John 15:12-17


John 15:12-17
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 “This I command you, that you love one another.

It is important to understand who Jesus is and what He has done for us.  This passage tells us many things about Jesus and His actions.  He presents Himself as the Son of God because He calls God My Father.  He presents Himself as Lord because He gives commands to His followers.  He presents Himself as Sovereign as He chooses His disciples.  Jesus is all of these things and many more.  This text emphasizes several other realities about God that should be an encouragement to us.

JESUS IS OUR EXAMPLE OF LOVE: Jesus commands us to love one another.  But He does not just say we should love; He demonstrates what true love is.  He gives us an example of the kind of love He is commanding.  It is a sacrificial love that is willing to go so far as to putting His life down.  Jesus give His life so that we could be reconciled to God.  He expects for us to love in the same way.  Love always involves sacrificing of ourselves for the benefit of others.  We are to use our lives to serve, help and encourage one another.  There is no joy or honor in selfishness.  By nature, we look after our own interests, but this leads to a life of misery.  Jesus calls us into a new life where we live for Him and for others by laying down our lives for others following the example He gave to us.

JESUS IS OUR REVEALER OF TRUTH: Knowing truth is a wonderful gift and Jesus gave that gift to His disciples and to us.  He does not treat His followers like slaves, rather He treats them like friends, or in realty like brothers and sisters.  He reveals to us all that the Father has revealed to Him.  The truth sets us free from the lies and deception that Satan tries to use to ruin us.  Jesus calls us to be engaged in His mission of redeeming the nations and reconciling men with the Father.  This is what He was sent to earth to accomplish.  He paid the price for sin so we could be forgiven and then united with the Father through faith in Christ.  He wants all of us to know that this is His mission and that we are invited to participate in it.  This is the truth He reveals to us.

JESUS IS OUR SOURCE OF FRUIT: When Jesus chooses us, He does so that we might have the joy of bearing fruit for His glory.  As we abide in Him, His power flows through us and allows us to live in ways that honor and please Him.  The process of producing fruit that remains is empowered through prayer.  As we trust the Lord and abide in Him, our will is aligned with His will and our prayers are in tuned with His desires.  This is not to be understood as a guarantee that God will grant all our requests no matter what the motives behind them might be.  The answers to our prayers flow from the production of fruit that is the result of abiding in Christ.  When we live in relationship with Jesus, He transforms our desires and conforms us to His image.  The result of that will be that we will obey His command to love one another.  The fruit that Jesus produces in the lives of believers is a love for God that is demonstrated by our love for one another.

APPLICATION: Show love to the people around us in a way that imitates Christ’s love.  We must be willing to make sacrifices to demonstrate the reality of our love.  Be thankful for and respond to the truth that Jesus has made known to us through the revelation of the Spirit in the Word of God.  Depend on the Lord to make us productive in the kingdom and for His glory.

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