People often talk about how much God loves them, but do they ever love him back? If you don’t have time for him, then you don’t love him, because we make time for the people we genuinely care about. If you don’t keep his commandments, then you don’t love him, because we will do anything for the ones we love. Jesus even said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
When asked by the Pharisees which is the greatest commandment, in Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus replied, “Loving God with all of your heart, soul, and strength.” This is the “Shema” from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, and it states to love your neighbor as yourself, which is also found in Leviticus 19:18.
We must love God and others to keep His commandments. As 1 John 4:7-8 states, “anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God, but anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:20-21 says that people who claim to love God but hate other people are lying because if we don’t love the people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? Therefore, those who love God must also love others. This means loving people enough to avoid harming them and also loving them enough to apologize when you fail to love them as you should. 1 John 4:19 says that we are expected to love because God loved us first. When did God love us first? This is revealed in John 3:16, which says that God sent Jesus to save the world because he loved the people in it.
We can’t claim to love someone if we don’t want to listen to them or even take the time to hear what they’re saying. People who love God spend time with him and seek his instructions. Hebrews 11:6 says God rewards those who are seeking Him, and that shouldn’t be just for things we need or want, but for a relationship. His instructions are contrary to our own desires, so the desire to follow his instructions must come from the Holy Spirit. In Romans 8:5-17, Paul explains that God’s children are those who have received the Holy Spirit, and that people of the world don’t have God’s Spirit and live according to their carnal desires.
For instance, the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself includes your enemies, as stated in Matthew 5:43-48. In Matt 5:43-48, Jesus says we must love our enemies because even God loves them. He said God sends the rain and the sunshine on both the wicked and the righteous out of mercy, so we must be like him if we are to be called his children. Loving our enemies is a product of the Holy Spirit molding a believer’s heart to reject the natural desire for negative things to happen to our enemies and instead to empathize and show compassion, just as God does. This isn’t a philosophical or ethical transition that can be accomplished secularly; it’s supernatural. Christians aren’t just agreeing with what God says in the Bible; we must hear from God himself daily.
Following Christ is a spiritual experience that transforms us. God’s thoughts are different from our own, and He will lead us to respond to our environment in a way that is different from how we would naturally choose. God’s instructions may not always make sense at the moment, but they are part of a larger plan. This is why Hebrews 11:6 says that it’s impossible to please God without believing in Him and diligently seeking Him. Proverbs 3:5 says to trust the Lord and not rely on our own understanding. Our “good” secular thoughts aren’t even from God because they are limited to human reasoning, and the output is restricted because they aren’t connected with God’s Spirit. We can’t be “good” people in God’s eyes because his goodness is higher than anything any human can accomplish.
Jesus is the only one who never sinned, and that is why he was qualified to take our punishment in our place. He is the standard of what it means to please God, and no one else, so we must follow Him to please God. When Jesus left, He said He would send the Holy Spirit to His disciples to help them keep God’s instructions.
In John 14:15-21, he says (NLT), 15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
Paul says in Galatians 5:16 that if we let the Holy Spirit guide our lives, we won’t do what our sinful nature craves. This means that following God’s spirit will always put us in a position to keep God’s instructions rather than following our natural, carnal desires. In Galatians 5:17, Paul explains that “The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”
In verses 19-21, Paul gives us examples of fleshly desires, and those include things like sexual sin, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, and things like that. Paul gives examples of behavior that comes from the Holy Spirit and analogizes them as fruit in Gal 5:22-23. These fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control. The fruit that God desires is the fruit of the Spirit that Paul mentions, and these are produced when we live our lives by following the lead of the Holy Spirit of God.
This is what is meant in verse 16 when he says to let the Holy Spirit guide our lives. Jesus uses a similar fruit analogy and even says in Matthew 7:20 and Luke 6:45 that we can truly know people by their fruit. By their fruit, he means their actions, because despite what they may say, people’s actions reveal their intentions. In fact, Jesus expands on this in John 15:1-17. Here, Jesus said he was the vine, and his followers are the branches. He said that those who produce fruit will be pruned so that they can make more fruit. However, those that don’t produce fruit will be removed and burned. The fruits he is talking about are the fruit of the Spirit, and believers are the branches connected to him, so they have the holy spirit and therefore should aim to cultivate these fruits. Failure to produce these fruits has consequences.
John 15:5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. 9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.
If believers are intentional about their love for God, it will be seen in their actions towards God and people. They will prioritize God’s instructions from his word rather than their own desires. This is sacrificial love, so it is not easy, but that is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to help those who love God and are willing to follow Jesus’ example. This lifestyle involves sacrificing our own desires to do what God wants and sharing God’s teachings with the world, which may put us at odds with the world around us.
Loving God means standing on God’s side when the world disagrees with it. Likewise, loving our neighbor means sharing God’s perspective on human behaviors, so that people can know how to please God rather than staying enslaved to carnal desires that God will condemn on judgment day. Affirming human wickedness is not love, since the product of that will be condemnation from God for their behavior on Judgment Day, rather than salvation and freedom from evil desires and the gift of eternal life.
The goal is to be ambassadors for Christ and show the people in the world the kingdom of God by producing fruit that represents God. We do this by following the leading of the Holy Spirit, which is only available to those who trust the Gospel message. This message is that Jesus is the Son of God, and His death in our place puts us in right standing with God, so that we can receive the Holy Spirit and have our hearts and minds renewed. This renewed mind means that we are free from slavery to sinful, evil desires that God is against, which cause us to fail at loving God and our neighbors. This is done so that we can experience God’s mercy on judgment day, which allows us to inherit God’s promised eternal life instead of death and condemnation for our sins.
Galatians 5:22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!