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What does Jesus mean by “If you love me, you will obey my commandments”?

Judaistic-Islamist-Religionist misunderstanding relevant to Messiah’s words “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.” John 14:15

What does Jesus say immediately following John 14:15?

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.”John 14:16-17

Discussion,

First of all, Jesus IS NOT advocating for or teaching a works based religion or salvation by works in John 14:15 nor is Jesus suggesting that obeying His commands engenders eternal security.

Jesus was speaking to a transitional audience that had lived under the law covenant now transitioning to the Covenant of Grace (New Covenant) and Jesus said that if these former slaves to the written code (Romans 7:6; Romans 6:14) loved Him, they would honor and obey what He has told them, taught them, during His 3.5-year Earthly ministry and in order for these former slaves serving a dead law covenant to actually obey Messiah’s message, they must first comply with the Father’s will and honor Him as Messiah (John 6:29), receive the indwelling Holy Spirit who would remind them of everything Jesus had taught over those years (John 14:26); therefore, if one desires to honor Jesus’ teaching ministry and the edicts He provided, they must first honor the Father by faith in the Son (John 6:29), receive the indwelling Holy Spirit as Guarantor of that New Covenant relationship (Ephesians 1:13-14) and walk by the Spirit in daily sanctification (Galatians 5:16) thereby allowing the Spirit to produce fruit through the redeemed conscience (Galatians 5; 2 Corinthians 5:17) of the faithful in Jesus; this obedience manifests through the spiritual law written upon the heart (Romans 8:2; Romans 2:14-15) as per New Covenant promise (Hebrews 10:16).

Jesus’ “commandments” are fulfilled by walking in obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit during daily sanctification, sanctification manifesting subsequent salvation by faith and NOT by chasing after letters from a dead covenant of works (Hebrews 8:7) that only defines sin and demanded obedience from a sin nature that could never comply and provided no hope of atonement or life (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16).

It is the devil, himself, that indwells the blind legalist and hides this truth from the Judaistic – Islamist – Religionist legalist that prowls these forums seeking to enslave the servants of Messiah with cult practices (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Sinai – Torah Law and the New Covenant Christian…

Sinai – Torah Law and the New Covenant

Nine of the Ten Sinai Commandments, those reinstituted into the New Covenant by Messiah are what we define as “moral” law which are eternal and govern behavior vertically and horizontally, forever. The 4th-Commandment is a civil-ceremonial law that was made applicable to Israel’s children specifically and sojourners with them beginning in Exodus 16.

The Sinai Commandments are but a mere fraction of the spiritual law (Romans 2:14-15) that has been relevant subsequent the creation of the angels as an arbiter of free will.

Sinai’s purpose,

The Commandments were given Israel as an eschatological bulwark against compromise with paganism that inundated the Tribes, a pagan ideology that relentlessly sought Israel’s compromise with Baal and Molech…a paganistic compromise that would have thwarted Elohim’s eschatological will through Jacob’s children concerning the Messiah through Judah, much like that same form of paganism destroyed both the Adamic and Noahic generations and their ability to produce the Messiah foreordained “to destroy the works of the Devil” (1 John 3:8b).

The Sinai Commandments were given for a Time and a specific purpose but they represent only a fragmented, incomplete, codification of Elohim’s law just as Jacob’s children represent a miniscule fraction of societal totality.

Sinai and the Christian?

The Christian, reborn spiritually by faith in Messiah and sealed by the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 3; Ephesians 1:13-14), does NOT live daily contemplating Sinai or its mandates but the Christian lives through obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit and the “spiritual law of the Spirit of life” written upon the human heart and not the “law of sin and death,” a written code seeking perfect compliance from the old-sin nature (Romans 8:2).

The Christian life and law,

The Christian lives daily through the anointing of the indwelling Spirit who produces fruit through the redeemed conscience that honors the Father and fulfills all law, fruit, against which there is NO LAW (2 Corinthians 5:17’ Galatians 5); therefore, Sinai and Torah Law are relatively insignificant concerning sanctification of the Christian via the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant; the Holy Spirit who prepares the Christian for eternal service in the New Jerusalem via the spiritual catalyst of the eternal spiritual law and the redeemed conscience for the production of divine “fruit,” NOT letters etched in stone or scratched upon parchment. Jesus said that “You will know them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:15-20), divine fruits of righteousness that fulfill all law.

If you love me you will keep my commandments…

Yes, Jesus said to a Jewish audience, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) but those dying in legalism and enslavement to a written code don’t contemplate the words of Messiah that immediately follow v.15,

“And 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.” John 14:16-17

In conclusion,

What the legalist and the lost Jew and Israelite don’t understand is the truism that void the indwelling Holy Spirit, there is no pleasing the Father through obedience as the Holy Spirit, gifted the redeemed in Jesus by faith (Ephesians 1:13-14), is the Teacher of the Spiritual Law written upon the heart, a Spiritual Law that is eternally superior to Sinai or any written code as the Spirit methodically addresses every moral decision that confronts the Christian moment-by-moment while the written code is far too often the subject of obfuscation, rationalization and compromise by the old sin-nature; therefore, if you desire life with the Father and obedience that actually pleases the Father, you must first believe in the Son, Jesus Christ, receive the Holy Spirit and walk in daily sanctification via the Spirit’s tutelage (Romans 7:6), the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13) and the One who reminds the Christian of all that Jesus taught (John 14:26).