If you love me, you will obey what I command.  John 14:15

How does a person know if they really love Jesus?

“Do you truly love me?” Jesus asked one of His most outspoken followers named Peter (John 21:16).  Peter told Jesus, “You know I love you.” Yet when Jesus challenged his answer by asking the same question three times, Peter was disturbed.

If you were confronted with that same question, how would you answer?  What if Jesus should make the question a bit more personal and ask, “Do you love Me more than your kids?  More than your “sexual freedom?”  More than making a bit more money by twisting the truth?”  That’s personal, isn’t it?”

The love that Jesus was talking about involves action—encompassing every area of your life and person. “If you love me, you will obey what I command,” Jesus said bluntly (John 14:15).

Note carefully that Jesus did not say: “Obey me, and then I will love you.” We don’t have to do anything to earn the lavish love God has for us, but we do need to respond to it.  The true realization of how we are loved always evokes a response.

For much of my life, my love for Jesus was transactional.  I showed Him that I loved Him by doing this and not doing that. In return, He’d “bless” me with a good life. When that “good life” disintegrated, I was faced with the fact, that I did not actually love Jesus, but only loved His benefits. He loved me far too much to leave me in that “good life.”

To those who say they love Jesus, He answers, “Follow me!” In the following, we find and, yes, come to love Jesus Himself.