John 14:21

²¹ Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

If we come to a verse that seems to be a contradiction to another section of the bible, we can never throw out what seems to be the inconvenient verse.  God’s Word is true……all of it!  In fact, what we should do is dig into those “contradictory” verses and find out what they mean in relation to each other.  Many times what we find is a deeper, more impactful truth.

If you’ve been exposed to solid, truthful teaching of the Scriptures, you may read John 14:21 and ask:  how does that work with Ephesians 2:4-5?:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved

The John verse seems to say that we are loved because we love God, but the Ephesians verse seems to say that we are loved before we love God- which is it?

It is BOTH!…..and we shouldn’t minimize either…

There is from God two types of love that are directed toward His creation.  They can be categorized as:

1.  Sacrificial love:

This love  is directed toward every single human being that has ever lived.  It is God’s love toward his creation that is unconditional.

One of the most famous verses in the bible speaks of this unimaginable love directed from a perfect, holy God to sinful, unworthy men and women.

John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The depth of this love is displayed most perfectly in the cross of Jesus Christ where God sent His Son to pay the penalty for my sin after Jesus lived a life of perfection.  I have 3 sons that I love dearly, none of which are perfect :), none of which created the universe. I could not imagine having a love that would cause me to sacrifice my son, exposing him to ridicule,  disgrace, and torture to die for another.  I’m only left with understanding that God’s love for us is intense beyond comprehension.  This can not be minimized.

And yet, some take this view of God’s love to such an extreme that it overshadows another truth in Scripture.  That this sacrificial love DOES NOT guarantee that we are automatically children of God simply by being born.  There is no forgiveness of sins apart from a response from the receiver of God’s love.  We cannot use verse like “God is love” to wrongly assume that God will not send people to hell, will not pour out wrath, or will not withhold an aspect of His love.  That brings us to a second display of God’s love:  namely, that God ALSO has a love that is reserved for those that respond to this love by loving God.  This second display of love could be categorized as:

2.  Family love:

This love is reserved for those who receive and understand God’s sacrificial love toward them and respond by loving God.

The sacrificial love of God toward every human being is the gateway to his family.  We are “adopted” into his family when we respond to this love by loving God.  In this we become children of God.  Being a part of God’s family is not without special privileges AND a special love that is reserved for family members.

John Piper says:

“In other words, God’s love precedes and enables our love (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:19). And God responds to our love and loves with a unique, personal, intimate, affectionate, caring, committed love that belongs only to those who love his Son.”

In John chapter 14, we see that Jesus gives amazing promises to his disciples, BUT these promises are ONLY for those that have responded to the Father by being lovers of God.  Jesus promises that He will ask the Father to give the Holy Spirit (v16), the Father will give the Holy Spirit (v16), Jesus will not leave us as orphans (v18), we will live with the Spirit in us (v17), Jesus will reveal Himself to us (v21), and He will give us lasting peace (v27).  Pretty awesome promises from the creator of the universe.

Single Indicator if We Are A Lover of God (and receiving Family love)

“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.”- Jesus Christ

There is no other New Testament test of our love for Jesus than obedience to His commands.  From Matthew 7:21 to Hebrews 10:26-27 to 1 John 2:4-6 and many others, it is clear, those that love God will live a life of obedience to Jesus commands.  There is no other mystical, fairy tale, pie in the sky love that separates love for God with obedience to Jesus.  Simply put,

⁴ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him- 1 John 2:4

How do we respond to John 14:21?

Once we’ve established the truth that there is a love that is reserved for those that love God and those that love God obey, how are we to respond?  Other than the obvious of “love God, obey God”, I would suggest that you first evaluate where you stand in relationship to God and His love.  Do you understand the love of God?  Has God’s love caused you to love Him?  Is your love of God being displayed by obeying Jesus’ commands?  After an honest evaluation, I’d propose that each and every person would fall into one of 3 categories:  Those that have not understood that they are loved by God,  those that understand that they are loved by God but have not responded by loving God, and those that understand and have responded by loving God.

To those in each category:

1.  Those that have never understood the love of God

As we have seen by examining God’s love, God loves each and every person regardless of conduct, past, race, family background, sexual history, etc. etc.  And yet, we cannot wrongly understand this universal, sacrificial love as covering sin regardless if we respond to it or not.  A response is necessary in order to be experiencing God’s love as a son does from his father.  In the bible, we see this response spoken of in many different ways, but all spoken of as a response to God’s love.  Those that respond:  love God in return, repent of sin, believe, have faith.  In John 14 we see the disciples grapling with the idea that some respond to God’s love and are adopted into his family as children and some are not.

John 14:22-23
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” ²³ Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

How great are the words “If anyone” in this verse.  No special requirements need be met in order to have the offer of adoption to us.  Anyone may come, anyone may come!  Jesus is highlighting the same principle that we find in John 3:16 where Jesus said “Whoever believes”.  You have the offer….I plead with you to respond to God’s love by loving Him in return and to display this love by obeying His commands.  If and when you do, you have all the promises of John 14 to you for eternity.

2.  Those that understand God’s love but have not loved God in return

Jesus is clear that it is not enough to just believe that Jesus existed, believe there is a God, profess to be a Christian, or try to live a good moral life.  These things are all good and are often good indicators that we love God, but they are not and will never be substitutes for actual LOVE FOR GOD.  We MUST love God in order to be a child of God.

If you love God, the single indicator is that our love for God is displayed by an obedience for Jesus’ commands.  Don’t get this backward.  We don’t obey God in order to earn this love, we respond to His love by loving Him and our life shows that we love Him by obedience.  Let’s say you have examined your life and you realize that you have no desire to obey Jesus:  no desire to know Him through His Word, no desire to pray to the Father and Jesus, no desire to obey Him as Lord.  And then, because there is no desire there is no actual obedience.  Jesus would suggest that you don’t actually love God.  What then?  Is God through with you….far from it!

See and understand His love for you in the MIDST of your lack of loving Him.  This is why I said earlier that the sacrificial love is the gateway to his family love.  God loves us EVEN WHEN we are opposed to Him.  Even when we don’t love Him.  Even when we know and understand what He has done but we have not responded properly.  That is the gospel.  God overcomes our lovelessness by continuing to pursue us.  See His love clearly for the first time and respond by loving Him…..and obeying Him.

3.  Those that understand and have become lovers of God

I would consider myself in this category.  And like all “difficult” verses, there could be an inclination to say this verse is for all the other guys.   “It’s for that guy or this gal” I can say in my heart.   “The verse is meant to weed out the fakes.  I’m the real deal!”  You may as well be the “real deal” but is this verse only directed toward unbelievers?  Absolutely not! It is also for His guys/gals, His children.  The disciples (minus Judas Iscariot) loved Jesus for all that He was:  the miracles, the teachings, the serving, the essence of who He was.  And yet, this teaching went out to them……do you love me? obey me!  We know that God’s love is not earned, but we should still hear these words as a means in our life to stay the course of following Jesus.  When sin entices, I need to be reminded that those that love God resist sin and obey Him.  When the command comes, I need to be reminded that those that love God don’t sit back and do nothing, they respond and obey.

God’s Word is always true and always true in its entirety.  Atheists may point to apparent “contradictions” and deride how foolish Christians are.  I praise God for His Word and how He does not leave us uninformed of the depth of His love!….especially for His children!  I pray that you would respond to God’s love by loving God….and living a life of obedience.