What did Jesus mean when he said "If you love Me you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15)?
Did Jesus mean that we are to keep two commandments? Or did Jesus mean we are to keep all His commandments?
Some people think that Jesus only meant to love Him and their neighbor as themselves (Luke 10:27) is one commandment: You shall love. We have to admit that sounds like two commandments and not one. In fact, there was a time when I thought that this is what Jesus meant, because the people I used to fellowship with and the leaders I used to sit under as a young Christian influenced me so. Yet within my spirit, I would feel that there was something wrong with this. Not that there is anything wrong with love being the abiding principle for life.
Having been associated with Seventh Day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists, the other problem was the Spirit of God had shown me that the Sabbath Day was not one in seven days of the week to be observed fifty-two times a year and observation of the Sabbath was not about attending a meeting on Saturdays. The Sabbath is actually now. The Sabbath began when God finished His labors of Creation (Hebrews 4:4-11). The Sabbath will remain until He creates a New Earth and New Heaven (2 Peter 3:11-13).
The other difficulty was the first commandment of the Decalogue. This states that the people were in Egypt and definitely applies to them. The commandment explicitly states, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt...."
People truncate the first commandment so that it does not mention Egypt, but this is not what the first commandment states.
Eventually, I was ready to receive illumination of the truth by the Holy Spirit. I realized that the Ten Commandments and the two commandments that Jesus mentioned, known as the Great Commandment and the Second Commandment, were actually the Ten Commandments. The first five Commandments referred to God and the second group of five commandments referred to humans. The Ten Commandments were written by God Himself and communicated to Moses through the Son of God, who stood there on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:5).
People who point to the Sabbath and make observations have a tendency to become accusers (Colossians 2:16). Now the accuser is the Devil (Revelation 12:10). When people become accusers, they are doing what the Devil does. Jesus is not an accuser. Jesus is the Savior (1 John 4:14).
If we love Jesus, we will keep His commandments, but we need to repent from our sins first (Hebrews 6:1). Many people have no idea of what sin is actually; therefore they are unable to truly love Jesus. One of the reasons for this is because people also have different ideas of what is love. Most people have a concept of love that includes what they like for themselves but excludes what God requires of them.
For instance, we might love receiving attention and want people to love us, but we are not prepared to give others the same amount of attention. How often do you see people who are so-called Christian leaders, claiming to be servants of Christ, dominating the show and lording over others like CEOs?
Jesus also said that the greatest among you would be the servant of you all (Matthew 23:11). Now a servant is not somebody who is seeking attention or someone who is lording over others. A servant is somebody who attends to the needs of others. "Needs" is a loaded word and does not mean "wants", and there are different needs such a basic need (water, food, shelter, warmth), a need for purpose and the need for eternal life.
If we love Lord Jesus Christ, we ought to walk in the way He walked (1 John 2:6) and seek to attend to the needs of other people (Acts 10:38).
How many commandments are there to keep? Are rites commandments? When Jesus said that his disciples were to break bread and drink of the cup of blessing whenever they meet, could this be called a commandment? Some say, "Yes." Others say, "No." The same applies to baptism.
A more illuminating discussion concerning the Sabbath and observance of the cup of blessing is available at the following link:
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