Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 15:9
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
9. As the Father, &c.) The Greek construction is ambiguous. It would be quite possible to translate, Even as the Father loved Me and I loved you, abide in My love. But our version is better as keeping in due prominence the main statement, that the love of Christ for His disciples is analogous to that of the Father for the Son. In any case ‘abide’ is better than ‘continue;’ the same Greek word is used throughout these verses (4 16), a fact which our translators obscure by giving three English words, ‘abide,’ ‘continue,’ and ‘remain,’ and that in three consecutive verses (9 11). Throughout the Gospel ‘abide’ should be maintained as the rendering of S. John’s favourite verb (see on Joh 1:33). The whole should run, Even as the Father loved Me, I also loved you (comp. Joh 17:18, Joh 20:21); abide in My love. The verbs are aorists, not perfects, and Christ’s work is regarded as a completed whole, already perfect in itself. But perhaps this is just one of those cases where the English perfect may be allowed to translate the Greek aorist: see on Joh 8:29.
in my love ] The Greek might mean ‘the love of Me,’ but ‘My love’ for you is more natural and suits the context better, which speaks of His love towards them as similar to the Father’s towards Him. The other, however, need not be altogether excluded. See on Joh 14:27.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
As the Father hath loved me – The love of the Father toward his only-begotten Son is the highest affection of which we can conceive. Compare Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5. It is the love of God toward his coequal Son. who is like him in all things, who always pleased him, and who was willing to endure the greatest sacrifices and toils to accomplish his purpose of mercy. Yet this love is adduced to illustrate the tender affection which the Lord Jesus has for all his friends.
So have I loved you – Not to the same degree, for this was impossible, but with the same kind of love – deep, tender. unchanging; love prompting to self-denials, toils, and sacrifices to secure their welfare.
Continue ye – The reason which he gives for their doing this is the strength of the love which he had shown for them. His love was so great for them that he was about to lay down his life. This constitutes a strong reason why we should continue in his love:
- Because the love which he shows for us is unchanging.
- It is the love of our best friend – love whose strength was expressed by toils, and groans, and blood.
- As he is unchanging in the character and strength of his affection, so should we be. Thus only can we properly express our gratitude; thus only show that we are his true friends.
- Our happiness here and forever depends altogether on our continuing in the love of Christ. We have no source of permanent joy but in that love.
In my love – In love to me. Thus it is expressed in the Greek in the next verse. The connection also demands that we understand it of our love to him, and not of his love to us. The latter cannot be the subject of a command; the former may. See also Luk 11:42; 1Jo 2:5; Jud 1:21.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 15:9-11
As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you
Divine love
The principle of Divine love constitutes the essence of true religion.
Upon the golden link of love hangs not only the gospel, but also the law and the prophets. Meditate
I. Upon THE MAGNITUDE OF CHRISTS LOVE TOWARD US. The love of Christ to us may be regarded as resembling the love of God to His Son.
1. As to its strength. The intensity of the love of Christ may be fairly exhibited by human affection; yet the Saviours love is infinitely stronger than all human love combined.
2. In its freeness.
3. In its durability.
4. In its harmony with all the trials and sorrows of earth.
II. THE CLAIMS CHRISTS LOVE HAS UPON US. Continue, etc. It should be realized and manifested.
1. The fact that Jesus loves us should be realized believingly.
2. It should be realized joyfully.
3. Should prompt us to manifest our love to Him in return. (G. Philips.)
The Divine measure of love
1. In Johns Gospel we have Gods love to man, and in his Epistles mans love to God.
2. Each of the apostles had his mission–Paul to expound the Divine decrees, James to hoist the standard of Christian duty, John to proclaim Divine love. So the first propagators of Christianity represented the various phases of Christs character.
3. In his treatment of love John elevated it. The poet, historian, dramatist, found it the most inspiring subject. But alas! the Divine passion which left the portals of immortality whiter than snow was dragged through the culverts of human debasement; but John took it to the foot of the cross, where its stains were cleansed, and led it back to the gate of heaven whiter than before.
I. THE DECLARATION. As the Father, etc. This was
1. Old love. The question of Pharaoh is of frequent occurrence, How old art thou? The historian asks it of the archives of nations, the antiquarian of ancient monuments, the geologist of primaeval formations. Nature is venerable and has a calendar which contains this record, In the beginning God created the heavens, etc.; but the date when He began to love the Son is not there. Of the old things of life, old friendship is the sweetest. You say These are very old friends of mine. After an absence of years with what a hearty shake of hands old friends greet each other! But the oldest began to love; Christs is an everlasting love.
2. Great love. If God so loved the world of imperfect beings how intense His love to His Son must have been; and Christ is fuller of love to us than the sun is of light, or the sea of water.
3. Enduring love (Zec 3:17; Joh 13:1).
II. THE ADVICE. Continue, etc. Christs love is
1. The source of Christian discipleship. The followers of Christ were many, and were actuated by a variety of motives; some because of the loaves and fishes, some out of admiration, some out of sympathy, some because of His irresistible charm. But how quickly these sources of attraction dried up! There are many religious influences at work, but only one abides today. During winter and spring the rills overflow their beds, and the villagers have no need to go far for water; but when summer comes all these cease flowing. The village well, however, is inexhaustible. Religious life has its rills, but the fountain is Jesus. Young converts should take heed to the word abide.
2. The only sphere is which the Christian should turn. Love one another, so shall ye be My disciples. Christians strive hard to love one another and fail. The only secret of success in this direction is to love Christ.
3. The only condition of safety. Behold the helpless babe. Its safety is not in its own strength, but in its mothers love. A mother once said about her youngest son, I am not afraid of his going astray; he is so fond of home. Do you want to be safe? Abide in Christs love. A mother begged her daughter to stay at home one day; she refused, and embarked on the ill fated Princess Alice, and was lost. Young Christian, allow the pleasureboats of sin to pass by, and stay at home in Christs love. (T. Davies, Ph. D.)
Christs love for His disciples
I. IS LIKE THE LOVE THE FATHER HAS FOR HIM. No being in the universe is so dear to the Infinite heart as Christ; yet
1. As really as the Father loved Him He loves us. The reality of the Fathers love for Him was a grand reality attested by His own consciousnesss. He could not doubt it. It was proved to Him in a thousand ways, in every faculty and fact of His life. But not less really did He love His disciples. His love for them was a mighty, ever operating force within Him.
2. As disinterestedly. The Fathers love for Christ was absolutely and spontaneously unselfish, so was Christs love for His disciples. There was nothing in them to merit His affection, nothing in them to render Him more glorious or more happy.
II. IS PERPETUATED BY OBEDIENCE TO HIS COMMANDS. If ye keep My commandments, etc. How does Christ retain the love of His Father? By working out His will. It would seem as if the Fathers love, great though it be, would wane and die if the Son ceased to obey. So with Christs love towards His disciples. Its continuance depends upon a practical fulfilment of His will. It seems almost a law of mind that love must work to live. If it remain in the mind merely as a sentiment or emotion, it will perish. The mothers love is kept alive by working for her children. When the work ceases the maternal affection wanes. If we would keep the love of Christ strong in the heart we must keep His commandments. No emotion of the soul will strike root, live and grow, except as it is translated into acts. Love only lives in deeds.
III. YEARNS TO MAKE ITS OBJECTS HAPPY (Joh 15:11). It is the essence of love to glow with desires for the happiness of its object. See this in the unwearied services of parents, and in the countless efforts of genuine philanthropy. In Christs love for man this desire is unquenchable and ever operating. To make men happy was the grand object of His advent to earth. I am come that ye might have life. He came to heal the brokenhearted, etc. Christ wishes His disciples not only to be happy, but to be full of happiness. That your joy may be full. All saddening emotions are foreign to Christliness. Christliness is sunshine, music, rapture. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Abiding in love
The last of these verses shows that they are to be taken as a kind of conclusion of the parable of the vine. They have three words as their keynotes–love, obedience, joy.
I. THE LOVE IN WHICH IT IS OUR SWEET DUTY TO ABIDE. What shall we say about these mysterious and profound words? They carry us into the very depths of Divinity.
1. Christ here claims to be, in a unique fashion, the object of the Fathers love, and to be able to love like God. As deeply, purely, fully, eternally, and with all the unnameable perfectnesses which must belong to the Divine affection, does Christ declare that He loves us.
2. In this affection He exhorts us to abide. The command to abide in Him suggests much that is blessed, but to have all that mysterious abiding in Him resolved into abiding in His love is infinitely tenderer, and draws us still closer to Himself. What is meant is not our continuance in the attitude of love to Him, but rather our continuance in the atmosphere of His love to us. But then, whosoever thus abides in Christs love to Him will echo it back again in an equally continuous love to Him.
3. This continuance is a thing in our power since it is commanded. What a quiet, blessed home that is for us! The image, I suppose, that underlies dwelling in Christ, in His joy, in His words, in His peace, is the image of some safe house in which we may be secure.
II. THE OBEDIENCE BY WHICH WE CONTINUE IN CHRISTS LOVE. The analogy, on which He has already touched, is still continued. If ye keep My commandments, etc. Note
1. That Christ here claims for Himself absolute and unbroken conformity with the Fathers will, and consequent uninterrupted and complete communion with the Fathers love. It is the utterance of a nature conscious of no sin, of a humanity that never knew one instants film of separation between Him and the Father. No more tremendous words were ever spoken than these.
2. Christ here, with His consciousness of perfect obedience and communion, intercepts our obedience and diverts it to Himself. He does not say, Obey God as I have done and He will love you; but He says,
Obey Me as I obey God and I will love you. Who is this that thus comes between the childs heart and the Fathers? Does He come between? or does He rather lead us up to the Father, and to a share in His own filial obedience?
3. By keeping His commandments, we shall continue in that sweet home and safe stronghold of His love.
(1) Of course the keeping of the commandment is something more than mere outward conformity by action. It is the inward harmony of will, and the bowing of the whole nature.
(2) He will love us better the more we obey His commandments, for although His tender heart is charged with the love of pity and of desire to help towards all, He cannot but feel a growing thrill of satisfied affection towards us, in the measure in which we become like Himself.
(3) The obedience which we render for loves sake will make us more capable of receiving, and more blessedly conscious of possessing, the love of Jesus Christ. The lightest cloud before the sun will prevent it from focussing its rays to a burning point on the convex glass. And the small, thin, fleeting, scarcely visible acts of self-will that sometimes pass across our skies will prevent our feeling the warmth of that love upon our shrouded hearts. You cannot rejoice in Jesus Christ unless you do His will. You will have no real comfort and blessedness in your religion unless it works itself out in your daily lives.
(4) We shall continue in His love by obedience, inasmuch as every emotion which finds expression in our daily life is strengthened by the fact that it is expressed. The love which works is love which grows, and the tree that bears fruit is the tree that is healthy and increases.
4. So, note how all these deepest things of Christian teaching come at last to a plain piece of practical duty. We talk about the mysticism of Johns Gospel, about the depth of these last sayings of Jesus Christ. Yes! They are mystical, they are deep, but connected by the shortest possible road with the plainest possible duties. It is no use talking about communion with Jesus Christ, and abiding in Him, the possession of His love, and all those other properly mystical sides of Christian experience, unless you verify them for yourselves by the plain way of practice.
III. THE JOY WHICH FOLLOWS ON THIS PRACTICAL OBEDIENCE (verse 11).
1. A strange time to talk of His joy. In half an hour he would be in Gethsemane. Was Christ a joyful Man? He was a man of sorrows. But it is said of Him, Thou hast loved righteousness,therefore God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. Absolute surrender and submission in love to the beloved commands of a loving Father made Him, in spite of the baptism with which He was baptized, the most joyful of men.
2. This joy He offers to us. There is no joy to compare with that deep, solid, continuous sunshine which floods the soul, that is freed from all the clouds and mists of self and the darkness of sin. Self-sacrifice at the bidding of Jesus Christ is the recipe for the most God-like gladnesses. Our joy will remain if His joy is ours. Then our joy will be up to the measure of its capacity, ennobled, and advancing ever towards fuller possession. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Continuing in Christs love
I. THE PRINCIPLE ON WHICH THE PRECEPT IS BASED. As the Father hath loved Me, etc. The particle as of course does not indicate equality, but similitude; and even the similitude indicated is not absolute. From the very nature of the objects–the one, the Son–infinite–the other, Christians–finite–the love borne by the Father to the Son must, both in natureand degree, exceed the love which the Son bears to His people; and there is at least one point in which there is not resemblance, but strong contrast. Like the love of the Father to the Son, the love of the Son to His elect ones is
1. Unbeginning. There never was a period when the Father began to love His Son. The only begotten Son was, from eternity, in the Fathers bosom Pro 8:22-23; Pro 8:30). In this respect the Son loved His chosen people, predestinated, as they were, in Him before the foundation of the world. There was a time when they did not love Him–for they did not exist; at a time when, though they might have loved Him, they did not–they would not; but there never was a time when He did not love them.
2. Infinite. The excellences of the Son, which are the ground of the Fathers love, are infinite; and so is–so must be–the Fathers love. The love of the Son to His people cannot be, in this sense, infinite; but we can set no bounds to it.
3. Active. How it manifested itself when there was nothing but Deity in the universe, we cannot tell. The declaration in reference to one of the economies is true of them all. The Father loveth the Son, and–i.e., therefore–He hath put all things into His hand. The love of the Son to His people is also active. It has proved itself stronger than death. Whether we fix our minds on the value of the innumerable blessings it bestows, or on the cost of these blessings to Him, surely we must say, this love has a height and a depth, a length and a breadth, that passeth knowledge.
4. Unchanged and unchangeable. Immutability is equally the attribute of the Father and the Son; and therefore it is impossible that there should be any change in the affection with which the one regards the other. In like manner does the Son love His people. He rests in His love–Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The invariableness of His love to them wants one of the foundations on which the invariable love of the Father to Him rests. He never changes; but they often do.
5. Unending. While the Father and the Son continue to exist, they must continue to regard each other with infinite love; and, as a token of His everlasting love, the Father has given the Son an everlasting kingdom. The love of the Son to His people is also everlasting, and proves itself in the bestowal of eternal blessings. But there is one point in which the contrast is as striking, as the resemblance. The love of the Father to the Son was richly merited. But as for the objects of the love of the Son, as creatures standing at an infinite distance from Him who is God over all, blessed forever, it would have been wonderful if the Son had loved man, in His best estate, as the Father loved Him (Psa 8:4). But how much more does the contrast come out when we remember what they are. The Fathers love to the Son was love to dignity, moral beauty, innocence, excellence, perfection; but the Sons love to men, fallen men, is love to the degraded, the deformed, the condemned, the (but for His love) hopelessly Rom 8:8).
II. THE DUTY ENJOINED. Continue in My love, or, as Jude has it, Keep yourselves in the love of God. To continue in Christs love is to continue in cherishing those affections, and doing those actions, which are well-pleasing in His sight; and to continue in the enjoyment of an humble assurance, that He continues to regard us with complacential satisfaction. The subject teaches us
1. How we should regard official station or personal standing in the Church of Christ. We should regard it as the being made branches of the True Vine; as a token of the love of Christ. To be a minister or a member of the
Church is a far higher honour than to be a member or office bearer in the most distinguished literary or political societies in the world.
2. What is the duty of those who, through the love of Christ, have been placed in such circumstances. It is to continue in His love. The branch is put forth by the vine, or grafted into it, not for its own honour, but that it may grow, and blossom, and bring forth fruit, to the glory of the vine, and the vine dresser.
III. THE MANNER IN WHICH COMPLIANCE WITH THE PRECEPT IS TO BE YIELDED. By keeping our Lords commandments, as He kept His Fathers commandments. The following may be considered as among the most comprehensive and important of our Lords commandments: Mat 16:24; Mat 6:19-20; Mat 6:33; Mat 10:8; Luk 12:15; Joh 13:34. Now, when a disciple, from regard to His Lords authority, and from love to His person, yields a cheerful habitual obedience to these commandments, he cannot but continue in His love. The eye of the Saviour cannot but rest complacently on him. And this is the only way in which a disciple can continue in his Masters complacential love. When the Father manifested His love to His Son, by constituting Him His great agent in the restorative economy, He gave Him a commandment (Psa 40:7-8). He fully conformed Himself to this law; and, in doing so, he continued in His Fathers love. Our obedience must have the same leading characters as our Lords had. His obedience was the obedience of
1. Love, and so must ours be.
2. In consequence of its being the result of love, it was cheerful. So we must run in the way of His commandments with enlarged hearts.
3. Universal–it extended to every requisition of the law. And in our obedience there must be no reserves, Do allowed omissions or violations.
4. Persevering. He was faithful to death, and it is He who endures to the end, that so continues in the Saviours love as to be saved.
IV. MOTIVES TO COMPLY WITH THE INJUNCTION. By continuing in Christs love, by keeping His commandments
1. You will be conformed to Him, four Lord and Master. Ought not the disciple to be as His teacher, etc. It is the great design of the Father of the whole family, that the younger members, the fanny brethren, should all be conformed to their elder brother.
2. You will minister to the Lords enjoyment. His joy in us will remain, if, keeping His commandments, we continue in His love (Joh 13:11). The disciple whom Jesus loved breathed the Spirit of Him on whose bosom he had been accustomed to lean, when he said, I have no greater joy, etc. (3Jn 1:4) And Paul (Php 2:1-30). Our Lord had joy in His disciples, etc. Mat 11:25) His joy in them was proportioned to the degree in which they were made holy, useful, and happy, through the influence of His word and Spirit.
3. You will promote your own happiness. While Christs joy in us remains, our joy in Him will be full. (J. Brown, D. D.)
Obedient love bringing fulness of joy
I. LOVE IN ITS BIRTH. Christ loved us first, and this was after the model of the Fathers to Him. It was, therefore
1. A free love.
2. An eternal love.
3. A deep and infinite love. To believe in, and to receive Christs love, awakens in our hearts reciprocal love to Him.
II. LOVE IN ITS CONTINUANCE. The law of continuance in love is obedience: obedience to Christ after the model of His obedience to the Father.
1. What are we to obey? The moral law which is Christs, and His special evangelical laws.
2. Why? Out of gratitude to Him, as the condition of His continued love to us.
3. How? As Christ obeyed God: cheerfully, heartily, unreservedly, even unto death. Thus will our love be sustained: not otherwise.
III. LOVE IN ITS FRUITION.
1. This obedience leads to fruitfulness in doing good to others–which pleases God.
2. It occasions joy to the soul that loves and obeys. Conclusions:
1. How to be happy? By loving Christ.
2. How to foster love to Christ? By diligently doing His commandments. (T. G. Horton.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
What our Saviour before called an abiding in him, and his words abiding in us, and a bearing and bringing forth much fruit, he here calleth a continuing in his love; though indeed this phrase also may be interpreted by a continuance in the favour of God and Christ, in that state of love into which God bath put the souls of those who are his true disciples: but I had rather interpret it of that love wherewith they loved Christ, than that wherewith Christ loved them. So the former words are an argument to persuade perseverance, or a continuance in those acts of holiness by which men alone can show their true love to Jesus Christ, from Christs love to them, which he there expresses,
As the father hath loved me, so have I loved you; where the particle as is only a note of comparison, but doth not denote an equality; only signifieth truth and greatness; as truly and sincerely as the Father loveth me: or, I have loved you with a great love, bearing some proportion to the love wherewith my Father loveth me. The Fathers love to Christ is eternal immutable, constant, full and perfect, wise and just, free: in all these respects Christ loveth his people as the Father loveth him: this ought: to engage them again to love him, and so to walk as they may continue in that state of favour into which his goodness hath advanced them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9-11. continue ye in my lovenot,”Continue to love Me,” but, “Continue in thepossession and enjoyment of My love to you”; as is evident fromthe next words.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As the Father hath loved me,…. As his own Son, and as Mediator, from everlasting; and in time, in his state of humiliation, throughout the course of his obedience, and under all his sufferings; which he testified more than once by a voice from heaven; which he showed by concealing nothing from him as Mediator, by giving all things into his hands, by showing him all that he himself did, by appointing him the Saviour of the body, and making him the head of the church, by exalting him at his right hand, and ordaining him to be judge of quick and dead.
So have I loved you: Christ loves his as his spouse and bride, as his dear children, as members of his body, as branches in him the vine, as believers in him, and followers of him; which he has shown by espousing both their persons and cause, by assuming their nature, by suffering and dying in their room and stead, and making all suitable provision for them, both for time and eternity. And there is a likeness between the Father’s love to him, and his love to his disciples and followers: as his Father loved him from everlasting, so did he love them; as his Father loved him with a love of complacency and delight, so did he, and so does he love them; and as his Father loved him with a special and peculiar affection, with an unchangeable, invariable, constant love, which will last for ever, in like manner does Christ love his people; and with this he enforces the following exhortation.
Continue ye in my love: meaning either in his love to them, which, as he always continues in it without any variableness or shadow of turning, so he would have them continue in believing their interest in it, prizing and valuing it, in imitating and remembering it; or else in their love to him, to his person, to his people, to his Gospel, to his ordinances, ways, and worship, which he knew was liable to wax cold, though it could not be lost.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Christ’s Love to His Disciples. |
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9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
Christ, who is love itself, is here discoursing concerning love, a fourfold love.
I. Concerning the Father’s love to him; and concerning this he here tells us, 1. That the Father did love him (v. 9): As the Father hath loved me. He loved him as Mediator: This is my beloved Son. He was the Son of his love. He loved him, and gave all things into his hand; and yet so loved the world as to deliver him up for us all. When Christ was entering upon his sufferings he comforted himself with this, that his Father loved him. Those whom God loves as a Father may despise the hatred of all the world. 2. That he abode in his Father’s love, v. 10. He continually loved his Father, and was beloved of him. Even when he was made sin and a curse for us, and it pleased the Lord to bruise him, yet he abode in his Father’s love. See Ps. lxxxix. 33. Because he continued to love his Father, he went cheerfully through his sufferings, and therefore his Father continued to love him. 3. That therefore he abode in his Father’s love because he kept his Father’s law: I have kept my Father’s commandments, as Mediator, and so abide in his love. Hereby he showed that he continued to love his Father, that he went on, and went through, with his undertaking, and therefore the Father continued to love him. His soul delighted in him, because he did not fail, nor was discouraged, Isa. xlii. 1-4. We having broken the law of creation, and thereby thrown ourselves out of the love of God; Christ satisfied for us by obeying the law of redemption, and so he abode in his love, and restored us to it.
II. Concerning his own love to his disciples. Though he leaves them, he loves them. And observe here,
1. The pattern of this love: As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. A strange expression of the condescending grace of Christ! As the Father loved him, who was most worthy, he loved them, who were most unworthy. The Father loved him as his Son, and he loves them as his children. The Father gave all things into his hand; so, with himself, he freely giveth us all things. The Father loved him as Mediator, as head of the church, and the great trustee of divine grace and favour, which he had not for himself only, but for the benefit of those for whom he was entrusted; and, says he, “I have been a faithful trustee. As the Father has committed his love to me, so I transmit it to you.” Therefore the Father was well pleased with him, that he might be well pleased with us in him; and loved him, that in him, as beloved, he might make us accepted, Eph. i. 6.
2. The proofs and products of this love, which are four:–
(1.) Christ loved his disciples, for he laid down his life for them (v. 13): Greater proof of love hath no man to show than this, to lay down his life for his friend. And this is the love wherewith Christ hath loved us, he is our antipsychos—bail for us, body for body, life for life, though he knew our insolvency, and foresaw how much the engagement would cost him. Observe here, [1.] The extent of the love of the children of men to one another. The highest proof of it is laying down one’s life for a friend, to save his life, and perhaps there have been some such heroic achievements of love, more than plucking out one’s own eyes, Gal. iv. 15. If all that a man has he will give for his life, he that gives this for his friend gives all, and can give no more; this may sometimes be our duty, 1 John iii. 16. Paul was ambitious of the honour (Phil. ii. 17); and for a good man some will even dare to die, Rom. v. 7. It is love in the highest degree, which is strong as death. [2.] The excellency of the love of Christ beyond all other love. He has not only equaled, but exceeded, the most illustrious lovers. Others have laid down their lives, content that they should be taken from them; but Christ gave up his, was not merely passive, but made it his own act and deed. The life which others have laid down has been but of equal value with the life for which it was laid down, and perhaps less valuable; but Christ is infinitely more worth than ten thousand of us. Others have thus laid down their lives for their friends, but Christ laid down his for us when we were enemies,Rom 5:8; Rom 5:10. Plusquam ferrea aut lapidea corda esse oportet, qu non emolliet tam incomparabilis divini amoris suavitas–Those hearts must be harder than iron or stone which are not softened by such incomparable sweetness of divine love.–Calvin.
(2.) Christ loved his disciples, for he took them into a covenant of friendship with himself, Joh 15:14; Joh 15:15. “If you approve yourselves by your obedience my disciples indeed, you are my friends, and shall be treated as friends.” Note, The followers of Christ are the friends of Christ, and he is graciously pleased to call and account them so. Those that do the duty of his servants are admitted and advanced to the dignity of his friends. David had one servant in his court, and Solomon one in his, that was in a particular manner the king’s friend (2Sa 15:37; 1Ki 4:5); but this honour have all Christ’s servants. We may in some particular instance befriend a stranger; but we espouse all the interests of a friend, and concern ourselves in all his cares: thus Christ takes believers to be his friends. He visits them and converses with them as his friends, bears with them and makes the best of them, is afflicted in their afflictions, and takes pleasure in their prosperity; he pleads for them in heaven and takes care of all their interests there. Have friends but one soul? He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit, 1 Cor. vi. 17. Though they often show themselves unfriendly, he is a friend that loves at all times. Observe how endearingly this is expressed here. [1.] He will not call them servants, though they call him Master and Lord. Those that would be like Christ in humility must not take a pride in insisting upon all occasions on their authority and superiority, but remember that their servants are their fellow-servants. But, [2.] He will call them his friends; he will not only love them, but will let them know it; for in his tongue is the law of kindness. After his resurrection he seems to speak with more affectionate tenderness of and to his disciples than before. Go to my brethren, ch. xx. 17. Children, have you any meat? ch. xxi. 5. But observe, though Christ called them his friends, they called themselves his servants: Peter, a servant of Christ (1 Pet. i. 1), and so James, ch. i. 1. The more honour Christ puts upon us, the more honour we should study to do him; the higher in his eyes, the lower in our own.
(3.) Christ loved his disciples, for he was very free in communicating his mind to them (v. 15): “Henceforth you shall not be kept so much in the dark as you have been, like servants that are only told their present work; but, when the Spirit is poured out, you shall know your Master’s designs as friends. All things that I have heard of my Father I have declared unto you.” As to the secret will of God, there are many things which we must be content not to know; but, as to the revealed will of God, Jesus Christ has faithfully handed to us what he received of the Father, Joh 1:18; Mat 11:27. The great things relating to man’s redemption Christ declared to his disciples, that they might declare them to others; they were the men of his counsel, Matt. xiii. 11.
(4.) Christ loved his disciples, for he chose and ordained them to be the prime instruments of his glory and honour in the world (v. 16): I have chosen you, and ordained you, His love to them appeared,
[1.] In their election, their election to their apostleship (ch. vi. 70): I have chosen you twelve. It did not begin on their side: You have not chosen me, but I first chose you. Why were they admitted to such an intimacy with him, employed in such an embassy for him, and endued with such power from on high? It was not owing to their wisdom and goodness in choosing him for their Master, but to his favour and grace in choosing them for his disciples. It is fit that Christ should have the choosing of his own ministers; still he does it by his providence and Spirit. Though ministers make that holy calling their own choice, Christ’s choice is prior to theirs and directs and determines it. Of all that are chosen to grace and glory it may be said, They have not chosen Christ, but he had chosen them, Deu 7:7; Deu 7:8.
[2.] In their ordination: I have ordained you; hetheka hymas–“I have put you into the ministry (1 Tim. i. 12), put you into commission.” By this it appeared that he took them for his friends when he crowned their heads with such an honour, and filled their hands with such a trust. It was a mighty confidence he reposed in them, when he made them his ambassadors to negotiate the affairs of his kingdom in this lower world, and the prime ministers of state in the administration of it. The treasure of the gospel was committed to them, First, That it might be propagated: that you should go, hina hymeis hypagete–“that you should go as under a yoke or burden, for the ministry is a work, and you that go about it must resolve to undergo a great deal; that you may go from place to place all the world over, and bring forth fruit.” They were ordained, not to sit still, but to go about, to be diligent in their work, and to lay out themselves unweariedly in doing good. They were ordained, not to beat the air, but to be instrumental in God’s hand for the bringing of nations into obedience to Christ, Rom. i. 13. Note, Those whom Christ ordains should and shall be fruitful; should labour, and shall not labour in vain. Secondly, That it might be perpetuated; that the fruit may remain, that the good effect of their labours may continue in the world from generation to generation, to the end of time. The church of Christ was not to be a short-lived thing, as many of the sects of the philosophers, that were a nine days’ wonder; it did not come up in a night, nor should it perish in a night, but be as the days of heaven. The sermons and writings of the apostles are transmitted to us, and we at this day are built upon that foundation, ever since the Christian church was first founded by the ministry of the apostles and seventy disciples; as one generation of ministers and Christians has passed away, still another has come. By virtue of that great charter (Matt. xxviii. 19), Christ has a church in the world, which, as our lawyers say of bodies corporate, does not die, but lives in a succession; and thus their fruit remains to this day, and shall do while the earth remains.
[3.] His love to them appeared in the interest they had at the throne of grace: Whatsoever you shall ask of my Father, in my name, he will give it you. Probably this refers in the first place to the power of working miracles which the apostles were clothed with, which was to be drawn out by prayer. “Whatever gifts are necessary to the furtherance of your labours, whatever help from heaven you have occasion for at any time, it is but ask and have.” Three things are here hinted to us for our encouragement in prayer, and very encouraging they are. First, That we have a God to go to who is a Father; Christ here calls him the Father, both mine and yours; and the Spirit in the word and in the heart teaches us to cry, Abba, Father. Secondly, That we come in a good name. Whatever errand we come upon to the throne of grace according to God’s will, we may with a humble boldness mention Christ’s name in it, and plead that we are related to him, and he is concerned for us. Thirdly, That an answer of peace is promised us. What you come for shall be given you. This great promise made to that great duty keeps up a comfortable and gainful intercourse between heaven and earth.
III. Concerning the disciples’ love to Christ, enjoined in consideration of the great love wherewith he had loved them. Three things he exhorts them to:–
1. To continue in his love, v. 9. “Continue in your love to me, and in mine to you.” Both may be taken in. We must place our happiness in the continuance of Christ’s love to us, and make it our business to give continued proofs of our love to Christ, that nothing may tempt us to withdraw from him, or provoke him to withdraw from us. Note, All that love Christ should continue in their love to him, that is, be always loving him, and taking all occasions to show it, and love to the end. The disciples were to go out upon service for Christ, in which they would meet with many troubles; but, says Christ, “Continue in my love. Keep up your love to me, and then all the troubles you meet with will be easy; love made seven years’ hard service easy to Jacob. Let not the troubles you meet with for Christ’s sake quench your love to Christ, but rather quicken it.
2. To let his joy remain in them, and fill them, v. 11. This he designed in those precepts and promises given them.
(1.) That his joy might remain in them. The words are so placed, in the original, that they may be read either, [1.] That my joy in you may remain. If they bring forth much fruit, and continue in his love, he will continue to rejoice in them as he had done. Note, Fruitful and faithful disciples are the joy of the Lord Jesus; he rests in his love to them, Zeph. iii. 17. As there is a transport of joy in heaven in the conversion of sinners, so there is a remaining joy in the perseverance of saints. Or, [2.] That my joy, that is, your joy in me, may remain. It is the will of Christ that his disciples should constantly and continually rejoice in him, Phil. iv. 4. The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment, but the joy of those who abide in Christ’s love is a continual feast. The word of the Lord enduring for ever, the joys that flow from it, and are founded on it, do so too.
(2.) That your joy might be full; not only that you might be full of joy, but that your joy in me and in my love may rise higher and higher, till it come to perfection, when you enter into the joy of your Lord.” Note, [1.] Those and those only that have Christ’s joy remaining in them have their joy full; worldly joys are empty, soon surfeit but never satisfy. It is only wisdom’s joy that will fill the soul, Ps. xxxvi. 8. [2.] The design of Christ in his world is to fill the joy of his people; see 1 John i. 4. This and the other he hath said, that our joy might be fuller and fuller, and perfect at last.
3. To evidence their love to him by keeping his commandments: “If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, v. 10. This will be an evidence of the fidelity and constancy of your love to me, and then you may be sure of the continuance of my love to you.” Observe here, (1.) The promise “You shall abide in my love as in a dwelling place, at home in Christ’s love; as in a resting place, at ease in Christ’s love; as in a stronghold, safe in it. You shall abide in my love, you shall have grace and strength to persevere in loving me.” If the same hand that first shed abroad the love of Christ in our hearts did not keep us in that love, we should not long abide in it, but, through the love of the world, should go out of love with Christ himself. (2.) The condition of the promise: If you keep my commandments. The disciples were to keep Christ’s commandments, not only by a constant conformity to them themselves, but by a faithful delivery of them to others; they were to keep them as trustees, in whose hands that great depositum was lodged, for they were to teach all things that Christ had commanded, Matt. xxviii. 20. This commandment they must keep without spot (1 Tim. vi. 14), and thus they must show that they abide in his love.
To induce them to keep his commandments, he urges, [1.] His own example: As I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. Christ submitted to the law of mediation, and so preserved the honour and comfort of it, to teach us to submit to the laws of the Mediator, for we cannot otherwise preserve the honour and comfort of our relation to him. [2.] The necessity of it to their interest in him (v. 14): “You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you and not otherwise.” Note, First, Those only will be accounted Christ’s faithful friends that approve themselves his obedient servants; for those that will not have him to reign over them shall be treated as his enemies. Idem velle et idem nolle ea demum vera est amicitia–Friendship involves a fellowship of aversions and attachments.–Sallust. Secondly, It is universal obedience to Christ that is the only acceptable obedience; to obey him in every thing that he commands us, not excepting, much less excepting against, any command.
IV. Concerning the disciples’ love one to another, enjoined as an evidence of their love to Christ, and a grateful return for his love to them. We must keep his commandments, and this is his commandment, that we love one another,Joh 15:12; Joh 15:17. No one duty of religion is more frequently inculcated, nor more pathetically urged upon us, by our Lord Jesus, than that of mutual love, and for good reason. 1. It is here recommended by Christ’s pattern (v. 12): as I have loved you. Christ’s love to us should direct and engage our love to each other; in this manner, and from this motive, we should love one another, as, and because, Christ has loved us. He here specifies some of the expressions of his love to them; he called them friends, communicated his mind to them, was ready to give them what they asked. Go you and do likewise. 2. It is required by his precept. He interposes his authority, has made it one of the statute-laws of his kingdom. Observe how differently it is expressed in Joh 15:12; Joh 15:17, and both very emphatic. (1.) This is my commandment (v. 12), as if this were the most necessary of all the commandments. As under the law the prohibition of idolatry was the commandment more insisted on than any other, foreseeing the people’s addictedness to that sin, so Christ, foreseeing the addictedness of the Christian church to uncharitableness, has laid most stress upon this precept. (2.) These things I command you, v. 17. He speaks as if he were about to give them many things in charge, and yet names this only, that you love one another; not only because this includes many duties, but because it will have a good influence upon all.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Abide (). Constative first aorist active imperative of , summing up the whole.
In my love ( ). Subjunctive possessive pronoun, “in the love that I have for you.” Our love for Christ is the result of Christ’s love for us and is grounded at bottom in the Father’s love for the world (3:16). John has 37 times and always in the words of Jesus (Bernard). But he uses also (verse 10).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
In my love [ ] . Literally, in the love, that which is mine. Not only the love of the disciple for Christ, nor the love of Christ for the disciple, but the Christ – principle of love which includes both. See the same form of expression in the joy that is mine, ver. 11; Joh 3:29; Joh 17:13; the judgment (v. 30; Joh 8:16); the commandments (xiv. 15); peace (xiv. 27).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1 ) “As the Father hath loved me,” (kathos egapesen me ho pater) “Just as the Father has loved me,” and does yet love me, Joh 5:20; Joh 10:14-15; Joh 17:26. Love is the highest motivating virtue that tends to unity and inspires service of discipleship to the Lord.
2) “So have I loved you:” (kago himas egapesa) “I have also loved you all,” as individuals, and as a chosen, obedient, and witnessing comrade body, church, company, or assembly, that has companied with me, from the baptism of John, Act 1:21-22; Joh 15:16; Joh 15:27; Joh 13:34-35; Joh 13:1.
3) “Continue ye in my love.” (meinate en te agape te eme) “You all remain in my love,” go on in my love, continually, doing my work, until your work on earth is done, as I have done my Father’s work, Joh 17:4-5; Heb 13:1; 1Jn 3:14; 1Jn 4:19.
Continue to seek to deserve and enjoy the blessings of Jesus Christ, through service rendered out of gratitude, and thanksgiving, Psa 95:2; Php_4:6; Col 4:2.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
9. As the Father hath loved me. He intended to express something far greater than is commonly supposed; for they who think that he now speaks of the sacred love of God the Father, which he always had towards the Son, philosophize away from the subject; for it was rather the design of Christ to lay, as it were, in our bosom a sure pledge of God’s love towards us. That abstruse inquiry, as to the manner in which the Father always loved himself in the Son, has nothing to do with the present passage. But the love which is here mentioned must be understood as referring to us, because Christ testifies that the Father loves him, as he is the Head of the Church. And this is highly necessary for us; for he who without a Mediator, inquires how he is loved by God, involves him in a labyrinth, in which he will neither discover the entrance, nor the means of extricating himself. We ought therefore to cast our eyes on Christ, in whom will be found the testimony and pledge of the love of God; for the love of God was fully poured out on him, that from him it might flow to his members. He is distinguished by this title, that he is the beloved Son, in whom the will of the Father is satisfied, (Mat 3:17.) But we ought to observe the end, which is, that God may accept us in him. So, then, we may contemplate in him, as in a mirror, God’s paternal love towards us all; because he is not loved apart, or for his own private advantage, but that he may unite us with him to the Father.
Abide in my love. Some explain this to mean, that Christ demands from his disciples mutual love; but others explain it better, who understand it to mean the love of Christ towards us. He means that we should continually enjoy that love with which he once loved us, and, therefore, that we ought to take care not to deprive ourselves of it; for many reject the grace which is offered to them, and many throw away what they once had in their hands. So, then, since we have been once received into the grace of Christ, we must see that we do not fall from it through our own fault.
The conclusion which some draw from these words, that there is no efficacy in the grace of God. unless it be aided by our steadfastness, is frivolous. For I do not admit that the Spirit demands from us no more than what is in our own power, but he shows us what we ought to do, that, if our strength be deficient, we may seek it from some other quarter. In like manner, when Christ exhorts us, in this passage, to perseverance, we must; not rely on our own strength and industry, but we ought to pray to him who commands us, that he would confirm us in his love.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.Better, As the Father hath loved Me, I have also loved you. He had passed from the thought of their discipleship to the foundation of their union with Him and with God. It was in the eternal love of the Father, ever going forth to the Son, and from the Son ever going forth to all who would receive it. The Fathers love and presence was ever with the Son, because the Son ever did those things which were pleasing to Him. (Comp. Note on Joh. 8:31.) The love of the Son is ever present wherever willing heart of obedient disciple is open to its power.
Continue ye in my love.Better, abide ye in My love. The word continue misses the connection with the context. By My love is meant, not love to Me in your hearts, but, My love towards you. The one produces the other. We love Him because He hath first loved us; but that which is prominent in the thought here is His love to the disciples, which He has just compared to the Fathers love to Himself.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Father hath loved me, so I you The third advancement is the attainment of a love from Christ so ineffable, and so perfect, as to be paralleled only by the love of the Father to the Son. The union of Christ with his persevering follower is modelled upon the ineffable unity of the Trinity itself. It is, therefore, perfect and eternal.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Even as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Dwell (aorist imperative) in my love. If you keep (‘meditate on and obey’ – aorist subjunctive) what I have commanded you will dwell continually in my love (future), even as I have kept (‘meditated on and obeyed’) what He has commanded me (perfect), and dwell continually (present) in his love.”
Those who are His not only abide in Him, but also in His love. Those who reveal themselves as truly a part of the vine by their Christian fruitfulness will experience His continual love. Note that His love for those who are truly His own parallels the Father’s love for Him. What greater love could there be than that? It is overflowing and permanent. Indeed it is established from the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4). And it is the love which passes knowledge (Eph 3:19). Thus their decision to abide in His love must also be permanent, something depicted by the aorist tense. It is a once for all dwelling. It is a decision that once made must be final. It is a permanent commitment resulting in a permanent position.
But we can only dwell in His love and remain there if we are obedient to what He commands us, and obedient to His word. Thus if we would dwell in His love we must ‘keep’ His word, meditating on it and obeying it. The aorist subjunctive indicates the hope that they will permanently put themselves in a position whereby they keep what He has commanded them. Then they will abide in His love.
The use of the subjunctive, suggesting only possibility, indicates that Jesus still has Judas in mind (the disciples would at this stage certainly be including Judas as being part of the group to which the words were spoken even though he was absent). There was at least one who even now was not obeying His word. So while He is giving positive teaching to His disciples we can sense both the pressure He had sought to put on Judas, giving him a final opportunity to repent, and His awareness that He had failed to win him over. Humanly speaking the opportunity was still there, but in reality the opportunity had passed. And in future there would be other Judases, although not among the eleven.
‘Even as I have kept (‘meditated on and obeyed’ – perfect tense – something which has happened in the past which continues to the present) what He has commanded me, and dwell continually (present) in his love.” He then cites Himself as their example. He Himself has demonstrated such a life and calls on them to follow in His steps. He has kept and is still keeping (perfect tense) what His Father has commanded Him, and continually dwells (present tense) in His love.
There is no compromise here. Permanent trust and obedience is required, a permanent dwelling in His love is promised. While the New Testament is aware of the weakness of many Christians it never condones it. Rather it encourages such weak Christians to recognise what God is doing in them and become strong, and it warns that the final test is perseverance lest any be deceived by a false profession. On the one hand it strongly confirms that those who are His will be confirmed to the end (1Co 1:8-9; Php 1:6; Jud 1:24 – note that all assume a work of God that is producing fruit), on the other it warns against complacency. All Christians can have assurance that they are in His love if they know that they are truly looking to Him only for salvation, none can have that assurance if they are deliberately continuing in long term disobedience and neglecting His word. You will never find anywhere in Scripture where it is taught that a fruitless so-called believer who is living in a state of neglect to God’s word is given any assurance of salvation.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 15:9. Continue ye in my love. Or, “Keep your place in my affection: continue to deserve my love.” So again in the next verse, As long as ye keep my commandments, ye shall continue in my love; that is “I shall continue to love you.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 15:9-10 . But as of Christ, they are the object of His love ; hence, in addition to the general exhortation to abide on Him , there comes now, further, the particular, to abide in His love , which is done by keeping His commandments, according to the archetype of His morally harmonious relation to the Father .
As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you ( aorists , because Jesus, at the boundary of His life, stands and looks back, Joh 13:1 ; Joh 13:34 ); abide (keep yourselves continually) in my love. [165] When others extend the protasis to , and first begin the apodosis with (Maldonatus, Grotius, Rosenmller, Olshausen, and several others), this is opposed by the fact that between . . and , . . . no correlation exists; for the is not love to me (Maldonatus, Grotius, Nsselt, Kuinoel, Baeumlein, and several others), but: my love to you , as is clear from and from the analogy of , Joh 15:11 ; [166] comp. Joh 15:12-13 . Olshausen mingles the two together, the active and passive love.
] = . But the latter purposely lays emphasis on the thought that it was nothing less than His love, that love so great and holy, as He had just expressed by ., . . ., in which they were to abide.
] Self-witness in the retrospect which He takes of His whole ministry on the threshold of its accomplishment.
. . ] Consequence of . The prominent position of corresponds to the consciousness of the happiness and the dignity of abiding in the love which His Father bears to him (Joh 10:17 , Joh 17:24 ). The present includes continuance also for the future; hence it is not, with Ewald, to be accented .
[165] Instead of . Ewald conjectures , which he still makes depend on , ver. 8; but this is unsuitable, since appears without .
[166] That might denote love to me , should not have been called in question, as being contrary to the genius of the language. Comp. , Xen. Anab. vii. 7. 29; Thucyd. i. 137. 4 : , Rom 11:31 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1693
THE FATHERS LOVE TO CHRIST, AND CHRISTS TO US
Joh 15:9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
REASON could never suggest motives sufficient to counteract the passions: the law of God itself, with all its sanctions, could not change the heart. The Gospel alone can make sin odious, and holiness delightful. It effects this by revealing to us the love of Christ [Note: 2Co 5:14.]. Hence our Lord reminds us of his love in order to confirm our love to him.
I.
The nature and extent of Christs love to us
The comparison in the text denotes not equality, but resemblance [Note: Mat 5:48.]. The love of Christ to us, like that of his Father to him, is,
1.
Without beginning
There never was a period when the Father first began to love his Son
[He loved him before his entrance on his ministry [Note: Mat 3:17.], before his existence in the world [Note: Joh 1:18.], before Isaiahs time [Note: Isa 42:1.], from all eternity [Note: In this sense many commentators explain Pro 8:22-23; Pro 8:30 : and if that interpretation be admitted, the eternity of Christs love may be confirmed by ver. 9. But, however this passage be interpreted, the fact itself stands on the most unquestionable authority. Joh 17:24.].]
There never was a period when Christ first began to love us
[His love is first manifested when we believe in him. But our faith in him is the effect, not the cause, of his love to us. This is affirmed by the prophets [Note: Jer 31:3. Eze 16:6.], and by Christ himself [Note: Joh 15:16.].]
2.
Without measure
The Fathers love to Christ was unbounded
[He is one with Christ in nature, and therefore in affection [Note: Joh 10:30.]. He has shewn the greatness of his love to him, in the gifts bestowed upon him [Note: Joh 3:35. Col 1:19.], and in his constant co-operation with him [Note: Joh 5:19-20.].]
Christs love to us is also boundless
[It produces most astonishing acts of kindness towards us [Note: Eph 5:25. Rev 1:5-6.]. Human affections fall far short of it [Note: Isa 49:15-16.]. It passess all knowledge, whether of men or angels.]
3.
Without variation
The Fathers love to Christ was unchangeable
[His love seems to have been withdrawn for a season [Note: Mat 27:46.]: he seemed not to answer his prayers [Note: Luk 22:42; Luk 22:44.]: but he heard him always [Note: Joh 11:42.], and loved him always. The apparent suspensions of his love were the necessary means of accomplishing the purposes of his love even towards Christ himself [Note: Heb 2:10.].]
Christs love to us also is unchangeable
[There are seasons when he seems to withdraw his love. But his chastisements are tokens of his love [Note: Heb 12:6.]. He hates sin indeed, and will correct his people till they put it away: but he will not withdraw his love from them [Note: Psa 89:31-33.]. Wherever he fixes his love, he rests unalterably in it [Note: Zep 3:17.].]
4.
Without end
The Fathers love to Christ shall endure for ever
[He has given him a pledge of this in his exaltation to heaven.]
Christs love to us shall also be everlasting
[He knows no change of mind with respect to what He has bestowed [Note: Rom 11:29.]. Whomsoever he loves he continues to love [Note: Joh 13:1.]. This truth is a just ground of joy and confidence [Note: Rom 8:35; Rom 8:38-39.].]
What returns can we ever make to Christ for such amazing love?
II.
The duty resulting from it
This part of the text requires application rather than discussion
It sets before us, not merely our privilege (which is, to continue in a sense of Christs love to us) but our duty;
1.
To love Christ
[This would have been our duty, though he had not so loved us. But the obligation to it is greatly increased by his love. Let him then he exceeding precious to us. Let us despise every thing in comparison of him [Note: Php 3:8.].]
2.
To continue in love to him
[We are too apt to decline in our love [Note: Mat 24:12.]. But declensions, however secret, are very offensive [Note: Rev 2:4.]. They will, if continued in, disqualify us for heaven [Note: Luk 9:62.]: they will reduce us to a worse situation than ever [Note: 2Pe 2:22.]. Let us therefore cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart [Note: Act 11:23.].]
3.
To abound in all acts and offices of love to him
[In secret, let us contemplate, admire, and adore his excellencies: in public, let us confess, honour, and obey him [Note: Mat 10:32. Joh 14:21.].]
It commends to us that duty as resulting from the declaration that precedes it
[The love of Christ towards us is the strongest of all motives to the love of him. Was Christs love to us so unmerited, unbounded, invariable, and lasting? and shall ours to him be weak and transient? Let it operate then suitably on all our hearts. Let us not rest satisfied with what we have attained [Note: Php 3:12-13.]. Let us meditate on his love as the means of increasing ours [Note: Eph 3:18-19.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. (10) If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. (11) These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (12) This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. (13) Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (14) Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. (15) Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (16) Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (17) These things I command you, that ye love one another. (18) If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. (19) If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. (20) Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord: if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my saying, they will keep your’s also. (21) But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. (22) If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. (23) He that hateth me hateth my Father also. (24) If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. (25) But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
Some of the many blessed things here spoken of by our Lord, are so sweet and plain, as to need no comment: indeed their beautiful simplicity, would suffer by one. I shall only therefore venture to offer an observation or two, which may not at first view appear so obvious as others.
When our Lord saith, in the opening of this passage, that as the Father hath loved him, so hath Christ loved his Church: it is very proper that we should consider, in what sense Jesus meant it. The love here spoken of in relation to the Father’s affection towards Jesus, cannot be supposed to be the love he bears to the Son, as God. For in this sense, none but God himself, can apprehend the nature or extent of it. We must be blessed with infinite capacities, before that we can have the smallest conceptions, concerning any one thing, that is in its nature infinite. This, therefore, is not the love to which Jesus refers. Neither is it to be supposed, that the Father’s love of Christ, in the Personal glory of God-Man-Mediator, as Christ, is the love here meant This must far exceed Christ’s love of the Church. But the sense seems to be, that the love Jesus here speaks of, in relation to his Church, is of the same nature and kind, though not in equal degree. Under these limitations, and with an eye to Christ, as the predisposing cause, in whom, and for whose sake, God the Father loved the Church before all worlds, and chose the Church in Christ before all worlds; there is nothing upon earth can be more blessed, than the assurance Jesus hath here given: both of his Father’s love of Him, and his love of the Church in Him. It is blessed, yea very blessed, to ponder the subject in this point of view! Jesus desires the Church to keep always in remembrance, that as the Father loveth Him, in this precious view, as the Head of his body the Church, and as such Christ hath been from everlasting infinitely delightful in his sight: so, saith Jesus, is my Church dear to me, as my Father’s gift, and as the several members of my mystical body. Reader! fold up in your bosom those precious words of Jesus, for your unceasing meditation and delight!
I beg the Reader next to notice, what Jesus hath said, in respect to the keeping his commandments, by way of abiding in his love. Not, as if the love of Jesus was suspended on any act of his people: for this would be to subvert the whole plan of the Gospel; and to make the grace of God to depend upon the free will of man. In this case, human merit, and not divine favor, would become the standard of acceptance. Reader! I hope that you have not so learned Christ! Christ’s love, is the sole cause of ours. And as we never obtained that love, because we kept his commandments: so our continuing in that love doth not rest, or depend upon, our present or future deservings, more than our past or original merit. The word If, in the beginning of the verse, if ye keep my commandments, seem to be used by Christ in a similar way and manner to the words of his servant the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews: not as forming a cause, or condition, but rather as the consequence. For speaking of Christ and his house, he saith, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence. Heb 3:6 . So again, Heb 3:14 , We are made partakers of Christ (saith he) if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. In both those instances, it is our mercy, that neither our being of the house of Christ, built on Him the foundation, nor our being made partakers of Christ as part of himself; depend upon the least act of ours. These things were all settled before the foundation of the world; being chosen in Him, that we should be holy, and without blame, before God and our Father in love. Eph 1:4 . But the Apostle in both places is speaking of the result of things, and not the cause, or condition of them; but as of a thing actually enjoyed. It is, as if he had said, we manifestly prove that we are Christ’s, because we remain on the foundation: and we shew to all the world, that we are made partakers of Christ, because the sweet fruits of his grace, and love, are manifested in our lives, and conversation. In like manner, the keeping Christ’s commandments are not meant as the cause, of abiding in his love; but his love is the cause, how his people are enabled to keep his commandments, and abide in him: and these become so many proofs and evidences that they are His, and who continue in his love.
I hope the Reader can, and doth, enter with me, into a suitable apprehension of the sweet character, Jesus makes use of, as a friend. Jesus is indeed the friend that loveth at all times, and one that sticketh closer than a brother. Pro 18:1-24Pro 18:1-24 . And who that considers, how from everlasting, Jesus engaged for his Church, as a surety; how he died for us; paid all our debts for us; bought us out of the hands of infinite justice; married our nature; is gone to heaven, to take possession of it in our name; will come again to receive us to himself, that where he is, we may be also: and in the mean time, supplies all our wants, answers all our necessities; and in every circumstance of life, is a constant friend, a faithful friend, an unchanging friend, an everlasting friend: who that thinks of these things, but must enter into a proper apprehension of what the Lord Jesus saith, when he calleth his children friends? Dearest Jesus! how shall I enumerate the thousandth part of the acts of the most disinterested friendship, which thou hast manifested to my soul? What a Friend was the Son of God to our nature, when he passed by that of angels, and took on him the seed of Abraham? What friendship was that, when Jesus became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich? What love, so unequalled, to die, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God! And what love like thine; when though all forsake us, Jesus will never leave nor forsake his redeemed? Yea, Lord! though we so often believe not, yet thou abidest faithful: Jesus cannot, will not, deny himself. Shall I not say then as the wise man; Thine own friend and thy Father’s friend forsake not! Pro 27:10 . Yes! blessed Lord, everywhere, and in all things, I will speak of thee, with the Church of old, and say, This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem! Son 5:16 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
Ver. 9. Continue ye in my love ] In the love wherewith I do dearly love you. As who should say, Suffer yourselves to be loved by me. Lo, the Lord Christ even makes love to the good soul, and woos entertainment.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
9. ] The Love between the Father and Christ is compared with that between Christ and His disciples. The sense is best served by placing a colon (as in E. V.) after , making . . . a separate injunction, and = . With only a comma at , that which is the great assertion of the sentence, is suffered to slip by unnoticed; viz. that ‘as the Father hath loved the Son, so the Son His disciples.’
. may be rendered the love of Me , as in Luk 22:19 [211] 1 Cor., but the sense is not good, and the expression is not parallel with . in Joh 15:10 ; so that I prefer my love, the love which I have towards you; remain in it: do not cast yourselves out of it. The other sense is implied in this, but not expressed.
[211] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25 , the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified , thus, ‘ Mk.,’ or ‘ Mt. Mk.,’ &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 15:9-17 . The disciples are urged to fulfil Christ’s purposes in the world, and are assured that if they abide in the love of Christ they will receive all they need for fruit-bearing .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Joh 15:9 . . Love is the true bond which gives unity to the moral world, and inspires discipleship. All that Christ experiences is the result of the Father’s love: all that the disciples are called to be and to do is the outcome of Christ’s love. This love of Christ was to be retained as their possession by their conforming themselves to it: , “abide in my love,” no longer “abide in me,” but specifically “in my love”. Abide in it, for there is a possibility of your falling away from its enjoyment and possession.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
John
ABIDING IN LOVE
Joh 15:9 – Joh 15:11
The last of these verses shows that they are to be taken as a kind of conclusion of the great parable of the Vine and the branches, for it looks back and declares Christ’s purpose in His preceding utterances. The parable proper is ended, but the thoughts of it still linger in our Lord’s mind, and echo through His words, as the vibration of some great bell after the stroke has ceased. The main thoughts of the parable were these two, that participation in Christ’s life was the source of all good, and that abiding in Him was the means of participation in His life. And these same thoughts, though modified in their form, and free from the parabolical element, appear in the words that we have to consider on this occasion. The parable spoke about abiding in Christ; our text defines that abiding, and makes it still more tender and gracious by substituting for it, ‘abiding in His love.’ The parable spoke of conduct as ‘fruit,’ the effortless result of communion with Jesus. Our text speaks of it with more emphasis laid on the human side, as ‘keeping the commandments.’ The parable told us that abiding in Christ was the condition of bearing fruit. Our text tells us the converse, which is also true, that bearing fruit, or keeping the commandments, is the condition of abiding in Christ. So our Lord takes His thought, as it were, and turns it round before us, letting us see both sides of it, and then tells us that He does all this for one purpose, which in itself is a token of His love, namely, that our hearts may be filled with perfect and perennial joy, a drop from the fountain of His own.
These three verses have three words which may be taken as their key-notes-love, obedience, joy. We shall look at them in that order.
I. First, then, we have here the love in which it is our sweet duty to abide. ‘As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide ye in My love.’
I know not whether the majesty and uniqueness of His nature stand out more clearly in the one or in the other of these two assertions. As beloved of God, and as loving like God, He equally claims for Himself a place which none other can fill, and declares that the love which falls on us from His pierced and bleeding heart is really the love of God.
In this mysterious, awful, tender, perfect affection He exhorts us to abide. That comes yet closer to our hearts than the other phrase of which it is the modification, and in some sense the explanation. The command to abide in Him suggests much that is blessed, but to have all that mysterious abiding in Him resolved into abiding in His love is infinitely tenderer, and draws us still closer to Himself. Obviously, what is meant is not our continuance in the attitude of love to Him, but rather our continuance in the sweet and sacred atmosphere of His love to us. For the connection between the two halves of the verse necessarily requires that the love in which we are to abide should be identical with the love which had been previously spoken of, and that is clearly His love to us, and not ours to Him. But then, on the other hand, whosoever thus abides in Christ’s love to Him will echo it back again, in an equally continuous love to Him. So that the two things flow together, and to abide in the conscious possession of Christ’s love to me is the certain and inseparable cause of its effect, my abiding in the continual exercise and outgoing of my love to Him.
Now note that this continuance in Christ’s love is a thing in our power, since it is commanded. Although it is His affection to us of which my text primarily speaks, I can so modify and regulate the flow of that divine love to my heart that it becomes my duty to continue in Christ’s love to me.
What a quiet, blessed home that is for us! The image, I suppose, that underlies all this sweet speech in these last hours, about dwelling in Christ, in His joy, in His words, in His peace, and the like, is that of some safe house, into which going, we may be secure. And what sorrow or care or trouble or temptation would be able to reach us if we were folded in the protection of that strong love, and always felt that it was the fortress into which we might continually resort? They who make their abode there, and dwell behind those firm bastions, need fear no foes, but are lifted high above them all. ‘Abide in My love,’ for they who dwell within the clefts of that Rock need none other defence; and they to whom the riven heart of Christ is the place of their abode are safe, whatsoever befalls. ‘As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide ye in My love.’
II. Now note, secondly, the obedience by which we continue in Christ’s love.
And then notice, still further, how Christ here, with His consciousness of perfect obedience and communion, intercepts our obedience and diverts it to Himself. He does not say, ‘Obey God as I have done, and He will love you’; but He says, ‘Obey Me as I obey God, and I will love you.’ Who is this that thus comes between the child’s heart and the Father’s? Does He come between when He stands thus? or does He rather lead us up to the Father, and to a share in His own filial obedience?
He further assures us that, by keeping His commandments, we shall continue in that sweet home and safe stronghold of His love. Of course the keeping of the commandments is something more than mere outward conformity by action. It is the inward harmony of will, and the bowing of the whole nature. It is, in fact, the same thing though considered under a different aspect, and from a somewhat different point of view, as He has already been speaking about as the ‘fruit’ of the vine, by the bearing of which the Father is glorified. And this obedience, the obedience of the hands because the heart obeys, and does so because it loves, the bowing of the will in glad submission to the loved and holy will of the heavens-this obedience is the condition of our continuing in Christ’s love.
He will love us better, the more we obey His commandments, for although His tender heart is charged towards all, even the disobedient, with the love of pity and of desire to help, He cannot but feel a growing thrill of satisfied and gratified affection towards us, in the measure in which we become like Himself. The love that wept over us, when we were enemies, will ‘rejoice over us with singing,’ when we are friends. The love that sought the sheep when it was wandering will pour itself yet more tenderly and with selector gifts upon it when it follows in the footsteps of the flock, and keeps close at the heels of the Good Shepherd. ‘If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love,’ so we will put nothing between us and Him which will make it impossible for the tenderest tenderness of that holy love to come to your hearts.
The obedience which we render for love’s sake will make us more capable of receiving, and more blessedly conscious of possessing, the love of Jesus Christ. The lightest cloud before the sun will prevent it from focussing its rays to a burning point on the convex glass. And the small, thin, fleeting, scarcely visible acts of self-will that sometimes pass across our skies will prevent our feeling the warmth of that love upon our shrouded hearts. Every known piece of rebellion against Christ will shatter all true enjoyment of His favour, unless we are hopeless hypocrites or self-deceived. The condition of knowing and feeling the warmth and blessedness of Christ’s love to me is the honest submission of my nature to His commandments. You cannot rejoice in Jesus Christ unless you do His will. You will have no real comfort and blessedness in your religion unless it works itself out in your daily lives. That is why so many of you know nothing, or next to nothing, about the joy of Christ’s felt presence, because you do not, for all your professions, hourly and momentarily regulate and submit your wills to His commandments. Do what He wants, and do it because He wants it, if you wish that His love should fill your hearts.
And, further, we shall continue in His love by obedience, inasmuch as every emotion which finds expression in our daily life is strengthened by the fact that it is expressed. The love which works is love which grows, and the tree that bears fruit is the tree that is healthy and increases. So note how all these deepest things of Christian teaching come at last to a plain piece of practical duty. We talk about the mysticism of John’s Gospel, about the depth of these last sayings of Jesus Christ. Yes! they are mystical, they are deep-unfathomably deep, thank God!-but connected by the shortest possible road with the plainest possible duties. ‘Let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous.’ It is of no use to talk about communion with Jesus Christ, and abiding in Him, in possession of His love, and all those other properly mystical sides of Christian experience, unless you verify them for yourselves by the plain way of practice. Doing as Christ bids us, and doing that habitually, and doing it gladly, then, and only then, are we in no danger of losing ourselves on the heights, or of forgetting that Christ’s mission has for its last result the influencing of character and of conduct. ‘If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.’
III. Lastly, note the joy which follows on this practical obedience. ‘These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain,’ or ‘might be’ ‘in you, and that your joy might be full.’
This joy He offers to us, a joy coming from perfect obedience, a joy coming from a surrender of self at the bidding of love, to a love that to us seems absolutely good and sweet. There is no joy that humanity is capable of to compare for a moment with that bright, warm, continuous sunshine which floods the soul, that is freed from all the clouds and mists of self and the darkness of sin. Self-sacrifice at the bidding of Jesus Christ is the recipe for the highest, the most exquisite, the most godlike gladnesses of which the human heart is capable. Our joy will remain if His joy is ours. Then our joy will be, up to the measure of its capacity, ennobled, and filled, and progressive, advancing ever towards a fuller possession of His joy, and a deeper calm of that pure and perennial rapture, which makes the settled and celestial bliss of those who have ‘entered into the joy of their Lord.’
Brother! there is only one gladness that is worth calling so-and that is, that which comes to us, when we give ourselves utterly away to Jesus Christ, and let Him do with us as He will. It is better to have a joy that is central and perennial-though there may be, as there will be, a surface of sorrow and care-than to have the converse, a surface of joy, and a black, unsympathetic kernel of aching unrest and sadness. In one or other of these two states we all live. Either we have to say, ‘as sorrowful yet always rejoicing’ or we have to feel that ‘even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.’ Let us choose for ourselves, and let us choose aright, the gladness which coils round the heart, and endures for ever, and is found in submission to Jesus Christ, rather than the superficial, fleeting joys which are rooted on earth and perish with time.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
As = Even as. Greek kathos.
the Father. See on Joh 1:14.
hath loved = loved. Aor. as in second clause. App-135.
continue = abide. Greek. meno, as in Joh 15:4.
love. App-135., and see p. 1511.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
9.] The Love between the Father and Christ is compared with that between Christ and His disciples. The sense is best served by placing a colon (as in E. V.) after , making … a separate injunction, and = . With only a comma at , that which is the great assertion of the sentence, is suffered to slip by unnoticed; viz. that as the Father hath loved the Son, so the Son His disciples.
. may be rendered the love of Me, as in Luk 22:19 [211] 1 Cor.,-but the sense is not good, and the expression is not parallel with . in Joh 15:10; so that I prefer my love, the love which I have towards you; remain in it: do not cast yourselves out of it. The other sense is implied in this, but not expressed.
[211] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25, the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified, thus, Mk., or Mt. Mk., &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 15:9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you:
Oh, drink this nectar down! It is as when Cleopatra dissolved the pearl into a single draught; for here is the choicest pearl of truth that ever was dissolved into a single verse to be a delicious draught for his people to drink: As the Father hath loved me, as surely as the Father hath loved me; and, then, as that is, in the same manner as the Father hath loved me, without beginning, without ending, Without measure, without change, so have I loved you.
Joh 15:9-10. Continue ye in my love. If ye keep any commandments, ye shall abide in my love;
Note this point of the Lords discipline; not that Christ ever casts away his people, but that he does take from them the sweet sense of his love, the realization of it, if they are disobedient to him, and keep not his commandments.
Joh 15:10-11. Even as I have kept my Fathers commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you,
That he might joy in us, feel a sacred delight in thinking of us as he does when he sees us keeping his commandments, and treasuring up his words, and so living in his love, and being mighty in prayer.
Joh 15:11. And that your joy might be full.
If Christ is not pleased with us, we cannot be glad; and if he has no joy in us, we cannot have joy in him. These two things rise and fall together. When the father of the family looks with joy upon his boy, then the boy is happy; but when the father has no joy in his son, then be sure of this, the son has no joy in his father, but he is sad at heart. O God, may we never grieve thee, for if we do, we shall be ourselves grieved; at least, I trust that we shall, we would not have it otherwise. But, oh! that we might have the testimony that Enoch had before his translation, that we have pleased God!
Then shall we have true pleasure in ourselves.
Joh 15:12-14. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
Obedience, then, is rewarded with a holy friendship, for Christ becomes in the highest sense our Friend; but we are not his friends till we cease to delight in sin, and turn away from it into the paths of holiness.
Joh 15:15. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
The servant works in a building, and it is enough for him that he is laying part of a line of brick or stone. Perhaps he has never seen the design of the structure, nor had a wish to do so. But you and I have the great Architect constantly coming to us to tell us what the building is to be, and to explain to us his plans, and so we work with greater pleasure and joy than a mere labourer might. The very heart of Christ is laid bare to his people: The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. Happy are his people; glad to be his servants, gladder still to be his friends.
Joh 15:16. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
There you see divine election leading on to fruit-bearing, and perpetuated in perseverance: that your fruit should remain. It brings also to every one of its objects this conspicuous favor, prevailing power in prayer: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
Joh 15:17. These things I command you, that ye love one another.
O you professors, who have no love to one another, you are breaking the Kings commandment! You are living in direct violation of a plain command that is most dear to his heart. Oh, that we might constantly hear it and obey it! These things I command you, that ye love one another.
Joh 15:18. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
That is what you have reason to expect, and you may feel honoured if they treat you as they have treated your Lord.
Joh 15:19-22. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my names sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
There is an awful increase of sin produced by Christ speaking to a man; and if any of you have been very near to the Kingdom, and your conscience has been aroused, and your mind has been impressed by the truth, and yet you have gone back to your sin, you have multiplied that sin a thousandfold. The times of your ignorance God may have winked at; but now you are sinning against light and knowledge; and unless you repent, terrible will be your doom.
Joh 15:23-26. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come,
And he has come; he is here, he has never been taken away; he still abides with and in the Church.
Joh 15:26. Whom Ill send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
By this mark you may know whether that which has been taught you is of the Spirit of God. If it does not testify of Christ, if he is not the head and front of it all, there is nothing in it for you to accept. If any man comes to you with what he calls a revelation, if it is not all concerning Christ, by this shall you judge it; it is not of the Spirit of God if it does not testify of Christ.
Joh 15:27. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
May we all bear witness according as we have been with Christ, for there is no bearing witness to Christ unless we have first been with him.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Joh 15:9. ) I also.- , in My love) viz. towards you.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 15:9
Joh 15:9
Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you:-The love that God bestowed on Jesus, Jesus bestowed upon his disciples.
abide ye in my love.-They continued in his love by continuing to do his will. [By natural transition he now passes from the manifestations of spiritual life to the cardinal principle thereof, that is, love. If we may be allowed the expression, this is the divine sap which runs from the vine through the branches, and from the branches back through the vine, keeping up the divine circulation which is essential to divine life. But how shall we abide in his love?]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Joh 15:9-17
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Fathers commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another.
The Holy Spirit has given us a wonderful privilege in allowing this last marvelous discourse of our Lord Jesus Christ to be put on record and preserved throughout all the centuries, that we might listen today to the tender gracious things that He said to His disciples just before He went out to Gethsemane and from there to the judgment hall and the cross.
Did you ever stop to ask how it was that after something like forty or fifty years the apostle John was able to give us a discourse like this in such detail? These words were spoken about A.D. 30, and John is supposed to have written this gospel somewhere within the eighth or ninth decade of the first century of the Christian era when he was an old man living in Ephesus. I have mentioned before that one of the old church fathers tells us that John was an adolescent when Jesus called him, and, therefore, we are not surprised to learn that he outlived all his fellow disciples. Peter, for instance, had been with Christ for some thirty or forty years when John wrote this gospel. Paul, who did not know Jesus on earth, died by martyrdom a year or two before. We are told that Matthew was slain by a lance in Scythia, and Thomas was killed in India where he had gone to preach Christ. All the others of the apostolic band had gone to be with Christ long ago. John was the only one left, and he could look back and think of the time when he was associated with the Lord Jesus Christ here on earth. Impressed by the Spirit he sat down to write this wonderful record.
He says, The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (Joh 1:14). John gives us details as to the Saviors conversations such as we get nowhere else. His long conversation with Nicodemus, with the woman at the well, and with many other characters. And now in these marvelous chapters, 13-16, we have His last discourse, and His high-priestly prayer in chapter 17, all recorded with such remarkable detail after the lapse of nearly a half-century. Have you ever said to yourself, How could he do it? We need to remember the words of the Lord Himself, But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (14:26). So when John sat down to write, doubdess these things which had become dim through the years were brought anew to his mind through the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God, who could reproduce them exactly as they were spoken by the Lord.
We are permitted, as it were, to sit in that Upper Room with the Lord and His disciples and to tread the way out to the garden of sorrows. And here we listen to these blessed unfoldings of His tender heart. Notice verses 9-10, as He sets before them the love of the divine Savior. He says, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Fathers commandments, and abide in his love. Jesus says, I love you just as the Father loves Me. We get the other side in chapter 17 when He said, That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me (v. 23). God, the Father, loves us-who believe in the Lord Jesus-just as much as He loves His Son. And the Lord Jesus Christ loves us as much as He loves His Father. What a wonderful circle that is!
In that circle of Gods favor,
Circle of the Fathers love;
All is rest and rest forever,
All is perfectness above.
It is one thing to talk about love and another to manifest it. I may say I love my mother and yet refuse to do anything for her when she is sick. Such love counts for very little. I am a father and say I love my children, but I may be so taken up with the things of the world that I dont lift my hand to help them when they need it. Love is manifested by active benevolence and by obedience. The Lord Jesus says, If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, that is, dwell consciously in the sense of His love. It was the delight of His heart to do the will of the Father. It will be the delight of our hearts to do the will of the Lord Jesus Christ if we really love Him.
We have already heard Him say, My peace I give unto you (14:27). Now in verse 11 He speaks of sharing His joy with us: These things have I spoken to you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. We are told in the Old Testament that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Joy is more than peace. Joy is peace bubbling up. The Lord would have us to be a joyful people. He Himself was like that. While it is true that He was the suffering One, the Man of sorrows, yet we never feel as we read the records penned by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that we are reading of a sad man, but all the way through we are reading of One in whose heart there was fullness of joy.
No matter how things went outwardly He could always find His joy in the Father. The very time when He had to pronounce judgment upon the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, we read at that time Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes (Luk 10:21). He says, in effect, If you abide in fellowship with Me and make it the object of your life to glorify Me, you shall share My joy. The very joy that is Mine will be yours, that your joy may be full.
You say, What commandment does He mean? What commandment? This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you (Joh 15:12). You see, if we keep that commandment, everything else will be all right. You will never grieve the heart of God if you love one another. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Oh, if we would only test ourselves more. If we would ask ourselves, Now am I doing this because I love my brother? Would I say that because I love my brother, or am I allowing myself to do things that are incompatible with love? Love covers a multitude of sins we are told. If I really love my brother I shall never want to hurt him, or to shame and disgrace him. Even if he has been guilty of what is wrong, I will go to him and seek to restore him in tender love. We forget this so much, and deal with each other in such a reckless way.
If God dealt with us as we deal with each other, it would go very hard with us. But, ah, His abounding love-love that covers, love that, in grace, has overlooked so much in our life! Did you ever stop to think if every hidden thing you ever did was blazed abroad whether you would feel like facing the world again? So many things you have had to go to Him about, and He has kept them covered up. What a mercy! Do we deal with our brethren that way? Love covereth. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (vv. 12-13). Here, then, is the supreme test of his love. John, the apostle, says, We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1Jn 3:16). It is our duty to go so far as even to lay down our lives for them. Do we act on that? That is what Jesus did. Paul could say, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20).
Long years ago a missionary over in China was engaged in the work of translating the New Testament into Chinese. He had an eminent scholar to assist him, a Confucianist who had never heard of Christianity until this missionary had engaged him to help in the translation. He sat with him day after day, and together they went over the New Testament page by page and verse by verse. The Chinese scholar would suggest the proper Chinese word in order to make the meaning plain. The missionary was a painstaking person and anxious to produce a splendid translation.
One thing he thought he had better not do was to talk religion with his helper. So he was very careful, and never said a word to the man about his need of Christ and the salvation of his own soul. But, finally, when they had finished, he thought he ought to say something. He said, You have been a great help to me. I could not have gotten along without you. Now I would like to ask, as we have come along through the New Testament, has not the beauty of Christianity appealed to you? Would you not like to be a Christian? The scholar looked at him and said, Yes, it does appeal to me. It is the most wonderful system of ethics and philosophy I have ever known. I think that if I could once see a Christian I might become interested. But, said the missionary, I am a Christian!
You, said the Chinese scholar, are you a Christian? Oh, no. Pardon me, I dont want to offend you, but I have observed you and listened to you all the way along. You are not a Christian. If I understand aright, a Christian is a follower of Jesus, and Jesus says, A new commandment give I unto you, that you might love one another. But I have listened to you talk about others who were not present, saying unkind things about them. You are not a Christian. And then I have noticed too that Christianity teaches perfect trust, and I translated for you a passage that says, My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. You are told to trust and not be afraid, but you dont do that. If your check is a little late in reaching you, you are dreadfully worried and you wonder what you are going to do. And he went on with a number of things like that, ending with, I have had to conclude that you are not a Christian. I think if I could see a Christian, I would like to be one.
The poor brokenhearted missionary! He sobbed before the Lord and said, Oh, I have been so careless. He just broke down and had to ask forgiveness for his coldness and neglect. The scholar went away and said, Well, I wonder if, after all, I havent seen a Christian. You see Christians are not perfect as the world expects perfection, but we should grow more like our Master every day.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Jesus says, Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you (Joh 15:14). We do not become Christians by doing His commandments, but we become manifestly His friends by obeying His words. We show that we are really friends to Christ by walking in obedience.
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you (v. 15). (The word for servants is bondmen.) Jesus says, in effect, I love to take you into My confidence. I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. You know how you feel about your friends. Most of us do not have a great many friends. There are just a few folks whom we take right into our hearts, and we talk of them as our friends. We do not like to share our secrets with everyone. But when we get a real, intimate friend, we love to share the secret things of our heart with that friend. So the Lord Jesus Christ says, I am calling you My friends. Oh, how He opens up His heart and makes known His precious things to His friends.
And then another thing, we give our friends privileges that we do not give to strangers. So He says, For all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you (vv. 15-16). In other words, He wants His own to enter into such an intimate sense of fellowship and communion with Himself that they may go to the Father in His name and, as friends, offer their petitions in that name, and the Father will delight to hear and fulfill because it glorifies the name of Jesus.
I may have a friend and write a little note and say, This will introduce you to so-and-so, who is also a friend of mine. If you can do what he or she desires, I shall esteem it as though it were done for me. And that one goes to my friend, who says, I am a friend of his, and I will be a friend to you. That is what Jesus says. He means, Tell the Father I sent you. You see some people believe that to pray in Christs name merely means to close by saying, These things we ask for the name and sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are not saved you are not authorized to go to God in Christs name, and if you are not in fellowship with God neither are you authorized to go to God like that. People who are living selfish, worldly lives are not authorized to go to God in this way. If you are abiding in Him you can go to the Father by His authority, and He will guide your petitions. He delights to answer, because in answering He is showing His love for and confidence in His own blessed Son.
But there is something here in verse 161 must not pass over. What does He say? Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Did not they choose Him? Did not you choose Christ? Yes, but not before He chose you.
Tis not that I did choose Thee,
For, Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Thee,
But Thou hast chosen me.
Twas the same love that spread the feast,
That gently forced me in,
Else I had still refused to come,
And perished in my sin.
Long before my heart was inclined to come to Christ, He touched me by the blessed Holy Spirit. At last when I was utterly broken down and brought to repentance, and cried to Him in shame, Save, Lord, or I perish, He took me in and made me His own.
And then when it is a question of service, it is He who chooses for this or that special work. And it is He who selects our sphere of ministry, whether at home or abroad. You remember the man who wanted to follow the Master, and the Lord said, [No], go home, and [show] how great things the Lord hath done for thee (Mar 5:19). We can glorify Christ in whatever place we may be and we must recognize that He chose that task for us. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you.
Many people are troubled about ordination. Folks ask, Has any one a right to preach who has not been ordained? In this Book you do not read of people being ordained to preach the gospel. You never get the word ordination connected with the actual setting apart of a man to preach the gospel. What about Timothy? The word ordained was not used in Timothys case. Well, you say, did you forget about Paul and Barnabas? No, but they had been preaching a long time in Antioch before the elders laid their hands on them. Nobody authorized them by any service of ordination to go out and preach. That is the Lords prerogative. He said, I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit. The word ordained means set apart. I have chosen you. It is good to be able to say,
Christ, the Son of God, has sent me,
Through the midnight lands;
Mine the mighty ordination
Of the pierced hands.
That is the ordination that counts. All that the elders or others can do is to recognize what God has done already. The Lord said in regard to Paul, when he was still Saul of Tarsus, He is a chosen vessel unto me, to [bring] my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel (Act 9:15). And to Paul himself He said, I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee (26:16). It is the Lord Himself who makes ministers, who gives men first to know Christ as their own Savior, and then sends them forth to preach. I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
He concludes this particular section with these words, These things I command you, that ye love one another (Joh 15:17). Ah, that is the final test. Love is the evidence of grace working in our souls. So the passage closes as it began.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
the Father: Joh 15:13, Joh 17:23, Joh 17:26, Eph 3:18, Rev 1:5
continue: Joh 15:11, 1Jo 2:28, Jud 1:20
Reciprocal: 1Ki 2:4 – That the Lord 1Ki 13:9 – For Psa 36:10 – continue Psa 37:28 – forsaketh Psa 119:167 – soul Son 2:4 – his banner Dan 10:19 – O man Mat 17:5 – in whom Luk 6:47 – doeth Joh 3:35 – Father Joh 10:17 – General Joh 11:5 – loved Joh 13:1 – having Joh 14:21 – that loveth Joh 14:31 – that the Act 14:22 – exhorting Gal 4:29 – after the Spirit Col 1:23 – ye continue 2Th 2:16 – which Jam 1:25 – and 1Jo 2:24 – ye also 1Jo 5:18 – keepeth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
9
A husbandman supplies his vine with soil and other necessary material for producing fruit so that it can pass on the material to the branches that are still connected. Likewise, the Father has bestowed infinite love on his vine (the Son), so that he can pass that love on to the branches (the disciples), that are still connected with the vine. Hence Jesus here exhorts them to continue ye in my love.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 15:9. Even as the Father loved me, I also loved you: abide in my love. By keeping in view what has been said on Joh 15:8 we shall understand the transition here to the thought of love. The main thought of that verse was, as we have seen, that of union and communion with the Father and the Son; but the main element of that communion is love,love which flows forth from the Father to the Son, and then from the Son to the members of His body, thus forming that community of love so often spoken of in these chapters. In this love, then (it follows as a necessary consequence), we must abide if we would experience its fruits. It is hardly necessary to say that My love is the Lords love to His people, not theirs to Him.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Lord, what a comparison is here! As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: he doth not say, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved him; but so have I loved you: nor doth he say, As God hath loved me, so have I loved you; but, As the Father! It is verbum dilectionis, a word importing dearness of affection: nor doth he say, The Father hath loved me, and I love you; but, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: nor doth he say, As the Father hath loved me, so will I love you; but, So have I loved you.
This shews the priority of Christ’s love, that he loved us first, and also denotes the invincible constancy of his love, and the indubitable certainty thereof: I have loved you: follow me from heaven to earth, and from earth to heaven again, and you will find that every step I have taken hath been in love.
Learn, 1. That the Lord Jesus Christ hath given full and ample demonstration of his great and wonderful love unto his church and people.
2. That it is the duty, and ought to be the singular care, of every Christian, to preserve the sweet sense and inward diffusions of Christ’s love in their own souls: Continue ye in my love.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Joh 15:9-11. As the Father hath loved me As certainly as he hath loved me; and with that kind of love wherewith he hath loved me, namely, with a love of approbation and delight, constancy and perseverance; so have I loved you As truly, as affectionately, as invariably: continue ye in my love Keep your place in my affection: see that ye do not forfeit that invaluable blessing. How needless was this caution, if it were impossible for them not to abide in his love. If ye keep my commandments If you carefully perform all the things which I have enjoined, both as my apostles and as private Christians; ye shall abide in my love You shall be always the objects of it: on these terms, and on no other, shall you continue to possess my special affection: even as I have kept my Fathers commandments Have exactly performed all the duties of my office, as Mediator, as the Teacher, Redeemer and Saviour of my church, their lawgiver and example; and abide in his love Continue to be the object of his infinite complacency. These things have I spoken unto you Not to grieve you by any intimation that I suspect the sincerity of your regards to me, but that you may be fortified and animated against all the temptations that will assault you, and may continue steadfast in your attachment to my cause and interest, and in your fidelity to me your Master, and zeal and diligence in serving me; that my joy may remain in you That my complacency in you, as my faithful friends, may still continue; and that your joy might be full May be maintained in its full height, and may greatly increase; as it certainly will, in proportion to your fidelity, zeal, and diligence in my service.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 9-11. As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you; abide in my love. 10. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11.I have spoken this to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be fulfilled.
It is the love of Jesus which has formed the bond between Him and ourselves. In this love has the stream of the divine love burst forth on the earth; first, the love of the Father for Jesus, of which He gave Him the assurance at the baptism, and which is that with which He loved Him before His incarnation (Joh 17:24); then, the love of Jesus for His own, which is of the same nature as that of God for Him (, not ).
The initiative in these two cases comes from the more exalted being. What then is the condition to the end that the relation may be maintained and strengthened? It is simply necessary that the inferior being should accept this love and respond to it. He has not to awaken it; he has only to abide under its beams. But in order to this, he must not force it to turn away from him; and this is what he will do by unfaithfulness and disobedience. Jesus calls attention to the fact that He does not here impose on the believer with reference to Himself any other condition than that to which He has Himself submitted with reference to the Father. His life was an act of permanent submission to the divine injunctions; without this submission, he would have ceased instantly to be the object of the satisfied love of the Father (Joh 8:29, Joh 10:17).
Such is also the position of the believer with regard to the love of Christ. The expression my love can designate here only the love of Jesus for His own; comp. the words: As I have loved you, and the whole development in Joh 15:13-16. The Lord uses with reference to Himself the verbs in the past because He has reached the end of His earthly life. The second clause of Joh 15:9 : and I have loved you, does not depend on , as : As my Father has loved me and as I have loved you. For the principal verb, which would, in that case, be: abide, is not in any logical relation to the first clause of Joh 15:9 : as my Father has loved me. The meaning is: And I also, I have loved you; continue therefore the objects of this love.
And how so? By faithfulness to His injunctions like to that which He Himself testifies with reference to the will of the Father (Joh 15:10).
In demanding this of them Jesus is assured by His own experience that He is not imposing on them a burden, but rather is revealing to them the secret of perfect joy (Joh 15:11). It is this constant rejoicing in the love of the Father in the path of obedience which has constituted His own joy here on earth; and this joy will be reproduced in His disciples in the same path. It is then, indeed, His joy into which He initiates them and to the possession of which He invites them in these words: I have said this to you in order that… My joy cannot therefore here signify: the joy which I will produce in you (Calvin); or the joy which I feel on your account (Augustine); or the joy which you feel on my account (Euthymius). The question is of the joy with which He Himself rejoices in feeling Himself to be the object of the Father’s love. Comp. the analogous expression my peace, Joh 14:27.
Thus through obedience their joy will increase even to fulness. For every act of fidelity will draw closer the bond between Jesus and themselves, as every moment in the life of Jesus drew closer the bond between Him and His Father. And to feel oneself included with the Son in the Father’s loveis not this perfect joy? The reading seems preferable to . The notion of being is sufficient; that of abiding would be superfluous; comp. Joh 17:26.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
15:9 {3} As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: {b} continue ye in my love.
(3) The love of the Father towards the Son, and of the Son towards us, and of us toward God and our neighbour, are joined together with an inseparable knot: and there is nothing more sweet and pleasant than it is. Now this love shows itself by its effects, a most perfect example of which Christ himself exhibits to us.
(b) That is, in that love with which I love you, which love is the responsibility of both parties.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The exposition of themes in the metaphor 15:9-16
Jesus proceeded to expound further on some of the themes that He had introduced in His teaching on the vine and the branches (Joh 15:1-8). We observed the same pattern in Jesus’ teaching about the Good Shepherd in chapter 10. The subject moves generally from the believing disciple’s relationship with God to his or her relationship with other believers.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Jesus proceeded to explain that obedience is the key to abiding (cf. Joh 15:7). The relationship between the Father and the Son is again the paradigm for the relationship between the Son and the believer. The idea is not that we can withdraw from the circle of God’s love by being disobedient. God does not stop loving His disobedient children (cf. Luk 15:11-24). It is rather that we can withdraw from the enjoyment and blessings of His love. John stressed Jesus’ obedience to His Father in this Gospel (Joh 4:34; Joh 5:19; Joh 6:38; Joh 8:29; Joh 8:55; Joh 10:17-18; Joh 12:27-28; Joh 14:31). Now Jesus called His disciples to follow His example.