if you love me keep my commandments and live

If we love Jesus we will obey Him with joy. She was doing it all as an expression of love. To her amazement she discovered she was doing for her second husband all the things her first husband had demanded of her – even though it was not required of her. One day she found one of the lists her first husband had written for her. Joyfully she devoted herself to his happiness and welfare.

The two of them lived on a perpetual honeymoon. He died and in time she came to love another man whom she married. In time she came to hate him as much as she hated his list of rules. She was to do certain things for him as wife, mother, and homemaker. Story: There was a tyrannical husband who demanded that his wife conform to rigid standards of his own choosing. We should want to do what God likes – defined by his commands - because we love him. We keep God’s commands BECAUSE WE love HIM. We don’t keep God’s commands in able for God to love us Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He said: If any one loves me he will keep my commands.

Yet I would suggest, this is not what Jesus is saying at all. The picture they have of God is of a stern “Victorian Father” who doesn’t want us to have fun and has to be obeyed. You see- so often those - both inside the Church and outside - think that Christianity is all about keeping rules. I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me (Jn 14:6).Īnd you might be tempted to think that Jesus is therefore telling the disciples that by keeping his commandments they will be saved. Our Gospel reading is part of a discourse that Jesus had with his disciples – and in which he made the momentous claim She might have thought she was serving God with her devotion,/ but when there is an ulterior motive that is not worshipping God. This devout worshiper you see here everyday/ is that young woman. Many years ago /when the sculptor needed a model to pose for this statue of the blessed Mother, /he hired a beautiful young woman to sit for him. She comes every day to offer prayers /to the blessed Mother of Jesus. One day, he took an elderly priest aside /who had been serving in the cathedral for many years /and said, If you love me you will keep my commandments (Jn 14:15)Īt the very start of his ministry/, Savonarola noticed an elderly woman/ who used to come and pray regularily /before the statue of the Virgin Mary. I would like to comment on one verse from our lesson this morning and the verse can be found John 14:23 where Jesus says:

If you love me keep my commandments and live