Abide Week 5 Devotional

Author: Brian Marchionni

Thoughts on John 15:9

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love.”

Monday, November 2, 2009

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you...

At the beginning of our text, Jesus explains Himself in terms of the Father. This pattern is found in nearly every chapter of John’s gospel, and often multiple times. Jesus’ identity and self-understanding are inextricably tied to the Father. To know one is to know the other (Jn. 14:7). He does only what He sees the Father doing (Jn. 5:19-20). He says only what the Father has taught Him (Jn. 8:28; 12:50). To know Jesus is to know the Father (Jn. 8:19); conversely, to hate Jesus is to hate the Father (Jn. 15:23). Jesus and the Father are one (Jn. 10:30).

The implications are far-reaching and profound, but in one instance, we are reminded of God’s very nature: He Himself is a loving community. God Himself is the epitome of unity in diversity, and love in community. While we are most certainly not God, we are created in His image (Gen. 1:26-27), and therefore purposed to reflect His character. One of the principle ways we do this is through relationship: As God loves, so do we love (Jn. 13:34); as God is one, so are we meant to be one with our brothers and sisters in Christ (Jn. 17:21; 1 Cor. 12:12; 2 Cor. 13:10). As Christ’s life was saturated with His relationship to the Father, so also should ours be.

Meditate for some time on the relational character of God. How will you reflect God’s character this week? Ask the Lord for insight into this question, and strength for your faithful response.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you...

Love begins with God. Indeed, it began with God. From His loving provision for humankind in the first chapters of Genesis, to His loving sacrifice on the cross, to His loving redemption of all creation, the initiative, realization, and completion of love’s work is God’s. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us” (1 Jn. 4:10a).

Jesus models this in His expression of love to the disciples: it starts with the Father. Jesus uses the same model for His command three verses later, “Love each other as I have loved you” (Jn. 15:12). We see the model again as Jesus commissions His disciples to spread His message, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you” (Jn. 20:21). Indeed, in every area of life, and on every page of Scripture, the initiative is always God’s. It was God who chose Abram; it was God who freed His people in the Exodus; it was God who raised up prophets, judges, and kings to speak for Him and do His will; it was God who became human to secure our salvation; it was God who established His Church; it was God who first convicted us of sin, and lead us to faith in Him for forgiveness. John Newton got it right: “I once was lost, but now am found.” God found him, not the other way around.

We are therefore reminded of Jesus’ words earlier in this chapter, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5b). Without God’s prior, present and future action in our lives, we are not merely a ship without a rudder. We are naked in the middle of the ocean. This realization is doubly humbling. On the one hand, like the Psalmist, we can marvel in awestruck wonder that the Lord of heaven and earth should care for our every moment (Ps. 8). On the other, we recognize that we have no power for godliness within ourselves, and therefore praise Him that “His divine power has given us all we need for life and godliness.” (2 Pet. 1:3a, emphasis mine).

Spend time today thanking and praising God for His initiative in your life, and the life of His Church. Thank God for His revelation: in nature, in His Word, His Son, and His Spirit. Thank Him also that He gives us power to live the life to which we’re called. Trust in that very power to live a godly life.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you…

The words translated “has loved” and “have loved” in our verse both indicate completeness. They are not events of the past, nor are they moments in time. The verbs rather indicate a complete action, viewed as a whole, and lacking nothing. God’s love is eternal, perfect, and lacks nothing, which is precisely what we would expect from the God who is Himself eternal, perfect, and lacking nothing. As C.S. Lewis said, “Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not” (emphasis mine).

How easy it is to impose our own capacity for love on God! Where we are swayed by circumstance and contingency, God is not. Where our patience runs out, God’s does not. Where we grow weary, God does not. Where we are quick to condemn, God is not. Where we give little for fear of loss, God gives everything, His own Son inclusive, for our gain.

Amazing love! How can it be,

That Thou my God shouldst die for me!

Father in Heaven, thank you for loving us with your complete, perfect and eternal love. May the reality of Your love never escape our purview, that we may live the balance of our days with the joy, peace, security and humility that comes from this simple but profound truth. May we also strive to express Your love to others by the power of Your Spirit, and love even as we are loved.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

…so I have loved you…

There is a story told of a medieval monk who advertised an evening sermon about Jesus’ love. The curious townsfolk gathered into the church as darkness filled the sanctuary. In the darkness, the monk lit a candle and walked over to the crucifix behind the altar. He moved the candle over to Jesus’ hands, letting light fall over his bloody wounds. He then moved the candle over to Christ’s side, where the deep injury from a cold spear gaped. He then moved the candle to His feet, tense and mutilated with abuse. Finally, he held the candle up to Jesus’ head, showing the crown of thorns, and the anguish on His face. In silence, he blew out the candle, and ended his sermon.

While reflection on the cross is powerfully expressive of Jesus’ love, we must always remember that it is only the first half of the story. Jesus did not only die to take upon Himself the sins of the world. He also rose again to give us new life. He conquered sin and death once and for all, such that we too may have eternal life (see 1 Cor. 15). If Christ merely died, it may be a supreme example of love, but it is also a supreme example of love defeated. But this is not love, for love is no tragedy. Quite contrary, “Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8a). Jesus lay down His life only to take it up again (Jn. 10:17). The complete picture of Christ’s love is found in His death and resurrection.

Thank you Lord that You loved us enough to die and rise again such that we may know and enjoy your love for all eternity May we live our lives with joyful hope, knowing that we are not only forgiven, but also redeemed, and promised life eternal with You.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Now remain in my love.

We cannot escape God’s love, nor can we earn more (or less) of it. However, we can forfeit the fullness of its blessing by our response. Our enjoyment of God’s love is affected, at least in part, by our response to it. Jesus’ love comes with an invitation to receive it; we’re called to respond.

How do we remain in Christ’s love? What is our response? The answer is in the next verse: we remain in Christ’s love by keeping His commands. The formula is the same as we noted in Tuesday’s devotion: just as Jesus keeps God’s commands, so do we keep Christ’s (Jn. 15:10). Thus we remain in Jesus’ love in the same way He remained in the Father’s love: through obedience to His command. What is Jesus’ command? The model appears again, as Jesus loved us, so we are told to love each other (Jn. 15:12).

The proper response to love, then, is love. Love by its nature works outward; properly expressed, it cannot contain itself. Accepting love does not entail mere acknowledgment. The evidence of love accepted is love expressed. When I offered my love to the woman who would later become my wife, I wasn’t hoping for her to say, “I believe you” or “I understand.” I was hoping (praying, really) for her wholehearted acceptance of that love, such that she would love me in return. Love is the consummate multiplier, and cannot but beget more of itself as it finds proper expression in our lives.

Reflect today on those that love you. How do you love them? How do you love those that do not love you? Does the love you receive overflow unto others? Is your life marked by multiplying love? Consider God’s immeasurable love for you, and ask Him how you can turn that same love outward to others.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Now remain in my love.

The verb for “remain” also carries the sense of a completed action, viewed as a whole, not in parts. It is a tennis match, not a single serve. It is fair to translate “remain” as “abide,” or “continue.” No matter the translator’s choice, the thrust of the command is the same. We stay. We persevere. We keep on.

It can be tempting to think of remaining in Jesus’ love as a moment by moment pass/fail test. Every second, our status in Christ’s love is in one of two places, depending on whether or not we fulfill the weighty injunction to love others as Christ loves us. To think this way, however, misses the point of the text, which is less an ultimatum between two extremes, and more an invitation to persist with Jesus.

Our direction and our posture as we strive to live out obedient lives is what is in mind. Indeed we may fail, but we fail as we strive for obedience; our failure occurs in the context of our endeavor for obedience. The metaphor of a race is appropriate: We stumble, we gasp, we fall, perhaps we even stop and consider quitting, but in the end, we continue to run and strive for the finish line, so we may say with Paul that we “finished the race”(2 Tim. 4:7). We are not so much concerned with our time as our finishing. This is “remaining.”

This does not mean we take our disobedience lightly, or relax our efforts towards the finish line. It means that by God’s power, we run. We fall, we repent, and we run. We doubt, we search, and we run. We grow weary, we pray, and we run. The command is no more complicated than taking Christ’s open hand in yours as He says, “Run.”

Read Philippians 3, focusing on vv.12-14. Take some time today to meditate on your walk with God thus far, be it for one week or fifty years. How did you respond to setbacks? To failure? Doubt? Weariness? Disappointment? Now consider that you have persevered, but your race is not yet run. Spend some time thanking God for His faithfulness in your life, and asking Him for renewed strength and resolve to run the race He has marked out for you.