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 CHRIST’S 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 Saviour’s 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 CHRIST’S 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 John’s Gospel we have God’s love to man, and in his Epistles man’s 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 Christ’s 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; Christ’s 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; John 13:1).
II. THE ADVICE. “Continue,” etc. Christ’s 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 mother’s 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 Christ’s 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 Christ’s love. (T. Davies, Ph. D.)
Christ’s 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 Father’s 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 Father’s love for Christ was absolutely and spontaneously unselfish, so was Christ’s 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 Father’s love, great though it be, would wane and die if the Son ceased to obey. So with Christ’s 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 mother’s 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 (John 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 Christ’s 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 Father’s 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 Christ’s 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 CHRIST’S 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 Father’s will, and consequent uninterrupted and complete communion with the Father’s love. It is the utterance of a nature conscious of no sin, of a humanity that never knew one instant’s 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 child’s heart and the Father’s? 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 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. 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 John’s 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 Christ’s 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 Father’s bosom Proverbs 8:22-23; Proverbs 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 Father’s love, are infinite; and so is--so must be--the Father’s 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 (Psalms 8:4). But how much more does the contrast come out when we remember what they are. The Father’s love to the Son was love to dignity, moral beauty, innocence, excellence, perfection; but the Son’s love to men, fallen men, is love to the degraded, the deformed, the condemned, the (but for His love) hopelessly Romans 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 Christ’s 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 Lord’s commandments, as He kept His Father’s commandments. The following may be considered as among the most comprehensive and important of our Lord’s commandments: Matthew 16:24, Matthew 10:8; Luke 12:15; John 13:34. Now, when a disciple, from regard to His Lord’s 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 Master’s 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 (Psalms 40:7-8). He fully conformed Himself to this law; and, in doing so, he continued in His Father’s love. Our obedience must have the same leading characters as our Lord’s 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 Saviour’s love as to be saved.
IV. MOTIVES TO COMPLY WITH THE INJUNCTION. By continuing in Christ’s 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 Lord’s enjoyment. His joy in us will remain, if, keeping His commandments, we continue in His love (John 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. (3 John 1:4) And Paul (Philippians 2:1-30). Our Lord had joy in His disciples, etc. Matthew 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 Christ’s 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 Father’s 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 Christ’s 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 Christ’s, 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.)