“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.”
John 15:9-14
Jesus laid His life down for us, His friends. Jesus demonstrated the greatest, deepest, and most perfect love there is when He died on the cross for us. He didn’t hold anything back, Jesus gave up everything for you and for me. But He didn’t stop there. Jesus, very clearly, shows us how to live a life that is filled up to overflowing with His love and joy each and every day of our lives in today’s verses.
“Remain!” Jesus walked on this earth remaining in His Father’s love by keeping His Father’s commands. The Father sent Jesus to the earth to fulfill a very specific purpose, to be the sacrifice that would bring His children back into an intimate relationship with Him. Philippians 2:8, from yesterday, says, “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Jesus walked in relationship with the Father, He obeyed the Father, and fulfilled His purpose and His joy is complete!
In today’s verses, Jesus is teaching us to live the way He lived while He was on this earth. He lived the example, showing us how to remain in His love, by keeping His commands, obeying His teachings, and walking in relationship with God, just as He did. What is the command in these verses? “Love each other as I have loved you.” Jesus is teaching us to live selfless lives, sacrificially pouring out His love into all the people He brings into our lives. When we let go of our self-centered nature and love selflessly, not with our love, but with the love of Christ, Jesus blesses us by pouring His joy, a complete joy, into our hearts. What a beautiful way to live!
I hear many people who don’t live in relationship with the Father talking about hoping to get into Heaven because they love people. They are deceived into thinking it’s all about their love. Loving others doesn’t bring us into a relationship with God. In John 14:6 – Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” It’s only through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that we come into the Father’s love. Then we choose to keep God’s commands, allowing Him to show us how He created us to live. This is how we remain in His beautiful love and then His joy fills up our hearts. It’s all about God’s love flowing into us and then out through us to others. This is only accomplished through our personal relationship with God.
Today’s Verses
“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.”
John 15:9-14
Scripture Inspired Prayer
Thank You for loving me so much that You laid Your life down to save me. Thank You for setting the example of selflessly loving others while You were here on earth. Change my heart to love sacrificially like You did, Jesus. Help me love my enemies and the people I don’t feel like loving. I want to live my life in obedience to the Father and remain safely tucked away in Your love. Show me what needs to change and help me change it. Come and fill my heart to overflowing with Your complete joy and love as I walk with You.
