“Remain in my love”

In John 15:9, Jesus told his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”

Which may not have been that difficult for the disciples to grasp because they’d “remained” in his love for the last three plus years. He’d deeply loved them and they’d grown to love him – but that meant they’d be “filled with grief” when he left them (16:5-6), so how could they “remain” in his love when they couldn’t see or feel his love in person anymore? 

Jesus answered that in John 15:10, when he told his disciples, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” And Jesus was speaking from experience too, because his Father had not been with him in person either, yet he’d lived as a human in the constant knowledge of his Father’s love. Fortunately, then, he knew from his own experience the exact combination to open that lock for his disciples too. 

The combination being obeying known commands. And that was exactly the same for Jesus as it was for his disciples. But how do the two tie in together? How, for instance, did obeying his Father’s commands translate into Jesus knowing his Father deeply loved him?

Well, what did his Father command him to do, first of all? Jesus answered that back in John 10:18, when he actually spoke of the “command I received from my Father,” the exact command being to “lay down my life for the sheep” (15), which he willingly did “of my own accord” (18).” And that was “the reason my Father loves me” (17). He knew his Father loved him, because that’s what the Father made Jesus fully aware of in response to Jesus’ willingness to lay down his life for his disciples. 

Which takes us back to John 15:12 and Jesus’ specific command to his disciples, which was to “Love each other as I have loved you.” In other words, “lay down your life for others like I laid down my life for you.” Which is exactly what Jesus went on to say in verse 13, that “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Result? For their willingness to lay down their lives for each other, Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command” (14). Like his Father did for him, Jesus makes it known to us that we are his dearest friends, constantly and always, to which he adds: “So that my joy may be in you”….(next blog)