If You Love Jesus…

February 17, 2026

Do you love Jesus? I mean really love Him? It is of utmost importance that we develop a true love for Jesus, because loving Him is the key to a deeper, more satisfying, more obedient spiritual life. Here is what I mean: Jesus said to His apostles in John 14, “…If anyone loves me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23 NASB95). What tremendous promises flow from loving Jesus! Loving Jesus leads us to obeying Jesus. Loving Jesus leads to receiving a special love from the Father Himself. Loving Jesus leads to the Father and Son coming into us to live within us. But it all starts with love!

Let us examine the first part of Jesus’ statement: “If anyone loves me, he will keep My word.” Notice that love comes first and obedience is the result. If we love Him, then we will obey Him.

And don’t we have every reason to love Jesus? We love Jesus because of what He has done. It was Jesus who loved us first. It was Jesus who sought us out while we were yet sinners. It was Jesus who gave His life for us when we had nothing to offer Him in return. His death on our behalf was the ultimate expression of love for us. Not only this, but we love Jesus because of who He is. We marvel at His power, His grace, His humility, His compassion. As we think of these attributes of Jesus, how could we not love Him?

And what does it mean to love Him? It may be helpful to think about what it means to love the special people in your life. We delight in the people we love. We are drawn to them because of their qualities. We want to be near to them. In a similar way, to love Jesus is to cherish Him for who He is, to delight in Him, and to desire a close relationship with Him.

And this kind of love for Jesus is the key to living a life of obedience. Think about this: the next time you are faced with temptation, think about your love for Jesus. Say to Him, “Lord, I will turn away from my sinful desires because I love you so much.” Say to yourself, “How could I hurt my Lord Jesus by continuing in this sin?”  Our love for Him is a powerful motivator to keep walking with Him.

Today, let us reflect on all the many reasons we have for loving Jesus. May our love for Him control every aspect of our lives and empower a willing, joyful obedience to Him that comes from the heart.

—Scott Colvin

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Posted by Scott Colvin

Loving Jesus More Than Anything Else

February 5, 2021

The words of Jesus seem shocking and harsh: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26, ESV). These words have certainly been misunderstood and abused at times through church history.

Part of our problem is with the word hate. Our English meaning is hostility, aversion and loathing. To plug that into Jesus’ statement is to misunderstand. The Old Testament has a usage of hate that means to love less than.

  • When the Lord saw that Leah was hated… Genesis 29:31 (Rachel being loved more) 
  • If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other hated, and both the loved and the hated have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the hated… Deuteronomy 21:15 (English translations often do not use “hate” here as they attempt to make it more understandable.)

Matthew’s account makes the same point but with greater clarity for us: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37-38, ESV).

Yet even after we come to terms with the word hate, the statement by Jesus is still shocking. We must place being a disciple above a number of very good things – parents, wife, children, family, and even our own life. In other words, we can’t let any of these things, even saving our own skin, keep us from following Jesus.

How does that look in real life? Years ago, I read report on a woman convert in Cambodia. When she began to attend church for worship, her family locked her in her room. She climbed through a window and left home. The church had to provide her temporary shelter until she could get on her feet. She couldn’t return to her family and be a Christian too.

Her mother finally accepted her, but her brother and family continue to reject her. Even after experiencing this rejection from family, she was baptized. She counted the cost for following Jesus and decided that she loved Jesus more than anyone or anything else.

−Russ Holden

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Posted by Russell Holden