The way we may be sure that we know Jesus
is to keep his commandments.
We might wonder what keeping the commandments really has to do with knowing Jesus. After all, isn't knowing Jesus a personal relationship that has nothing to do with rules, as many seem to suggest? Arbitrary rules seem in any event to be opposed to relationship. They seem to stand between the two people who would come close to one another with obligations that limit their ability to freely interact and express themselves to each other.
Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments
is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
The commandments, however, were more than merely arbitrary rules. It was not as though Jesus said, "You must love dogs to be my disciple" and arbitrary excluded cat people from being his followers. The commandments mattered to Jesus because they were about things that were universally important. Jesus summarized their meaning as being ultimately all about love of God and love of neighbor (see Matthew 22:36-40). These were the two pillars that defined his own life. They would then also be the requisite shared interest of those who would be his friends. Who could claim to be a friend of Jesus while disregarding what was first and most important in his heart? Such a friend would be so in name only, if they were indifferent to that which mattered most to their supposed friend.
This is the way we may know that we are in union with him:
whoever claims to abide in him ought to walk just as he walked.
The only way we can share a path with Jesus is to share his priorities. If we don't care for the commandments or the idea of seeking the Kingdom first our paths may occasionally intersect with Jesus, we may be impressed by him, touched by the things he does, but we will not follow or fall into step with him. And so we ought to ask ourselves, do we have enough room in our hearts for the things that matter to Jesus? Do we have enough concern for those things that matter to him that they can actually modify our own course and set our direction over the long haul of our lives, and not merely and fits and starts of fervor?
Lord, now let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:
my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you prepared in the sight of every people,
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.
Simeon was an example of one whose heart delighted in the things that mattered to God. Because of this he was open to the fulfillment God himself delivered. Had he been preoccupied with his own projects and interests more than the Kingdom he might have noted with mild interest the coming of the child Jesus into the temple, if, that is, he noticed at all. It was the Spirit that oriented his entire life in the direction of that encounter with Jesus. And it was the Spirit who led him there at that moment. Yet without being led thus he could not have experienced the fulfillment that came from witnessing with his own eyes the light and salvation for every people and nation and the glory of Israel. It was because he cared about the things of God that made that day different from any other he would ever know.
When we come to the hour of our own death will we be able to say with Simeon, "Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled" or will we rather be preoccupied with the projects we have left undone, and those we have finished but which have left us unsatisfied? Let us learn from Simeon the secret to leaving in peace full of fulfillment because God delivered, and will always deliver.
John wrote of commandments as both old and new. On the one hand this was as old as the Torah, and in that sense nothing particularly new. But on the other hand, because Jesus had come and fully fulfilled the commandments, living them out completely there was something new about them. It was new because the perfect fulfillment of the commandments was now demonstrated out of love for us and for the Father. Jesus demonstrated that the commandments were worthy of trust because he was worthy of our love, he who first loved us. Because by his grace we could share his own yoke in order to walk the path he walked. Because of his love we ought not fear to do so.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another (see John 13:34).
If responding to the love of Jesus matters to us and motivates us we too can hope to find fulfillment and finally go in peace when our own time comes just as Simeon did.
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