Live to Love Scripture Encouragement

John 15:11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Here the disciples receive the reason for all that Jesus had said and done that evening, recorded in John 13:4 to now. The glory of God is His love revealed in His Son. And how is that love most glorified and revealed? That the love the Father has for His Son and the Son has for the Father is given so freely and so generously to their offspring that they experience the same fullness of joy that the Godhead enjoys together. What word best describes such revealed love and purpose? The word “Glory” comes to mind. Do we realize the glorious, generous, life-changing, joy-producing love of God revealed in the new commandment given to Jesus by the Father and then lovingly given to the disciples and thus to us, “Love one another as I have loved you.”? Jesus said He gave us the commandment so we might experience His joy. When we see His joy in our obedience, our joy will become full. That is the fruit the vine exists for and the fruit for which the Father planted the vineyard. We exist for the joy of the vinedresser and that joy will explode when the fruit is harvested. What amazing grace, that God has purposed that the branches enter into the joy of the vinedresser and the vine. And all we did was obey the command to live to love with Jesus, ask Him for the life giving power to love, and He did it! He did loved His own for us, so that His joy would be in us and our joy made full. How do you respond to these words?

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 15:10 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.
In this verse we learn an astounding lesson about the love of the Father for His Son and the Son’s love for us. Love, the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, expressed that love by giving a command to love. How did the Father love Jesus and what did Jesus do to love His disciples that the Father did to love Him? The Father loved His Son by commanding Him to come to earth and love those given to Him with Him, the Father. In just the same love, Jesus commanded His disciples to love those given to Him with Him, the Son. Let this sink in! Meditate on this glorious truth until your soul is filled with wonder and awe and your life takes on His purpose for life: to make disciples who live to love with Jesus. To love them by teaching them Jesus’ command, namely, to love those who are His with Him. Or to put it in the terms of Jesus’ analogy, to bear fruit for the glory and joy of the vinedresser, His Father. It is in the Sons’ highest good to please His Father by obeying His command to love in His name. It is in the disciples’ and our highest good to obey Jesus’ command to love in His name. We’ll see why this is in our highest good tomorrow. Today, the Son has loved us by commanding us to live to love with Him. Can you imagine a branch not obeying? It’s the very nature of the branch to do so. It’s why it was made.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 15:9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
Love has lost its meaning today. The love of which Jesus spoke may be defined as the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost. Jesus told His disciples that He has loved them just as the Father had loved Him. What did He mean “just as” the Father loved Him. How did the Father love Him? What did Jesus do to love them that the Father did to love Him? The answer is in the next verse. For today, let’s be encouraged by Jesus’ encouragement to abide in His love. I think the best way to understand the word abide is to picture the branches receiving the life from the vine. This isn’t a passive reception of the life of Christ, it is active. Sometimes there are branches that are called “suckers”, usually referring to branches that suck the sap from the vine but produce no fruit. These must be removed. However, a branch that does bear fruit also sucks its life from the vine for the very purpose of bearing fruit. All of the life-giving energy is sucked/received from the vine and then channeled to the fruit by the branch. Can you see yourself like that branch today? You’re not passive, you are abiding, sucking, receiving your life today from Jesus who dwells in you. He promises to love through you.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 15:8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
Here Jesus reveals His passion, the passion of the vine—namely, the glory of His Father. How vital it is for His disciples to understand that their lives have one holy purpose, that is to bring glory to the vinedresser by bearing much fruit. The fruit, of course, is His love. We must be careful not to be misguided and think that the fruit is decisions for Christ, or changed lives in those whom we love in His name. The fruit is clearly fruit that issues forth from the lives of the disciples. It is the fruit of which the apostle Paul wrote when He described the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in Gal. 5:22-23. We are not fruitful if we see those things in other people. Our fruitfulness looks like the fruit of the life of the vine. It is love. Love is the proof that we are Jesus’ disciples, true branches connected to the vine. This is a repeat of John 13:35. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” May the Spirit of Christ encourage us today, to bear fruit for the glory of the Father, by asking Jesus to love through us and for us. He promises to do it for us.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Let’s look at this verse from the perspective of a branch united to the vine. What would the branch ask of the vine? Wouldn’t a branch that has the life of the vine running through its veins wish only one thing? To bear fruit? It draws upon the resources of the vine so that more fruit can be produced for the glory of the vine. Jesus told His disciples that His life and His words were the life-giving, fruit-bearing sap of their lives. To Jesus’ point, if Jesus and His word had a home in them, had unhindered access to them, then whatever was needed to love as He loves would be done for them. Don’t miss what He said. He didn’t say they would get what they asked for so they could then do it for Jesus. They would ask for what His word commanded, namely to love as He loves, because that’s their greatest wish as branches, and Jesus would do it for them. It’s Jesus living for them, not them living for Jesus! Thank You, Jesus for living in us and giving us Your word that the purpose and privilege of our lives is to love with You. That’s exactly what we wish for today. Give us the fruit of Your life today, for the glory of Your Father. Amen

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com