Love Abiding

“Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love; just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” – John 15:9-11 (NASB)

In today’s confused fallen world, love is a complex and ambiguous word. As I reflect on my life, I am fortunate to have lived in a home where my parents loved each other. Their enduring relationship cultivated an environment of refuge and happiness. My parents’ relationship thrived primarily because they were fortunate to have parents and other relatives’ model love, cultivate it, and express its profound rewards — not merely an emotional reward, but an enduring affection that remains steadfast for a lifetime.

As believers living in a confused culture, we need to know how to express and reflect love, and to experience its abiding joy. Jesus, in his concluding chat with his disciples, defines abiding love and its related affect. First, he assures them that he faithfully loved them the same way his Father loved him. Jesus clarifies his disclosure by emphasizing that abiding in his love means keeping his commandments ― just as he abided in his Father’s love by keeping his commandments. Jesus then assures them that he shared these truths with them so they could experience the relational intimacy of his immeasurable joy ― love’s abiding joy.

So, how do we, in today’s culture, emulate Jesus’ countercultural love model? Simply, we keep his commandments ― not in a legalistic manner, but in a way that honors and reflects our love for Jesus and our Father. Loving the Lord transcends a fleeting emotional experience. Loving him and abiding in his love allows us to experience his joy ― love’s abiding joy!

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending the Living Word, Jesus. Teach me your commandments. May your Spirit write them on the tablet of my heart. Empower me to honor you and love you the same way Jesus honored and loved you that I may continually experience the same intimate relational abiding joy. Amen.

Go Deeper ― Jesus wants us to experience the same abiding love as he experiences with the Father. Consider today’s verse and contemplate the following question: Why does Jesus equate keeping His commandments with abiding in His love?

 

Fully Submitted

Philippians 2:1-11

The Bible tells us that though Jesus was “in very nature God” (Phil. 2:6 NIV), He left heaven to come to earth, where He lived in submission to His Father’s plans. Giving the Father complete control over everything He did, the Son held nothing back—not even His life, which He sacrificed on the cross for our sake.

Why did Jesus do this? Because He had perfect trust in His Father—He knew that God has sovereign control over everything and that all His decisions are good, as they are based on divine love, mercy, and justice. He was also certain that God always takes into account what is best for us, and His will is to lead His children towards repentance and growth. Jesus obeyed to bring glory to the Father’s name (John 17:4).

We are to live the same way—surrendered to God’s will. This means acknowledging that He has the right to order our life, and we are to give Him control over every aspect, including finances, family, friends, and fun.

By submitting to God, we declare our trust in Him and our willingness to accept whatever He sends us—riches or poverty, health or sickness, marriage or singleness. Full submission is how we glorify the Father, grow in Him, and receive His favor.

I Have Redeemed You

I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Isaiah 44:22

Pay attention to THE INSTRUCTIVE PICTURE: Our sins are like a cloud. As clouds appear in many shapes and shades, so do our transgressions. As clouds obscure the light of the sun and darken the landscape below, so do our sins hide from us the light of Jehovah’s face and cause us to sit in the shadow of death. They are earthborn things and arise from the miry places of our lives; and when they collect and their measure is full, they threaten us with storm and tempest. Sadly, unlike clouds, our sins yield us no genial showers but rather threaten to deluge us with a fiery flood of destruction. How can it be fair weather when the dark clouds of sin remain within our souls?

Let our happy gaze ponder THE NOTABLE ACT of divine mercy—”blotted out.” God Himself appears upon the scene and in divine generosity, instead of manifesting His anger, reveals His grace. He at once and forever effectually removes the mischief, not by blowing away the cloud, but by blotting it out from existence once and for all. Against the justified man no sin remains; the great transaction of the cross has eternally removed his transgressions from him. On Calvary’s summit the great deed, by which the sin of all the chosen was forever put away, was completely and effectually performed.

Practically let us obey THE GRACIOUS COMMAND: “Return to me.” Why should pardoned sinners live at a distance from their God? If all of our sins have been forgiven, let no legal fear hold us back from the boldest access to our Lord. Let backslidings be bemoaned, but let us not persevere in them. Let us, in the power of the Holy Spirit, work strenuously to return to intimate communion with the Lord. O Lord, restore us now, tonight!