Love and obedience
Text: John 14:15–21
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Today, we continue in John 14, following straight on from last week. Jesus has assured His disciples that they know the way to the Father: Christ Himself. We know the way to the Father because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
We pick up from verse 15 today, where Jesus speaks about love and obedience, and also promises the Holy Spirit.
Rules and regulations
Following rules is not something we tend to enjoy doing very much. Just think about how many times you’ve tried to push the carry-on baggage weight limit or maybe even gotten away with being a smidge over. We get frustrated when we have to follow a car that is going exactly the speed limit and not the usual three to four kays quicker.
The St Martin’s church carpark is a classic example. There are obvious ‘no exit’ signs and arrows painted on the road, but sometimes it’s just far easier to sneak out the front way rather than driving the whole way around. Admit it—you’ve done it when no-one’s looking.
Our culture also has a love for signs—warning here, caution there, sanitise here, wait over there. There are so many signs put up around the place that we forget to pay attention to them, let alone do what they say.
Australian Football is another good example. Every season, there are two or three new rules introduced. Now, it has gotten to the point that even the players forget where they can or can’t stand, what constitutes “insufficient intent” or whether body language is included in “dissent” towards an umpire.
In our culture, people want to live how they want to live, and we are willing to break a few rules to do it. The problem is, when enough people break the odd rule, more rules and regulations are put in place. Or we just put up a bigger sign.
When Jesus talks about obeying rules, it’s difficult for us to get out of our normal mindset and hear what He is really saying. “Rules are made to be broken” is one of our favourite sayings. As soon as Jesus mentions the word “commands”, we want to resist or simply ignore.
Not fear, but love
Our world makes people obey the rules out of fear of what the consequences might be of breaking them. Jesus speaks about rules in a radically different way—He puts them in a context of love.
He says, “If you love me, keep my commands.” And later, He mirrors the same thing: “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.” (John 14:15,21)
What does Jesus mean by “commands”? The Ten Commandments are the rules that we live under as God’s people. They set the parameters for life with God and with each other. We still teach them to our children so that they have the basis for a godly life, and it’s good for all of us to know them well and use them often for self-reflection.
There is something that all ten have in common. Jesus summarises them with one statement: “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (Jn. 13:34)
So, if Jesus’ commands are just to love one another, then we can rephrase what He says in John 14 like this: “If you love me, love one another.”
Jesus’ commands are not about keeping a list of rules flawlessly. God’s rules (“precepts” as they are often called in the Old Testament) were never intended to be seen this way. Jesus doesn’t get rid of God’s Law; He doesn’t dismiss the rules. He summarises them and gets to the core of what they are truly about.
Keep my commands out of love for me, not because of force, threats, or fear of the consequences. Love and obedience go together.
Think about how opposite that is to how we usually think about rules. In every aspect of our lives—vehicle registration, ChildSafe training, airport baggage, or even simply standing in a queue—we follow rules precisely because we are forced to or because we fear the consequences of disobeying. We do it begrudgingly. We do it without really wanting to, but we know we have to. We disobey when we can get away with it.
Jesus’ commands are not like that. He doesn’t force us to follow His rules and do what He says. He doesn’t mention penalties or punishments. Instead, He talks about love; a deep and everlasting love that leads those who follow Him to keep His commands.
Jesus speaks these words to His disciples on the eve of His betrayal. It is a time of deep uncertainty and sorrow. He tells them He will be going away. He is about to show them the magnitude of His love for them. They will see their Lord endure intense suffering and suffer losing their Lord.
But He will also rise again. Sin and death cannot hold Jesus down. He will ascend to heaven and take His place at the Father’s right hand, where He will rule over all things. But His rule will not be about imposing and enforcing rules and laws. He will rule through His love. It is that same love that rules in our hearts and leads us to obey our Lord and Saviour.
The Spirit of truth
Jesus has said He is leaving, and He is in one sense. He will depart from the disciples by being arrested and taken away from them. Mind you, most of them won’t exactly try their hardest to stay with Him either. He will depart from them by dying and being buried. Later, He will depart from them by ascending into heaven.
But what He says to the disciples here is almost a contradiction:
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (Jn. 14:18–20)
So, yes, He is leaving them in the sense that He will no longer be present with them in this way, as a physical human being who shares meals with them and has wounds that can be touched. But He is only leaving so that He can come and be present in a whole new and more intimate way.
Jesus ascended into heaven over 2000 years ago. Do we really believe that He can be present with us when we gather in God’s house, hear the Word being read, and His body and blood are being consumed? How can we believe something as radical and illogical as that?
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (Jn. 14:16,17)
We believe God is present with us because His Spirit is known to us, lives with us, and is in us.
The Spirit is described here as the Paraclete (παράκλητος) and as the Spirit of truth. “Paraclete” can be taken to mean “advocate”, but that makes the Spirit sound like a lawyer who is there to get us out of trouble. Another translation is “helper”, but that sounds like we do most of the work and the Spirit comes in and helps to finish the job.
The best word is “counsellor” because that connects well with the Spirit’s main function: to remind us of Christ’s commands. That’s what makes Him the “Spirit of truth”. That’s why as soon as Jesus says that loving Him means to obey His commands, Jesus promises the Spirit of truth.
We are drawing near to the end of the Easter season and the celebration of Pentecost. Jesus will deliver on His promise of the Spirit both with His disciples directly, in that locked room on the day of the resurrection in John 20, but then more broadly on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after His resurrection.
We live in a constant barrage of rules and regulations to adhere to, most of which have consequences for breaking. We are used to living in obedience because we are forced to or because of fear.
Jesus doesn’t rule with force or fear—He rules with love, shown on the cross and completed by the resurrection. We keep His commands, which means simply to love, because He first loved us. He has sent us the advocate, the helper, the counsellor, to continue being present with us until we see Him face to face.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.
