Maybe we should cut down on telling people to love Jesus... Do they really have to?

Jesus asks Peter, at the end of the gospel of John, if he loves Jesus. Clearly, in this case, the question mattered.

But I can’t think of to many other parts of the New Testament that we are explicitly told to love Jesus.

Sure, lots of places in the bible tell us to love God throughout the entirety of the bible - with the incarnation obviously pointing this to including Jesus, but “loving Jesus” isn’t stressed to the degree that we do within the modern church.

We tell everyone to love Jesus.

This is what you need to do.

This is what will inspire you.

This is what will strengthen you.

This is what you aim for.

But, does it need to be?

Could we just follow Jesus, but not love Him?

Couldn’t you just obey Jesus, but not love Him?

Isn’t this what you do when you first convert? 

Sure, obeying and following may result in loving Jesus...

Appreciation for what God has done, through Christ, can result in loving Him...

But... do you HAVE to love Jesus?

Is this a nonnegotiable?

Does this make you a Christian?

Frankly, I don’t think so.

And yet... we stress it soo much.

And I wonder what effect this has upon those - especially men and younger people - who struggle with our primacy to “love Jesus.”

How much angst would be reduced if we withdrew the dependency on “loving Jesus”? (Plenty of people have Googled the question “I don’t know if I love Jesus enough”)