What did Jesus mean when He said, 'If you love me, you will keep my commandments'?

from the old testament

• Deuteronomy 6:4–5 presents the Shema, Judaism’s most important prayer: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Love for God should be the underlying motivation for obedience to His commands, as Jesus iterates in Mark 12:29–30.
• Deuteronomy 10:12–13 says, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?” Though the Mosaic law was merely a “shadow of the good things to come” (Hebrews 10:1), the underlying motive for following the Lord’s commands is the same in the Old and New Testaments: love for God.

from the new testament

• John 14:15 records Jesus’ words to His disciples during the last meal that He would share with them before being crucified: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Keeping our Lord’s commandments shows our love for Him.
• Keeping God’s commandments can often be a test of faith (cf. Genesis 22; Romans 5:1–5; Hebrews 12:1–24; James 1:2–4; 1 Peter 1:3–9). As we continue to obey even in the face of difficulty, it builds our strength and our faith.
• In 1 John 5:2–3, the apostle John correlates obedience to God with love for Him and others: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” Love for our Lord makes it easier to obey Him.
• The Helper God has given believers enables us to do His will. Jesus told His followers, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:15–17).
• Paul told the Philippians “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” We actively obey knowing that ultimately God is doing the work of transformation in us (2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8:29–30; Philippians 1:6). Paul encouraged in Romans 8:26: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Through the indwelling presence of the Spirit, we can obey God, walk in true freedom, and love God and others.

implications for today

Romantic comedies often depict grand gestures of love—the proposal on one knee in front of a crowd of spectators, the multi-carat diamond ring, bouquets of roses delivered at work. But grand gestures are fleeting. True love is shown every day through the small things people do like setting up your spouse’s coffee in the morning, saving the corner piece of lasagna for a friend because you know it’s her favorite, agreeing to work a coworker’s shift so she can go to her son’s baseball game. This applies to our love for God, too. True believers don’t just show our love of God by writing a check to a homeless shelter once a year or going to church on Christmas Eve. Our love should show in our everyday lives, in our obedience to what we know pleases Him. For instance, Jesus told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). Do you do that? If you see that your neighbor—the noisy one who uses her leaf blower at 7 a.m. on weekends—has a flat tire, do you offer to help? And what about your relationship with God? Do you pray with a few hasty words, or do you consider prayer the opportunity to praise and thank the Creator of all? Do you make learning about God the priority in your life by establishing a daily habit of engaging with His Word? Do you prioritize spending time with God’s people? Do you actively seek to use your spiritual gifts for the good of others? Do you regularly thank God for who He is and what He does? Do you seek to put sin to death? Do you readily confess your sins to God and trust in His forgiveness? Our love for the Lord shows in our obedience to His precepts. Often, it’s a self-feeding loop in that the more we love God, the more we obey Him; and the more we obey Him, the more we understand who He is and we grow in our love for Him.