Abiding in Radical Love

As discussed throughout the month of February, God's love is far deeper and more covenantal than the cheapened definition of love that he world offers (a definition that reduces love down to an emotion or feeling and is often times driven by lust). God's love is a part of His eternal nature and is always rooted in sacrificial action that leads to purification, redemption, and salvation.

How then, can we abide in God's love? 

John 15:9-17 is a passage  within a gospel letter written by one of Jesus's dearest friends, the Apostle John. Within this passage, we learn so much about abiding in God's love. I want to highlight a few of my favorite takeaways.

To abide in God's love, we must abide in Christ's love.
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love" (John 15: 9). There is no other pathway to the love of God outside of receiving the love of Jesus. As John recorded in the previous chapter, Jesus Himself spoke these words, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). But how do we come to the Father through Jesus?

To abide in Christ's love, we must keep His commandments.

"If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abided in his love" (John 5: 10). When Jesus says we must keep His commandments in order to abide in God's love, He defines what those commandments are for us, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (vs 12). So, how did Jesus love us?

Jesus loved us with His entire life.

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends...No longer do I call you servants...but I have called you friends...." (John 15: 13-14).  Without the love of Christ demonstrated on the cross, we are enemies of God due to our sinful nature that separates us from a relationship with Him. But just as a true friend would do, Jesus laid down his own life in our place, that we might be spared of the penalty for our sin (death). "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). And, "For our sake, he (God) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" ( 2 Corinthians 5:21). We cannot abide in the love of God without devoting our lives to loving one another with the love that Jesus loved us. So what can we say then, about living a life that abides in God's love through Christ amongst one another?

A life abiding in love, is a life full of divine joy.  
"These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:10). Carrying out Jesus's commandment of love is not burdensome, unlike the commandments that man-made religions place onto its followers. John felt so strongly about this, that he wrote in another letter of his, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5: 2-3). As if all of these amazing invites into the love of God aren't freeing enough, it's the last highlight that really ties it all together.

God chooses us to abide in His love.

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another" (John 15: 17). God chooses us to abide in His love, and draws us near to Himself by His Holy Spirit when we accept the invitation of Jesus. When we receive God's Spirit which draws us deeper into abiding love, we are set free to live a life that bears the very fruit of the Spirit that we are spending 2026 learning about.

Now we can better understand why Paul began his list of the fruit of the Spirit with "love" in Galatians 5. Throughout the month of March, we will look at the fruit of joy that flows from a life that abides in the love of God.