9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
Jesus now returned to the crucial theme of love, beginning at verse 9. Note the elements of His presentation on love:
The Father loves the Son
The Son loves the Father
The Son loves His followers
Jesus’ followers are to remain in His love
Jesus’ followers are to love the Son by appropriating His teaching
Being loved by the Son implies loving fellow believers
9 “As the Father loved Me,
Jesus was the object of the Father’s unceasing, unconditional love. This was a love that eternally existed before the foundation of the world. It was also the paradigm for the relationship between Jesus and His apostles.
I also have loved [completed] you;
The Father’s love for the Son is the basis for the Son’s love for His disciples. Jesus wanted His followers to possess assurance of His and the Father’s love for them. They were loved because the Mediator came down to them.
Jesus used the pattern of the Father’s love to love His disciples. The disciples were to love like Jesus loved them throughout His public ministry.
abide [remain] in My love.
The word “abide” means to continue communion with someone. Jesus asked for a return of love from His disciples. They were to consciously continue in His love for them.
The next verse shows how the disciples were to remain in Jesus’ love—by appropriation of His words (Jn 15:7). We are to remain in Jesus’ love the way He remained in the Father’s love in a completed sense. Our paradigm is to construct our love based on Jesus’ love. Our love for Jesus is the wellspring for following Him.
PRINCIPLE:
Believers are to use the same paradigm of love for fellow believers as the Father and Son loving them.
APPLICATION:
God’s love opens our hearts to abide in that love. It is important to dwell in the love of Christ in order to fellowship with Him properly. Bearing fruit implies loving others as God loves us.
Jesus brings us into the community of love between Him and the Father. His love for us is not affected by our attitudes or actions toward Him. Love of the Father and Son toward Christians should produce mutual love among believers.
Some people disregard the love they once experienced from the Lord. They fall from His love and treat it as frivolous. We should be on guard to preserve our love for Him. We will see how we can maintain that love in the next verse.
We break fellowship with the Lord by disregarding His love for us. Many Christians go extended periods of time without giving attention to Jesus’ love for them. This creates a vacuous gap of fellowship between us and the Lord.
We appropriate Jesus’ teaching because of our love for Him. To obey Jesus is no heavy task because we do what we do out of love for our Lord.
