin like I used to.”
That’s why we forget about the Holy Spirit! Progressive sanctification isn’t exciting, but it’s how we know that he’s at work in our lives. We should all see the Spirit working this way in and through us.
Our lives will reflect our hearts (vv. 21-24)
In other words, the work of the Holy Spirit in your life is evidence of a sincere love for Christ.
I’m sure you’ve heard at some point, we’re saved by our faith in Christ alone, but that faith is never alone. Because a living and active faith, a genuine love for Christ will manifest itself in your sanctification, growth in godliness, and righteousness.
That’s really what Jesus is driving at in verses 21-24. Look at those verses with me again.
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.”
No doubt, your life reflects your love. Jesus says that in verse 21 and then repeats it in verse 23 in response to the other Judas, not Judas the betrayer.
Because Judas wanted to know if Jesus would manifest himself in a political sense. But the work of Christ is focused upon the hearts of his people. There’s a lot of love going around: because if you love the Lord that’s going to be reflected in your life, which no doubt means that the Lord loves you.
We love because he first loved us.
The indwelling of the Spirit is going to be reflected in your life because you’re going to love the Lord and you’re going to want to please him.
But the opposite is true as well: if there is no evidence of a desire to please God then that means that the Lord hasn’t made his home in you.
In other words, a bare profession of faith in Christ without any visible fruit of the Spirit casts doubt on your love for Christ.
Because there’s real evidence that the Lord is at work in his people. The fruit of the Spirit, a desire to keep Christ’s commands, a heart that seeks to follow the Lord is the natural overflow of your love for him. That’s why it’s simply not enough to merely say, “I love God.” Or “I’m a Christian.”
Well, that’s a great thing to say, but as we all know your life will demonstrate evidence of your profession. It’s a serious problem if you make a profession of faith that has no evidence of the Spirit’s work in your life.
You cannot claim to be a Christian or love Jesus Christ and proceed to live your life in whatever manner you choose. Your faith in Christ will manifest itself in your desire to keep his commands.
Because as we all know, a mere profession of faith is meaningless if what you claim to believe isn’t reflected anywhere in your life. It’s meaningless fluff words for me to call myself a Christian, and for my faith to have absolutely no bearing on my life.
What Jesus is teaching here is precisely what James teaches: faith without works is dead. Or “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” Your works do not save you, but they demonstrate your faith. Your actions or obedience are a reflection of your love.
Again, that doesn’t mean to obey like a robot. Rather, that’s just to say over the course of time the truth will be revealed. What you really love will eventually show, and even if you’re able to hide it for years and years and years, the Lord knows.
If you really love Christ for what he’s done for you, that he sacrificed himself on the cross to atone for your sins, then you should want to express your love and gratitude to him through obedience.
Haven’t we all experienced a time where someone went out of their way to do something nice for you and so you immediately wanted to do something nice in return, and so you ask, what can I do to express my gratitude: and he says something like, “well my yard needs to be mowed or whatever…” And you’re like consider it done!
Obedience and command keeping is the overflow of love and gratitude.
If you love Jesus Christ then you’re going to love living for him. Of course, that doesn’t mean you do it perfectly, rather, it means you strive after it.
Ladies, just imagine for a second that your husband walks into your house on your anniversary with a dozen flowers. You’re excited and happy, but then he says with the most deadpan expression, “I didn’t really want to buy these, but I have to because it’s our anniversary.”
He might even say that he’s honoring the vows that he took on your wedding day, but simply going through the motions isn’t good enough.
But again, let’s pull back for just a moment and remember that Jesus is offering comfort to his disciples.
Because if you love Christ, if you’re grateful for his sacrificial death on your behalf, and the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation that is yours through faith in him, and it’s because of all of that you strive to live for him – that’s a wonderful thing. Because that means that the Spirit is alive in you. That means that you are beloved by God. That’s the comfort.
Visibly seeing the work of Christ in your life is a gift.
Now imagine the husband walking through the door on your anniversary but this time he says, this is just a tiny expression of how much I love you.
Your obedience to Christ isn’t a dreadful task, rather it’s an expression of your love for him. Let’s pray together.
