Continuing In His Love

“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. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” (Joh 15:9-12 AV)

The understanding of our Savior’s words here is not complicated.  There is love, joy, and brotherly love promised to those who walk in obedience to the word of God.  Obedience gets a bad name in today’s Christian circles.  Faith seems to have a better footing.  We will risk things to trust the LORD.  Or, we will endure things with a giant attitude of faith.  But ask the average Christian to conform to the written word of God in simple obedience to His word, and you would think we asked him to cut off both arms.  We started by faith and obedience, resting in God’s grace and love for our eternal souls by trusting in His Son as payment for our sin.  We started in the love of Christ.  Now, He asks us to continue in His love.  This love is not a one-way love.  It is not a love by which we show our appreciation to Him alone.  This love is His love toward us as well.  The law of the word is an extension of the love of God in that it is the only way in which we can live a blessed life free from the consequences of sinful choices.  The law of God is a roadmap of God’s blessings.  Not that His law manipulates so that He can bless.  Rather, His laws are the principles by which all He has created operates.  Therefore, His love encourages us to follow His absolute law that we might have joy and blessing in life.  Jesus loved us enough to die for us and all He is asking is we continue in the love He showed on Calvary by trusting Him with our obedience.

I don’t know what my Dad was thinking when he never supervised us with power tools.  Except for the chainsaw, we pretty much had the run of the table saw, circular saw, power drill, and any other dangerous tool in the workshop.  We did a lot of projects with those tools and I cannot remember if any of my siblings suffered a serious injury with them.  We have a few scars here and there.  But nothing worth remembering.  The table saw was particularly dangerous.  We probably violated every safety rule while working with it.  My dad did have a lot of other rules, though.  Some of these rules were meant to keep us safe.  We have different rules for riding our bikes.  We have rules for leaving the neighborhood.  We had rules on how to manage money.  We had rules regarding our school work, scouting advancement, and music lessons.  We had rules regarding friends, the time we spent outside of the house, and where and when and with whom we could go.  We had curfews.  We had certain rules with the family car.  There were rules for rules.  These rules were meant to help us grow up into responsible adults in as safe a manner as eleven kids could mature.  But when it came to his power tools, the only rule was my Dad could not find out we used them and they had to be back in their rightful place when done with it.  He never gave us lessons or taught us safety principles.  He assumed we would leave them alone.  The love he showed with all the other rules was lacking when it came to rules for power tools.

Not so with God.  He has rules and rules and rules.  These are meant for our good.  They are meant to keep us safe and in the most pleasurable of life’s circumstances as possible.  Other places in scripture teach our love for God is proven by walking in obedience to His word.  John covers this in his first epistle.  Here, obedience to His law is a manifestation of His love to us.  Jesus is asking that we continue how we started.  Continue in the love that Jesus granted by His life at Calvary by trusting Him when He says something is for our best.  Let God bless you by staying in the confines of His law.  As a parent, we make rules because we love our children.  We want them to grow up to be all they can be.  We want them to mature into godly adults with lives that God can bless.  We want to keep them safe.  We want the best for them.  That is why we have these rules.  The same is true of God.  He has rules because He wants what is best for us. So, let us continue in His love by walking in obedience that our joy may be full!