How Do We Abide in the Love of Jesus?
Jesus says,
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
[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. (John 15:9–10)
We looked at this passage on Sunday, but let’s spend some more time on it. Notice three things we learn here.
1) Jesus’s love for us is incomprehensible
He patterns his love for us after the Father’s love for him, which is eternal, powerful, and perfect. This is an intra-Trinitarian wonder that surpasses human understanding (as Paul confirms in Ephesians 4:19, “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge”).
2) Jesus commands us to abide in his incomprehensible love
The second sentence of verse 9 is the straightforward imperative, “Abide in my love.” (μείνατε ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ τῇ ἐμῇ.) So while this love surpasses our knowledge, we are commanded to stay put in it.
3) Jesus explains that we abide in his love by keeping his commandments.
This is verse 10. How exactly do we abide in Jesus’s love? Do we just need to keep thinking about it all day long? Do we write reminders of it everywhere we turn?
Well, consider the parallel: Jesus says we should keep his commandments (and abide in his love) just like he kept the Father’s commandments (and abides in his love).
The critical question here is: How did Jesus obey the Father’s commandments?
The answer to that question seems like the key to abiding in his love.
If we survey the Gospel of John in answer to that question, I think we find a profile of Jesus’s obedience, and it’s all a matter of the heart first. Check out these five facts:
Jesus sought the Father’s will — “I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” (John 5:30)
Jesus lived in dependence on the Father — “The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.” (John 5:19)
Jesus spoke the Father’s words — “The Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment — what to say and what to speak.” (John 12:49)
Jesus pursued the Father’s glory — “I do not seek my own glory.” (John 8:50)
Jesus obeyed out of love — “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.” (John 14:31)
In sum, Jesus “kept” the Father’s commandments by being continually turned toward him. This is a heart that gladly aligns itself with God. So, then, it seeks God’s will. And receives his words. And joins his work. And we can see, eventually, this is just a description of love itself. It almost sounds like a circular argument: we abide in Jesus’s love by keeping his commandments, which basically means we abide in his love.
But rather than calling this circular, it’s better to say it’s eternal, like the source of this love never had a beginning but has always been.
And this is good news for us.
To abide in Jesus’s love does not mean you must constantly manufacture a feeling or prove yourself worthy of him. It means turning your heart toward him again and again. It means wanting what he wants. Listening to what he says. Following where he leads.
This is the same pattern of love that marked Jesus’s own life with the Father.
Which means that even in hard seasons — when you feel weak, confused, or full of doubts — the invitation remains the same: stay turned toward him. Keep receiving his words. Keep trusting his will.
Because the love you are abiding in is not fragile. It is the very love the Father has always had for the Son. “My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me” (Psalm 63:8).
