Christ’s first point is that love learns. Everything hangs on verse 23 – ‘If a man love me, he will keep my words.
Do we see in a congregation somebody asleep? Not because they are tired, but because they are bored, not interested so their eyes are roaming everywhere. Well, the reason is they do not love Christ because if they loved him, they would want to learn. Of course we allow for the fact that the preacher can be boring, the preacher can mangle the truth and take the interest out of it – he has got a heavy responsibility not to do that. However, the fault may be in the hearer who is perhaps not a Christian and so naturally bored, or is perhaps a Christian that is somewhat backslidden and whose love for Christ is low. Love for Christ is expressed in a longing to learn and to know, even a desire to be convicted, a desire to be moved, a desire to be blessed.