Remaining in Love
For Meditation
When a typical American thinks about the “good life,” they would probably include some vision of self-sufficiency and independence. After all, self-sovereignty is at the very root of the founding of our nation! But when it comes to God’s definition of the good life, a very different vision emerges.
In this famous analogy in John 15, Jesus uses the image of a vine and branch to describe how to live a good life. Jesus says things like, “Abide in me, live in me, apart from me you can do nothing.” He is inviting us not to live independently, but in a relationship of complete dependence. To abide in Christ isn’t an invitation to a cozy time by the fire, but a summons to stick with Jesus on the way, to remain in constant awareness of and in communion with Him wherever he leads, knowing He is with you.
Sometimes we talk about being a Christian as a mental agreement to certain ideas and doctrines. But Jesus describes the Christian life as one of communion, living in ongoing relationship and dependence with him, God the Father and God the Spirit. This “communion” is carried out through a life of awareness of God’s presence, attentiveness to his love, and communication with him hour by hour.
This Sunday, we’ll dig deeper into the mystery of “remaining” in the love of God through our connection to Jesus, and what kind of life this results in- one of obedience and self-giving love. As you prepare for worship, prayerfully reflect on John 15:1-17 and invite God’s love and life to flow in, through and out of you to others.
John 15:9–17
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.