“If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments.”

“If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments.”

This is one of the simplest and most powerful words in the Scriptures. It begins with “If,” which is very significant because is truly very doubtful that this love exists as far as most believers are concerned. It is easy enough for believers to say it, though, and easy for them to imagine that they do love Him and keep His commandments.

However, the Word is true! If we love Jesus, we keep His commandments. In other words, if we do not keep His commandments, we do not love Him. The vast majority of believers reckon that it is completely impossible to keep His commandments—therefore they do not keep them, and therefore they do not love Him.

We find the same radical truth in 1 John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” They are certainly not burdensome for those who really love Him with all of their heart! But they are burdensome for all others, even so hard and burdensome that it is even completely impossible for them to keep them!!

Seeing that it is written “My commandments,” and “His commandments,” it must necessarily mean all His glorious commandments; otherwise it would say, “some of them,” or “the most important of them,” or something similar.

The only correct explanation is that divine love is such an indescribably great and effective power that everyone who is filled with it really keeps all the glorious, blessed commandments of God joyfully and thankfully, all the while thanking and praising God!

Therefore the one compelling necessity, before everything else, is to be filled and permeated by this blessing and blessed power of God.

Do not relent until you are filled and permeated by it!

Your devoted fellow brother—