Keeping Jesus' commandments are spoken of as a condition of Jesus answering our prayers as Christians. However we can't as some say just ask or speak something we want even if it is a generally good thing and always expect God will give it to us especially right away as other scriptures mentions that God sometimes expects Christians to take up our cross or suffer or bear trials for God and Jesus which can take the form of God not answering or not answering right away our prayers even in Jesus' name. What are Jesus' commandments. Some would teach that they are the top two commandments Jesus summarized of the law of Moses, others might say the 10 commandments or even all the commandments under the Law of Moses but I think verse 23 specifies more correctly and realistically what Jesus' commandments are to His people especially of this age that is Christians and to believe in Him for those who would consider becoming Christians or God's heavenly or spiritual people of this age the Church. These commandments are that we should believe on name of God's Son Jesus Christ which includes to recognize that He is a divine person with God the FAther and the Holy Spirit and His name includes that Jesus came to do God's work of salvation for all people that would come to God through Him and trust in His death for our sins on the cross and resurrection from the dead to give us new life if we trust in Him as our personal Lord and Saviour. Then when we are Christians we should have love or God's unselfish love to other especially true or born of the HOly Spirit or biblical Christians. The apostle John then says that if we keep these commandments of Jesus we dwell spiritually in relationship or fellowship with Jesus and He in us. We know that Jesus abides or lives in us by Jesus and God the Father's indwelling in our heart Holy Spirit. The scripture reference from 1 John 3 of Jesus' commandments and some promises to Christians or the true Church based on keeping them is as follows:
And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. 1 John 3:22-24
From Gospel of John 13 one of Jesus' commandments is for true Christians, His people in this present age, to love one another. This is to love one another as He loved us with His unselfish love that led Him to die on the cross for our sins after humbling Himself to come from the glories of heaven to this more mundane world and bear opposition and misunderstanding and the weakness of being in the form of a human being to show His love for us including to identify with us. This is one of Jesus' commandments that He talks about for His people to keep as mentioned in the next chapter (John 14) as much more likely than the 10 commandments or something from the Old Testament that wasn't primarily Jesus' commdandments. Jesus said it was His will that the love of true Christians for each other was one thing that He wanted others including non Christians to know Christians for. The scripture reference in Gospel of John 13 about Jesus' commandment to Christians to love one another as one of His main commandments to His spiritual or heavenly people the Church and as one thing He wanted us to be known for in the sight of people on earth in general is as follows:
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. Gospel of John 13:34-35
As was mentioned above in 1 John 3 Jesus mentioned what His two commandments were for people to believe in Him and for Christians to love one another. Later on in this chapter John 14 Jesus talks about keeping His commandments as a way for His people of this age to show our love to Him. Although to believe in Jesus isn't stated specifically as a commandment before Jesus mentioned to keep His commandments, it is stated twice in the imperative or commandment tense by Jesus before he stated to keep his commandments as a demonstation of loving Him. Although this commandment to believe in Jesus was first given to those who already had believed to saving faith in Jesus namely his disciples, Jesus commandment to believe in Him is still a commandment people that are not yet saved or that don't yet have a relationship with God through Jesus need to do and can do in the sense of believing in the Lord JEsus as the one who died for our sins on the cross and rose again although we also need to believe in Jesus as one in the Divine Trinity with God the FAther (and the Holy Spirit). The commandment of Jesus from Gospel of John 14 to believe in Him that is later one of Jesus' commandments for established or new disciples to show love for Him is as follows:
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. ... Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. Gospel of John 14:1, 11.
The Lord Jesus Christ said later in the Gospel of John 14 that if we that is true or born again Christians we will keep His commandments if we love Him. These commandments of Jesus are to believe in Him (that He is the Son of God or God in the flesh who died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead to give us new life and that He is one Divine Being with the Father (and the Holy Spirit) and that we should love other Christians with God's agape or unselfish love. Jesus also says that if we keep these commandments of His that He will love us and in our showing our love for Him in keeping these commandments of His to believe in Him and love other Christians we will be loved of God the Father and that Jesus will manifest Himself to us. Jesus goes on in the next verses to say that He and God the Father would also indwell believers that keep His words or sayings that are related to His commandments. The scripture reference from Gospel of John 14 of the Lord Jesus Christ saying that for Christians to show love for Him by keeping His commandments which also earlier in this Upper Room discourse are to believe in Him and for Christians to love one another and that if we keep Jesus' commandments Jesus and the Father will indwell us and we will also be loved by God the Father is as follows:
(Jesus said) If ye love me, keep my commandments. ... 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. Gospel of John 14:15, 21
In a debate of Jesus with some of the scribes and Pharisees that were His adversaries Jesus countered their tradition with commandments from God through Moses in the Law of Moses. Jesus refers to these commandments as the commandment of God meaning the commandments of a Person of the Godhead other than Himself in this case of God the Father. Jesus is saying that these aren't what He later calls His commandments that He wants His chosen heavenly or spiritual people the Church to keep. His commandments are as above especially to believe in Him and love other Christians. Therefore I don't think that in John 14:15 Jesus is saying for Christians to keep the Law of Moses or God's commandments to Israel, God's chosen earthly people, in the Old Testament. However much of the 10 commandments, except keeping the sabbath, are repeated to the Church in the epistles of Paul in the New Testament for the Church as guidelines but not as rigorously as for Israel. The Church is not strictly under the law as Israel was but is under faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation and following the leading of God's holy Spirit and God's grace by which we stand for Christian life and service. The scripture reference from the Gospel of Matthew 15 of some of God the Father's commandments, as distinct from Jesus' commandments, is as follows:
Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also trangress the commandments of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying; Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profiteth by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandments of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias (Isaiah) prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Matthew 15:1-9
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