John 15:9-17

vv 9-11) The link between love and obedience

[9] How do we know that Jesus loved His disciples?

He loved them by teaching them, protecting them, guiding them, sacrificially serving them, and using His power and authority to do these things. In some way, the Father also did all those things for Jesus and Jesus did them for the disciples after that pattern.

The Father loved the Son with a love:

That has no beginning

That has no end

That is close and personal

That is without measure

That is unchanging

The love which the Savior has for us is the same as the love of the Father for the Son. What is being said here should bow our hearts in worship to Jesus Christ. It is the same in quality and degree, It is a vast, wide, deep, unmeasurable love, that passes knowledge, and can never be fully comprehended by man.

Jesus tells his disciples to, “Abide in My love.” this means we should continue to realize His love and to enjoy it in our lives.

[10] The first part of this verse tells us how we can abide in His love; it is by keeping His commandments. There is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

The second half of this verse sets before us our Perfect Example. Jesus kept His Father’s commandments.

Everything He did was in obedience to the will of God. He remained in the constant enjoyment of the Father’s love. Nothing ever came in to mar that sweet sense of loving fellowship.

[11] What does it mean, “that your joy may be full?”

Jesus found His own deep joy in communion with God His Father. He wanted His disciple to have that joy that comes from dependence upon Him.

He wanted His joy to be theirs. Our idea of joy is to be as happy as we can be by leaving God out of our lives usually. The Bible teaches that real lasting joy comes by taking God into one’s life as much as possible.

The disciples joy would be fulfilled in abiding in Christ and in keeping His commandments. It isn’t just fullness it is more likely fulfilled.

vv 12-15) Imitating Jesus’ love

[12] Again remember that Jesus would soon leave His disciples. They would be left in a hostile world. As tensions increased, there would be the danger of the disciples’ contending with one another. And so the Lord leaves this standing order to love one another as Jesus loved them.

[13] What makes this love special?

Their love should be of such a nature that they should be willing to die for one another. People who are willing to do this do not fight with each other. The greatest example of human self-sacrifice was for a man to die for his friends.

The disciples of Christ are called to this type of devotion. Some lay down their lives in a literal sense; others spend their whole lives in untiring service for the people of God.

Jesus is the best example. He laid down His life for His friends. Of course, they were enemies when He died for them, but when they are saved, they become His friends. So it is correct to say that He died for His friends as well as for His enemies.

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

[14] We show that we are His friends by doing whatever He commands us. This is not the way we become His friends, but rather the way we exhibit it to the world.

[15] Jesus here emphasized the difference between servants and friends. Servants are simple expected to do the work marked out for them, but friends are taken into one’s confidence. To the friend we reveal our plans for the future. Confidential information is shared with him.

In one sense the disciple would always continue to be servants of the Lord, but they would be more than this- they would be friends.

The Lord was even now revealing to them the things which He had heard from His Father. He was telling them of His own departure, the coming of the Holy Spirit, His own coming again, and their responsibility to Him in the meantime.

Check this out… As branches, we receive; as disciples we receive; and as friends, we commune.

vv 16-17) Chosen to bear fruit and to love one another

[16] There would be a tendency for these men to become discouraged and give up. Jesus reminded them that he was the One who chose them. This probably means for eternal salvation, to discipleship, and to fruitfulness.

He had appointed the disciple to the work which lay before them. We should go and bear fruit.

What does that mean though?

The graces of the Christian life, such as found in Gal 5. Or it may mean souls won for Jesus Christ. There is a close link between the two. It is only as we are manifesting the first kind of fruit that we will ever be able to bring forth the second.

God also chose the disciple so they would bear fruit that would remain, to the glory of God the Father.

Again Jesus connected fruit bearing with answered prayer. When He departed from them their experience of asking and receiving would not end but would change, and Jesus prepared His disciples for this.

[17] The Lord was about to warn the disciples about the enmity of the world. He began by telling them to love one another, to stick together, and to stand unitedly against the foe.

We too need to have each other’s backs. No lone wolf-ing

vv 18-20) Rejection of the disciples

[18-19] The disciples were not to be surprised or disheartened if the world hated them.

This doesn’t suggested any doubt that this would happen; and it certainly did.

The world hates the Lord, and it will hate all who resemble Him.

The disciples Jesus spoke to that night would know the hatred of the world. They were persecuted and all of them died as martyrs in Jesus’ name. except for John - whom they tried to kill, but he miraculously wouldn’t die at their hands.

[example] How did they die?

The earliest Christians would know the hatred of the world too. Tacitus spoke of people “hated for their crimes, whom the mob call Christians.”

Suetonius had spoken of “a race of men who belong to a new and evil superstition.”

Christians through the centuries have known the hatred of the world, and millions have died for Jesus. It is said that more died as martyrs for Jesus in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined.

Which begs the question does the world hate you?

often times we can gage the health of our walk by the way the world treats us.

Men and women of the world love those who live as they do- those who use vile language and indulge in the lusts of the flesh, or people who are cultured but live only for themselves.

Christians condemn them by their holy lives, therefore the world hates them.

[20] A disciple should not expect any better treatment from the world than his maters recieved. He will be persecuted just as Jesus was.

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.