Remaining in Love

CONSECRATION Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  SCRIPTURE John 15:9–17 NIV “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” CONSIDER THIS This passage is part of what some have called the “Upper Room Discourse,” a glimpse into the final conversations Jesus had with His friends before His arrest in Gethsemane. Fully aware of what was to come, Jesus distilled the absolute essentials of His teaching—the truths His disciples would need to carry forward—during this final evening together. In the middle of these conversations, Jesus shares a profound truth: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you” (v. 9a). Sit with that for a minute. We are loved with the same love the Father has for the Son. He then issues a command and an invitation based on this reality: “Now remain in my love” (v. 9b). Seems simple and sounds great. But how do we remain in His love? Jesus’s answer may seem surprising: “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (v. 10). At first glance, this raises some questions. Does this mean God’s love is conditional upon our behavior? Isn’t God’s love supposed to be unconditional? To answer these, we must look carefully at what command Jesus is referring to. He explains it clearly in verse 12: “Love each other as I have loved you.” This command is consistent with the commandments of Jesus throughout Scripture. When asked what the greatest commandment is in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matt. 22:37–39). The commands of Jesus are commandments of love. Jesus compares our keeping of His commands to His keeping of His Father’s commands. Going back to our original question about the love of God being conditional, we know that the Father’s love never ceased for Jesus. It would be an impossibility. And we know within the wider narrative of Scripture that God’s love is revealed to not be contingent on human obedience or faithfulness. So what are we to make of the statement: “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love” (v. 10)? Jesus is not saying His love for us ceases to exist if we don’t keep His commands. But He does seem to suggest that our remaining in it—in other words, our awareness of it, our abiding in it, living in it—is impacted by our obedience to love one another. Jesus elaborates and goes on to say: “You are my friends if you do what I command” (v. 14). This may sound like a condition, but within the wider context of what Jesus is saying, it is actually an invitation to greater intimacy. Obedience to Jesus’s commands is not about earning His love but about participating in His friendship. Jesus declares that He will no longer call His disciples servants, but friends. Why? Servants don’t know the master’s business, but friends do (v. 15). In other words, we don’t just know His commands, but also His heart. The roles of a servant and a friend both involve obedience, but one involves intimacy. Obedience without intimacy leads to legalism, fear, and self-righteousness. It assumes that God’s love is conditional or does not exist at all. Obedience from intimacy leads to love, freedom, and delight. It knows God’s love is unconditional because it is aligned with the heart of the Father. Friendship with Jesus does not mean we have the freedom to disobey Him. Rather, it transforms the nature of our obedience. It distinguishes between earning God’s love (which we cannot do) or striving to avoid punishment and putting in effort to respond to His love and seeking to know Him more deeply. As we remain in God’s love, we are compelled to love one another. As we love one another, we are drawn deeper into God’s love. This is not about meeting conditions for God’s love but about stepping into the fullness of it. As we remain in God’s love and love one another, we step into the fullness of His love—a love that transforms us, draws us closer to Him, and overflows into the world. In this, our joy is made complete, and we bear fruit that lasts. RESPONSE PROMPTS How do you understand the connection between obedience and remaining in God’s love? Do you tend to operate as a friend of Jesus, obeying Jesus from intimacy, or a servant of Jesus, obeying Him out of fear or trying to earn His approval? PRAYER Jesus, thank You for calling us friends. Help us to obey Your command to love, not in our own strength or striving, but from a place of deep friendship with You. Draw us into deeper awareness of Your love for us and one another. Amen.