Love is at the heart of Christianity. St. Paul makes it clear in 1 Cor 13. The absence of love nullifies everything. Jesus said that the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all you are.

Later Jesus says these penetrating words in John 14, verse 15, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.”

What are we to make of this connection between love and obedience? Is Jesus making a simple statement of fact, or is he using a technique that is at least as old as Delilah in Judges 16, where she pleads with Sampson, “If you really loved me you would tell me the secret of your great strength.”

For a long time that is how I read this statement of Jesus, “Oh, you say that you love me. But if you really loved me you would keep my commandments (which you plainly aren’t).” I would feel appropriately shamed, reaffirm my love, and vow to do better.

I might have said, “You know, Lord, I guess you are right. I am not obeying you. And you have a good point. As much as I hate to admit it, I guess I don’t love you.” This is difficult to say because we know we should love Jesus. What kind of a Christian doesn’t love Jesus, after all He has done for us? More shame.

Further in John 14, verse 23, Jesus says the same thing, but in a more direct manner, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word.” Here there is no coercive aspect, not even an implicit command, just a statement of cause and effect. This is how it works. “This is what you can expect, when you love me,” Jesus seems to be saying.

Is this a promise or a warning? How do you see it?

We all know that love can make people do strange things. Dangerous things. Love can make a man abandon his career, leave his boats and nets to follow Jesus. Give away money. Welcome a martyr’s death. Stand up to ridicule. Lose friends. Take vows of celibacy.

In Luke 14 Jesus gives a series of sobering warnings about just becoming His disciple. Coming to love Him is more dangerous still–to the individual lover, to the typical church, and if it ever reached critical mass, to society as we know it.