John 15:9-11

One of the key words here is the word abide. It means "continue in," or "remain in." "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; continue you in My love," or "remain in My love." Now, what are we to remain in? We are to remain in a relationship, a fellowship. This relationship is kept going by a combination of mutual respect, honor, concern for, and goodwill toward. It is two-sided. On the one side there is God. On the other side there is us. And it is kept going by mutual respect, honor, concern for, and goodwill toward. The existence of the relationship is shown on our part by our obedience.

What Christ is explaining here in John 15:9-11 is that there is a mystical union between God and us. We really are united to Him. There is a union there. He is in us. We are in Him. We are commanded, though, to continue in Him. And the way we continue in Him is by conforming to His likes and dislikes. Otherwise, what happens is that the relationship begins to break off, because the intimacy begins to become dissolved.

If we are working on the relationship with God (giving it our time and attention), then God's love for us (since He is the Source) will be reciprocated back to Him in the form of obedience. We might say love. We might say keeping the commandments. We might say conforming to His will. And our lives will then be enriched by joy. Is that a good deal? The psalm says that there is joy evermore in His presence. Jesus is confirming this. If we will abide in God (in His love), then what it is going to do is produce joy in our lives.

John 15:9-16

To remove doubt from the minds of the called, God has given us this Book and He has given us also the example of His Son. In John 15, on this last night of instruction, He gives His teaching—what He wants to be inscribed upon our minds:

He lived according to the instruction in God's own Word. He lived His life by laying it down for His friends—us.

Do not believe those who say that the only thing that matters is one's relationship with God. It is a cliché that I have heard going around: "The only thing that matters is one's relationship with God." It may be said, "It is only me and God." That may be what is actually said.

Did Jesus say that the only thing that matters is our relationship with God? Or did He say, by inference, that if we want to have the good relationship with God, we better love our brother? That is what He said.

When we sin, the sin is against God, but it does nothing against God. Is He affected by it? Can we hurt Him? It may sadden Him to see us do that. No, you see, our sins are committed in the environment with other human beings. They are the ones who are directly hurt by our sins, and that does not make them happy and it does not make us happy either because that is not what will produce joy or happiness.

What am I saying here? I am saying that the way we get the leaven out is primarily through our relationships with other people because that is where the problems really are.

John 15:1-10

Like I said, this saying of His that "I am the true vine" and later "I am the vine, you are the branches," is very much similar to what He said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." But this one, this particular "I am" saying emphasizes our dependence on Christ for everything spiritually. We can do nothing, He says. We can have no understanding. There could be no overcoming. There can be no growth, no production of fruit without Him, without His example, with all that He provides for us, all the strength that comes through His Spirit. We could paraphrase His saying to read, "I am the true firstfruit. You become firstfruits through abiding in Me." Or continuing in Me, which implies emulating Him in everything. And we could go back to I John 2:6 (which we will not do), but it says, "If you abide in Him, you ought to walk as He walked."