John:14.21(NIV)
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
“Whoever”- God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34-35) anyone can have God’s commands, regardless of background or nationality. However, not everyone has God’s commands. (Mt 7:1-8). God’s words are His commands and His commands are His words. This implies that even God’s promises to us are His commands to us, just as much as His instructions to us are. Therefore, when God makes us a promise or tells us who we are or what we have in Christ, He expects us to heed the implied command in it to believe, accept and act in accordance with His word (Prov 3:5-6). It is however implicit in the text above that not everyone has His commands. How can this be if the tone of the verse suggests that Jesus desires that everyone has His word? The answer to that question is found in Ps 25:9. It takes humility to receive God’s commands whether in the form of a promise, a statement of spiritual fact or an explicit instruction. Humility is what it takes to concentrate long enough to hear God’s commands (words). It separates those who have God’s word (His commands) which is likened to grain or wheat (Jer 23:28), from those who have human opinion which is likened to straw or chaff (Jer23:28). It’s just like Hopni and Phinehas who had the symbol of God’s commands in the form of the ark but not the essence or substance of it (1Sam 4:4-11). This also made the distinction between Saul and David. The former took the opinion of men for God’s commands (1Sam 15:13-23), while the later separated man’s opinion from God’s word (1Sam 24:1-7). Humility as a virtue ranks high in God’s estimation, so much so that a lack of it in a person’s life towards God, attracts opposition from God (James 4:6, 1 Pet 5:5, Prov 3:34).
It is noteworthy that Jesus uses the simple present tense “has” in the text to indicate His choice of a time frame within which He expects His commands (word) kept. “Whoever has” not “whoever had” or “whoever will have”, clearly portrays God’s will concerning our being up to date in hearing His commands. The Bible in Matt 4:4 says that man lives on every word that “comes” from the mouth of God. This is because only such words or commands possess the efficacy to accomplish God’s purpose (Isa 55:10-11). Faith, without which an attempt to approach God is futile, is predicated upon the “present tense” word of God (Heb 11:1, Rom 10:17). No wonder Prov 4:21 insists that the words of God be kept in sight, so as to remain fresh and thereby effective. Jesus in using the phrase “whoever has” meant for His commands to be living realities in our consciousness. You see, we cannot consciously obey God’s commands we don’t have. That invariably was the reason God instructed Joshua to meditate on the book of the law day and night (Josh 1:8).
“My commands”! Was God showing that other commands apart from His exist? Yes. Not all commands (no matter how identical they appear) are from God. We have already dealt with this to some extent in the first paragraph. However, it is worth further analysis. Jesus Himself made a distinction between what is from the flesh and what is from God (Jn 3:6). Therefore, He relied not on Himself but on the Father (Jn 5:19,30) whose commands lead to eternal life (Jn 12:49-50). God is usually particular about differentiating His commands from man’s thinking (Isa 55:9).
“And Obeys them” is the very next phrase we find in the sequence. By this, Jesus makes it clear that having His commands is not the sufficient condition for satisfying God’s demand, but that it is obeying them that is. Infact, it is the willingness to obey that usually pre-conditions access to knowing God’s will, in other words His present commands (Jn 7:17). When God commands, He expects us to simply obey. Effectiveness is more important to Him than efficiency. In other words, doing exactly what He says we should do is more important to Him than our doing exceptionally well, what He did not command us to do. King Saul in his day learnt this lesson the hard way. Shallom.
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