21b And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
God is greatly pleased with everyone who loves His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves such a one. Thus, if we love Christ, there falls upon our hearts the blessings of the Father’s love. This is not to say that the Father’s love for us is caused or motivated by our love for Him. Neither does it mean that His love towards us begin only when we begin to love Christ. We could not have loved Him, if He did not love us first. What the Lord Jesus asserts here is that when an individual loves Him, the Father would express His pleasure to him by new and grander expressions of His love. The one who loves and obeys the Lord Jesus Christ shall know the depths of the Father’s sacred love and favours.
Moreover, he who loves Christ is also assured of Christ’s abiding love. As we walk in the way of obedience, motivated by our love for Him, Christ will favour us with the increasing unveiling of His love. The more we love Christ, the more of His love we shall know. Those who faithfully follow their loving Lord shall be granted greater experiences of His love.
Jesus also assures the one who loves Him that He will manifest Himself to him. He is talking about revealing Himself in a spiritual sense. He shall reveal Himself in a man’s heart or to his spiritual senses. An unsaved person does not have spiritual perception; the only one who can comprehend the manifestation which Christ is talking about, is the one who loves Him and shows his love by obedience.
In John 14:23, Jesus said, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” It is the pleasure of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as it is with His Father, to bless those who love Him with His presence, and thus with more intimate, vivid and compelling demonstrations of His love.
In 1 Corinthians 2:9, the apostle Paul, in citing Isaiah 64:4, said that “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” All which the Lord has prepared for those who love Him are so wondrous that they will cause them to love Him even more. If we continue in our love for Christ, we shall be led by Him to greater enjoyment of His presence, truth, grace, comfort, power and all such blessings as He has promised.