Love is a Command: Not a Suggestion

Since becoming a follower of Jesus Christ, the most crucial lesson that I have learned, I am learning, and will continue to learn, is how to love God and love others.

A few years ago, I wrote an article on how God’s love for us empowers us to love others. In the article, I primarily discussed God’s love for us.

Our first focus is understanding how much God loves us because it is His love for us that empowers us to love Him in return and love others. When we truly receive God’s love for us, His love transforms us and overflows to others. Then, bearing the fruit of love becomes supernaturally natural to us because it is powered by God’s love.

“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 NIV

If you have not read my prior article on love, I implore you to read it HERE before scrolling down to study what the Word teaches about loving God and loving others.

Love is a Command

Next, we need to acknowledge that love is our primary command from God. A command is an order given by a superior authority that requires obedience. Walking in love is of first importance to God and, therefore, should be to us as well. It is not an option, suggestion, or request. To put it bluntly, if we are not walking in love, we are disobeying God.

When a Pharisee approached Jesus and asked Him what the greatest command of the law is, Jesus responded by saying:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40 NIV

To love God is to obey Him (John 14:23; 1 John 5:3; 2 John 1:6), and obeying Him keeps us united with Him and protected by His love (John 15:9-10). When we love God, we are all in with no holding back. We become fully yielded to Him and His purpose for our lives. It stops being about checking off boxes but about following Him wholeheartedly and not out of compulsion.

Why Did Jesus Make Love a Command?

Jesus made it a command because others will recognize that we are God’s children and become drawn into His kingdom by observing our loving actions. If we fail to love, we do not align with our responsibility as ambassadors for Christ.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 NIV

How effective would we be as Christ’s ambassadors if we tell everyone at work that we are Christians but then exude a critical and judgmental spirit full of envy and strife?

Apostle John, who referred to Himself multiple times as “the disciple who Jesus loved,” must have known without a doubt how much he was loved by Jesus. (See John 13:23; John 19:26; John 20:2.) Having personally experienced God’s love, he reminded us multiple times in his letters to obey God’s command to love.

Meditate on the Scripture listed below, all written by Apostle John in his letters to the churches.

“Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” 1 John 2:4-6 NIV

“And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” 1 John 3:23-24 NIV

“And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” 1 John 4:21 NIV

“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,” 1 John 5:2-3 NIV

“And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.” 2 John 1:5-6 NIV

Walking in Love Fulfills the Commands of the Law

Going back to Jesus’ response to the Pharisee, notice that Jesus said that “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:40). By saying this, Jesus made it clear to His listeners that as they walk in love, they would, by default, keep all the commands of the law. They would no longer have to keep track of their obedience to each regulation of the ten commandments since walking in love fulfills them all.

Apostle Paul also underscores this truth in Romans 13:8-10.

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” Romans 13:8-10 NIV

Conclusion

My main goal in writing is to remind us that God has commanded us to walk in love. I plan on sharing at least two more articles on biblical love, so stay tuned! In my next article, I will discuss the attributes of love by answering the question, “What does biblical love look like?”

I pray that we would love God by obeying Him and allowing His love within us to flow from us to others as we yield to the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Until next time …..

Chizobam Idahosa

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.