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Author: Stephen Weller
582 words, 3 minutes read time

Abide In His Love

Scripture: John 15:9-10

With the previous lesson we finished the section in which Jesus claimed to be the true vine and we as its branches that are to bear much fruit. This is in contrast to Israel who did not bear fruit. With this lesson we will continue our study of John 15 in the section that relates to remaining in the love of Jesus and in loving one another.

^{Jn 15:9} “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

In John 5, Jesus was teaching on his authority as the Son of God and pointed out that he did what he saw his Father doing. “For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19 ESV). Jesus then points out that the Father loves the Son. One of the reasons why the Father loves the Son is because Jesus is going to lay down his life that he may take it up again (John 10:17).

As the Father loves Jesus, Jesus loves us, and as we were told to abide in him (John 15:4 – 7), we are now told to abide in his love. As the person who abides in Jesus bears fruit, then to abide in his love should produce something. Each born again believer is described as the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). The Holy Spirit is God and God is love (1 John 4:8, 16), and love has characteristics of “joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22 – 23 ESV). If we abide in his love then we should live out those characteristics in our relationships with others.

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15 ESV) and in John 14:23 (ESV) Jesus replaces commandments with “word”. He said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” Here in John 15:10, Jesus reverses the words, indicating that keeping his commandments is a demonstration of our love for him and that we are abiding in his love.

Keeping his commandments is not drudgery but is motivated by joy. It was because of the joy that was set before Jesus that he was able to obey his Father and endure the cross, despising the shame he experienced (Hebrews 12:2). We are given the command to “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31 ESV) and according to Isaiah 25:9, we rejoice in our salvation. As God’s people, everlasting joy shall be upon our heads and we shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away (Isaiah 35:10).

Conclusion

The more I study and write Bible lessons, the more I realize that our relationships with each other will be quite different in heaven. We will abide perfectly in his love (which is agape love) all the time and as we do we will experience and enjoy living out the characteristics of love (“joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”) perfectly between us all the time. Try to imagine that because it will one day be realized and will last forever.