CHRIST-LIKE LOVE... ABIDE IN IT!

John 15:9–17 NIV

“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. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

 Church, as we continue walking through John 15 in this Identity Series, Jesus takes us another step deeper. We started with Jesus saying, “I am the true vine.” He told us that He is the source and we are the branches. Then He told us to remain in Him because a branch cannot produce life by itself. A branch receives life from the vine. And last week we saw that when we remain connected to Jesus, His life begins producing fruit through us. We do not manufacture fruit. Fruit grows because there is life flowing through the branch. But now, beginning in verse 9, Jesus tells us what is at the very heart of this abiding relationship. It is love. He says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”

Do not miss what Jesus says. He does not begin by saying, “Love Me enough and maybe I will love you back.” He does not say, “Obey Me enough and then I will decide whether you are worthy of My love.” He says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.”

LOVE COMES FIRST

Before the command, there is love. Before obedience, there is love. Before fruit, there is love. Before anything you could ever do for Jesus, Jesus has already loved you. And church, that is important because some people spend their entire Christian life trying to earn what Jesus has already offered. They are trying to pray enough so God will love them. Trying to serve enough so God will be pleased with them. Trying to be good enough to make up for their past. But that is not the gospel. We do not obey to convince Jesus to love us.

We obey because we have been loved. Grace comes first. Mercy comes first. Jesus comes first.

Our identity is rooted in a love that came first.

Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” Think about what He is saying. The Son knows the perfect love of the Father, and Jesus says, “That is how I have loved you.” This is not shallow love. This is not the kind of love that is here today and gone tomorrow. This is not love based on whether you had a good week. This is the love of Christ. And then He says, “Remain in my love.” That word remain is the same idea we have been dealing with throughout John 15: abide, stay, continue, dwell. Jesus is saying, “Do not visit My love every once in a while. Live there.”

Some of us live everywhere except there. We live in regret. We live in shame. We live in fear. We live in what somebody said about us twenty years ago. We live in our failures. We live in whether people approve of us. And Jesus says, “Remain in My love.” If you belong to Christ, stop letting your worst day tell you who you are. Stop letting another person determine your value. Stop letting shame speak louder than the cross. Your identity is not rooted in whether everybody likes you. Your identity is rooted in the love of Jesus Christ.

But then Jesus says something that we cannot separate from that love. Verse 10 says, “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.” Now some people hear that and immediately think, “There it is. I knew there was a catch. Jesus loves me as long as I behave.” No. He has already established the love. He has already said, “I have loved you.”

Obedience does not purchase the love.

Obedience is how we live inside the relationship. Jesus does not separate love and obedience.

This is where the holiness message of John 15 becomes so clear. Holiness is not cold rule-keeping. Holiness is not gritting your teeth and saying, “I guess I have to do what God says.” Holiness is a heart so surrendered to Jesus, so filled with His love, that you begin to want what He wants. Jesus says, “If you love Me, remain in My love by walking in what I have commanded.” We cannot say, “Jesus, I love You,” and then spend our lives negotiating with everything He tells us to do. Love and obedience belong together.

That does not mean we never struggle. It does not mean we never need grace. But it does mean the direction of our heart changes. Instead of saying, “How much can I get away with?” we start asking, “What pleases Jesus?” That is holiness. When Jesus says forgive, holy love says, “Lord, help me forgive.” When Jesus says tell the truth, holy love says, “Even when lying would be easier, I want to honor You.” When Jesus calls us to purity, holy love says, “My body and my mind belong to Christ.” When Jesus says love your enemy, holy love says, “That is impossible in my strength, but Jesus, let Your love flow through me.”

And notice what Jesus says next in verse 11: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” That destroys the idea that holiness is supposed to make you miserable. Jesus connects obedience with joy. The world says, “If you really want to enjoy life, throw off God's boundaries.” Jesus says, “No, I am showing you the way to complete joy.” The world offers happiness that depends on what is happening around you. If everything goes my way, I am happy. If people treat me right, I am happy. If my money is right, I am happy. If my health is right, I am happy. But Jesus says there is something deeper: “My joy may be in you.”

There is joy in knowing you are right with God.

There is joy in a clean heart.

There is joy in surrender. There is joy in not having to hide. There is joy in laying your head down at night knowing, “Lord, my life belongs to You.” Holiness does not rob us of joy.

Sin promises joy and eventually steals it. Jesus calls us to holiness and gives us a joy the world cannot manufacture.

Then in verse 12 Jesus tells us what this love looks like when it leaves the heart and starts affecting other people: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” Notice the standard Jesus gives us. He does not say, “Love people as long as they deserve it.” He says, “As I have loved you.” Well, how did Jesus love us? He loved us when we were sinners. He loved us when we were broken. He loved us when we had nothing to offer Him. He loved us sacrificially.

And then verse 13 says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus is pointing toward the cross. He is only hours away from demonstrating exactly what He means. He is going to lay down His life. But church, this also becomes the pattern for us. Most of us may never literally die for somebody, but if we are going to love like Jesus, there will be a daily dying to self. Sometimes laying down your life looks like laying down your pride. Sometimes it means you apologize first. Sometimes it means you forgive somebody who never gave you the apology you thought you deserved. Sometimes it means serving when nobody notices. Sometimes it means being patient with somebody who is difficult to love. Sometimes it means giving up your preference for the good of somebody else.

This is where identity becomes function and function becomes influence. We have talked about that throughout this series. If my identity is in Christ, then I begin functioning like Christ, and when I function like Christ, people around me begin seeing Christ. We were called salt because salt does something. We were called light because light does something. We are branches because branches bear something. And now

Jesus says if we remain in His love, we will love somebody.

A Christianity that never gets beyond me is not the Christianity Jesus describes.

Then Jesus says something remarkable in verses 14 and 15. He says, “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants… Instead, I have called you friends.” Think about that. Jesus is still Lord. He is still King. He is still God the Son. We do not become His equals. But Jesus says, “I have brought you close. I have made known to you what I received from My Father.” A servant knows what he is told to do. A friend is brought into the heart of the matter. Jesus is bringing His disciples into His mission.

And then verse 16 may be one of the strongest identity statements in the whole passage: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.” Church, do you hear the identity in that?

Chosen.

Appointed.

Fruitful.

Jesus did not save you just so you could sit around waiting on heaven. He chose you and appointed you to bear fruit. You have a purpose. There are people your life is supposed to touch. There are prayers you are supposed to pray. There are people you are supposed to love. There is ministry God wants to do through you. There is fruit He wants your life to bear.

And Jesus says, “fruit that will last.” Not just a moment. Not just emotion. Not just one good church service. Lasting fruit.

Lasting fruit includes; holy character, transformed lives, people touched by grace, homes changed by forgiveness, and believers who continue standing when the wind blows.

That is what I want from my life. I do not just want to be busy. I want to be fruitful. There is a difference. You can be busy and not fruitful. You can be religious and not fruitful. You can have a calendar full of activity and still not be producing anything that lasts. Fruit that lasts comes from abiding in Jesus, remaining in His love, obeying His Word, and letting His love flow through us.

And then Jesus brings it back one more time in verse 17: “This is my command: Love each other.” He starts with love: “Remain in My love.” He talks about obedience. He talks about joy. He talks about sacrifice. He talks about friendship. He talks about being chosen. He talks about fruit. And then He finishes right back where He started: love one another.

Church, holiness without love is not holiness. If I can quote Scripture but cannot love people, something is wrong. If I talk about sanctification but I am mean, bitter, unforgiving, arrogant, and constantly tearing people down, something is wrong. Entire sanctification is not just, “I stopped doing this, this, and this.” Entire sanctification is a heart filled with holy love. Love for God with the whole heart and love for people flowing out of that heart.

That does not mean love never confronts sin. Jesus loved people enough to tell them the truth. Holy love is not weakness. Holy love does not celebrate what destroys people. Holy love tells truth, forgives, serves, sacrifices, and seeks what is truly good for another person.

So church, here is where this passage gets personal. Are you remaining in His love, or have you started living out of fear again? Are you obeying Him, or negotiating with Him? Has your Christian life become duty without joy? Are you loving people the way Jesus loved you, or only loving people who are easy to love? Are you bearing fruit that will last, or are you spending most of your life on things that will not matter in eternity?

And this brings us to the altar of the heart. Maybe the prayer today is simply, “Jesus, bring me back to Your love.” Maybe you have been serving Him, but you have forgotten what it is to enjoy Him. Maybe you know all the commands, but your heart has gotten cold. Maybe there is somebody you need to forgive. Maybe there is an area where you have been resisting obedience. Maybe you are trying to produce fruit while neglecting your relationship with the Vine.

Jesus is not saying, “Try harder so I will love you.” He is saying, “I have loved you. Remain here.” Stay in My love. Let My love change you. Let My love make you holy. Let My love produce obedience. Let My love become joy. Let My love flow through you into somebody else's life. And let that love produce fruit that will still matter long after you are gone.

Church, our identity is not simply that we are saved from something. We have been chosen for something. Chosen to remain. Chosen to love. Chosen to obey. Chosen to bear fruit. Chosen to show a world what Jesus looks like. So stay with Jesus. Stay in His Word. Stay surrendered. Stay obedient. Stay in His love. And let the life and love of Christ flow through you until people around you can see the fruit. Because when we know who we are in Christ, we begin to live like Christ, and when we live like Christ, the world around us cannot help but be influenced by Christ.