Saturday April 20, 2019: John 15:9-15

[Krissa Lox]

John 15:9-15

15:9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

God loves us and Jesus loves us, not just as Lord but also as friends. And as we are loved, so should we also love others in turn, as love tends to be more effectual when expressed through friendship than through supervision.

 

[ArcticFox]

And this links up nicely with the Golden Rule.

Looking at verse 10, I think there's an important point. We know that even when we sin, The Savior does not stop loving us. So what does He mean when He says "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love?"

What this means, I think, is that to abide in His love is to be close to Him, and to feel His presence. But when we sin, we separate ourselves form Him. By breaking commandments we reject that love in a way, because we lean to our own desires rather than trusting in Him to know what's best. So it isn't that He stops loving us when we do that, but rather we put ourselves outside of it until we repent and return to abide in His love again.

 

[Krissa Lox]

And this links up nicely with the Golden Rule.

Looking at verse 10, I think there's an important point. We know that even when we sin, The Savior does not stop loving us. So what does He mean when He says "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love?"

What this means, I think, is that to abide in His love is to be close to Him, and to feel His presence. But when we sin, we separate ourselves form Him. By breaking commandments we reject that love in a way, because we lean to our own desires rather than trusting in Him to know what's best. So it isn't that He stops loving us when we do that, but rather we put ourselves outside of it until we repent and return to abide in His love again.

I think the Golden Rule is exactly what is being referred to since Jesus makes the distinction that He is talking about His own commandments here, not the Father's commandments, which were to love God and other people as you would love yourself. Of course, a sincere following of those principles will also satisfy the Father's commandments as well, but the approach and implementation differ from being a love-based approach rather than law-based.

i.e.: the law-based approach is essentially a pass/fail system where everyone eventually fails, but with the love-based approach, mistakes are expected and not a reason by themselves to kick us out of the game so long as we take responsibility for and learn from them to be able to do better in the future (<-- and therein is where I think the practical act of "abiding" is, in that we stay mature in really dealing with stuff as it happens rather than hiding or running away when it doesn't go as planned).

Love is a much messier process, of course, but has a lot more long-term potential for growth and impact, and in terms of the eternal timeframe that we're supposed to be looking to, our relationships with God and each other are one of the few, if not only, things we'll keep when all the wood, hay, and stubble of the world eventually burn away.

 

[ArcticFox]

I think the Golden Rule is exactly what is being referred to since Jesus makes the distinction that He is talking about His own commandments here, not the Father's commandments, which were to love God and other people as you would love yourself. Of course, a sincere following of those principles will also satisfy the Father's commandments as well, but the approach and implementation differ from being a love-based approach rather than law-based.

Good point.

I think it also goes both ways, since ultimately to not be loving in the way we deal with one another is really not so different from breaking the original Commandments, because in such cases we're acting selfishly or maliciously... clearly not compatible with love.