“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 Father's 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.”
Without a doubt, the Gospel of John Chapters 13-17 are some of the greatest in the Word of God. The interesting part about these three verses found here (and of course all of the surrounding matter) is that they bring out things which are so deep as to take a lifetime to really realize.
Christ starts off, by saying that He loves us with the same love that the Father has loved Him. That is as amazing as it is undeserved. The Father loves Christ who is of the same substance as Himself, and Who is perfectly yielded to Him with an infinite love. Yet Christ manifests that same love to us who have been most disobedient, and totally undeserving of it, who are of a contrary substance. He then says to continue in His love or more literally in the Greek, “Continue in the love, that which is mine.” That says more than our English. It is His love in us that loves Him, and that loves others. It is not so much a continuing to be good so that the love of Christ may remain on us, as instead a continuing to allow His love to work in and through us as we follow the commands that He gives. Disobedience separates us from the source of His love and thus stops its flow.
The standard of obedience He gives is His own obedience to the Father, which is perfection to the utmost.
He tells us these things that His joy, again literally, “the joy that is mine” might remain in us. A few months ago I had an experience which sort of brought this home to me. Without going into any details, I had a strong sense of God’s joy in the purposes He has for my life. That experience made me realize the meaning of the phrase, “Enter into the joy of Your Lord.” It is His joy that we are allowed to share. Firstly it is His own joy which is in Himself and infinite. Secondly, it is His joy in what we do by His power and in obedience to Him that we enter into. These joys cause our own joy to be filled, producing joy in us.
Praise God!
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