John 15:9

Christ, who is love itself, is here discoursing concerning love, a fourfold love.

I. Concerning the Father's love to him; and concerning this he here tells us, 1. That the Father did love him (Joh 15:9): As the Father hath loved me. He loved him as Mediator: This is my beloved Son. He was the Son of his love. He loved him, and gave all things into his hand; and yet so loved the world as to deliver him up for us all. When Christ was entering upon his sufferings he comforted himself with this, that his Father loved him. Those whom God loves as a Father may despise the hatred of all the world. 2. That he abode in his Father's love, Joh 15:10. He continually loved his Father, and was beloved of him. Even when he was made sin and a curse for us, and it pleased the Lord to bruise him, yet he abode in his Father's love. See Psa 89:33. Because he continued to love his Father, he went cheerfully through his sufferings, and therefore his Father continued to love him. 3. That therefore he abode in his Father's love because he kept his Father's law: I have kept my Father's commandments, as Mediator, and so abide in his love. Hereby he showed that he continued to love his Father, that he went on, and went through, with his undertaking, and therefore the Father continued to love him. His soul delighted in him, because he did not fail, nor was discouraged, Isa 42:1-4. We having broken the law of creation, and thereby thrown ourselves out of the love of God; Christ satisfied for us by obeying the law of redemption, and so he abode in his love, and restored us to it.

II. Concerning his own love to his disciples. Though he leaves them, he loves them. And observe here,

1. The pattern of this love: As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. A strange expression of the condescending grace of Christ! As the Father loved him, who was most worthy, he loved them, who were most unworthy. The Father loved him as his Son, and he loves them as his children. The Father gave all things into his hand; so, with himself, he freely giveth us all things. The Father loved him as Mediator, as head of the church, and the great trustee of divine grace and favour, which he had not for himself only, but for the benefit of those for whom he was entrusted; and, says he, "I have been a faithful trustee. As the Father has committed his love to me, so I transmit it to you." Therefore the Father was well pleased with him, that he might be well pleased with us in him; and loved him, that in him, as beloved, he might make us accepted, Eph 1:6.

2. The proofs and products of this love, which are four: -

(1.) Christ loved his disciples, for he laid down his life for them (Joh 15:13): Greater proof of love hath no man to show than this, to lay down his life for his friend. And this is the love wherewith Christ hath loved us, he is our antipsuchos - bail for us, body for body, life for life, though he knew our insolvency, and foresaw how much the engagement would cost him. Observe here, [1.] The extent of the love of the children of men to one another. The highest proof of it is laying down one's life for a friend, to save his life, and perhaps there have been some such heroic achievements of love, more than plucking out one's own eyes, Gal 4:15. If all that a man has he will give for his life, he that gives this for his friend gives all, and can give no more; this may sometimes be our duty, Jo1 3:16. Paul was ambitious of the honour (Phi 2:17); and for a good man some will even dare to die, Rom 5:7. It is love in the highest degree, which is strong as death. [2.] The excellency of the love of Christ beyond all other love. He has not only equaled, but exceeded, the most illustrious lovers. Others have laid down their lives, content that they should be taken from them; but Christ gave up his, was not merely passive, but made it his own act and deed. The life which others have laid down has been but of equal value with the life for which it was laid down, and perhaps less valuable; but Christ is infinitely more worth than ten thousand of us. Others have thus laid down their lives for their friends, but Christ laid down his for us when we were enemies, Rom 5:8, Rom 5:10. Plusquam ferrea aut lapidea corda esse oportet, quae non emolliet tam incomparabilis divini amoris suavitas - Those hearts must be harder than iron or stone which are not softened by such incomparable sweetness of divine love. - Calvin

(2.) Christ loved his disciples, for he took them into a covenant of friendship with himself, Joh 15:14, Joh 15:15. "If you approve yourselves by your obedience my disciples indeed, you are my friends, and shall be treated as friends." Note, The followers of Christ are the friends of Christ, and he is graciously pleased to call and account them so. Those that do the duty of his servants are admitted and advanced to the dignity of his friends. David had one servant in his court, and Solomon one in his, that was in a particular manner the king's friend (Sa2 15:37; Kg1 4:5); but this honour have all Christ's servants. We may in some particular instance befriend a stranger; but we espouse all the interests of a friend, and concern ourselves in all his cares: thus Christ takes believers to be his friends. He visits them and converses with them as his friends, bears with them and makes the best of them, is afflicted in their afflictions, and takes pleasure in their prosperity; he pleads for them in heaven and takes care of all their interests there. Have friends but one soul? He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit, Co1 6:17. Though they often show themselves unfriendly, he is a friend that loves at all times. Observe how endearingly this is expressed here. [1.] He will not call them servants, though they call him Master and Lord. Those that would be like Christ in humility must not take a pride in insisting upon all occasions on their authority and superiority, but remember that their servants are their fellow-servants. But, [2.] He will call them his friends; he will not only love them, but will let them know it; for in his tongue is the law of kindness. After his resurrection he seems to speak with more affectionate tenderness of and to his disciples than before. Go to my brethren, Joh 20:17. Children, have you any meat? Joh 21:5. But observe, though Christ called them his friends, they called themselves his servants: Peter, a servant of Christ (Pe1 1:1), and so James, Jam 1:1. The more honour Christ puts upon us, the more honour we should study to do him; the higher in his eyes, the lower in our own.

(3.) Christ loved his disciples, for he was very free in communicating his mind to them (Joh 15:15): "Henceforth you shall not be kept so much in the dark as you have been, like servants that are only told their present work; but, when the Spirit is poured out, you shall know your Master's designs as friends. All things that I have heard of my Father I have declared unto you." As to the secret will of God, there are many things which we must be content not to know; but, as to the revealed will of God, Jesus Christ has faithfully handed to us what he received of the Father, Joh 1:18; Mat 11:27. The great things relating to man's redemption Christ declared to his disciples, that they might declare them to others; they were the men of his counsel, Mat 13:11.

(4.) Christ loved his disciples, for he chose and ordained them to be the prime instruments of his glory and honour in the world (Joh 15:16): I have chosen you, and ordained you, His love to them appeared,

[1.] In their election, their election to their apostleship (Joh 6:70): I have chosen you twelve. It did not begin on their side: You have not chosen me, but I first chose you. Why were they admitted to such an intimacy with him, employed in such an embassy for him, and endued with such power from on high? It was not owing to their wisdom and goodness in choosing him for their Master, but to his favour and grace in choosing them for his disciples. It is fit that Christ should have the choosing of his own ministers; still he does it by his providence and Spirit. Though ministers make that holy calling their own choice, Christ's choice is prior to theirs and directs and determines it. Of all that are chosen to grace and glory it may be said, They have not chosen Christ, but he had chosen them, Deu 7:7, Deu 7:8.

[2.] In their ordination: I have ordained you; hethēka humas - "I have put you into the ministry (Ti1 1:12), put you into commission." By this it appeared that he took them for his friends when he crowned their heads with such an honour, and filled their hands with such a trust. It was a mighty confidence he reposed in them, when he made them his ambassadors to negotiate the affairs of his kingdom in this lower world, and the prime ministers of state in the administration of it. The treasure of the gospel was committed to them, First, That it might be propagated: that you should go, hina humeis hupagēte - "that you should go as under a yoke or burden, for the ministry is a work, and you that go about it must resolve to undergo a great deal; that you may go from place to place all the world over, and bring forth fruit." They were ordained, not to sit still, but to go about, to be diligent in their work, and to lay out themselves unweariedly in doing good. They were ordained, not to beat the air, but to be instrumental in God's hand for the bringing of nations into obedience to Christ, Rom 1:13. Note, Those whom Christ ordains should and shall be fruitful; should labour, and shall not labour in vain. Secondly, That it might be perpetuated; that the fruit may remain, that the good effect of their labours may continue in the world from generation to generation, to the end of time. The church of Christ was not to be a short-lived thing, as many of the sects of the philosophers, that were a nine days' wonder; it did not come up in a night, nor should it perish in a night, but be as the days of heaven. The sermons and writings of the apostles are transmitted to us, and we at this day are built upon that foundation, ever since the Christian church was first founded by the ministry of the apostles and seventy disciples; as one generation of ministers and Christians has passed away, still another has come. By virtue of that great charter (Mat 28:19), Christ has a church in the world, which, as our lawyers say of bodies corporate, does not die, but lives in a succession; and thus their fruit remains to this day, and shall do while the earth remains.

[3.] His love to them appeared in the interest they had at the throne of grace: Whatsoever you shall ask of my Father, in my name, he will give it you. Probably this refers in the first place to the power of working miracles which the apostles were clothed with, which was to be drawn out by prayer. "Whatever gifts are necessary to the furtherance of your labours, whatever help from heaven you have occasion for at any time, it is but ask and have." Three things are here hinted to us for our encouragement in prayer, and very encouraging they are. First, That we have a God to go to who is a Father; Christ here calls him the Father, both mine and yours; and the Spirit in the word and in the heart teaches us to cry, Abba, Father. Secondly, That we come in a good name. Whatever errand we come upon to the throne of grace according to God's will, we may with a humble boldness mention Christ's name in it, and plead that we are related to him, and he is concerned for us. Thirdly, That an answer of peace is promised us. What you come for shall be given you. This great promise made to that great duty keeps up a comfortable and gainful intercourse between heaven and earth.

III. Concerning the disciples' love to Christ, enjoined in consideration of the great love wherewith he had loved them. Three things he exhorts them to: -

1. To continue in his love, Joh 15:9. "Continue in your love to me, and in mine to you." Both may be taken in. We must place our happiness in the continuance of Christ's love to us, and make it our business to give continued proofs of our love to Christ, that nothing may tempt us to withdraw from him, or provoke him to withdraw from us. Note, All that love Christ should continue in their love to him, that is, be always loving him, and taking all occasions to show it, and love to the end. The disciples were to go out upon service for Christ, in which they would meet with many troubles; but, says Christ, "Continue in my love. Keep up your love to me, and then all the troubles you meet with will be easy; love made seven years' hard service easy to Jacob. Let not the troubles you meet with for Christ's sake quench your love to Christ, but rather quicken it.

2. To let his joy remain in them, and fill them, Joh 15:11. This he designed in those precepts and promises given them.

(1.) That his joy might remain in them. The words are so placed, in the original, that they may be read either, [1.] That my joy in you may remain. If they bring forth much fruit, and continue in his love, he will continue to rejoice in them as he had done. Note, Fruitful and faithful disciples are the joy of the Lord Jesus; he rests in his love to them, Zep 3:17. As there is a transport of joy in heaven in the conversion of sinners, so there is a remaining joy in the perseverance of saints. Or, [2.] That my joy, that is, your joy in me, may remain. It is the will of Christ that his disciples should constantly and continually rejoice in him, Phi 4:4. The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment, but the joy of those who abide in Christ's love is a continual feast. The word of the Lord enduring for ever, the joys that flow from it, and are founded on it, do so too.

(2.) That your joy might be full; not only that you might be full of joy, but that your joy in me and in my love may rise higher and higher, till it come to perfection, when you enter into the joy of your Lord." Note, [1.] Those and those only that have Christ's joy remaining in them have their joy full; worldly joys are empty, soon surfeit but never satisfy. It is only wisdom's joy that will fill the soul, Psa 36:8. [2.] The design of Christ in his world is to fill the joy of his people; see Jo1 1:4. This and the other he hath said, that our joy might be fuller and fuller, and perfect at last.

3. To evidence their love to him by keeping his commandments: "If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, Joh 15:10. This will be an evidence of the fidelity and constancy of your love to me, and then you may be sure of the continuance of my love to you." Observe here, (1.) The promise "You shall abide in my love as in a dwelling place, at home in Christ's love; as in a resting place, at ease in Christ's love; as in a stronghold, safe in it. You shall abide in my love, you shall have grace and strength to persevere in loving me." If the same hand that first shed abroad the love of Christ in our hearts did not keep us in that love, we should not long abide in it, but, through the love of the world, should go out of love with Christ himself. (2.) The condition of the promise: If you keep my commandments. The disciples were to keep Christ's commandments, not only by a constant conformity to them themselves, but by a faithful delivery of them to others; they were to keep them as trustees, in whose hands that great depositum was lodged, for they were to teach all things that Christ had commanded, Mat 28:20. This commandment they must keep without spot (Ti1 6:14), and thus they must show that they abide in his love.

To induce them to keep his commandments, he urges, [1.] His own example: As I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. Christ submitted to the law of mediation, and so preserved the honour and comfort of it, to teach us to submit to the laws of the Mediator, for we cannot otherwise preserve the honour and comfort of our relation to him. [2.] The necessity of it to their interest in him (Joh 15:14): "You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you and not otherwise." Note, First, Those only will be accounted Christ's faithful friends that approve themselves his obedient servants; for those that will not have him to reign over them shall be treated as his enemies. Idem velle et idem nolle ea demum vera est amicitia - Friendship involves a fellowship of aversions and attachments. - Sallust. Secondly, It is universal obedience to Christ that is the only acceptable obedience; to obey him in every thing that he commands us, not excepting, much less excepting against, any command.

IV. Concerning the disciples' love one to another, enjoined as an evidence of their love to Christ, and a grateful return for his love to them. We must keep his commandments, and this is his commandment, that we love one another, Joh 15:12, and again, Joh 15:17. No one duty of religion is more frequently inculcated, nor more pathetically urged upon us, by our Lord Jesus, than that of mutual love, and for good reason. 1. It is here recommended by Christ's pattern (Joh 15:12): as I have loved you. Christ's love to us should direct and engage our love to each other; in this manner, and from this motive, we should love one another, as, and because, Christ has loved us. He here specifies some of the expressions of his love to them; he called them friends, communicated his mind to them, was ready to give them what they asked. Go you and do likewise. 2. It is required by his precept. He interposes his authority, has made it one of the statute-laws of his kingdom. Observe how differently it is expressed in these two verses, and both very emphatic. (1.) This is my commandment (Joh 15:12), as if this were the most necessary of all the commandments. As under the law the prohibition of idolatry was the commandment more insisted on than any other, foreseeing the people's addictedness to that sin, so Christ, foreseeing the addictedness of the Christian church to uncharitableness, has laid most stress upon this precept. (2.) These things I command you, Joh 15:17. He speaks as if he were about to give them many things in charge, and yet names this only, that you love one another; not only because this includes many duties, but because it will have a good influence upon all.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh_15:9-11

As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you

Divine love

The principle of Divine love constitutes the essence of true religion.

Upon the golden link of love hangs not only the gospel, but also the law and the prophets. Meditate

I. Upon THE MAGNITUDE OF CHRISTS LOVE TOWARD US. The love of Christ to us may be regarded as resembling the love of God to His Son.

1. As to its strength. The intensity of the love of Christ may be fairly exhibited by human affection; yet the Saviours love is infinitely stronger than all human love combined.

2. In its freeness.

3. In its durability.

4. In its harmony with all the trials and sorrows of earth.

II. THE CLAIMS CHRISTS LOVE HAS UPON US. Continue, etc. It should be realized and manifested.

1. The fact that Jesus loves us should be realized believingly.

2. It should be realized joyfully.

3. Should prompt us to manifest our love to Him in return. (G. Philips.)

The Divine measure of love

1. In Johns Gospel we have Gods love to man, and in his Epistles mans love to God.

2. Each of the apostles had his mission--Paul to expound the Divine decrees, James to hoist the standard of Christian duty, John to proclaim Divine love. So the first propagators of Christianity represented the various phases of Christs character.

3. In his treatment of love John elevated it. The poet, historian, dramatist, found it the most inspiring subject. But alas! the Divine passion which left the portals of immortality whiter than snow was dragged through the culverts of human debasement; but John took it to the foot of the cross, where its stains were cleansed, and led it back to the gate of heaven whiter than before.

I. THE DECLARATION. As the Father, etc. This was

1. Old love. The question of Pharaoh is of frequent occurrence, How old art thou? The historian asks it of the archives of nations, the antiquarian of ancient monuments, the geologist of primaeval formations. Nature is venerable and has a calendar which contains this record, In the beginning God created the heavens, etc.; but the date when He began to love the Son is not there. Of the old things of life, old friendship is the sweetest. You say These are very old friends of mine. After an absence of years with what a hearty shake of hands old friends greet each other! But the oldest began to love; Christs is an everlasting love.

2. Great love. If God so loved the world of imperfect beings how intense His love to His Son must have been; and Christ is fuller of love to us than the sun is of light, or the sea of water.

3. Enduring love (Zec_3:17; Joh_13:1).

II. THE ADVICE. Continue, etc. Christs love is

1. The source of Christian discipleship. The followers of Christ were many, and were actuated by a variety of motives; some because of the loaves and fishes, some out of admiration, some out of sympathy, some because of His irresistible charm. But how quickly these sources of attraction dried up! There are many religious influences at work, but only one abides today. During winter and spring the rills overflow their beds, and the villagers have no need to go far for water; but when summer comes all these cease flowing. The village well, however, is inexhaustible. Religious life has its rills, but the fountain is Jesus. Young converts should take heed to the word abide.

2. The only sphere is which the Christian should turn. Love one another, so shall ye be My disciples. Christians strive hard to love one another and fail. The only secret of success in this direction is to love Christ.

3. The only condition of safety. Behold the helpless babe. Its safety is not in its own strength, but in its mothers love. A mother once said about her youngest son, I am not afraid of his going astray; he is so fond of home. Do you want to be safe? Abide in Christs love. A mother begged her daughter to stay at home one day; she refused, and embarked on the ill fated Princess Alice, and was lost. Young Christian, allow the pleasureboats of sin to pass by, and stay at home in Christs love. (T. Davies, Ph. D.)

Christs love for His disciples

I. IS LIKE THE LOVE THE FATHER HAS FOR HIM. No being in the universe is so dear to the Infinite heart as Christ; yet

1. As really as the Father loved Him He loves us. The reality of the Fathers love for Him was a grand reality attested by His own consciousnesss. He could not doubt it. It was proved to Him in a thousand ways, in every faculty and fact of His life. But not less really did He love His disciples. His love for them was a mighty, ever operating force within Him.

2. As disinterestedly. The Fathers love for Christ was absolutely and spontaneously unselfish, so was Christs love for His disciples. There was nothing in them to merit His affection, nothing in them to render Him more glorious or more happy.

II. IS PERPETUATED BY OBEDIENCE TO HIS COMMANDS. If ye keep My commandments, etc. How does Christ retain the love of His Father? By working out His will. It would seem as if the Fathers love, great though it be, would wane and die if the Son ceased to obey. So with Christs love towards His disciples. Its continuance depends upon a practical fulfilment of His will. It seems almost a law of mind that love must work to live. If it remain in the mind merely as a sentiment or emotion, it will perish. The mothers love is kept alive by working for her children. When the work ceases the maternal affection wanes. If we would keep the love of Christ strong in the heart we must keep His commandments. No emotion of the soul will strike root, live and grow, except as it is translated into acts. Love only lives in deeds.

III. YEARNS TO MAKE ITS OBJECTS HAPPY (Joh_15:11). It is the essence of love to glow with desires for the happiness of its object. See this in the unwearied services of parents, and in the countless efforts of genuine philanthropy. In Christs love for man this desire is unquenchable and ever operating. To make men happy was the grand object of His advent to earth. I am come that ye might have life. He came to heal the brokenhearted, etc. Christ wishes His disciples not only to be happy, but to be full of happiness. That your joy may be full. All saddening emotions are foreign to Christliness. Christliness is sunshine, music, rapture. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Abiding in love

The last of these verses shows that they are to be taken as a kind of conclusion of the parable of the vine. They have three words as their keynotes--love, obedience, joy.

I. THE LOVE IN WHICH IT IS OUR SWEET DUTY TO ABIDE. What shall we say about these mysterious and profound words? They carry us into the very depths of Divinity.

1. Christ here claims to be, in a unique fashion, the object of the Fathers love, and to be able to love like God. As deeply, purely, fully, eternally, and with all the unnameable perfectnesses which must belong to the Divine affection, does Christ declare that He loves us.

2. In this affection He exhorts us to abide. The command to abide in Him suggests much that is blessed, but to have all that mysterious abiding in Him resolved into abiding in His love is infinitely tenderer, and draws us still closer to Himself. What is meant is not our continuance in the attitude of love to Him, but rather our continuance in the atmosphere of His love to us. But then, whosoever thus abides in Christs love to Him will echo it back again in an equally continuous love to Him.

3. This continuance is a thing in our power since it is commanded. What a quiet, blessed home that is for us! The image, I suppose, that underlies dwelling in Christ, in His joy, in His words, in His peace, is the image of some safe house in which we may be secure.

II. THE OBEDIENCE BY WHICH WE CONTINUE IN CHRISTS LOVE. The analogy, on which He has already touched, is still continued. If ye keep My commandments, etc. Note

1. That Christ here claims for Himself absolute and unbroken conformity with the Fathers will, and consequent uninterrupted and complete communion with the Fathers love. It is the utterance of a nature conscious of no sin, of a humanity that never knew one instants film of separation between Him and the Father. No more tremendous words were ever spoken than these.

2. Christ here, with His consciousness of perfect obedience and communion, intercepts our obedience and diverts it to Himself. He does not say, Obey God as I have done and He will love you; but He says,

Obey Me as I obey God and I will love you. Who is this that thus comes between the childs heart and the Fathers? Does He come between? or does He rather lead us up to the Father, and to a share in His own filial obedience?

3. By keeping His commandments, we shall continue in that sweet home and safe stronghold of His love.

(1) Of course the keeping of the commandment is something more than mere outward conformity by action. It is the inward harmony of will, and the bowing of the whole nature.

(2) He will love us better the more we obey His commandments, for although His tender heart is charged with the love of pity and of desire to help towards all, He cannot but feel a growing thrill of satisfied affection towards us, in the measure in which we become like Himself.

(3) The obedience which we render for loves sake will make us more capable of receiving, and more blessedly conscious of possessing, the love of Jesus Christ. The lightest cloud before the sun will prevent it from focussing its rays to a burning point on the convex glass. And the small, thin, fleeting, scarcely visible acts of self-will that sometimes pass across our skies will prevent our feeling the warmth of that love upon our shrouded hearts. You cannot rejoice in Jesus Christ unless you do His will. You will have no real comfort and blessedness in your religion unless it works itself out in your daily lives.

(4) We shall continue in His love by obedience, inasmuch as every emotion which finds expression in our daily life is strengthened by the fact that it is expressed. The love which works is love which grows, and the tree that bears fruit is the tree that is healthy and increases.

4. So, note how all these deepest things of Christian teaching come at last to a plain piece of practical duty. We talk about the mysticism of Johns Gospel, about the depth of these last sayings of Jesus Christ. Yes! They are mystical, they are deep, but connected by the shortest possible road with the plainest possible duties. It is no use talking about communion with Jesus Christ, and abiding in Him, the possession of His love, and all those other properly mystical sides of Christian experience, unless you verify them for yourselves by the plain way of practice.

III. THE JOY WHICH FOLLOWS ON THIS PRACTICAL OBEDIENCE (verse 11).

1. A strange time to talk of His joy. In half an hour he would be in Gethsemane. Was Christ a joyful Man? He was a man of sorrows. But it is said of Him, Thou hast loved righteousness,…therefore God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. Absolute surrender and submission in love to the beloved commands of a loving Father made Him, in spite of the baptism with which He was baptized, the most joyful of men.

2. This joy He offers to us. There is no joy to compare with that deep, solid, continuous sunshine which floods the soul, that is freed from all the clouds and mists of self and the darkness of sin. Self-sacrifice at the bidding of Jesus Christ is the recipe for the most God-like gladnesses. Our joy will remain if His joy is ours. Then our joy will be up to the measure of its capacity, ennobled, and advancing ever towards fuller possession. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Continuing in Christs love

I. THE PRINCIPLE ON WHICH THE PRECEPT IS BASED. As the Father hath loved Me, etc. The particle as of course does not indicate equality, but similitude; and even the similitude indicated is not absolute. From the very nature of the objects--the one, the Son--infinite--the other, Christians--finite--the love borne by the Father to the Son must, both in natureand degree, exceed the love which the Son bears to His people; and there is at least one point in which there is not resemblance, but strong contrast. Like the love of the Father to the Son, the love of the Son to His elect ones is

1. Unbeginning. There never was a period when the Father began to love His Son. The only begotten Son was, from eternity, in the Fathers bosom Pro_8:22-23; Pro_8:30). In this respect the Son loved His chosen people, predestinated, as they were, in Him before the foundation of the world. There was a time when they did not love Him--for they did not exist; at a time when, though they might have loved Him, they did not--they would not; but there never was a time when He did not love them.

2. Infinite. The excellences of the Son, which are the ground of the Fathers love, are infinite; and so is--so must be--the Fathers love. The love of the Son to His people cannot be, in this sense, infinite; but we can set no bounds to it.

3. Active. How it manifested itself when there was nothing but Deity in the universe, we cannot tell. The declaration in reference to one of the economies is true of them all. The Father loveth the Son, and--i.e., therefore--He hath put all things into His hand. The love of the Son to His people is also active. It has proved itself stronger than death. Whether we fix our minds on the value of the innumerable blessings it bestows, or on the cost of these blessings to Him, surely we must say, this love has a height and a depth, a length and a breadth, that passeth knowledge.

4. Unchanged and unchangeable. Immutability is equally the attribute of the Father and the Son; and therefore it is impossible that there should be any change in the affection with which the one regards the other. In like manner does the Son love His people. He rests in His love--Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The invariableness of His love to them wants one of the foundations on which the invariable love of the Father to Him rests. He never changes; but they often do.

5. Unending. While the Father and the Son continue to exist, they must continue to regard each other with infinite love; and, as a token of His everlasting love, the Father has given the Son an everlasting kingdom. The love of the Son to His people is also everlasting, and proves itself in the bestowal of eternal blessings. But there is one point in which the contrast is as striking, as the resemblance. The love of the Father to the Son was richly merited. But as for the objects of the love of the Son, as creatures standing at an infinite distance from Him who is God over all, blessed forever, it would have been wonderful if the Son had loved man, in His best estate, as the Father loved Him (Psa_8:4). But how much more does the contrast come out when we remember what they are. The Fathers love to the Son was love to dignity, moral beauty, innocence, excellence, perfection; but the Sons love to men, fallen men, is love to the degraded, the deformed, the condemned, the (but for His love) hopelessly Rom_8:8).

II. THE DUTY ENJOINED. Continue in My love, or, as Jude has it, Keep yourselves in the love of God. To continue in Christs love is to continue in cherishing those affections, and doing those actions, which are well-pleasing in His sight; and to continue in the enjoyment of an humble assurance, that He continues to regard us with complacential satisfaction. The subject teaches us

1. How we should regard official station or personal standing in the Church of Christ. We should regard it as the being made branches of the True Vine; as a token of the love of Christ. To be a minister or a member of the

Church is a far higher honour than to be a member or office bearer in the most distinguished literary or political societies in the world.

2. What is the duty of those who, through the love of Christ, have been placed in such circumstances. It is to continue in His love. The branch is put forth by the vine, or grafted into it, not for its own honour, but that it may grow, and blossom, and bring forth fruit, to the glory of the vine, and the vine dresser.

III. THE MANNER IN WHICH COMPLIANCE WITH THE PRECEPT IS TO BE YIELDED. By keeping our Lords commandments, as He kept His Fathers commandments. The following may be considered as among the most comprehensive and important of our Lords commandments: Mat_16:24; Mat_6:19-20; Mat_6:33; Mat_10:8; Luk_12:15; Joh_13:34. Now, when a disciple, from regard to His Lords authority, and from love to His person, yields a cheerful habitual obedience to these commandments, he cannot but continue in His love. The eye of the Saviour cannot but rest complacently on him. And this is the only way in which a disciple can continue in his Masters complacential love. When the Father manifested His love to His Son, by constituting Him His great agent in the restorative economy, He gave Him a commandment (Psa_40:7-8). He fully conformed Himself to this law; and, in doing so, he continued in His Fathers love. Our obedience must have the same leading characters as our Lords had. His obedience was the obedience of

1. Love, and so must ours be.

2. In consequence of its being the result of love, it was cheerful. So we must run in the way of His commandments with enlarged hearts.

3. Universal--it extended to every requisition of the law. And in our obedience there must be no reserves, Do allowed omissions or violations.

4. Persevering. He was faithful to death, and it is He who endures to the end, that so continues in the Saviours love as to be saved.

IV. MOTIVES TO COMPLY WITH THE INJUNCTION. By continuing in Christs love, by keeping His commandments

1. You will be conformed to Him, four Lord and Master. Ought not the disciple to be as His teacher, etc. It is the great design of the Father of the whole family, that the younger members, the fanny brethren, should all be conformed to their elder brother.

2. You will minister to the Lords enjoyment. His joy in us will remain, if, keeping His commandments, we continue in His love (Joh_13:11). The disciple whom Jesus loved breathed the Spirit of Him on whose bosom he had been accustomed to lean, when he said, I have no greater joy, etc. (3Jn_1:4) And Paul (Php_2:1-30). Our Lord had joy in His disciples, etc. Mat_11:25) His joy in them was proportioned to the degree in which they were made holy, useful, and happy, through the influence of His word and Spirit.

3. You will promote your own happiness. While Christs joy in us remains, our joy in Him will be full. (J. Brown, D. D.)

Obedient love bringing fulness of joy

I. LOVE IN ITS BIRTH. Christ loved us first, and this was after the model of the Fathers to Him. It was, therefore

1. A free love.

2. An eternal love.

3. A deep and infinite love. To believe in, and to receive Christs love, awakens in our hearts reciprocal love to Him.

II. LOVE IN ITS CONTINUANCE. The law of continuance in love is obedience: obedience to Christ after the model of His obedience to the Father.

1. What are we to obey? The moral law which is Christs, and His special evangelical laws.

2. Why? Out of gratitude to Him, as the condition of His continued love to us.

3. How? As Christ obeyed God: cheerfully, heartily, unreservedly, even unto death. Thus will our love be sustained: not otherwise.

III. LOVE IN ITS FRUITION.

1. This obedience leads to fruitfulness in doing good to others--which pleases God.

2. It occasions joy to the soul that loves and obeys. Conclusions:

1. How to be happy? By loving Christ.

2. How to foster love to Christ? By diligently doing His commandments. (T. G. Horton.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 15:9-11. As the Father hath loved me — As certainly as he hath loved me; and with that kind of love wherewith he hath loved me, namely, with a love of approbation and delight, constancy and perseverance; so have I loved you — As truly, as affectionately, as invariably: continue ye in my love — Keep your place in my affection: see that ye do not forfeit that invaluable blessing. How needless was this caution, if it were impossible for them not to abide in his love. If ye keep my commandments — If you carefully perform all the things which I have enjoined, both as my apostles and as private Christians; ye shall abide in my love — You shall be always the objects of it: on these terms, and on no other, shall you continue to possess my special affection: even as I have kept my Father’s commandments — Have exactly performed all the duties of my office, as Mediator, as the Teacher, Redeemer and Saviour of my church, their lawgiver and example; and abide in his love — Continue to be the object of his infinite complacency. These things have I spoken unto you — Not to grieve you by any intimation that I suspect the sincerity of your regards to me, but that you may be fortified and animated against all the temptations that will assault you, and may continue steadfast in your attachment to my cause and interest, and in your fidelity to me your Master, and zeal and diligence in serving me; that my joy may remain in you — That my complacency in you, as my faithful friends, may still continue; and that your joy might be full — May be maintained in its full height, and may greatly increase; as it certainly will, in proportion to your fidelity, zeal, and diligence in my service.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John

ABIDING IN LOVE

Joh 15:9 - Joh 15:11.

The last of these verses shows that they are to be taken as a kind of conclusion of the great parable of the Vine and the branches, for it looks back and declares Christ’s purpose in His preceding utterances. The parable proper is ended, but the thoughts of it still linger in our Lord’s mind, and echo through His words, as the vibration of some great bell after the stroke has ceased. The main thoughts of the parable were these two, that participation in Christ’s life was the source of all good, and that abiding in Him was the means of participation in His life. And these same thoughts, though modified in their form, and free from the parabolical element, appear in the words that we have to consider on this occasion. The parable spoke about abiding in Christ; our text defines that abiding, and makes it still more tender and gracious by substituting for it, ‘abiding in His love.’ The parable spoke of conduct as ‘fruit,’ the effortless result of communion with Jesus. Our text speaks of it with more emphasis laid on the human side, as ‘keeping the commandments.’ The parable told us that abiding in Christ was the condition of bearing fruit. Our text tells us the converse, which is also true, that bearing fruit, or keeping the commandments, is the condition of abiding in Christ. So our Lord takes His thought, as it were, and turns it round before us, letting us see both sides of it, and then tells us that He does all this for one purpose, which in itself is a token of His love, namely, that our hearts may be filled with perfect and perennial joy, a drop from the fountain of His own.

These three verses have three words which may be taken as their key-notes-love, obedience, joy. We shall look at them in that order.

I. First, then, we have here the love in which it is our sweet duty to abide. ‘As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide ye in My love.’

What shall we say about these mysterious and profound first words of this verse? They carry us into the very depths of divinity, and suggest for us that wonderful analogy between the relation of the Father to the Son, and that of the Son to His disciples, which appears over and over again in the solemnities of these last hours and words of Jesus. Christ here claims to be, in a unique and solitary fashion, the Object of the Father’s love, and He claims to be able to love like God. ‘As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you’; as deeply, as purely, as fully, as eternally, and with all the unnameable perfectnesses which must belong to the divine affection, does Christ declare that He loves us.

I know not whether the majesty and uniqueness of His nature stand out more clearly in the one or in the other of these two assertions. As beloved of God, and as loving like God, He equally claims for Himself a place which none other can fill, and declares that the love which falls on us from His pierced and bleeding heart is really the love of God.

In this mysterious, awful, tender, perfect affection He exhorts us to abide. That comes yet closer to our hearts than the other phrase of which it is the modification, and in some sense the explanation. The command to abide in Him suggests much that is blessed, but to have all that mysterious abiding in Him resolved into abiding in His love is infinitely tenderer, and draws us still closer to Himself. Obviously, what is meant is not our continuance in the attitude of love to Him, but rather our continuance in the sweet and sacred atmosphere of His love to us. For the connection between the two halves of the verse necessarily requires that the love in which we are to abide should be identical with the love which had been previously spoken of, and that is clearly His love to us, and not ours to Him. But then, on the other hand, whosoever thus abides in Christ’s love to Him will echo it back again, in an equally continuous love to Him. So that the two things flow together, and to abide in the conscious possession of Christ’s love to me is the certain and inseparable cause of its effect, my abiding in the continual exercise and outgoing of my love to Him.

Now note that this continuance in Christ’s love is a thing in our power, since it is commanded. Although it is His affection to us of which my text primarily speaks, I can so modify and regulate the flow of that divine love to my heart that it becomes my duty to continue in Christ’s love to me.

What a quiet, blessed home that is for us! The image, I suppose, that underlies all this sweet speech in these last hours, about dwelling in Christ, in His joy, in His words, in His peace, and the like, is that of some safe house, into which going, we may be secure. And what sorrow or care or trouble or temptation would be able to reach us if we were folded in the protection of that strong love, and always felt that it was the fortress into which we might continually resort? They who make their abode there, and dwell behind those firm bastions, need fear no foes, but are lifted high above them all. ‘Abide in My love,’ for they who dwell within the clefts of that Rock need none other defence; and they to whom the riven heart of Christ is the place of their abode are safe, whatsoever befalls. ‘As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide ye in My love.’

II. Now note, secondly, the obedience by which we continue in Christ’s love.

The analogy, on which He has already touched, is still continued. ‘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.’ Note that Christ here claims for Himself absolute and unbroken conformity with the Father’s will, and consequent uninterrupted and complete communion with the Father’s love. It is the utterance of a nature conscious of no sin, of a humanity that never knew one instant’s film of separation, howsoever thin, howsoever brief, between Him and the Father. No more tremendous words were ever spoken than these quiet ones in which Jesus Christ declares that never, all His life long, had there been the smallest deflection or want of conformity between the Father’s will and His desires and doings, and that never had there been one grain of dust, as it were, between the two polished plates which adhered so closely in inseparable union of harmony and love.

And then notice, still further, how Christ here, with His consciousness of perfect obedience and communion, intercepts our obedience and diverts it to Himself. He does not say, ‘Obey God as I have done, and He will love you’; but He says, ‘Obey Me as I obey God, and I will love you.’ Who is this that thus comes between the child’s heart and the Father’s? Does He come between when He stands thus? or does He rather lead us up to the Father, and to a share in His own filial obedience?

He further assures us that, by keeping His commandments, we shall continue in that sweet home and safe stronghold of His love. Of course the keeping of the commandments is something more than mere outward conformity by action. It is the inward harmony of will, and the bowing of the whole nature. It is, in fact, the same thing {though considered under a different aspect, and from a somewhat different point of view}, as He has already been speaking about as the ‘fruit’ of the vine, by the bearing of which the Father is glorified. And this obedience, the obedience of the hands because the heart obeys, and does so because it loves, the bowing of the will in glad submission to the loved and holy will of the heavens-this obedience is the condition of our continuing in Christ’s love.

He will love us better, the more we obey His commandments, for although His tender heart is charged towards all, even the disobedient, with the love of pity and of desire to help, He cannot but feel a growing thrill of satisfied and gratified affection towards us, in the measure in which we become like Himself. The love that wept over us, when we were enemies, will ‘rejoice over us with singing,’ when we are friends. The love that sought the sheep when it was wandering will pour itself yet more tenderly and with selector gifts upon it when it follows in the footsteps of the flock, and keeps close at the heels of the Good Shepherd. ‘If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love,’ so we will put nothing between us and Him which will make it impossible for the tenderest tenderness of that holy love to come to your hearts.

The obedience which we render for love’s sake will make us more capable of receiving, and more blessedly conscious of possessing, the love of Jesus Christ. The lightest cloud before the sun will prevent it from focussing its rays to a burning point on the convex glass. And the small, thin, fleeting, scarcely visible acts of self-will that sometimes pass across our skies will prevent our feeling the warmth of that love upon our shrouded hearts. Every known piece of rebellion against Christ will shatter all true enjoyment of His favour, unless we are hopeless hypocrites or self-deceived. The condition of knowing and feeling the warmth and blessedness of Christ’s love to me is the honest submission of my nature to His commandments. You cannot rejoice in Jesus Christ unless you do His will. You will have no real comfort and blessedness in your religion unless it works itself out in your daily lives. That is why so many of you know nothing, or next to nothing, about the joy of Christ’s felt presence, because you do not, for all your professions, hourly and momentarily regulate and submit your wills to His commandments. Do what He wants, and do it because He wants it, if you wish that His love should fill your hearts.

And, further, we shall continue in His love by obedience, inasmuch as every emotion which finds expression in our daily life is strengthened by the fact that it is expressed. The love which works is love which grows, and the tree that bears fruit is the tree that is healthy and increases. So note how all these deepest things of Christian teaching come at last to a plain piece of practical duty. We talk about the mysticism of John’s Gospel, about the depth of these last sayings of Jesus Christ. Yes! they are mystical, they are deep-unfathomably deep, thank God!-but connected by the shortest possible road with the plainest possible duties. ‘Let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous.’ It is of no use to talk about communion with Jesus Christ, and abiding in Him, in possession of His love, and all those other properly mystical sides of Christian experience, unless you verify them for yourselves by the plain way of practice. Doing as Christ bids us, and doing that habitually, and doing it gladly, then, and only then, are we in no danger of losing ourselves on the heights, or of forgetting that Christ’s mission has for its last result the influencing of character and of conduct. ‘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.’

III. Lastly, note the joy which follows on this practical obedience. ‘These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain,’ {or ‘might be’} ‘in you, and that your joy might be full.’

‘My joy might be in you’-a strange time to talk of His ‘joy.’ In half an hour he would be in Gethsemane, and we know what happened there. Was Christ a joyful man? He was a ‘Man of sorrows’ but one of the old Psalms says, ‘Thou hast loved righteousness . . . therefore God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.’ The deep truth that lies there is the same that He here claims as being fulfilled in His own experience, that absolute surrender and submission in love to the beloved commands of a loving Father made Him-in spite of sorrows, in spite of the baptism with which He was baptized, in spite of all the burden and the weight of our sins-the most joyful of men.

This joy He offers to us, a joy coming from perfect obedience, a joy coming from a surrender of self at the bidding of love, to a love that to us seems absolutely good and sweet. There is no joy that humanity is capable of to compare for a moment with that bright, warm, continuous sunshine which floods the soul, that is freed from all the clouds and mists of self and the darkness of sin. Self-sacrifice at the bidding of Jesus Christ is the recipe for the highest, the most exquisite, the most godlike gladnesses of which the human heart is capable. Our joy will remain if His joy is ours. Then our joy will be, up to the measure of its capacity, ennobled, and filled, and progressive, advancing ever towards a fuller possession of His joy, and a deeper calm of that pure and perennial rapture, which makes the settled and celestial bliss of those who have ‘entered into the joy of their Lord.’

Brother! there is only one gladness that is worth calling so-and that is, that which comes to us, when we give ourselves utterly away to Jesus Christ, and let Him do with us as He will. It is better to have a joy that is central and perennial-though there may be, as there will be, a surface of sorrow and care-than to have the converse, a surface of joy, and a black, unsympathetic kernel of aching unrest and sadness. In one or other of these two states we all live. Either we have to say, ‘as sorrowful yet always rejoicing’ or we have to feel that ‘even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.’ Let us choose for ourselves, and let us choose aright, the gladness which coils round the heart, and endures for ever, and is found in submission to Jesus Christ, rather than the superficial, fleeting joys which are rooted on earth and perish with time.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 15:9. Κἀγὼ) I also.—τῇ ἐμῇ, in My love) viz. towards you.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_15:9-10. But as μαθηταί of Christ, they are the object of His love; hence, in addition to the general exhortation to abide on Him, there comes now, further, the particular, to abide in His love, which is done by keeping His commandments, according to the archetype of His morally harmonious relation to the Father.

As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you (aorists, because Jesus, at the boundary of His life, stands and looks back, Joh_13:1; Joh_13:34); abide (keep yourselves continually) in my love.[165] When others extend the protasis to ὑμᾶς, and first begin the apodosis with μείνατε (Maldonatus, Grotius, Rosenmüller, Olshausen, and several others), this is opposed by the fact that between καθὼς ἠγάπ. με ὁ π. and μείνατε, κ.τ.λ. no correlation exists; for the ἀγάπη ἡ ἐμή is not love to me (Maldonatus, Grotius, Nösselt, Kuinoel, Baeumlein, and several others), but: my love to you, as is clear from ἠγάπησα ὑμᾶς and from the analogy of ἡ χαρὰ ἡ ἐμή, Joh_15:11;[166] comp. Joh_15:12-13. Olshausen mingles the two together, the active and passive love.

ἘΝ Τῇ ἈΓΆΠῌ ΜΟΥ] = ἘΝ Τῇ ἈΓΆΠῌ Τῇ ἘΜῇ. But the latter purposely lays emphasis on the thought that it was nothing less than His love, that love so great and holy, as He had just expressed by καθὼς ἨΓΆΠ., Κ.Τ.Λ., in which they were to abide.

ΤΕΤΗΡΗΚΑ] Self-witness in the retrospect which He takes of His whole ministry on the threshold of its accomplishment.

Κ. ΜΈΝΩ ΑὐΤΟῦ ἘΝ Τ. ἈΓΆΠῌ] Consequence of ΤΕΤΉΡΗΚΑ. The prominent position of ΑὐΤΟῦ corresponds to the consciousness of the happiness and the dignity of abiding in the love which His Father bears to him (Joh_10:17, Joh_17:24). The present includes continuance also for the future; hence it is not, with Ewald, to be accented μενῶ.

[165] Instead of μείνατε. Ewald conjectures μείνητε, which he still makes depend on ἵνα, ver. 8; but this is unsuitable, since καθώς appears without καί.

[166] That ἡ ἀγάπη ἡ ἐμή might denote love to me, should not have been called in question, as being contrary to the genius of the language. Comp. φιλίᾳ τῇ σῇ, Xen. Anab. vii. 7. 29; Thucyd. i. 137. 4 : διὰ τὴν σὴν φιλίαν, Rom_11:31.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 15:9-17 . The disciples are urged to fulfil Christ’s purposes in the world, and are assured that if they abide in the love of Christ they will receive all they need for fruit-bearing .

Joh 15:9 . Καθὼς ἠγάπησε … ἐμῇ . Love is the true bond which gives unity to the moral world, and inspires discipleship. All that Christ experiences is the result of the Father’s love: all that the disciples are called to be and to do is the outcome of Christ’s love. This love of Christ was to be retained as their possession by their conforming themselves to it: μείνατε ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ τῇ ἐμῇ , “abide in my love,” no longer “abide in me,” but specifically “in my love”. Abide in it, for there is a possibility of your falling away from its enjoyment and possession.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 9-11. “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you; abide in my love. 10. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11.I have spoken this to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be fulfilled.”

It is the love of Jesus which has formed the bond between Him and ourselves. In this love has the stream of the divine love burst forth on the earth; first, the love of the Father for Jesus, of which He gave Him the assurance at the baptism, and which is that with which He loved Him before His incarnation (Joh 17:24); then, the love of Jesus for His own, which is of the same nature as that of God for Him (καθώς, not ὥσπερ).

The initiative in these two cases comes from the more exalted being. What then is the condition to the end that the relation may be maintained and strengthened? It is simply necessary that the inferior being should accept this love and respond to it. He has not to awaken it; he has only to abide under its beams. But in order to this, he must not force it to turn away from him; and this is what he will do by unfaithfulness and disobedience. Jesus calls attention to the fact that He does not here impose on the believer with reference to Himself any other condition than that to which He has Himself submitted with reference to the Father. His life was an act of permanent submission to the divine injunctions; without this submission, he would have ceased instantly to be the object of the satisfied love of the Father (Joh 8:29, Joh 10:17).

Such is also the position of the believer with regard to the love of Christ. The expression my love can designate here only the love of Jesus for His own; comp. the words: As I have loved you, and the whole development in Joh 15:13-16. The Lord uses with reference to Himself the verbs in the past because He has reached the end of His earthly life. The second clause of Joh 15:9 : and I have loved you, does not depend on καθώς, as : “As my Father has loved me and as I have loved you.” For the principal verb, which would, in that case, be: abide, is not in any logical relation to the first clause of Joh 15:9 : as my Father has loved me. The meaning is: “And I also, I have loved you; continue therefore the objects of this love.”

And how so? By faithfulness to His injunctions like to that which He Himself testifies with reference to the will of the Father (Joh 15:10).

In demanding this of them Jesus is assured by His own experience that He is not imposing on them a burden, but rather is revealing to them the secret of perfect joy (Joh 15:11). It is this constant rejoicing in the love of the Father in the path of obedience which has constituted His own joy here on earth; and this joy will be reproduced in His disciples in the same path. It is then, indeed, His joy into which He initiates them and to the possession of which He invites them in these words: “I have said this to you in order that...” My joy cannot therefore here signify: the joy which I will produce in you (Calvin); or the joy which I feel on your account (Augustine); or the joy which you feel on my account (Euthymius). The question is of the joy with which He Himself rejoices in feeling Himself to be the object of the Father’s love. Comp. the analogous expression my peace, Joh 14:27.

Thus through obedience their joy will increase even to fulness. For every act of fidelity will draw closer the bond between Jesus and themselves, as every moment in the life of Jesus drew closer the bond between Him and His Father. And to feel oneself included with the Son in the Father’s love—is not this perfect joy? The reading ᾖseems preferable to μείνῃ . The notion of being is sufficient; that of abiding would be superfluous; comp. Joh 17:26.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, in that love, wherewith I love you: which love is on both parts.

The love of the Father towards the Son, and of the Son towards us, and ours towards God and our neighbor, are joined together with an inseparable knot: and there is nothing more sweet and pleasant than it is. Now this love showeth itself by its effects: a most perfect example whereof, Christ himself exhibited unto us.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

continue ye in my love--not, "Continue to love Me," but, "Continue in the possession and enjoyment of My love to you"; as is evident from the next words.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

9. As the Father hath loved me. He intended to express something far greater than is commonly supposed; for they who think that he now speaks of the sacred love of God the Father, which he always had towards the Son, philosophize away from the subject; for it was rather the design of Christ to lay, as it were, in our bosom a sure pledge of God’s love towards us. That abstruse inquiry, as to the manner in which the Father always loved himself in the Son, has nothing to do with the present passage. But the love which is here mentioned must be understood as referring to us, because Christ testifies that the Father loves him, as he is the Head of the Church. And this is highly necessary for us; for he who without a Mediator, inquires how he is loved by God, involves him in a labyrinth, in which he will neither discover the entrance, nor the means of extricating himself. We ought therefore to cast our eyes on Christ, in whom will be found the testimony and pledge of the love of God; for the love of God was fully poured out on him, that from him it might flow to his members. He is distinguished by this title, that he is the beloved Son, in whom the will of the Father is satisfied, (Matthew 3:17.) But we ought to observe the end, which is, that God may accept us in him. So, then, we may contemplate in him, as in a mirror, God’s paternal love towards us all; because he is not loved apart, or for his own private advantage, but that he may unite us with him to the Father.

Abide in my love. Some explain this to mean, that Christ demands from his disciples mutual love; but others explain it better, who understand it to mean the love of Christ towards us. He means that we should continually enjoy that love with which he once loved us, and, therefore, that we ought to take care not to deprive ourselves of it; for many reject the grace which is offered to them, and many throw away what they once had in their hands. So, then, since we have been once received into the grace of Christ, we must see that we do not fall from it through our own fault.

The conclusion which some draw from these words, that there is no efficacy in the grace of God. unless it be aided by our steadfastness, is frivolous. For I do not admit that the Spirit demands from us no more than what is in our own power, but he shows us what we ought to do, that, if our strength be deficient, we may seek it from some other quarter. In like manner, when Christ exhorts us, in this passage, to perseverance, we must; not rely on our own strength and industry, but we ought to pray to him who commands us, that he would confirm us in his love.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(9) As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.—Better, As the Father hath loved Me, I have also loved you. He had passed from the thought of their discipleship to the foundation of their union with Him and with God. It was in the eternal love of the Father, ever going forth to the Son, and from the Son ever going forth to all who would receive it. The Father’s love and presence was ever with the Son, because the Son ever did those things which were pleasing to Him. (Comp. Note on Joh_8:31.) The love of the Son is ever present wherever willing heart of obedient disciple is open to its power.

Continue ye in my love.—Better, abide ye in My love. The word “continue” misses the connection with the context. By “My love” is meant, not “love to Me in your hearts,” but, “My love towards you.” The one produces the other. “We love Him because He hath first loved us;” but that which is prominent in the thought here is His love to the disciples, which He has just compared to the Father’s love to Himself.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. As the Father, &c.) The Greek construction is ambiguous. It would be quite possible to translate, Even as the Father loved Me and I loved you, abide in My love. But our version is better as keeping in due prominence the main statement, that the love of Christ for His disciples is analogous to that of the Father for the Son. In any case ‘abide’ is better than ‘continue;’ the same Greek word is used throughout these verses (4–16), a fact which our translators obscure by giving three English words, ‘abide,’ ‘continue,’ and ‘remain,’ and that in three consecutive verses (9–11). Throughout the Gospel ‘abide’ should be maintained as the rendering of S. John’s favourite verb μένειν (see on Joh_1:33). The whole should run, Even as the Father loved Me, I also loved you (comp. Joh_17:18, Joh_20:21); abide in My love. The verbs are aorists, not perfects, and Christ’s work is regarded as a completed whole, already perfect in itself. But perhaps this is just one of those cases where the English perfect may be allowed to translate the Greek aorist: see on Joh_8:29.

in my love] The Greek might mean ‘the love of Me,’ but ‘My love’ for you is more natural and suits the context better, which speaks of His love towards them as similar to the Father’s towards Him. The other, however, need not be altogether excluded. See on Joh_14:27.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love,.... Not that their continuance in the heart's love and affection of Christ depended upon their observation of his commands; for as the keeping of them is not the cause or reason of the saints having an interest in the love of Christ, so it is not the cause or reason of their abiding in it; but to such that observe the commandments of Christ he will continue to make further discoveries of his love, and let them see more clearly and largely what a value he has for them, and how much he loves them: or the sense is, that by keeping the commandments of Christ, his disciples and followers show that they love him, and continue in their affection to him:

even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. The commandments of the Father kept by Christ were not only the precepts of the moral law, and the rites of the ceremonial one, which he strictly observed; but the preaching of the Gospel, and submitting to the ordinances of it, doing of miracles, and laying down his life for his people; in performing which, as his Father testified his approbation of them, and how strongly he was affected to him, what an abiding he had in his love; so Christ hereby showed his constant and continued love to his Father; and which was done by him, that the world, as well as his disciples, might know how much he loved him; see Joh 14:31.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

Ver. 9. Continue ye in my love] In the love wherewith I do dearly love you. As who should say, Suffer yourselves to be loved by me. Lo, the Lord Christ even makes love to the good soul, and woos entertainment.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As the Father hath loved me - The love of the Father toward his only-begotten Son is the highest affection of which we can conceive. Compare Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5. It is the love of God toward his coequal Son. who is like him in all things, who always pleased him, and who was willing to endure the greatest sacrifices and toils to accomplish his purpose of mercy. Yet this love is adduced to illustrate the tender affection which the Lord Jesus has for all his friends.

So have I loved you - Not to the same degree, for this was impossible, but with the same kind of love - deep, tender. unchanging; love prompting to self-denials, toils, and sacrifices to secure their welfare.

Continue ye - The reason which he gives for their doing this is the strength of the love which he had shown for them. His love was so great for them that he was about to lay down his life. This constitutes a strong reason why we should continue in his love:

Because the love which he shows for us is unchanging. It is the love of our best friend - love whose strength was expressed by toils, and groans, and blood. As he is unchanging in the character and strength of his affection, so should we be. Thus only can we properly express our gratitude; thus only show that we are his true friends. Our happiness here and forever depends altogether on our continuing in the love of Christ. We have no source of permanent joy but in that love.

In my love - In love to me. Thus it is expressed in the Greek in the next verse. The connection also demands that we understand it of our love to him, and not of his love to us. The latter cannot be the subject of a command; the former may. See also Luk 11:42; 1Jo 2:5; Jud 1:21.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

What our Saviour before called an abiding in him, and his words abiding in us, and a bearing and bringing forth much fruit, he here calleth a continuing in his love; though indeed this phrase also may be interpreted by a continuance in the favour of God and Christ, in that state of love into which God bath put the souls of those who are his true disciples: but I had rather interpret it of that love wherewith they loved Christ, than that wherewith Christ loved them. So the former words are an argument to persuade perseverance, or a continuance in those acts of holiness by which men alone can show their true love to Jesus Christ, from Christ’s love to them, which he there expresses,

As the father hath loved me, so have I loved you; where the particle as is only a note of comparison, but doth not denote an equality; only signifieth truth and greatness; as truly and sincerely as the Father loveth me: or, I have loved you with a great love, bearing some proportion to the love wherewith my Father loveth me. The Father’s love to Christ is eternal immutable, constant, full and perfect, wise and just, free: in all these respects Christ loveth his people as the Father loveth him: this ought: to engage them again to love him, and so to walk as they may continue in that state of favour into which his goodness hath advanced them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. Father hath loved me, so… I… you—The third advancement is the attainment of a love from Christ so ineffable, and so perfect, as to be paralleled only by the love of the Father to the Son. The union of Christ with his persevering follower is modelled upon the ineffable unity of the Trinity itself. It is, therefore, perfect and eternal.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Two ways of explaining this verse: Even as inasmuch as the Father hath loved me, and as I have loved you, abide in my love; i.e. , as Grotius has put it, the first clause suggesting accordance with the mystery of the Trinity, and the second the mystery of redemption: "So do ye continue, or so do ye abide, in the amplitude of this double love which is mine, dwell in it as in a holy atmosphere, breathe it and live by it." But there is another and more satisfactory way of translating the passage: Even as the Father loved me, I also loved you; a fact of stupendous interest and transcendent claim. Heaven had opened over the incarnate Word, and other ears as well as his own had heard the Father say, "Thou art my beloved Son," etc. The Lord was conscious of being the Object of this infinite love before the foundation of the world, (Joh_17:24) and of reciprocating and responding to it; and this love of the Father to him on his assumption of his mediatorial functions was the well-spring of his obedience unto death and after it. (see Joh_10:17, note) Now, if the kagw is to be translated as above, Christ declares that even as the Father has loved him, he has" loved his disciples. Again and again he has emphasized this love to them, (Joh_13:34) but here he asserts a loftier claim, viz. that his love to them corresponds with the eternal Father"s love to himself. The one great fact is the ground on which he commands them to abide in his love. This is obviously a more explicit and more intelligible form of the commandment to abide in him. With Olshausen and Westcott, "The love that is mine "is not the love to Christ, nor the love of Christ exclusively, but a blending of the active and passive idea in "the love that is mine in the "love" lavished upon me from eternity, and to which I have eternally responded, which I have made known to you and expended on you and received back again from you. Abide in that love that is mine.

Vers. 9-16. The condition of abiding under the power of Christ"s love.

I THE SPHERE AND CONDITION OF UNION. "As the Father hath loved me, I have also loved you: abide in my love.

1. The relation between the Father and the Son is the absolute type of the union between Christ and believer s.

2. The love of Christ is the sphere or atmosphere in which the disciple lives. "We love him, because he first loved us.

3. The disciple is under no other condition than that to which the Son is subject with the Father. "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." Our obedience is the proof of our love to Christ, while our love in turn assures our obedience.

II THE ISSUE OF UNION JOY. "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy" might be in you, and that your joy might be full.

1. The joy of Christ is the joy. of stir-sacrifice, in constant obedience to his Father. This he desires his disciples to enjoy. Thus he guarantees their true blessedness.

2. Their joy will grow in power and depth by their obedience, as they will thus be drawn closer to Christ.

3. The obedience to which they are called is concentrated in brotherly love. "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

(1) The commandment.

(a) It is a new commandment. (Joh_13:34)

(b) It is an old commandment. (2Jn_1:5)

(c) It commends itself to the moral nature of man.

(d) It is the mainspring of social happiness.

(2) Mark the model or pattern: "As I have loved you." Jesus loved his disciples with a love which was

(a) strong,

(b) tender,

(c) patient,

(d) enduring,

(e) self-sacrificing.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

III INTIMACY OF THE RELATION WHICH CHRIST HAS ESTABLISHED BETWEEN HIMSELF AND HIS DISCIPLES. "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. I no longer call you servants; because the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known to you.

1. The relation of God to his people under the Law was that of Master and servant. But Jesus establishes a new relation, which heightens the dignity of discipleship.

2. The condition of the new relation was a free, unrestrained confidence between Christ and his disciples respecting the full knowledge of Divine things.

3. This fuller knowledge would of itself enhance the intensity of love.

IV THE DIVINE CHOICE, WITH ITS BLESSED DESIGN AND EFFECTS. "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.

1. Whether the election is to salvation or apostleship, the ground or cause was not in man. The blessed initiative was taken by Christ.

2. Design of the election. And appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit." These words imply

(1) that the disciples should take an independent place for themselves (upaghte , go away);

(2) that they should be abundant and effective in labors;

(3) and that the effect of their labors should be lasting.

3. Encouragement to labor. "That whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name, he may give it you." A fruitful obedience has its reward in gracious answers to prayer.

Abiding in the love of Jesus.

I PAST SATISFACTION. How Jesus here lifts up his disciples by a recognition of the good thing in them! The Father loved the Son; found in Jesus of Nazareth what he could not find in any other being of flesh and blood. And so the Son loved his disciples, finding in them a spirit of obedience and recognition of himself which promised great results in due season. To us it may seem as if Jesus must have been painfully impressed with the faults of his friends. In many things they were so ignorant and slow of heart; in many things their motives were so narrow and unworthy. But, with all their faults, they were fundamentally true; better far than Pharisees; better far than the common run, who as yet followed Jesus only when they could get the loaves and be filled. And so Jesus loved them for this. What a view this gives us of the aspect of Jesus towards men! All are sinners and need salvation; they are loved with the love of pity; they have their share in that great declaration concerning God"s love to the world Joh_3:16). But, so far as inclination towards God is concerned, all are not equally loveless; some are near the kingdom, like that man on whom, when Jesus looked, he loved him. These disciples still had far to go and many difficulties to overcome; but surely it was no small matter to have reached the happy stage when Jesus could say that, as the Father loved him, so he loved them. Look into the expression, and you will see it is a very strong, encouraging, appreciative one.

II PAST MINISTRY OF JESUS TO HIS LOVED ONES. The love of the Father to the Son was not an empty sentiment. The Son being what he was, he became the Agent of a compassionating omnipotence to do good to men. The Father"s love to the Son was proved by what he did for him and through him. But the Father could not have done these things for and through anybody. He could not have done through a Moses, or an Elijah, or a John the Baptist, what he did through a Jesus. And as the Father found what he wanted in the Son, so the Son found what he wanted in his disciples. As the Father loved the Son, so the Son loved the disciples; and as the Father ministered to the Son, so the Son ministered to the disciples. The Son was willing and able, to the full, to receive the fatherly ministry; and in like manner the disciples were sufficiently able to receive the ministry of Jesus, to make it possible for him to speak with such complacency of them. They listened to his teaching; they left their home and work and went about with him; and so Jesus had been able to do something for and in them, more indeed than as yet distinctly appeared to any one but himself.

III THE CONDITION OF CONTINUED AND RICHER MINISTRY. What good the disciples would get out of Jesus in new and altogether different circumstances depended upon themselves. Jesus would be the same, in disposition and in power; the question remained, would they give him the opportunity? What a thought, that the overflowing love of Jesus, meant to direct so much power and wisdom, should be serviceable to us just as we choose to make it so! A spirit of docility, obedience, and constant expectation would open up to us treasures of heavenly loving-kindness beyond anything we at present possess. The key, so to speak, is with us, yet we notice it not; and meanwhile the lock is getting all stiff for want of frequent use. To know the full riches of Divine love, we must live as Jesus would have us study to live. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Abide ye in my love - Keep your place in my affection. See that ye do not forfeit that invaluable blessing. How needless a caution, if it were impossible for them not to abide therein?

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Lord, what a comparison is here! As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: he doth not say, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved him; but so have I loved you: nor doth he say, As God hath loved me, so have I loved you; but, As the Father! It is verbum dilectionis, a word importing dearness of affection: nor doth he say, The Father hath loved me, and I love you; but, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: nor doth he say, As the Father hath loved me, so will I love you; but, So have I loved you.

This shews the priority of Christ’s love, that he loved us first, and also denotes the invincible constancy of his love, and the indubitable certainty thereof: I have loved you: follow me from heaven to earth, and from earth to heaven again, and you will find that every step I have taken hath been in love.

Learn, 1. That the Lord Jesus Christ hath given full and ample demonstration of his great and wonderful love unto his church and people.

2. That it is the duty, and ought to be the singular care, of every Christian, to preserve the sweet sense and inward diffusions of Christ’s love in their own souls: Continue ye in my love.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. καθὼς ἠγ. Authorities differ as to whether we should place a comma or a colon at ἠγάπησα: either, Even as the Father hath loved Me and I have loved you, abide in My love; or, Even as the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you (Joh 17:18, Joh 20:21): abide in My love. The latter is better as keeping in due prominence the main statement, that the love of Christ for His disciples is analogous to that of the Father for the Son. The aorists may be translated as such, the love being regarded as a completed whole, always perfect in itself. But perhaps this is just one of those cases where the Greek aorist is best translated by the English perfect: see on Joh 8:29. Ἐν τ. ἀγ. τ. ἐμῇ may mean either My love or the love of Me. The former is more natural and better suited to the context, which speaks of His love to them as similar to the Father’s towards Him; but the latter need not be excluded. see on Joh 8:31.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9.] The Love between the Father and Christ is compared with that between Christ and His disciples. The sense is best served by placing a colon (as in E. V.) after ὑμᾶς ἠγάπησα, making μείνατε κ.τ.λ. a separate injunction, and κἀγώ = οὕτως. With only a comma at ἠγάπησα, that which is the great assertion of the sentence, is suffered to slip by unnoticed; viz. that ‘as the Father hath loved the Son, so the Son His disciples.’

τῇ ἀγ. τῇ ἐμῇ may be rendered the love of Me, as in Luk 22:19 ║ 1 Cor.,—but the sense is not good, and the expression is not parallel with τῇ ἀγ. μου in ver. 10; so that I prefer my love, the love which I have towards you; remain in it: do not cast yourselves out of it. The other sense is implied in this, but not expressed.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. καθὼς ἠγάπησέν με ὁ πατήρ (cf. 5:20, 17:24), κἀγὼ ὑμᾶς ἠγάπησα (13:34), “As the Father loved me, so also I loved you.” The words are spoken in retrospect of His association with the apostles, now that the hour of parting has come; but they convey an assurance of the depth and intimacy of His love to all future disciples.

For the constr. καθὼς … κἀγώ in Jn., see on 6:57, 10:15; and cf. also 17:18. For the verb ἀγαπᾶν, see on 21:15.

μείνατε ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ τῇ ἐμῇ, “abide in my love,” i.e. “continue in the shelter of my love for you.” See on 5:42 for the Johannine use of the phrase ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Judas had fallen away from the reach of this love of Christ, and so may any disciple. Hence the need of the precept μείνατε, “continue.” (Cf. Jud 1:21 ἑαυτοὺς ἐν ἀγάπῃ θεοῦ τηρήσατε.) This “is perhaps the nearest approach to an authoritative command to obey a moral or spiritual precept” that occurs in Jn. (Abbott, Diat. 2438). For the aor. imperative μείνατε, see on 2:5.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In my love [εν τη αγαπη τη εμη] . Literally, in the love, that which is mine. Not only the love of the disciple for Christ, nor the love of Christ for the disciple, but the Christ - principle of love which includes both. See the same form of expression in the joy that is mine, ver. 11; Joh 3:29; Joh 17:13; the judgment (v. 30; Joh 8:16); the commandments (xiv. 15); peace (xiv. 27).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.