What did Jesus mean when He said, "If you love me keep my commandments"?

But the Lord adds a great deal more, and of the deepest moment. "If ye love Me, keep (or ye will keep) My commandments276; and I will request† the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete, that He may be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it beholdeth Him not, nor knoweth Him; but ye know Him, because He abideth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans, I am coming unto you. Yet a little, and the world beholdeth Me no more; but ye behold Me: because I live, ye also shall live " (verses 15-19). The way to show their affection and devotedness to their Master would be by obedience; for, whatever His grace, He does not disguise from them His authority. To obey His commandments, then, would prove their love far better than zeal in work or in sorrow for His absence; for His absence, however serious in itself, is turned by God's goodness and wisdom to better blessings and deeper ways for the saints, even as it furnishes the occasion for bringing out the hidden counsels of God to His own infinite glory in Christ. Their place was to obey His commandments, as they loved Him; whilst He would pray the Father, Who would send them another,277a a Paraclete or Advocate, as He Himself had been, One who would undertake and carry through their cause, as a Roman patron of old did for his clients or a modern solicitor does now in his little measure. "Comforter"‡ seems too narrow a word, and separates the Spirit unduly from our Lord, Who could hardly be so styled in 1 John 2:1, where Paraclete is applied to His action on high, as here to the Holy Ghost's on earth. BL, etc. (ℵ, 33, 69pm, τηρήσητε) τηρήσετε, "ye will keep." So W. and H. [Weiss and Blass] edit. [Syrsin has " keep."] † It is of interest, and even of importance, to mark the distinctness of ἐρωτάω, as used of Christ with the Father, and αἰτέω of the disciples. Scripture nowhere predicates of Him the last or supplicatory expression, save in Martha's mouth [11:22], whose faith, though real, was low. Christ uses ἐπ. in speaking to the Father, as the disciples use αἰτ. to Him, and both words to Christ. The word ἐπ. is also employed in the sense of "interrogating," or "questioning."277 ‡ Philologically it is hard, not to say impossible, to conceive the Greek term meaning "Comforter." Its structure and usage alike point to one "called to aid," as a cognate but different form signifies a comforter. This a Paraclete may well be; but He is far more, and summoned for every difficulty and need. So is the Paraclete, and in an infinite way, as a Divine Person. To comfort is but a small part of His functions. "Advocate" might do, as in 1 John 2:1. [See, further, "Exposition of the Epistles," p. 56 ff.]

He first of all tries their hearts as to their response: “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” He is surely saying, “Am I dear to your hearts as your Lord? Then hold very dear what I say to you!”

He first of all tries their hearts as to their response: "If ye love Me, keep My commandments." He is surely saying, "Am I dear to your hearts as your Lord? Then hold very dear what I say to you!"

There are two necessary prerequisites on the part of His own. It was not sufficient that they be troubled in heart, let them prove their love for their departing Lord. "If ye love Me, keep My commandments." Obedience is ever the proof of love. "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

The disciples of the Lord could not have any doubts as to His love for them, for during His sojourn with them He had constantly cared for them, and was about to lay down His life for them. Nor had the Lord any doubt about the love of His own for Him, for He said to them, "For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved me" (John 16:27). Nevertheless the Lord Jesus clearly showed His disciples that their love for Him would be expressed in their obedience to His commandments and His word, and not only would this obedience manifest their love to Him, but it would bring them into the enjoyment of what God had purposed for them. Obedience to the Son of God is not grievous to the divine nature that God has given us, for the commands and word of the Lord bring to His own that in which the new nature delights.

Here, beloved Christian reader, lies the grand motive-spring of all Christian obedience. Life is the ground; love the spring. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” And again, “He that has My commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves Me; and he that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.” How precious! Who can adequately set forth the blessedness of this manifestation of Christ to the obedient heart? Should we not earnestly long to know more of it? Can we expect it if we are living in the habitual neglect of His holy commandments? It is “he that has My commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me.”

Love and obedience are the great qualifications for entrance into these deeper experiences. Already the Lord has said, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments," now He says, "He that has My commandments and keeps them, he is it that loves Me." It has been truly said that the former presented love as the spring of obedience, the latter obedience as the proof of love. Every expression of the Father's mind was a commandment to Christ, and in the same way every expression of the mind of Christ is a command to the one that loves Him. The one that loves Christ shall be loved of the Father and of Christ. Such an one would be made conscious in a special way of the love of divine Persons. To such the Lord would manifest Himself.

He that hath My commandments and treasures them up, keeps them, not obeys them merely. It is a privilege to have a directing word from the Lord — it is commandment, injunction, the steppingstone to put my foot on as I go along. Very precious that word "keepeth," that is what the word is here, it involves distinct obedience. You never treasure up a word from anyone if you do not obey it. The love remains after the opportunity has passed for meeting His mind. "He that loveth Me shall be loved of my Father." You and I ought to be able to say, I love the Lord, and to say it to Himself — not in the coarse way many boast of their love to Him, without seeing what His love has been to them. "We love Him because He first loved us." Peter, when the Lord speaks to him — Peter says first, "I love, yes, I love." Then he says, "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee." He takes Him on the ground of His divine glory, and the Lord cannot deny that He has given warmth to Peter's heart. Peter could therefore say it, and say it boldly. It is different — the consciousness of love to Christ when in the secret of God's presence, and when in the world. When in the world I say, "They do not know His word, I do; they have no regard for Christ, I have, and am dependent upon Him." The Holy Ghost is given to us (Rom. 5), proved by our obedience to the known will of God, enabling me to find out the things the Lord would have me to do, and behind which the word stands. I am one of His body, and have to do these things expressive of my obedience to Him.

"His commandments" are not the tables of the law, but the various communications by which the Lord has shewn the perfection of His divine Person. The words, the precepts, and commandments which emanated from His mouth, were the expression of the life manifested by Him here below, and they become the light which now directs that life in us. The law says, "This do and thou shalt live." On this footing no one has obeyed: but Christ, who was the life, obeyed. Being in Christ through grace we inherit this position; we receive from Him a life freely given, which places us and leads us in the path of obedience. Christ who obeyed is our life. What He was upon earth directs His life in us. His commandments are based upon the life which He has given us.

The first fourteen verses of the chapter give the objective side of the truth as seen in the Son of God; the subjective side seems to be in view in the verses we have now read. The first statement is "If ye love Me, keep My commandments". That is, the proof of our love to Him is seen in a walk corresponding to His own desires for us. Whilst we often regard this special commandment as distinct from the ten commandments in Exodus 20, yet we must ever remember that His injunctions are binding upon us, and we are willing that they should be so. Love would always command such things as would not harm us, but would give us delight in the doing of them.