"Love is a many splendored thing!" And, "Where there is love, there is life". And, "Love makes the world go 'round". But seriously, "The greatest of these is love!" And, "His banner over me is love!" And the first verse of our scripture for this lesson, "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you..."! And, "Hereby you are seen to be My disciples"...by bearing fruit and abiding in Jesus, but also by loving and being loved. This is a longish lesson, but it's a critical lesson concerning Jesus, and God and us...in love together.
Really, do you have any idea, Brother or Sister in Christ, of Heavenly Father's love for the Son; or of the Son's love for you? We really don't, do we? But here we have, in verses 9-12 and beyond, a comprehensive teaching on the love relationship of God with us through Jesus, and through us, out into the world. Remember, this is Vine-talk!
This is the very essence of love flowing up from the Root, through the Vine, and to the branch, right out into the world-sphere as a spiritual blessing upon those we meet in our day-by-day. You know, we may be living in the information age, but Believers seem to be missing the message! I guess we need to post it on the Church bulletin board, because for many of us, Holy Spirit seems to be drawing a blank! He's using the best possible ammunition, but Believers keep dodging the bullet...we must be, because if the Fruit of the Spirit is love, there are an awful lot of "tinkling symbols" in the church today (1 Corinthians 13)! God loves His Son from everlasting to everlasting, with a high, broad, and endless love, and that's just the way Jesus loves His Church. And as we will see from vs. 12, we are to love one another...as He loves us!
Now many folks would ask, "What is love?" And the philosophers and the playwrights and the novelists and poets down through all the ages past, have tried, and failed to explain it. And do you know why? It's because we've been asking the wrong question. The question is not at all, "What is love?", but rather, "How is love?". Well to begin with, love is not something you fall into; it's how you be...how you are. And that is, with your full and endless attention focused-on and reserved-for "That One". In God's case, His Son Jesus; in Jesus' case, His Body of believing saints, and in our case...well, you see where this is headed!
We know how fickle human love can sometimes be...coming and going like the seasons...warm and full of promise in May, and growing cold and barren in October! But do you know what? Jesus' love for His Church is given with an eternal guarantee...unchangeable, if you believe what is written in these verses. So when we might find ourselves sliding into a cold and barren state, it's because of our failure to abide, as we've been reading so much about. That's exactly the point, when in a spiritually-faltering state...that we must go back to the Source when we realize we've started bearing bitter fruit, and step deeper into Jesus' love-shadow! We must become more occupied with dwelling-upon, and abiding-in His love, by which we attract others to our love-shadow...and so, to Him. These few verses, just as did the previous eight, are all so closely entwined, building in an interlocking pattern, upon the solid foudation of God's love for the Faithful.
Do you realize the difference...probly the most important...between human, fallible love and the love we experience by and through Holy Spirit? It's this...that you and I, in our earthly relationships, tend to "fall" in, and out of love, so Jesus calls us to perform a thoughtful and tangible act of the will...to "keep His commandments". I think I've said it before, but it bears repeating...our love is embodied in our obedience. There's nothing fluffy about our love-relationship with Jesus...rather, a literal lifestyle of not only faith, but of faithfulness.
Now we must all agree that we're living today, in a time and a society where sin abounds more and more... sinsubordination, sintolerance, sincorrigibility, and sinhumanity; not to mention sinactivity, sindecisevness, sincivility, and need I continue?! We all know of many a professing Believer who outright refuses to tolerate the commands of Jesus, for obedience. You see, Satan is a snake, and a sly old fox..."the ruler of this world", and "the prince of the power of the air", and he has a toolbox of "devices" to keep us from a willful, loving obedience to the Saviour...constantly reminding us of every burden of the conscience. But love is the true satis-fier of God and man alike...our Spirit-inspired love lives!
And then, Jesus goes on to say in vs. 10, "...I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love"! Jesus doesn't even give Himself a break...yes, He was more than a man, but He still bled when He was pierced, and He still agonized when He was in doubt, and He still died when His time came to die. In fact, even Jesus could not "abide in God" if He had not been obedient, even unto death, to His Father's will.
Jesus walked in the Father's way, and not as the world walks. So how should we walk, as recipients of His grace? Unlike us, for Jesus there was never any question of "ommission or commission" when it concerned obedience to His Father's will, so how is it that so many churchmen seem to "continue in sin"...that grace may abound? Has the Church never been taught that we we are "living stones", and "a royal priesthood", and "a holy nation"; who "were once not a people, but now, the people of God"?
In The Revelation, and the letters to the seven churches, there is the repeated reference to overcoming...a purposeful, intentional act of the will...no accidents there; no ommission of disciple-deeds for the overcomer! And why, you ask? Well as we read in vs. 11 of our scripture, it's in order that He might find His joy in us, following in the way He has prepared. But also, "that (our own) joy might be full"...the joy of having been obedient to Him, and of knowing that the cares of this world will be erased from our hearts and minds as we fall before His throne! But our joy evades us when we turn aside...from our families, from our friends, from our responsibilities, and sadly but ultimately, from our Lord. Joy can be, and often is, a "fleeting thing"...almost as fickle as love can be. That is surely why Paul encourages the church to consciously and willfully "...rejoice in the Lord, always".
But Jesus must leave nothing to chance with these eleven bewildered disciples, along their way to Gethsemane...vs. 12, "This, I command you...love one another..."! There's no way around it...love is the one most important feature, of life on the Jesus-Vine. It's supreme, just as the Father's love is supreme; and it's foremost, just as the Father's love is foremost; and it's eternal. And it cannot coexist with our selfishness and pride...the big two, among the many fruits of sin...Vine-speak, "Love one another, as I have loved you!
Finally, beginning in vs. 13 we find Jesus upping the ante, and giving His disciples a couple of pretty radical examples of how a truly serious love relationship might look! The first is the most obvious to us, and the most critical as well...the laying-down and the offering up of His very life...the Supreme Sacrifice, out of Supreme Love.
Do you realize what this means for us? It means that love has no bounds...no limitations, with no questions and with no conditions...love without end! It means that we are the recipients of the highest and deepest and most intimate love that we could never imagine...the Church being His very Bride! No longer seen from on high as slaves of sin, but rather, heirs of the most gracious grace ever dispensed at any time, any where...that of Father God Himself, by His indwelling Holy Spirit! I'm not sure whether that is enough exclaimation marks! The Apostle Paul has recorded in his letter to the Ephesian church that, "The love of Christ even surpasses our understanding". And what an understatement that is!
And then, perhaps, a largely untaught principle, one that is largely avoided, and oft rejected by many churches today. Jesus had shared His wisdom many times before, but those eleven had only scratched their heads in confusion. But in vs. 16 He told them, "You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you...", (and you, and you, and you). To those disciples, it may have felt that "Vine-talk" signalled the end of their disciple-careers, but to Jesus, it was the beginning of life, like they had never imagined, chosen by our great God, from eternity past!
So..."Here (again) is My commandment...love one another"! And don't ever forget it!
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