Christ taught us that “if you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15) and that “blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:28). Christ taught us earlier in the Gospel of Matthew that we must persevere in prayer and fasting (see part 1). What does it mean to love God? For us, love is evidenced by wanting to spend time with one another and striving to do what makes our beloved happy. Therefore, loving God is shown by keeping His commandments.

Keeping God’s commandments

If we apply this definition to our relationship with God, it means that we should be continuously striving to come closer to Him. One cannot love God and not keep His commandments, for love translates into actions. Therefore, Christ meant that it will be visible in our deeds whether we love Him or not. Someone may make all kinds of claims about their love for God, but the only proof of this love is to translate it into works. According to Christ’s words, more importantly, not keeping His commandments automatically means that one does not love Him.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (444 AD) commented on John 14:15 as follows:

“The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayer. So having determined and expressly declared that the enjoyment of the heavenly blessings, supplied, that is, through Him by the Father, is both due to them that love Him and in very truth shall be theirs. He straightway goes on to describe the power of love, and instructs us excellently and irreproachably, for our profit, with the intent that we should devote ourselves to the pursuit thereof.

For albeit a man says that he loves God, he will not therefore straightway win the credit of truly loving, forasmuch as the power of virtue stands not in bare speech, nor is the beauty of piety towards God fashioned in naked words. But rather it is distinguished through good deeds effected and an obedient temper”.

St. John Chrysostom (407 AD) explained John 14:15 saying:

“We need everywhere both words and actions, not a mere show of words. For to say and to promise is easy for anyone, but to act is not equally as easy. Why have I made these remarks? There are many at this time who say that they fear and love God, but their works show the contrary. But God requires that love which is shown by works”.

St. John adds to this that “this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it” (2 John 1:6, also see 1 John 5:3).

Following Christ’s words, St. James teaches us that: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26). Why would St. James use the word “dead” in this context? St. James used this term to emphasize the importance of practising our beliefs. The word “death” here signifies that the faith that one claims to have has no worth without deeds and therefore it has no life in it.

St. Didymus the Blind (398 AD) commented on James 2:26 saying:

“Just as the spirit joins itself to the body and by doing so brings the latter to life, so works, joined to faith, give life to it as well. Furthermore, it is to be understood that faith without works is not faith at all, just as a dead man is not really a human being”.

Christ warned us from the belief that deeds are not important. He warned: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:21-23). So even though one can perform miraculous things, even if it seemed to be in Christ’s name, but was not found to be rooted in Christ, it is not profitable for them. One needs to keep God’s commands and do His will.

St. Cyril of Alexandria explained this idea by saying:

“There may be some who, in the beginning, believed rightly and assiduously laboured at virtue. They may have even worked miracles and prophesied and cast out demons. And yet later they are found turning aside to evil, to self-assertive deception and desire. Of these Jesus remarks that He “never knew them.” He ranks them as equivalent to those who were never known by Him at all. Even if they at the outset had lived virtuously, they ended up condemned. God knows those whom He loves, and He loves those who single-mindedly believe in Him and do the things that please Him”.

John Chrysostom adds to this saying:

“Elsewhere Paul confronts them directly when he says, “Consider this. You bear the name Jew, rely on the law, boast in God and know the will of God,” but in all this you derive no benefit as long as the actual fruits of good living are not present.”

The above-mentioned arguments, therefore, are in favour of good deeds as the fruits of a living faith. And deeds are considered good when they are in keeping with God’s commands.

Disobedience from pride

Another aspect regarding John 14:15 is that we should be obedient to Christ. Disobedience is one of the most spiritually damaging traits. Satan was first to disobey God, and he did so by being led by his ego (Isaiah 14:12-15) and thereafter his legion did the same (Jude 1:6). Satan’s fall made him envious and, by not wanting to suffer alone, he started seducing humans to disobey by not keeping God’s commands as well. This led to, first of all, Adam and Eve’s disobedience which resulted in man’s fall (Genesis 3). Therefore, we see the wisdom behind Solomon’s warning that “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18) and that one’s pride “will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honour” (Proverbs 29:23).

 St. John Cassian (435 AD) described the sin of pride in detail in his twelfth book of the Institutes. He summarized pride as follows:

“There is then no other fault which is so destructive of all virtues, and robs and despoils a man of all righteousness and holiness, as this evil of pride, which like some pestilential disease attacks the whole man. It’s not content to damage one part or one limb only but injures the entire body with its deadly influence. It endeavours to cast down by a most fatal fall, and destroy those who were already at the top of the tree of the virtues”.

St.  John Climacus (649 AD) added the following regarding pride:

“An angel fell from heaven without any other passion except pride, and so we may ask whether it is possible to ascend to Heaven by humility alone, without any other of the virtues”.

These verses and commentaries should give us a clear overview of the issue of pride, and more importantly, the consequences of pride. As St. John Climacus said, humility is the only thing the devil cannot imitate, and it is one of the virtues that require a deep and significant inner change.

Yet one should keep in mind that there are two types of people—as with many kinds of topics. Those who do not see themselves as sinners and do not think that they need repentance and those who are conscious about their tendencies to view themselves as in need of repentance. The first group of people will always find the fault in others, and claim that others’ mistakes are pushing them to sin. However, the second group will struggle with God in prayer and ask for His help to overcome the human ego.

Is obedience oppression?

Some might say that “Christ is oppressing us” and that He “will punish us if we do not do what He wants us to do”. These are common objections throughout all past generations. These objections contain logical fallacies though. Christ is not oppressing us, rather He is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, see also 1 Timothy 2:4 and Ezekiel 33:11) as He “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

In addition, we are not “forced” to do certain things in order not to “go to hell”. God gave us His live-giving commandments, not to control us through fear but to give us tools by which we can, after living our lives with Him, enter the Kingdom of God.

This can be illustrated by using sports as a metaphor:

One can engage in a certain sport, tennis for instance, and when joining a team, she will be required to engage in training sessions and matches. The training will consist of both endurance and skills training, and both ought to be done at certain frequencies. She can skip the training sessions, as no one will force her to attend them, yet it will be at her disadvantage. She will not be able to achieve a higher ranking without the training.

This is also the case with God’s commandments. God does not force us to love Him or to live His commandments, yet if our goal is to enter His Kingdom, we should keep His commandments to strengthen our relationship with Him in this life and in the life to come.