Abiding in Love
A. Maclaren, D. D. John 15:9-11 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: continue you in my love.… The last of these verses shows that they are to be taken as a kind of conclusion of the parable of the vine. They have three words as their keynotes — love, obedience, joy. I. THE LOVE IN WHICH IT IS OUR SWEET DUTY TO ABIDE. What shall we say about these mysterious and profound words? They carry us into the very depths of Divinity. 1. Christ here claims to be, in a unique fashion, the object of the Father's love, and to be able to love like God. As deeply, purely, fully, eternally, and with all the unnameable perfectnesses which must belong to the Divine affection, does Christ declare that He loves us. 2. In this affection He exhorts us to abide. The command to abide in Him suggests much that is blessed, but to have all that mysterious abiding in Him resolved into abiding in His love is infinitely tenderer, and draws us still closer to Himself. What is meant is not our continuance in the attitude of love to Him, but rather our continuance in the atmosphere of His love to us. But then, whosoever thus abides in Christ's love to Him will echo it back again in an equally continuous love to Him. 3. This continuance is a thing in our power since it is commanded. What a quiet, blessed home that is for us! The image, I suppose, that underlies dwelling in Christ, in His joy, in His words, in His peace, is the image of some safe house in which we may be secure. II. THE OBEDIENCE BY WHICH WE CONTINUE IN CHRIST'S LOVE. The analogy, on which He has already touched, is still continued. "If ye keep My commandments," etc. Note — 1. That Christ here claims for Himself absolute and unbroken conformity with the Father's will, and consequent uninterrupted and complete communion with the Father's love. It is the utterance of a nature conscious of no sin, of a humanity that never knew one instant's film of separation between Him and the Father. No more tremendous words were ever spoken than these. 2. Christ here, with His consciousness of perfect obedience and communion, intercepts our obedience and diverts it to Himself. He does not say, "Obey God as I have done and He will love you;" but He says, "Obey Me as I obey God and I will love you." Who is this that thus comes between the child's heart and the Father's? Does He come between? or does He rather lead us up to the Father, and to a share in His own filial obedience? 3. By keeping His commandments, we shall continue in that sweet home and safe stronghold of His love. (1) Of course the keeping of the commandment is something more than mere outward conformity by action. It is the inward harmony of will, and the bowing of the whole nature. (2) He will love us better the more we obey His commandments, for although His tender heart is charged with the love of pity and of desire to help towards all, He cannot but feel a growing thrill of satisfied affection towards us, in the measure in which we become like Himself. (3) The obedience which we render for love's sake will make us more capable of receiving, and more blessedly conscious of possessing, the love of Jesus Christ. The lightest cloud before the sun will prevent it from focussing its rays to a burning point on the convex glass. And the small, thin, fleeting, scarcely visible acts of self-will that sometimes pass across our skies will prevent our feeling the warmth of that love upon our shrouded hearts. You cannot rejoice in Jesus Christ unless you do His will. You will have no real comfort and blessedness in your religion unless it works itself out in your daily lives. (4) We shall continue in His love by obedience, inasmuch as every emotion which finds expression in our daily life is strengthened by the fact that it is expressed. The love which works is love which grows, and the tree that bears fruit is the tree that is healthy and increases. 4. So, note how all these deepest things of Christian teaching come at last to a plain piece of practical duty. We talk about the mysticism of John's Gospel, about the depth of these last sayings of Jesus Christ. Yes! They are mystical, they are deep, but connected by the shortest possible road with the plainest possible duties. It is no use talking about communion with Jesus Christ, and abiding in Him, the possession of His love, and all those other properly mystical sides of Christian experience, unless you verify them for yourselves by the plain way of practice. III. THE JOY WHICH FOLLOWS ON THIS PRACTICAL OBEDIENCE (ver. 11). 1. A strange time to talk of His "joy." In half an hour he would be in Gethsemane. Was Christ a joyful Man? He was a man of sorrows. But it is said of Him, "Thou hast loved righteousness,...therefore God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows." Absolute surrender and submission in love to the beloved commands of a loving Father made Him, in spite of the baptism with which He was baptized, the most joyful of men. 2. This joy He offers to us. There is no joy to compare with that deep, solid, continuous sunshine which floods the soul, that is freed from all the clouds and mists of self and the darkness of sin. Self-sacrifice at the bidding of Jesus Christ is the recipe for the most God-like gladnesses. Our joy will remain if His joy is ours. Then our joy will be up to the measure of its capacity, ennobled, and advancing ever towards fuller possession. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. WEB: Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.