It was during the Vietnam War that a song hit the pop charts which began with these words,
“What the world needs now is love, sweet love, It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love, No not just for some but for everyone.”
People were sick of a war that seemed to be never-ending. What was needed was love, not war. Humans were meant to love one another and not be malicious towards others. The people of Israel were commanded in Moses’ time to love their neighbours in Leviticus 19:18 “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD.” Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another in these words in John 15.
These words of Jesus came into my mind as I sat in an auditorium at the University of Kent in Canterbury England in 1988. I was attending a Leaders in Anglican Renewal Conference and in one of the final sessions we were asked to think about what we had learned during the conference. I was about to leave as Dean of Armidale to join the Ministry team in St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney. Sydney diocese at that time had an unfortunate [and mainly untrue] reputation of being unfriendly towards outsiders. I had already been rejected [as being an outsider] of becoming the Rector of a large, wealthy parish in Sydney. I wondered what sort of welcome I would receive in the diocese. I realised that it was my responsibility to reach out with God’s love to all people. Their responsibility was to do the same to me. If they failed to love me then they were at fault, if I was genuine in my love towards them. My commitment to love others proved to be invaluable when I did confront a lack of love by a few individuals in the diocese, but overall, I felt I was loved and accepted by my peers during my 18 years in the Cathedral ministry. Love conquers all, including experiencing a lack of love!
Jesus’ Disciples Are Loved By Him.15:9-11
John 15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 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. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
Jesus loves us. We often sang, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” And in the words of another hymn, “Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus, Vast unmeasured, boundless, free. Rolling as a mighty ocean, In its fullness over me.” It is so wonderful to experience His self-giving love for us, which should motivate and empower us to reach out in love to others.
Jesus wants His disciples to abide in Him [John 15:4] and here He commands them to abide in His love. We have the choice in every moment of our lives to be either open or closed to the love of God. Jesus wants us to make the effort to be open to receive His love and to appropriate what He has done in His love for us. It means keeping His commandments and in doing so, continuing to abide in His love. Disobeying His commandments is a rejection of His love. Abiding in Jesus and in His love brings joy [and the fulness of joy] to those who do it.
It is interesting that Jesus here links love and joy together but it reminds us that they are the first mentioned in the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” It is possible to exhibit love and to experience joy when we are filled with the Holy Spirit of God. That comes from abiding in Jesus and in His love.
Jesus’ Disciples Are Commanded To Love One Another.15:12-15
John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone 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 servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
Loving one another is not an option. It is a command from the lips of Jesus. And it is to love in the same self-giving way that Jesus loved His disciples. Great love is seen in the willingness to lay down one’s life for a friend which Jesus was shortly to do. This is the first time that Jesus called His disciples His friends. They were not just servants but friends also. He went on to explain the significance of that. Servants are not privy to all the purposes of the master but Jesus has revealed the purposes of God through His Son. Only to friends could He reveal those purposes. We can call ourselves the friends of Jesus because He took the initiative in declaring that we are His friends.
Jesus’ Disciples Are Chosen By Him To Bear Fruit. 15:16-17
John 15:16 “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. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
We may think that we chose to believe in Jesus and so become Christians. However, the reality is that He chose us to belong to Him and appointed us to go forth and bear fruit that should abide. If we are faithful in doing so, we can ask prayers in Jesus’ name and the Father will answer them. This is a repeat of the promise He made in 15:7, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
If we are abiding in Jesus, it will mean that our prayers are according to the will of God and therefore be answered.
Finally comes a command from Jesus, 15:17 “These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
It was W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan musical fame who coined the phrase, “It’s love that makes the world go round.” However, the real truth is that when love is shown forth among humans, the world can live in peace. A refusal to love brings discord, enmity and even war. How the world needs to hear this message that came from the lips of Jesus and come to abide in Him and in His love so that the world may live in peace and bring glory to the God of all the earth. And it begins with us as individuals! “Love one another as I have loved you!”15:12.
Blog No.544 posted on Friday 12 April 2024.
holbeck 
544. John15:9-17. Loving One Another. A Reading for Sunday 05 May 2024
It was during the Vietnam War that a song hit the pop charts which began with these words,
“What the world needs now is love, sweet love, It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love, No not just for some but for everyone.”
People were sick of a war that seemed to be never-ending. What was needed was love, not war. Humans were meant to love one another and not be malicious towards others. The people of Israel were commanded in Moses’ time to love their neighbours in Leviticus 19:18 “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD.” Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another in these words in John 15.
These words of Jesus came into my mind as I sat in an auditorium at the University of Kent in Canterbury England in 1988. I was attending a Leaders in Anglican Renewal Conference and in one of the final sessions we were asked to think about what we had learned during the conference. I was about to leave as Dean of Armidale to join the Ministry team in St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney. Sydney diocese at that time had an unfortunate [and mainly untrue] reputation of being unfriendly towards outsiders. I had already been rejected [as being an outsider] of becoming the Rector of a large, wealthy parish in Sydney. I wondered what sort of welcome I would receive in the diocese. I realised that it was my responsibility to reach out with God’s love to all people. Their responsibility was to do the same to me. If they failed to love me then they were at fault, if I was genuine in my love towards them. My commitment to love others proved to be invaluable when I did confront a lack of love by a few individuals in the diocese, but overall, I felt I was loved and accepted by my peers during my 18 years in the Cathedral ministry. Love conquers all, including experiencing a lack of love!
Jesus’ Disciples Are Loved By Him.15:9-11
John 15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 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. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
Jesus loves us. We often sang, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” And in the words of another hymn, “Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus, Vast unmeasured, boundless, free. Rolling as a mighty ocean, In its fullness over me.” It is so wonderful to experience His self-giving love for us, which should motivate and empower us to reach out in love to others.
Jesus wants His disciples to abide in Him [John 15:4] and here He commands them to abide in His love. We have the choice in every moment of our lives to be either open or closed to the love of God. Jesus wants us to make the effort to be open to receive His love and to appropriate what He has done in His love for us. It means keeping His commandments and in doing so, continuing to abide in His love. Disobeying His commandments is a rejection of His love. Abiding in Jesus and in His love brings joy [and the fulness of joy] to those who do it.
It is interesting that Jesus here links love and joy together but it reminds us that they are the first mentioned in the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” It is possible to exhibit love and to experience joy when we are filled with the Holy Spirit of God. That comes from abiding in Jesus and in His love.
Jesus’ Disciples Are Commanded To Love One Another.15:12-15
John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone 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 servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
Loving one another is not an option. It is a command from the lips of Jesus. And it is to love in the same self-giving way that Jesus loved His disciples. Great love is seen in the willingness to lay down one’s life for a friend which Jesus was shortly to do. This is the first time that Jesus called His disciples His friends. They were not just servants but friends also. He went on to explain the significance of that. Servants are not privy to all the purposes of the master but Jesus has revealed the purposes of God through His Son. Only to friends could He reveal those purposes. We can call ourselves the friends of Jesus because He took the initiative in declaring that we are His friends.
Jesus’ Disciples Are Chosen By Him To Bear Fruit. 15:16-17
John 15:16 “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. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
We may think that we chose to believe in Jesus and so become Christians. However, the reality is that He chose us to belong to Him and appointed us to go forth and bear fruit that should abide. If we are faithful in doing so, we can ask prayers in Jesus’ name and the Father will answer them. This is a repeat of the promise He made in 15:7, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
If we are abiding in Jesus, it will mean that our prayers are according to the will of God and therefore be answered.
Finally comes a command from Jesus, 15:17 “These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
It was W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan musical fame who coined the phrase, “It’s love that makes the world go round.” However, the real truth is that when love is shown forth among humans, the world can live in peace. A refusal to love brings discord, enmity and even war. How the world needs to hear this message that came from the lips of Jesus and come to abide in Him and in His love so that the world may live in peace and bring glory to the God of all the earth. And it begins with us as individuals! “Love one another as I have loved you!”15:12.
Blog No.544 posted on Friday 12 April 2024.
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About Jim Holbeck
Once an Industrial Chemist working for the Queensland Government but later an Anglican minister in Brisbane, Armidale and Sydney. Last position for eighteen years before retirement in 2006 was as the Leader of the Healing Ministry at St Andrew's Cathedral Sydney.