13 day plan

Parting Words: Jesus’ Insights for his Disciples

Day 12 of 13

NIV

John 15:9-14

9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command.

Reflection:

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. 

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. 

This is my command: Love each other. John 15:15-17, NIV

What a catalogue of blessings Jesus describes here! We’re loved by him; our joy is complete (verse 11); we have love for each other; we know the greatest love ever known (verse 12); Jesus is my friend (verse 14); we’re chosen by Jesus (verse 16); we’ve been appointed to bear fruit!

Each of these blessings flow out of our relationship with the Father through the Son. He grafts us into the vine and we – as living branches – are connected to the life-giving source. The list above captures just about everything you would want in a significant relationship!

Jesus initiates the relationship with us, because he chooses us. He actively expresses the greatest love ever shown by laying down his life for us. Everything else flows out of that. We are invited into a relationship of friendship. We’re friends, because as friendship is built and sustained by communication, by disclosure, Jesus has disclosed his very heart and fully revealed himself – and his Father – to us.

This is overwhelming teaching from Jesus. We know we’re loved, and we know who we’re loved by, because he reveals himself. We know the sacrifice that stands at the heart of his love. We grasp all that this is by remaining in his love. We choose to obey his commands and seek to bear fruit that will last. The fruit that will last, is the outcome of the work he invites us to share in with him.

To live each day in vital connection with Christ, we must seek to draw upon his love. We express our connection to Christ by loving others sacrificially as he loved us; by reflecting on his work in us and seeking to live faithfully in response to it; by opening our own lives to others and offering friendship in the way Christ has done for us. We express our connection to Christ by humbly coming before the Father in prayer, and asking for him to use us as we share in his work in his world.

Prayer:

Give thanks for the abundance of blessings we enjoy in Jesus.

Pray for a deep desire and God’s gracious help to be obedient.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

Days

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John 15:1-27

The Vine and the Branches

1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I 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. 16You 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. 17This is my command: Love each other.

The World Hates the Disciples

18“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

The Work of the Holy Spirit

26“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.