You know from experience that saying the words "I love you" is not enough. What your loved ones really want is to see you show your love from them by your actions. This is because anyone can say, "I love you," but not everyone will show their love. Saying "I love you" is easy, but showing your love is entirely more difficult. It involves actions. It requires you to go out of your way to demonstrate love. This is not only true with our love for people. It is also true for our love for God. You see, we can very easily say the words, "I love God." It is a completely different thing to show Him and the world that we love Him. Jesus warned us of the danger of saying we love God without actually showing that love in Scripture. We are going to look at this warning in Scripture, and discover that if we say we love God, we need to show that love.
Jesus clearly taught His followers that part of loving Him meant showing that love with their actions. He said this plainly in John 14. "If you love me, obey my commandments" (verse 15). If we stop and think about it, it only makes sense that obedience is the result of love. You see, if you love someone and trust that they care about you and are looking out for your best interest, then doing what they say is a natural response. You also care about them and serving them and honoring them.
What Jesus said to His disciples that day is also true for you and me today. If we love Him, we will obey His commands. This obedience is not rooted in the sense of guilt or obligation, but rather love.
Did you catch the beauty in this command from Jesus in the following verses? After Jesus made an appeal to His followers to obey Him, He promised that we are not left alone in this call to obedience. The Holy Spirit comes upon us and helps us to live obediently.
This teaching from Jesus is a call to take a few moments to evaluate our own lives. Do you love Jesus? (If you are reading this, I am willing to bet that you do, or you are at least interested in learning more about Him and getting to know Him more.) If your answer is "yes," then the natural response to that love is obedience. Does your obedience reflect the love that you have for God? If not, how can you take a step toward obedience today?
Take your journal or notebook and write out a prayer to God. In your prayer, tell Him how much you love Him. Then, tell Him you are committed to showing Him how much you love Him. As you journal, write out tangible ways that you can show your love through your actions this week.
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.”
“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.
“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!
“If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”
Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe.
“I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s be going.
