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.
Abiding in Christ’s love—such a wonderful place to be. It reminds me of a small, dearly loved child with their mother—no worries, no fears, complete trust that all their needs will be provided.
For me to abide in Christ does not mean that I will face no problems in this world. In fact, they may be worse. But, surrounded by his love, I know that he cares for me and will see me through whatever may come. And I can rejoice in his comforting and loving presence.
But there is a catch. Jesus tells me that I will abide in his love if I keep his commandments. The implication is that if I fail to keep his commandments, I will not abide in his love. So, what are his commandments? Fortunately, he tells us in the following few verses.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
His commandment is to love others as he loved me—with a sacrificial love. There is not a list of rules. I do not have to obey all the laws in the Torah. Or even the Ten Commandments. I just need to love my fellow believers in Christ.
Of course, loving others is easier said than done. It involves caring for others—laying down my life for them. That will likely not involve physically dying for them. But it does mean I will put their interests ahead of my own.
This may sound somewhat legalistic and contrary to the idea of salvation being by grace alone through faith alone, apart from works. But it is not. This love for others should flow naturally from those who have been born of God and are abiding in Christ.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
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