Remaining In His Love

This morning I ran across these verses as I was researching another topic - John 15:9-17 NIV:

[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."

It really helps me to breakdown a paragraph into individual sentences, for my tendency is to read right on through without allowing the words to really register in my mind and more importantly, in my heart.

The verse that grabbed my attention this morning is verse 16.  What an incredible thought, that we didn't choose Him, rather that He chose us.  He saw us in our sinfulness, our depraved condition and chose us!  Wow!  He was able to look beyond our limitations, weaknesses and sins and see who we could be in Him.  Not only did He choose us, but He appointed us to go and bear fruit.  He not only saw past our limitations, but also saw our potential, recognizing our ability to bear fruit, through Him.

This gives me great encouragement, as I wait and wonder about what the Lord will release me to do.  I know that He has a plan and it is good, and my job is to remain in Him and keep His commands.

His commands are quite simple to say - love each other as He has loved us - more difficult to live out. It is in keeping His commands that we remain in His love. So, our ability to love each other directly affects our ability to remain in His love.  It is not that He removes His love from us, but we remove ourselves from His love.  In verse nine the word remain can also be translated abide.  This is the verb related to abode, or home or residence.  It is our choice where we live, what we surround ourselves with daily.  Do we love?  Do we love those around us?  Do we love others the way Jesus loves them? Do we lay down our lives for our friends? If we choose to love, we will find ourselves remaining in His love as well!  If we do this, we are His friends and He will make known to us what He learned from the Father.

So today I am encouraged to love as He loved.  I am encouraged to look at those around me with His eyes, loving them in spite of their weaknesses, limitations and sinfulness.  I am  encouraged to love, because He first loved me. I am encouraged to remain in His love.

Amen!