Sorry, John, for being unclear. Because you quoted 1 John, which I assumed was your equating law keeping with love for Christ, I just put that together with John 14:15 to see what it would look like. It looked like this:

If you obey My commandments you will keep My commandments.

What does it mean to love Christ before law keeping? How is it done, since Jesus intimates that our love for Him can be present in the soul prior to keeping His commandments?

Is this an issue of sanctification by faith and not justification by faith.

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Marcos Peters
Twynholm Baptist Church (FIEC)
London England

For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, "IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED." And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, "I AM FULL OF FEAR and trembling." But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. Hebrews 12:18-24