Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten

Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten ("If a man love me, he will keep my words", more literally: "He who loves me will obey my commands"), BWV 74, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for Pentecost and first performed it on 20 May 1725. It is the sixth of nine cantatas on texts by Christiana Mariana von Ziegler, with whom Bach collaborated at the end of his second cantata cycle. It begins with a choral movement, a reworking of one on the same text that Bach had composed for Pentecost 1723. For a closing chorale she used the second stanza from Paul Gerhardt's hymn "Gott Vater, sende deinen Geist". She quoted the Bible three times, from the Gospel twice and one from the epistle. Much of her text was based on the Gospel of John. Bach scored the cantata for four vocal soloists (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of three trumpets, timpani, two oboes, an oboe da caccia, strings and basso continuo.