Prove Your Love

²³ Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. ²⁴ He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

-John 14:23-24 (KJV)

We spent much of last week studying about faith: is your faith growing, is it useless and the fruit of our faith. Today, I'm going to shift our focus and make it a little more personal. We determined in the posts from last week that our faith is proven by the works that we do. We do the works that we've been called to do out of our faith in Jesus. If we don't do the works He's called us to, then that proves our lack of faith. Make no mistake, works will not save you. Works is an outpouring of faith in your life. Look at the words of Jesus in John 14:23-24.

Verse 23 says, "Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Just like our faith is proven by the works we do, our love for Jesus is proven by keeping the words of Jesus. What does Jesus mean by the phrase "keep my words"? I think that can be defined in verse 21, "²¹ He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." Jesus says that "He that hath my commands, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me:" If you own a Bible, and most everyone in America does, then you have the commandments of Jesus. But, in verse 21, Jesus takes it one step further. It's not enough to merely have the commandments of Jesus, you must keep them. By keeping (or doing, living in, living by) the commandments of Jesus, that proves your love for Him. 

Verse 24 offers the flip side. "He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word with ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me." Since you prove your love for Jesus in keeping His words, you prove that you don't love Jesus by not keeping His word. The question is this: Do you prove your love for Jesus, or do you prove that you do not love Jesus? Think About It.