Abide in My love (John 15:9-17)
Do you long for love and joy?
If you are a living, breathing human being, the answer is yes. It is also probably that you have pursued love and gotten your heart broken. Or that you have sought happy feelings only to discover that such feelings are fleeting!
After revealing Himself as the true Vine, Jesus says in John 15:9-11:
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 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. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
What is it to abide in Christ’s love?
Let’s break this down into two questions. First, what does it mean to abide? Consider a child who abides in his father’s house. He abides under the roof, in the presence, according to the rules (hopefully), and through the nourishment of his the parents. To abide is to remain or dwell in the presence, protection, and precepts of another.
What then is the love that we abide in? The love of God has no earthly equal. It is vast, unmeasured, boundless, and best of all—FREE!
God is love. It is His nature. And so we can only know true love as God reveals Himself to us. This He did in the form of His Son who lived, suffered, and died for you.
You want to know love? Look at the cross. There is after all, no greater love than that someone lay down his life for his friends (vs. 13). And this is what Jesus did FOR YOU!
How is your joy full?
In His autobiography, Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis articulates joy as something vastly different than happiness or pleasure. He recounts looking for joy as a place (inside himself or elsewhere). Instead he learned that joy is a Person—Jesus Christ.
You may find happiness for a moment. But when tragedy strikes, what will remain? If Christ remains (i.e. abides), so will joy. True joy is known through a life connected to the true Vine by faith. No matter the storm, this faith rests on the One who defeated sin, death, and the Devil. This is why the psalmist could say:
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)
So what?
There are many voices clamoring for your attention today. Christ’s voice also is calling.
His call is to believe!
If you do not know Jesus, He invites you to believe the blessed truth that “God so loved [you] that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn [you], but in order that [you] might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17)His fruit will grow!
If you believe in Jesus, live like part of the Vine! Love your neighbor. Serve in the body of Christ. Remain regularly in the Word of God and in fellowship with other believers!
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)