Love and the Commandments

In the last general conference Sister Carole M. Stephens spoke about an experience she had that highlighted the Savior’s invitation: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 15:10).  She commented, “I searched the scriptures for verses that mentioned commandments and love. I found many” (“If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments”).  Since she didn’t mention the others that she found, I thought I would try the same search today. 

                John is clearly the one who wrote the most about this.  In addition to the reference above, he recorded this statement of the Savior: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).  John seemed to have really taken this message to heart, for he spoke often in similar language in his short epistles.  He said, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:2-3).  In the second epistle he also commented on what it means to love God: “And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it” (2 John 1:6).  To John, love for the Savior is more than verbal praise and confession of His name—true love for the Savior leads us to keep his commandments and serve Him. 

                This idea was not new in the New Testament though.  In the law of Moses we read that God said that He does show “mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments” (Deuteronomy 5:10, Exodus 20:6, see also Mosiah 13:14).  In another portion of the law we have this beautiful language, “Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9, see also Nehemiah 1:5).  Keeping the commandments and loving God seem to be so closely tied together that you can’t really have one without the other.  For as King Benjamin said, “For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?” (Mosiah 5:13)

                In our dispensation the Lord has reiterated the same message in the Doctrine and Covenants.  He told the Prophet Joseph, “If you keep not my commandments, the love of the Father shall not continue with you, therefore you shall walk in darkness” (D&C 95:12).  To the unfaithful William Law the Savior said, “Therefore, let my servant William put his trust in me, and cease to fear concerning his family, because of the sickness of the land. If ye love me, keep my commandments; and the sickness of the land shall redound to your glory” (D&C 124:87).  Again the message is the same: if we love the Lord, we will keep His commandments.  Sister Stephens was right—the parallel between commandments and love is in numerous places in the scriptures, and from it we learn that the ultimate motivation for keeping the commandments of the Lord is simple: because we love Him.