Remain In My Love

Remain In My Love (John 15:9-11)

         From these few Sacred Words, we receive from Jesus all that is sufficient to obtain happiness in this life and in Eternity…

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.” (15:9a)

           This is why Jesus came, that we may know the Love God has for us; that we might hear it with our ears, see it spoken from his lips, and witness it both in the life he lived, and in the death he chose.  Jesus gave his life for us.  The Father gave his Son for us.  This is how we are Loved.

          God, Creator of the Universe, loves us as he loves Jesus –as an Only Child.  He is not a Disinterested Entity who brought us into existence just to abandon us into chaos.  He is a Loving Father who cannot cease longing for us, to exchange his Love with us.  He created us to be eternally in love with him.  This is our God -the Word made man, the Truth revealed.

“Remain in my love.” (15:9b)

            This is not God demanding.  It is Love pleading.  God’s Love for us is unchanging, unaffected either by our virtue or our sin, it is eternal.  Our love for him is what ebbs and wanes.  The desire of God’s Heart is that we remain in his love; that we make our home in him; that we abide in him; that we choose him above all things; that every decision we make is an expression of our love for him; that our life is set apart, consecrated to knowing him as the fulfillment of our being.  These Words are a Love Proposal -patiently calling, ever wooing us to give up our petty desires in exchange for his Wonderful Plan.

“If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.” (John 15:10)

          Jesus is not saying, that if we do not keep his commandments we will lose his love, for he cannot not love us.  What he is saying is that being faithful to his commandments is the only Way to remain in his Love.  His commandment is that we love as he loved us.  To turn our back on Love is to turn our back on Jesus.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, to love is to remain in him, to know Eternal Life.  

The essence of love is Sacrifice.  Love is making our wishes subservient to the wishes of an Other.  If we are to remain in his Love, then we must place his Will above our own, or better, make it our own.  Faithfulness and Obedience are the expression of Love.  Jesus showed the Way, he was Obedient unto death.  No less than Jesus, we too must experience death to Self, if we are to remain in his Love.  In giving Jesus our mortal lives, he gives us his Eternal Life.

I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.” (John 15:11)

              This is a Promise.  God has made it.  Let us believe it.  He knows what brings us Joy -more than we know ourselves.  He made us for Love.  As a petal unfolds in the Light, so Joy springs forth from Love.  Only in Love are we complete.  Only in Faithful Obedience will we find true reward.  Only in losing ourselves in him does our heart become transfigured –able to grasp the height and depth, the Beauty and Joy of knowing the Source of All Love.

          “My Lord and my God, I want to know you as my Father.  In vain, I have tried to earn your Love.  So often have I fallen short.  I know too well what I deserve and I have trouble giving my eyes to yours.  I believe you love me.  I believe I am forgiven.  Yet still, it seems too good to be true.   And in spite of all that you have shown me, of all that you have made so clear, when I am put to the test, your Truth seems but a shadow.  

Jesus, my smallness is awash in your Mercy.  You are Faithful when I have failed.  Never let me withdraw from your Love.  I give you permission, in advance, to work in my life any way you see fit, that I may remain in your love, that I may be obedient to your command.

          Holy Spirit, you are my reason to Hope.  Release anew today your Grace to live fully alive, undaunted in my heritage –that I am Loved as an Only Child.  By your Living Waters am I refreshed.  In weakness you bring strength, in darkness you bring forth Joy.  Because of you, because of the Father’s Love, which you pour into my heart, I shall remain  in your Love.  Amen”