“If you love Jesus, you keep his commandments, and he will give you a helper,” says Vincent, 7.
If you want to make people angry, tell them what to do. Give them some commandments. If you want to make people fighting angry, tell them there’s nothing they can do to earn an eternal home in heaven. Religious people delude themselves by imagining they can earn God’s favor.
If God’s salvation is provided by his free grace through faith alone in Christ alone, what’s with the commandments? Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments,” (John 14:15).
Although God’s people are redeemed and forgiven, it doesn’t shield them from self-deception. Our capacity to fool ourselves is greater than we can imagine. God never gave his commandments as a way for us to secure a home in heaven. No one has ever kept them perfectly except Jesus.
Immediately after Jesus said those who love him would keep his commandments, he said he would send a helper who would be with all believers forever (John 14:16). Our helper is God himself in the person of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Bible scholar Warren Wiersbe wrote this: “The Spirit living within the disciples would take the place of the Savior living beside the disciples.”
God wants us to live beyond commandments. Love surpasses commandments, but the commandments give us a starting point to know if we’re living in harmony with Jesus. It’s like flying on an airplane versus a road trip in the car. Flying is a different realm.
God’s commandments keep our feet on the ground. They protect us from self-delusion. Love is like flying! There are no stop signs or traffic lights when flying above the clouds.
What if I woke up tomorrow morning to a list of 10 commandments from my wife? Do I really need commandments to bring her flowers and dark chocolate or to take her out to a restaurant she enjoys?
“If you love Jesus, you will shine to the world,” says Hope, 9. One of the ways you might be a light in this world is very practical, says Audrey, 7: “If someone falls down, you do not laugh and you help them up.”
When someone falls, it’s easy to laugh. It takes compassion to imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes, especially when everyone is laughing.
During Jesus’ ministry, he constantly reached out to undesirables. Touching a leper was at the top of the taboo list. Jesus not only touched lepers, he healed them (Matthew 8:1-4).
“You can tell someone loves Jesus if they read the Bible, pray and obey,” says Josiah, 6.
On Broadway, someone who can sing, dance and act is called a triple threat. Josiah has identified the triple threat in God’s family. Christians who study the Bible, pray and obey God will always be a triple threat. The dark realm of Satanic evil will flee when facing a triple-threat believer.
Think about this: Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another. If a believer says he loves God, but hates his Christian brother, he’s deluded.
Memorize this truth: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also,” (I John 4:2021).
Ask this question: Are you living the life of love for God and your brothers and sisters in Christ?
© 2026 Carey Kinsolving
