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 – John 15:9-10
INTRODUCTION
Remain in my love – Jesus calls us to a life of holy intimacy and personal devotion to Him. This is
possible because of God’s love for us, which he has poured into our hearts by the holy spirit
(Romans 5:5). God demonstrated His great love through Christ’s dying for us while we were still
sinners (Romans 5:8). We remain in Jesus’ love by pursuing spiritual intimacy and
communication with Him, and by obeying His commands, just as He did with the Father.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of
God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know
Him. – 1 John 3:1
CHILDREN OF GOD
The truth that God is our Heavenly Father and we are His children is one of the greatest
revelations in the New Testament.
- Being a child of God, adopted in Christ as His very own (Ephesians 1:5), is a high honour
on privilege of our salvation. (Galatians 4:7). - Being a child of God is the basis for our faith and trust in God (Matthew 6:25-34) and
our hope of glory for the future. As God’s children, we are heirs of God and co-heirs with
Christ (Romans 8:16-17; Galatians 4:7). - God wants us to be increasingly made aware through the Holy Spirit, the “Spirit of
Sonship” (Romans 8:15) that we are His children. The Spirit produces the cry “Abba,
Father” in our hearts (Galatians 4:6) and gives us the desire to be “led by the Spirit”
(Romans 8:14). - Being a child of God is the basis for our discipline by the Father (Hebrews 12:6-7-11) and
the reason we live to please God.
God’s ultimate goal in making us His children is to save us forever (John 3:16) and to conform
us to the likeness of His Son (Romans 8:29).
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not
dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always
trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are
prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is
knowledge, it will pass away. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is an activity and behaviour and not just as an inner teaching or motivation. Other aspects
of love are characteristics of God Himself who has been revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ.
The love of God is His passion to sustain and uphold and exalt His holiness and His Son for your
everlasting enjoyment. If you put yourself at the center, you’re suicidal because it robs you of
the very glory of God and his enjoyment.
1 John 4:8 describes one of God’s primary attributes as love. “Whoever does not love does not
know God, because God is love.” This verse does not define God as love; it describes God’s love
as permeating His essence in all He is and all He does. As for today’s headlines tout stories of
scandal, tragedy, and war; believers can be confident knowing all they need is God’s love.
I agree with the Theologian A.W. Tozer once stated, “Nothing God ever does, or ever did, or
ever will do, is separate from the love of God.” Everything He has ever done has been out of
love.
THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE LOVE OF GOD
- God’s Love Is Incomprehensible. – “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in
love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long
and high and deep is the love of Christ” – Ephesians 3:17-18. - God’s Love Is known and Proven – “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and
only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”. – John 3:16. - We Can Trust In God’s Love.
- God’s Love is Pure
- God’s Love is Perfect:
- Our Salvation Is An Expression Of God’s Love.
- Our Ability To Love Is Enabled Through God’s Love.
- We Can Rest In God’s Love.
- We Can Have Confidence In God’s Love.
REMAINING IN THE LOVE OF GOD THROUGH OBEDIENCE
Jesus tells us four times that this love is of such a nature that it results in the keeping of Jesus’s
commandments (John 14: 15)
Verse 15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
Verse 21: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.”
Verse 23: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.”
Verse 24: “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.”
The first thing to notice is that loving Jesus is not the same as keeping his commandments. It
precedes and gives rise to keeping the commandments. Keeping his word is the result of loving
him, not the same as loving him.
Verse 15: “If you love me, [the result will be that] you will keep my commandments.”
Verse 23: “If anyone loves me, [the result will be that] he will keep my word.”
John 15:9 says: “As the Father loved Me, I also loved you. Remain in My love”. Jesus knew that
His disciples would not find love in the world. He knew that the world would hate them and His
message. Jesus declares to His disciples that as the Father loved Him, He also loved them with
the same love. In other words, His love for each of His disciples is patterned after the Father’s
love for Him for He said “Just as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you.”
Jesus commands us as He did His disciples, to “remain” or continue in His love by keeping His
commandments.
We should understand that “obedience does not bring us into God’s covenant grace nor makes
us a citizenship in the kingdom of God for salvation is by grace through faith alone. Faith in
God’s atoning work on our behalf at the cross through Christ Jesus which is a gift from God to
all who would believe.
Obedience is our obligation and expectation from God to us. Jesus gives His disciples a picture
of what love looks like in a relationship with Him. It is seen in the love relationship between
Him and his Father. Love for God and love for one another is what we are commanded to daily
pursue and in doing so our obedience will reflect our relationship with Christ.
When asked what was the greatest commandment. Jesus said the first is to “love the Lord your
God with all your heart, mind and soul and the second is like unto it and that is to love thy
neighbour as thyself”. Upon these two commandments hangs all the laws and the prophets.
Loving others as God loved us is the heart of Christian discipleship. When we love one another,
we fulfill the second of Jesus’ two Great Commandments. When we love Jesus, He becomes our
true best friend. Friends have our best interests in mind, just like Jesus does. Friends will be
with us in good times and bad times just like Jesus is.
When we are obedient to Christ the result is that we will bear fruit that will remain and the final
result will be fellowship with God that is united in love. The mark of a true disciple of Christ, a
born-again believer is that they will bear the fruit of obedience to the commands of Jesus. John
15:10-When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s
commandments and remain in his love.
As Christians we follow the example of Christ by the power and leading of His Holy Spirit that is
within us. Just as Jesus obeyed through the power of the Spirit, so we too must obey so we too
could walk in the newness of life given us by grace through faith. We must daily submit to the
power of the Spirit of God so that we may obediently follow the example of Jesus.
Love obeys God’s commands. We love Him because He first loved us!
Stay blessed!
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Website: saltandlightgh.org