Do you ever notice how quickly you check your phone when certain people text you? You could be in the middle of dinner, halfway through a chore, or just dozing off, and yet if that name pops up on your lock screen, you open it instantly. Why? Because they matter to you. Some of you respond to every text, no matter who it’s from, because you’re lonely, bored, or just a sweet little extrovert who thinks every message is a lifeline from heaven. But that’s not most of us. Most of us prioritize our responses, answering the ones we can’t afford to miss. Our phones reveal who holds priority in our lives, not just by who we hear from, but by who we feel compelled to respond to. It’s a window into what we value.
Think about how that works in your relationship with Jesus. When His voice speaks, through Scripture or conviction, do you lean in, or swipe it away like a low-priority notification? The Lord isn’t interested in surface-level belief. He calls for a love that responds, not because He needs anything, but because real love can’t help but to respond. If you truly love Him, there will be a pattern of obedience in your life. He says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” That isn’t a test to pass or a threat to fear but is a window into your heart. Because real love reshapes how you live changing your habits, instincts, and priorities. Obedience isn’t how you earn His love, it’s how you reflect that you’ve already encountered it.
Love works like gravity. You may not see it directly, but you can always see what it moves. It draws your thoughts, your choices, your time, and your attention toward the one you love. If you truly love someone, your schedule changes, your values begin to shift, and your decisions start leaning in that person’s direction. Love bends the trajectory of your life. That happens in friendships, in marriage, in parenting, and it certainly happens in your relationship with Jesus. What does the movement of your life reveal, and who is pulling you? Is your love for Jesus reshaping the direction of your obedience? Jesus is not asking for perfection as proof of love. He is asking whether love is present, and whether it draws you to take Him seriously. When He says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments,” He is not issuing a threat or even a demand. He is describing a spiritual principle. If love is real, it moves something inside of you. It reshapes your priorities. So ask yourself: Is your life being pulled toward Christ or pulled somewhere else?
Jesus speaks these words in a room filled with tension. It is the night before the cross, and Judas has already slipped out into the dark. Peter has just been told he will deny the Lord three times before morning, and the other disciples are deeply shaken because Jesus keeps telling them that He is going away. For three years, He had been their entire world. He was their Master, their Teacher, and their Friend. They had left everything to follow Him, and now they are being told that He is leaving, and they cannot follow. Their hearts are full of confusion, fear, and grief. Into that swirling anxiety, Jesus speaks peace. He does not offer them a plan or a strategy, but instead gives them a relationship. He says, “Let not your heart be troubled… believe in Me.” Then, as if tying the relationship together with a single thread, He adds,
John 14:15 NASB “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
He is not laying on guilt, nor is He placing them under performance pressure. He is giving them a lifeline: stay close to Me, and keep My words in your heart. That is how you will endure. This is not about rule-keeping in the abstract. It is about how to keep walking with the One they love, even when they can no longer see Him.
This isn’t new. In the Old Covenant, love for God produced obedience to His law. God says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength,” and then immediately adds, “These words which I command you today shall be on your heart” (Deut. 6:5–6). Love and obedience were never meant to be separated. God was never satisfied with empty rule-following but after hearts that treasured Him enough to walk in His ways. And now, here in the upper room, Jesus is saying the same thing, but He’s placing Himself at the center of it. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” That’s not just a personal declaration of the relationship to Him, but a pointer to who He is to them. He’s not just a prophet pointing to God’s law. He’s the Son who speaks with the authority of God Himself. In other words, He’s not replacing the old covenant pattern, He’s fulfilling it. The law of love and the call to obey still stand, but now they are rooted in relationship with Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word. Our…
Love for Jesus changes how I live.
We all know that when you truly care about someone, it changes how you treat them. When you marry someone, you begin to change, not because you’re told to, but because you want to. What pleases them begins to matter to you.
A single guy’s idea of hygiene is a five-in-one body wash that doubles as car cleaner. He thinks “soaking” the dishes is a legitimate cleaning method. He has mastered the spiritual gift of ignoring laundry piles for days. His idea of flossing is chewing gum and hoping for the best. Then she enters your life. This woman who is a gift from God and suddenly you’re brushing twice a day, using cologne, and manscaping like you’ve got a TSA inspection coming up. Why? Not because she held an intervention or laid down an ultimatum. It’s because she looks at you with those eyes and you want to be the kind of man she doesn’t cringe to kiss. What’s crazy is that your mom said the same stuff for twenty years and you dismissed it like a vegan at a Texas BBQ. But now the same advice from someone you’re drawn to hits differently. Love rewires your ears and your heart. You’re not being nagged, you’re being shaped. You don’t feel managed, you feel motivated because this isn’t just a crush, and it’s not just chemistry. Love reshapes what matters to us.
And if we say we love Jesus, then what pleases Him starts to matter more than what pleases us. His desires begin to become our desires. His priorities don’t feel more like invitations than intrusions. You start to care about what He thinks, not out of fear of disappointing Him, but out of a growing affection that doesn’t want to grieve Him. You don’t just avoid sin because it’s wrong but because it distances you from the One you love. You don’t just pursue obedience because it’s expected but because you’ve come to love what He loves. That’s not legalism. That’s love doing its work in your heart.
But not everyone who calls themselves a Christian lives like that. It’s entirely possible to serve Jesus from morning till night and never actually love Him. You can show up, stand up, sing loud, cry during the slow song, raise your hands, volunteer for kids’ ministry, even drop a tithe check in the plate, and still not love Jesus. You can kneel, weep and shout and still not love Him. That’s not revival, that’s muscle memory, a well-trained religious reflex. Some of us grew up around church. We know the lyrics and have Bible verses hanging in our homes. But Jesus doesn’t care how churched you are, He’s asking if you love Him. That question didn’t skip the apostles, and it doesn’t skip you. You could be sitting in a pew for 30 years and still be a stranger to Christ. Judas was at the table. Peter was in the room. All of them had seen the miracles. And still Jesus looked at them and said, “If you love Me…”
So I’ll ask you what He asked them, do you love Him? Some of us who prayed the prayer, got dunked in the water, and were given a Bible think we’re good. When someone asks if you love Jesus, you say, “Yeah, of course! I’m a Christian.” But let me press you, what has your so-called love for Jesus actually changed?
Some of us say we love Him, but we don’t love what He loves. We avoid His people and come up with reasons to skip church. We roll our eyes at the idea of joining a Bible study. We ghost the body of Christ most of the week, then want credit for livestreaming the sermon while folding laundry. That isn’t fellowship; it’s convenience. That isn’t love; it’s bare-minimum religion with a Jesus sticker slapped on it. We say we’re part of the family of God, but we’re rarely at the table. We barely show up, and when we do, our hearts are somewhere else. But God already called this bluff. In his letter John says,
1 John 5:2 NASB By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.
In other words, you can’t claim to love Jesus while ghosting His people and ignoring what He says. The love of God doesn’t come with an unsubscribe button for the church. If you love Him, you’ll love who He loves, and that means rolling up your sleeves and showing up. That means your faith isn’t just vertical, it’s horizontal. Don’t pretend you’re tight with Jesus if you treat His bride like a side chick. Some of us need to face the truth: we don’t love Him. We just love the things He gives us.
When was the last time you longed to worship, not out of duty, but because your heart was hungry for Him? When was the last time you prayed without someone forcing you to? When was the last time being with God’s people felt like oxygen instead of obligation? Because if you don’t love His people, you don’t love Him. He calls the Church His bride. You can’t love the Groom and despise the Bride. You can’t claim Christ and constantly distance yourself from His body. That’s like telling your best friend you love him, but you hate his wife. Try pulling that off at a wedding and see how it goes.
So let me ask again: Do you love Jesus, or do you just love the idea of being safe from hell? Do you love Jesus, or do you love the version of Him that lets you stay in control? Do you love Jesus, or do you love the life insurance policy you think you signed with a sinner’s prayer? If love for Jesus is real, it does not sit still. It moves, and it changes you. It shows up in what you value, what you chase, what you say no to, and what you say yes to. And now Jesus takes it further. He is not just talking about whether you change, but about who you are following. Because love does not simply lead to obedience; obedience reveals allegiance.
Obedience shows who I believe should lead.
Every choice you make is crowning somebody. Someone gets to be king of your life. The question isn’t if someone’s leading you, it’s who is leading you. Jesus says,
John 14:15 NASB “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
Jesus is not merely describing behavior; He is calling for trust. Obedience is never just about compliance. It’s about who you believe is wise enough, good enough, and worthy enough to follow.
In the ancient world, a rabbi’s disciples followed not just his teaching but his way of life. To “keep his commandments” meant to entrust yourself to his leadership. Jesus is drawing on that pattern here. He isn’t just asking for moral performance but calling for personal allegiance. And He roots that call in love as if to say, “If you love Me, if you know My heart, if you’ve seen My goodness, then trust Me enough to obey Me. Not because you fear what will happen if you don’t, but because you believe there’s no one else more worthy to lead your life.”
The real question behind obedience is this: Whose authority do you trust to lead your life? Jesus does not avoid that question. He answers it plainly when He says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” He does not appeal with guilt or pressure. He speaks with the settled authority of the One who gave His life for you. When that truth takes hold in your heart, something begins to shift. You start to believe that Jesus knows more than you do. You begin to trust that He loves more than you deserve. You see that He leads with both strength and mercy. And when that takes root, obedience stops feeling like a burden.
1 John 5:3 NASB For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
In other words, obedience isn’t heavy when love is real. You don’t feel shackled, you feel secure. You don’t obey to prove something. You obey because you trust the One giving the orders.
When you follow someone’s lead, it means you trust them and respect them. You believe they know where they’re going, and that they have your good in mind as they lead. That’s what makes obedience possible, not just authority, but character. And Jesus is utterly trustworthy. Look at how He’s led these disciples so far: He’s never manipulated them. He’s never lied to them. He’s never used His power to serve Himself. He’s washed their feet. He’s wept with them. He’s walked with them in patience, even when they didn’t understand. And now He’s preparing to lay down His life for them. This is not a king who demands submission from a distance, this is a King who bleeds for His people. So when He says, “Keep My commandments,” it’s not cold or self-serving. It’s coming from a heart that has already given everything for you. Why wouldn’t you trust someone like that?
The truth is, we do not resist obedience because Jesus is harsh. We resist because we want to stay in control. Deep down, we are afraid that if we fully surrender, He might take us somewhere we do not want to go. We want the comfort of His love without the cost of His leadership. But when we cling to control, we do not find peace. We end up more anxious, more exhausted, and more lost.
So, what does that look like in real life? It looks like the young woman who says she trusts Jesus but keeps dating people who do not love Him because she fears He will not give her someone better. It looks like the man who claims Jesus is Lord but still refuses to forgive his brother because he believes holding a grudge is safer than letting go. It looks like the couple who say they follow Christ, but never submit their money, their calendar, or their parenting to His Word because they still think they know better.
In each case, the issue is not just obedience. It is trust. Who do you believe is wiser than you? Who has the right to lead your life? These questions shows up in your relationships, in your browser history, in how you spend your weekends, and in how you respond to suffering. Trust is tested in your decisions, because every choice declares who is king.
Obedience to Jesus is not stifling. It is freeing, because He is the only One wise enough to lead you and good enough to care for you. His commands are not meant to crush you. They are meant to bring you into the life your heart was made for. And the more clearly you see who He is, the more you will trust what He says.
But that kind of trust does not start with you. None of us drift into joyful obedience. We resist and negotiate. So, if there is even a flicker in you that wants to follow Jesus, that is not natural. That is supernatural. That is the Spirit of God is changing your heart from the inside out.
A heart that wants to follow Jesus is supernatural.
All throughout Scripture we see that the natural human posture is to resist God’s will. Adam and Eve did not wake up craving evil. Their temptation was not about doing something obviously wicked. It was the subtle belief that God’s commands were holding them back from real joy, wisdom, and freedom. That same suspicion still lingers in every human heart. We see it in the ten spies who scouted the land of Canaan and came back terrified. They discouraged the people from entering, even though God had clearly promised to give them the land. Their fear outweighed their trust. We see it in King Saul when God told him to destroy everything in battle. Instead, he spared King Agag and kept the best livestock. He claimed it was for worship, but in truth, he trusted his own reasoning more than God’s word. We see it in Jonah when God told him to preach in Nineveh. Rather than obey, he ran in the opposite direction. He did not trust that God’s plan was good, and he did not want to see mercy extended to people he despised.
We see that this resistance comes naturally to us. Resistance, not surrender. Pride, not trust. Which is why a heart that actually wants to follow Jesus is not normal. It is supernatural. You don’t wake up one day and decide to die to yourself. When someone starts saying yes to God, not out of fear, but out of love and trust, something deeper is happening. That desire is not self-generated. It is the Spirit of God doing what no amount of willpower ever could.
Romans 8:7 NASB the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
At first, that might sound extreme. Most people do not think of themselves as hostile to God. But often, that is because they are not responding to the God of the Bible. They are reacting to a god they have imagined, a god who stays out of their way, affirms their preferences, and never makes binding claims. That version of god is easy to tolerate.
But when the real God steps in, when He speaks with authority, when He claims your body, your money, your relationships, and your future, something deeper rises up. David Foster Wallace once said that we all worship something, and that whatever we worship will eat us alive. He was not a believer, but even he saw that humans are never neutral. We are always serving something. And when we are told to serve God, the resistance we feel is not mild disagreement. It is spiritual hostility trying to disguise itself as personal freedom.
But when God changes your heart, you actually want to follow Jesus. Think of Peter after Pentecost. This is the same man who once denied Jesus three times, yet now he stands and boldly proclaims Him in front of hostile crowds. What explains that kind of change? It is not a shift in Peter’s personality. It is the work of the Spirit of God, changing his heart from the inside out.
So if you find in yourself even a small desire to follow Jesus, do not dismiss it. That desire is not something you produced on your own. It is not the result of good upbringing or emotional momentum. It is the Spirit of God working in you. When you begin to care about what Jesus says, when your heart starts to soften toward His voice, and when obedience feels more like desire than duty, that is not natural. That is grace. It is like the first green shoot breaking through the soil. It may be small, but it is a sign of life. And like any living thing, it needs to be nurtured. If you ignore it, neglect it, or smother it with distractions, that new life can wither before it ever bears fruit. But if you tend it, if you feed it with His Word, if you water it with prayer, and if you expose it to the light of His presence, it will grow.
That’s why love for Jesus is the clearest evidence that I belong to Him.
You can live out your moral code without love, but you cannot have love for Jesus without transformation. The law can tell you what’s right, but it can’t make you love what’s right. In fact the law often stirs more sin because it confronts our pride and reveals how little we trust God to define what is good. You can live a “moral” life for deeply selfish reasons: to prove your worth, to secure control, to silence your guilt. You can feed the poor just to feed your ego and preach Christ just to earn applause. But gospel change never begins with duty alone; it begins with delight. The only obedience that lasts is the kind that grows from love, because only love has the power to dislodge the self from the center. Until Jesus becomes worthy of your devotion, not just useful, your obedience will remain centered on you. But when you love Him, obedience stops feeling like performance and starts becoming joy.
Real faith is not measured by the words you say but by the direction of your heart. It shows up in what you want, not just what you claim. Anyone can learn the right vocabulary. You can say all the right things and still remain unchanged. But when you start wanting what Jesus wants, when you begin to feel pulled toward Him instead of away from Him, that is not religious polish. That is new life. That is what happens when God brings you into His family. He does not just give you a new label. He gives you a new heart. And one of the clearest signs that you belong to Him is not that you never struggle, but that something in you keeps wanting to come back. You may stumble, but you do not want to stay away. You may resist Him for a moment, but deep down you know that His will is better than your own. That is not human effort. That is the Spirit of adoption at work in you.
So where does that kind of love come from? It does not begin with your willpower, your discipline, or your sincerity. It begins with Jesus. The One who loved you first. The One who kept every command the Father ever gave. The One who laid down His life to save people who had no desire to follow Him. He took the judgment your disobedience deserved and rose again to offer you something you could never produce on your own, a new heart. That is the gospel. You are not saved by your love for Jesus. You are saved by His love for you. But when that love gets inside you, it does something. It changes what you want. It teaches your heart to say, “Yes, Lord,” not out of fear, but out of joy. So, if you want to love Him, ask Him to show you His love. That is where everything begins.
