Love Rules

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Come again? Did Jesus really say that “Love” means keeping “commandments?” Isn’t love supposed to be free and generous? What does following a bunch of rules – being “rigid” – have to do with the beauty and freedom of love? Surely this one comment by Jesus is a fluke, right?

No, he reiterates it just a few sentences later: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.” And again a few sentences after that. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says this several times. Then, John himself says it in one of his letters: “the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments.” And that from the same man who told us about Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, who told us about Jesus forgiving the woman caught in adultery, the one who told us simply that “God is Love.”

So, what do commands – rules – have to do with Love? There are two ways of looking at the relationship between the Law and Love. From the start or the from the finish. When Jesus says “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” You might read this as a description of cause and effect like “if you play with fire, you will get burned.” So, we could say that Jesus means that love will cause us to fulfill his commands.

Though, when Jesus talks about love and obedience the second time, we can’t make the same argument. “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.” Now, it’s more like he’s advising us how to recognize whether or not a person loves him. The way he phrases it seems to mean that obedience to commandments, to the law, proves love.

These two meanings are not absolutely contradictory, but they do point us to an important reality about love and law. Yes, love is primary and perfect love is the truest fulfilment of the Law, as St. Paul tells us. At the same time, however, we have to ask ourselves what it means to love. We must realize that Jesus is not reducing love to a set of rules, but teaching us about the real meaning of love.

When we say that love is the fulfilment of the law, we are looking at the situation from the finish, the goal. If we get to the point of truly loving Jesus, we will fulfill the law the same way that to be on fire means to burn. But simply saying “love Jesus” is not enough, it doesn’t make it happen. You probably know this yourselves and you can ask anyone who has ever tried to love God. Keeping his commandments doesn’t come automatically… we still sin… a lot.

And that is why Jesus also speaks about having and observing his commandments. If we look at this from the starting point, we see that it is the journey, through faith and obedience, to perfect charity or love. Earlier, I said it seems like Jesus is telling us to prove our love, as if we were on trial. In a certain sense, that is true. Satan means “adversary” and he is also called the accuser. Satan accuses us of sin and wants us to be condemned for it. His whole goal is to prove to us and to God that we do not love God as we should. Satan, our prosecutor, is way more intelligent and more powerful than we are.

Jesus knows this and he knows that everything hinges on this question, this judgment: do we love God or not? That is why he does not leave us in the cosmic courtroom to face Satan by ourselves. “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.” That word, advocate; In Greek, it is parakletos, which is often used to describe a lawyer. It means counselor, advocate, and comforter. It literally means someone who stands next to you. He is talking about the Holy Spirit who is our defense attorney, our adviser, our friend to help us face down Satan. But notice that Jesus said “another advocate.” We don’t lose Jesus, who is also our advocate. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one, both persons of the Trinity, and they work together as our advocates.

So yeah, we do have to prove our love and we have to prove it through our actions, by observing the commandments Jesus has given us. Simply saying “I love Jesus” won’t work. Satan will get in the courtroom and will twist our words, plant seeds of doubt and confusion in our minds. We say “love Jesus” so Satan tries to twist our idea of love, to warp our perception of who Jesus is. He is too subtle, too clever for us to figure it out on our own.

But, we do not rely on our own power in our pursuit of the only thing that matters. By the power of the Holy Spirit, by the power of Christ’s redemption on the cross, we are given the strength to actually love God in the truest way. When we think “love Jesus,” we should ask these questions: What is love? Who is Jesus? Fortunately for us, Jesus answers those exact questions. Do you know where he answers those questions? Yes, in his commandments.

And that is what it means to see law and love in terms of a starting point. The commandments do indeed include some rules. There is, in fact, a list of things Jesus tells us to do and not do. The point is not the list. The point is not proving your own strength. The point is simply that the list points us toward love. Satan will try to give us a fake love, so Jesus gives us a map, a set of directions. “Do these things and you will begin to do what love does.” If we do these things, we imitate love, and if we imitate love with sincerity, we will begin to actually love. Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of Truth” because he helps us hold on to the truth about love.

At the same time, he never lets those commands, those lists, break away from himself as a person. The rules don’t just teach us idea, they teach us to love a specific person. It is yet another reason that Jesus didn’t just leave us a bible or a list of rules. He gives us the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church, who is an advocate and counselor so that our decisions, our actions, our efforts to prove ourselves in the courtroom of love stay personal. It is one thing to read a list or a book and follow it. It is quite another to seek advice, to have an ongoing conversation with a person. The Holy Spirit is that person; Jesus Christ is that Person.

So yeah, love God and you will go to heaven. But make sure your love is real. Do not, do not, do not let Democrats or Republicans tell you what love is. Do not, do not, do not let Disney, Netflix, Amazon, or any worldly power tell you what love is. For the Love of God, learn from the God who is love what love is. Know the commandments. Follow them. Most of all, let them become more than a list. See them as a gift from a beloved friend, for that is what they are.

And the easiest way to be a moral person, to be holy and loving and righteous is to not only follow God’s commands, but to experience them. To recognize them as the mystery they are. Not simply to know and follow, but to be conformed to them. As I will pray on your behalf in a few minutes at the offertory: “may [we] be conformed to the mysteries of [God’s] mighty love. Through Christ our Lord.” Our Lawgiver. Our Love.