If you love me...

you will keep my commandments.

We recently looked at a passage of Scripture in our DBS home group that caught my attention: Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15, ESV).

Now, for some (and for me at first), that sounds like a transaction—do this, prove that. But that’s not what’s happening here. This is not a legal, judicial contract; this is the language of love. Jesus is not laying down an ultimatum; He is revealing a reality—love, real love, does something.

It moves, responds, and obeys—not out of obligation but out of devotion.

And so, we ask—what are these ‘commandments’ He speaks of? Are we talking about the Ten Commandments, etched in stone by the finger of God, with thunder and fire on Sinai? Not exactly. Jesus wasn’t handing His disciples a checklist; He was offering them a radical, new way of life. When He speaks of His commandments, urging us to keep them, He is not pointing them back to law but forward to love. It’s a crunching, radical change of gear.

Just a few verses later, in John 15:12, Jesus spells it out: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Not “as much as you can manage,” not “when it’s convenient,” but as I have loved you. That’s the measure—the standard. The kind of love that stoops to wash dirty feet. The kind of love that forgives the ones who hammer nails into flesh. The kind of love that lays itself down, without keeping score.

That’s the commandment we are called, invited, compelled to keep: Love as I have loved you.

Here’s our predicament—we are people of grace, not a commandments tribe. We know the Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). We know we are not saved by keeping commandments but by trusting the One who fulfilled them all. So, does that mean commandments no longer matter? Blank look time!

The answer is that grace does not erase obedience—it fuels it. Grace doesn’t set us free from love; it sets us free to love. The Pharisees kept commandments, but they did not love. They strained at gnats and swallowed entire camels, measuring out obedience like 5.1ml teaspoons of spice while neglecting mercy (Matthew 23:23–24). Jesus, on the other hand, full of grace, shows us that obedience is not a matter of legal precision; it is a matter of the heart’s allegiance.

So, how do we keep His commandments without turning grace into law or obedience into a burdensome duty?

Well, we abide. Jesus tells us in John 15:5, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Not some things. Nothing. Keeping His commandments is not a solo project—it is the overflow of a life rooted in Him, abiding in Him.

Then, we listen. The Spirit, whom Jesus promised just moments after John 14:15, is not at all silent. He leads, convicts, reminds. He takes what is Christ’s and makes it known to us (John 16:14). Obedience is not just about remembering the words Jesus spoke—it is about responding to the Spirit who still speaks.

Finally, we love. Not in theory, not in word only, but in action and in truth (1 John 3:18). Love that sees the unseen, serves the undeserving, forgives the unforgivable. We exercise a love that is patient when it would be easier to be harsh, love that lays down its rights for another. Love that looks like Jesus.

Love is not just a feeling. Love moves and obeys. And when we love Him—when we truly love Him—obedience is no longer a heavy weight.

It’s the lightness of joy, the freedom of knowing that we belong to the One who first loved us.