In John 21:15-19, three times Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love Me?” An easy commentary is to state that Peter had denied Jesus three times, and now Jesus was mirroring that after the events of His death, but the question of “Do you love Me?” is one that Jesus, in a manner of speaking, still asks of us.
How do we show our love for Jesus? Many will point to expressions of their heart; a doing of what is good or righteous in the eyes of themselves or of others. The concept that Jesus will be pleased if we feel good about it or are sincerely trying to follow His will is the moral compass which will guide people to heaven, showing Jesus their love by their effort and sincerity. Jesus does not deal in ambiguity, though. He explicitly states in John 14:15: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
The Bible gives us commands, direct examples, and necessary inferences by which we can show our love for Christ. We do not have to rely on our fickle emotions, or our lesser understanding of God (Proverbs 3:5-6). Many often lament that life does not come with an instruction manual, but the truth is that God did give us a manual. Like many items we purchase or are gifted in life, we ignore or throw away the instruction manual, and try to force a knowledge of the thing from our own understanding.
We show our love for Jesus by doing His will, and to do that, we must shed that sense of favor for our own understanding or our own desires. The rich young man in Matthew 19:16-22 had to learn this. He began by asking Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life. His intentions, outwardly, seem exceptionally good, and focused upon God, Jesus, and heaven. But Jesus understands the man’s heart, and begins by reciting elements of the Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments. The man has no problem with any of this and states that he has kept all these things. What motivates him to ask the next question is not in the text, but either by Jesus’ teaching, or by some other means, the man perceives that he still lacks something. Jesus harkens back to another teaching of His recorded in Luke 12:33: “Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.”
Loving Jesus means giving up the things of this world and of this life because they are, as the Ecclesiastical preacher puts it, vanity. We must live in this world with no love for it because all our love is focused exclusively upon the treasures of heaven. Understanding that our relationship with the people of God and with God Himself is all that really matters puts sorrow in the heart of people who cannot cast away their own passions and desires, who cannot love Christ as they should.
Showing love for Christ is summed up in two words spoken by Jesus to Peter after Peter was so grieved that Jesus kept asking him if he loved Him: “Follow Me.” We do not follow our heart. We do not follow our desires. We do not follow what we think might enhance worship. We do not follow what makes us feel better about ourselves. We follow Him and His teachings and commands, and by doing that we exhibit that love for Him which we so desperately need.
Lance Byers