CHRISTIAN ETHOS IN ACTION – “If you keep My commandments” – John 15:10, 14

CHRISTIAN ETHOS IN ACTION – “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. You are My friends if you do what I command you.” (John 15:10, 14)

The phrase “if you”, as it applies to you (and me) as a disciple of Jesus, appears one hundred twenty-four times in the English Standard Version (ESV) of the New Testament.

First, we will be confronted with various situations and circumstances from the Bible and, we will discover how we are to respond in these examples. Secondly, I have personalized (rephrased) our study verses for you to memorize. By this, we can bring the Gospel to life as we go and defeat sin along our way.

Today we, as Christians, are confronted with questions about how we should deal with important matters such as obeying Jesus’ commandments, loving as Jesus loves, being filled with a satisfying joy, loving others, being a friend of Jesus.

“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. You are My friends if you do what I command you.” (John 15:10, 14, NASB)

IN CONTEXT

”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. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. 

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.” (John 15:10-17)

 REPHRASED and personalized to memorize:

”If I keep Your commandments, I will remain in Your love, just as You have kept The Father’s commandments and remain in His love. These things You have spoken to me so that Your joy may be in me, and that my joy may be made full.

“This is Your commandment (to me), that we (as your followers) love one another, in the same way You have loved us. I can have no greater love than this: that I lay down my life for my friends. I am (reminded that) I am Your friend if I do what You command me.

There is little more that can be said about these words of Jesus except that they are both simple and a choice of our will. It can be difficult to love the unlovable unless you understand the type of love Jesus is speaking about.

Agapáō-love is “To live through Christ”, i.e. embracing God’s will (choosing His choices) and obeying them through His power. With the believer, agapáō (“to love”) means actively doing what the Lord prefers, with Him (by His power and direction). True agapáō (“loving”) is always defined by God – a “discriminating affection which involves choice and selection“. In other words, Christ living His life through the believer.

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young

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