Full Joy
Discover Full Joy: Unpacking Jesus' Message of Love
Love is the apostle John’s favorite theme, and he emphasizes the importance of love more than any other New Testament writer. In John 15:9, the emphasis turns to love once again.
“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”
— John 15:9 NKJV
We may be tempted to rush past Jesus’ words, but they are incredibly powerful. All of us struggle with understanding God’s love because we have such poor examples of love in our lives here on earth. Very few, if any of us, have ever experienced healthy love in our lives. Love can often seem transactional, and many of us strugle ot feel secure in love. It takes a great deal of faith for someone who has been hurt, disappointed, abandoned, and/or betrayed to believe and trust in God’s love towards them. We have nothing to compare God’s love to. The closest thing I can think of is the unconditional love a parent has for a child. But that is still a distant comparison that falls short.
Jesus is telling us that the perfect love that the Father has for Jesus is the same love that Jesus has for us. Jesus says that we are loved just as He is loved by the Father. This is crucial, and we must keep this in mind as we read everything else Jesus will say. Everything else that Jesus says must be interpreted in light of our being loved by Him, just like He is loved by the Father. So we are not in danger of not being loved. In the following verses, Jesus will provide us with practical ways to abide in His love.
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
— John 15:10 NKJV
This verse is closely related to what Jesus said in John 14:15
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.
— John 14:15 NKJV
Jesus is clarifying that obedience is the natural result of love.
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
— John 14:23 NKJV
Jesus’ relationship with the Father is a model of what our relationship with Jesus should be, one of love and obedience.
The commandments of Jesus were also the commandments of the Father, for Jesus spake not of Himself (chs. 12:49; 14:10). He endorsed the moral commands given to ancient Israel (see on Matt. 5:17–19) and magnified them (see on Isa. 42:21). He gave commands of His own, such as the new commandment (John 13:34), not to replace any of the moral precepts, which reflected the character of the unchangeable God, but to set forth their true meaning and to show how their principles should be applied to various life situations.
—Francis D. Nichol, ed., The Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 5 (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1980), 1037.
Circle of Love
The Father loves the Son
- John 2:35; 3:35; 5:20; 10:17; 17:23-24The Son obediently loves the Father
- John 10:17; 14:31The Son loves His followers, and they are to love and obey Him
- John 13:34; 15:12, 17; 16:27Loving and obeying the Son means being loved by the Father
- John 14:21, 23; 17:23Being loved by the Son also implies loving one another
- John 13:34; 15:12, 17God not only loves the followers of Jesus but also loves the world and gave His Son for its inhabitants
- John 3:16Many in the world love darkness and do not want to do the will of God
- John 3:19; 14:24Bonus: We should not love in words only, but in deeds
- 1 John 3:18
Hating your brother indicates you lack eternal life
- 1 John 3:15
Love is a sign of knowing God
-1 John 4:7
Perhaps all this talk of love feels overwhelming. I agree, we are unable to do this unless we abide in Jesus, the Vine. (see Abide in Jesus) What must be clear is that our obedience does not purchase or earn God’s love, but rather is evidence that we already possess that love.
Good works do not purchase the love of God, but they reveal that we possess that love. If we surrender the will to God, we shall not work in order to earn God’s love. His love as a free gift will be received into the soul, and from love to Him we shall delight to obey His commandments.
—Christ’s Object Lessons p283.
David experienced this reality and wrote about it in Psalm 40:8
I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is within my heart.”
— Psalm 40:8 NKJV
Everything that God gives us and establishes is for our benefit. We are not jumping through hoops to be saved or loved. God loves us, saves us, and wants what is best for us. We benefit from obeying God. Not only that, but everyone around us benefits from our obedience to God. Perfect obedience to God looks like Jesus’ life and ministry, a great blessing to all.
To believe that a better and more fulfilling life exists outside of God’s will is to believe a lie from Satan. God provides for all of our needs and wants what’s best for us. Satan, however, portrays God as someone who keeps blessings from us. (see Paradise Lost (Genesis 3))
Full Joy
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
— John 15:11 NKJV
So far, we have discussed love and obedience, and in my previous post, we explored the concepts of fruit-bearing and being pruned. These ideas may seem rather demanding and perhaps not very desirable. Here, Jesus clarifies that His goal in sharing this with us is that our joy may be full. When you’re doing it right, abiding in Jesus, bearing fruit, and even being pruned, is all worth it, for there is a sense of joy despite the challenges.
Jesus is not saying that the Christian life is a barrel of laughs, but rather that true full joy is found in God’s will for our lives. God does not desire to suck the joy out of your life; Jesus wants your joy to be full. So often, people seek joy in rebellion against God, only to find pain, suffering, and heartbreak.
Interestingly, when Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22, he begins the list with love, and the second one is joy.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
— Galatians 5:22 NKJV
Brief word study: Joy
The noun for “joy” has only been used once in the Gospel of John, when John the Baptist talks about Jesus using the metaphor of the bridegroom in John 3:29. But in Jesus’ final words (Farewell Cycle), it will appear again in John 16:20-21, 23-24; 17:13.
The verb “rejoice,” however, was used four times before Jesus’ final words. The first one was in the bridegroom text I mentioned above, John 3:29. The second time it shows up in the harvest metaphor in John 4:36, then in the expectation of Abraham in John 8:56, and finally in Jesus’ statement concerning Lazarus in John 11:15 (when Jesus says “I am glad”) All the times Jesus says “rejoice” in the Gospel of John (except for ht eLazarus text) are metaphors regarding the second coming of Jesus.
In Jesus’ final words (Farewell Cycle) the verb appears two more times in John 14:28 and 16:20. Besides this present verse (John 15:11), “all the uses of the noun and the verb concerning the theme of joy in the Farewell Cycle are directly focused on Jesus’ departure from the world and his desire to provide his beloved followers with a sense that they must not fear the future but rejoice in what is being done through him. They must look beyond their anxieties.”(Gerald L. Borchert, John 12–21, vol. 25B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 147.) This perspective on “joy” will not produce a superficial “happily-ever-after” expectation, but rather a deep sense of well-being and joy that come as a result of a life connected to the Vine that is Jesus who supplies all that we need not only to survivde but also to bear fruit.
My commandment
“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
— John 15:12 NKJV
Jesus commands us to love one another, but love is a gift that His Spirit gives us. We can only obey Jesus’ commandments through Him. We have no love in and of ourselves to give. We can only love one another when we bear fruit, and we can only bear fruit if we remain in Jesus. This is what He meant by obedience and love being inseparable. We cannot obey Jesus’ commandments on our own; God must work in us so that we desire and do His will.
For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
— Philippians 2:13 New Living Translation
On our own, we don’t even want to do God’s will. So if you experience the desire to be more loving, patient, kind, etc., this is a result of the Holy Spirit at work in your heart. But you won’t accomplish it by trying harder, but rather by abiding in Jesus. (see Abiding in Jesus)
Is this healthy?
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
— John 15:13-14 NKJV
Do Jesus’ words make you a little uncomfortable? Jesus demonstrated His great love for us by dying to save us. But why does He ask us to do whatever He commands us? Is that not manipulative? Is it okay for Jesus to command us to love each other?
When we consider how far Jesus went to demonstrate His love for us, we should understand that He would not command us to do anything that would harm us in any way. The question then becomes whether we trust Jesus and believe that He truly loves us.
I don’t know about you, but many of my struggles in my Christian walk come from trying to figure out what the loving option is. I want to be loving, but I am not always sure what the loving thing to do is. As a father, I am learning that spoiling my children is not the loving thing to do. Nobody can stand a spoiled child for too long, and I get the feeling that a spoiled child is not too happy either. Therefore, I understand that sometimes the loving thing to do is to say “no.” Sometimes, the loving thing to do is to take the time to figure out the root cause of a recurring problem. Sometimes the loving thing to do is to be present and cry together, walk together, or just sit together. Sometimes, the loving thing to do is to set healthy boundaries.
I do struggle with this. I want to be faithful to Jesus and to love others as Jesus loves me. Jesus does not say “yes” to every prayer I pray, at least not an immediate “yes.” Jesus does not remove every obstacle in my life. I know I have been taken advantage of. It’s not a great feeling.
Once, I received a financial thank-you gift, which is a rare occurrence. That day, I met with a young, able-bodied man. He had a story and tears in his eyes. I felt like God had given me that extra money so I could help this young man. I gave him all the cash I had, which was that gift I had just received. Later, I found out he habitually approached church members with a similar story. As I spoke with the members and added up the amounts, I realized he was making quite a substantial amount of money. I discussed this with the board. We decided to process donations through our needy fund to track better the amount being given. We stopped seeing that young man at church shortly after that.
I don’t know how legitimate his need was, or if the church was just an easy way to make some extra money. I was sad, then angry, and then sad again. I prayed to God that these experiences would not harden my heart. I want to continue to help others, but I also do not want to contribute to someone’s repeated poor life choices.
I do not have all the answers. I wrestle with this regularly. When am I helping, and when am I enabling? I don’t know. I mention this in hopes of helping others who may feel similarly. Loving does not mean always saying yes or always doing what someone else wants you to do. It takes wisdom from God to know what the person needs and what will genuinely help them.
Friends
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
— John 15:15 NKJV
Jesus freely shared with His disciples all things that He heard from His Father. Jesus does not want us to be ignorant. We are His friends, and He has revealed to us what God wants us to know. Jesus did this while He was here on earth, and we have access to His teachings through the Bible. Jesus has made His teachings available to us. I believe it is a worthwhile investment to learn what He taught, to familiarise ourselves with His words and teachings.
Our calling
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
— John 15:16 NKJV
We have been chosen by Jesus and appointed to bear fruit, and in alignment with that calling, we can ask knowing that God will provide.
It is absolutely crucial whenever one discusses the subject of election to realize that election is not about privilege but purpose. As early as the summons of Abram to leave his home and receive the blessing of God, to receive a new name and become a great nation, that blessing was accompanied by a divine purpose—to be a blessing to all the people of the earth (Gen 12:2–3). Similarly, the promise of the presence of Jesus in the conclusion of Matthew is intimately united with the command/commission to go and disciple the world (Matt 28:18–20).
[…] So here also the “choosing” and “appointing” of the disciples is not merely for some privilege of being selected to an elite group but for the specific purpose of bearing fruit.
— Gerald L. Borchert, John 12–21, vol. 25B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 150–151.
Our personal relationship with God, our love for Him and His love for us, our abiding in Jesus and bearing fruit, it is all for the mission, all for the salvation of those around us. Jesus made the will of the Father known to the disciples, and now they are to make it known to others. However, they are not expected to do this in their own strength; they do this as they remain connected to the Vine. We stay connected and bear fruit for the glory of God and the blessing of those around us, and in that we find our fullest joy possible.
We are not slaves, we are friends of God, empowered by God to bless others with the knowledge of the Gospel, that salvation is found in Jesus as a free gift from God.
Love one another
In case I lost you at some point in this post, here’s verse 17 highlighting the key idea.
These things I command you, that you love one another.
— John 15:17 NKJV
