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. [1]
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The word in today’s passage that caught my eye is “joy.” Jesus tells His disciples that the reason He wants them to take to heart what He is teaching them is so that they might have His joy, that their joy might be complete.
And what is the key to that joy? These are the key things that He is emphasizing in this passage:
- Remaining in His love.
- Keeping His commands.
- Loving one another.
- Bearing Fruit.
These are all intimately related. Remaining in His love is keeping His commands, which means loving one another, which is the fruit we are to bear. And the result? Complete joy, along with the promise of answered prayer by the Father.
Do we link together obedience with joy? Jesus does. Obedience has a negative connotation attached to it today, especially as applied to adults. But to love God is to obey Him. And the result is not a life of mindless, slavish, drudgery, and endless self-denial. It is true joy. Peace, contentment, fulfillment, satisfaction.
When you have time, read Psalm 119. (If you are following all the Moravian readings, you just did a couple of weeks ago). This is one of the themes of that psalm which celebrates following God’s Word. Again and again the psalmist speaks of His joy in following the Lord’s instructions.
Do I want a life filled with complete joy? A joy beyond fleeting pleasure and momentary happiness? The answer is not a life of self indulgence. The key is remaining in the love of Jesus through keeping His commands and bearing the fruit of love in my relationships with others.
So my prayer today is for joy. I pray that I may bear fruit today in my love for others and in my keeping my Lord’s commands.
What is the Word leading you to pray about today?
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[1] The New International Version. 2011 (Jn 15:9–17). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
