08 Nov The Big Little Difference

How can such a short verse in the Bible be so challenging? I’m referring to John 14:15:

“If you love me, keep my commands.” John 14:15 (NIV)

Pretty straightforward, right? If you love Jesus, He is directing you to keep His commands. Except, Jesus knows that you cannot perfectly keep His commands. That’s why He came, to fulfill the Law God handed down to Moses, because we could not keep it perfectly. Other translations suggest that by loving Jesus and receiving the power of the Holy Spirit, it will not be by our own effort that we keep Jesus’ commands:

ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

ESVUK

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

EXB

“If you love me, you will obey my commands [or If you love me, obey my commands; this may be either a declaration or a command].”

GNV

“If ye love me, keep my commandments.“

GW

“If you love me, you will obey my commandments.”

GNT

“If you love me, you will obey my commandments.”

HCSB

“If you love Me, you will keep My commands.”

ICB

“If you love me, you will do the things I command.”

You will. This is a seemingly minor yet critically important difference. Keeping His commands is who you will be, not something you can do. Jesus isn’t ordering us to keep commands that we can’t possibly keep under our own power. That would be cruel. He is telling us that by the power of the Holy Spirit, when we accept Christ, our heart’s new desire will be to keep his commands. Ezekiel illustrates this clearly:

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Ezekiel 36:26-27.

The word for “if” here can also be translated as “when.” When you receive a new heart, you will be “moved” to obedience. This might sound nit-picky. But, as mentioned above, it’s important to know the difference.

Christ-followers often get this backwards; they believe accepting Christ means a life of trying to obey. Jesus never dictates. He says, “if” or “when” you love me. The choice to love Him is ours. When we truly do that, we do become a new creation, with a new heart. Pleasing God, following His will, is the new purpose for our lives.

It’s heartbreaking to me when I minister to people and they assure me they will “try harder” to live a godly life. I’m very blunt with them: if you’re trying, you’re dying.

You may have noticed in the list of translations above that the EXB says it might be a declaration or a command. That might be true of the Greek words John used. But it isn’t true of the character of Christ. If or when you love Him, your heart will be His and your desire to obey will rule your heart!

Pastor Jerry Bader