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God's Love: A Study of Jesus' Commands

What are Jesus’ Commands?
If you love me, keep my commands. (John 14:15)

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’” (Matt. 22:37-40)
We are told to love God, and this is how: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). If we are living in love, we are living in God, and consequently we are obeying Him.

Jesus is saying, “If you love Me, then love Me.” You obey His commandments by loving, and loving is the means to obey His commands.

Loving God is a response to His love for us. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 1 John 4:19 says, “We love him because he first loved us.” God gave us His love first to save us, and second so that we could return the love to God and love others with the same love with which He loved us. The requirement to love God is based upon His love for us. It’s a response.

In Ephesians 5:25, we are commanded to love our wives in the same way as Christ loved the church: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

We are commanded to love the brothers. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). All men will know we are followers of Jesus if we love the brothers.

“This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister” (1 John 3:10). We will know that we are His children if we love the brothers.

There is one more commandment from Jesus Christ:
You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matt. 5:43-48)
You may have already realized that these are extreme commands, but they are not impossible commands, because we have been given the love to carry them out. These commands cannot be obeyed by trying. If we “try,” we are trusting our abilities to carry them out. When I “try,” I am trusting myself. That is a dumb person to trust.

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7). How did you receive Christ Jesus the Lord? By trying? By effort? No, you received Christ Jesus the Lord by grace through faith. How should we continue to live in Him? In the same way. We live by grace and faith, not by “trying.” “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6).

Jesus’ final command is given in Matthew 28:18-20: “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”

• Jesus has all authority everywhere.
• Jesus commands His eleven apostles to go to the world. This is the same world that God loves.
• He commands them to make disciples (followers of Jesus) in all nations and to teach them to obey exactly what He commanded the eleven.
• And Jesus promised to be with them to the end of the age.

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