And he said to him, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind." — Matthew 22:37
Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" — John 21:16
"Do you love me?" This is the most important question you'll ever be asked. Your eternity hangs in the balance because that’s the litmus test of faith. Do you actually trust in Jesus Christ for salvation? Then you’ll love him. But how do we go about loving him, and how can we know that we do love him?
One answer is that we love Christ by obeying him. After all, Jesus did say, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). However, many people try to reduce love for Jesus to action alone. It seems to be right there in the text, doesn’t it? If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Therefore, acting in obedience is love.
But love is more than obedience. Love is rooted in emotions, not in actions. For example, I can do everything my parents wish, and I can assure them with my words that I love them. But that doesn’t mean I actually do because I can still hate them in my heart. This is the same sentiment Jesus gets at in Matthew 15:8.
“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Jesus is referring to the Pharisees, the most religious people of the time. They were known for doing their best to rigorously obey all 613 Laws of Moses. But in the midst of their obedience, Jesus tells them their hearts are far from the Father.
This applies to us as much as it did to them. You can follow all the rules you want, but that does not mean your love is genuine. You can do your best to follow God’s laws perfectly, but that doesn’t mean your love is true.
Loving is Treasuring
Jesus also shows love is more than obedience in Matthew 10:37.
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
John Piper says this about the passage: “He [Jesus] is thinking of the love of Jesus like the love of your children. You don’t love your children by doing what they say, right? They’re your treasure. You would die for these children. They are precious to you. You wouldn’t sell them for billions and billions of dollars.”
As John Piper points out, Jesus’ meaning is clear — You don’t love your children by doing what they say. You love them by treasuring them above all else. And Jesus says we’re not worthy of him if we don’t treasure him more than that.
Gripped by the Father
We started this article with Matthew 22:37:
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”
In short, we’re commanded to love our Lord with every ounce of our being. It doesn’t matter how much you obey his commandments out of grudging duty because you’re called to love him — and you gain nothing if you don’t. Loving Jesus Christ is treasuring him. If we don’t treasure him, we don’t love him. And we can’t treasure him if we don’t know him.
If we’re going to treasure Jesus, we must know the Lord we’re commanded to love and be absolutely gripped by who he is. That’s how his infinite worth will be apparent to us.
We must be astounded that Jesus Christ had no beginning. He’s always existed (John 1:1; 1:14), and He continues to exist, sitting at the right hand of the Father, sustaining the universe with his very word, the same universe that was created solely for him (Acts 2:33; Colossians 1:16-17).
We must be amazed that not only is Jesus Christ exalted in the heavens, but he does all that he pleases (Psalm 115:3), and nothing can stop his plans from coming to pass (Isaiah 14:27).
We must be supremely grateful that Jesus came into the world with the specific purpose to die, taking away the sin of the world by taking the excruciating wrath of God upon himself (Mark 10:45; John 1:29; Romans 3:23-25).
These things are only a small taste of the infinite beauty of Jesus Christ. If we’re going to love him by treasuring him, we must be gripped by him. Search the scriptures for his beauty, and work not to prove your love by obedience only, but strive to be so gripped by him that your heart sings with absolute joy.
That is true love.
