John 15:9-17 concludes a segment that began in verse 1, having the theme of love and believers. Verses 1-6 is a mashal, with the allegorical elements emphasized.[1] We shall see that John provides an explanation of the parable in terms of the Last Discourse in verses 7-17 in which the reality keeps breaking through the image. In verses 1-6, Jesus articulates the parable of the vine, using typical parable imagery. In verses 7-17, Jesus elaborates on what the precise application of that parable means for disciples. In 15: 7-17, we find an explanation of the parable. There is an unfolding of the implications of indwelling.
Verses 9-17 are an interpretation of bearing fruit in verse 8. At this point, John introduces the theme of love, a theme that he will develop throughout verses 9-17. The focus of this segment is love, a love of the Father for Jesus, the love of Jesus for his disciples, and the love of the disciples for Jesus. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. The love of the Father for Jesus is the basis for the love Jesus has for his disciples. Love begets love. We do not have a different kind of love for God from the love we have for others. Love is love, regardless of the object. Abide[2] in my love. Contained in this simple statement is a warning. Once can lose the gift of living in the orbit of this love. We need to choose every day to live in this love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Jesus' emphasis on "keeping his commandments" might have been unsettling to the disciples. As good and faithful Jews, they knew just how arduous keeping all that the Torah commands could be. Is Jesus saying that all they need do is "be perfect" and then he will continue to love them? Love is not just an emotional response, but implies decisive, continued action on the part of the disciples. The disciples must demonstrate that they love Jesus by keeping his commandments to remain recipients of Jesus' love. There is both respect and freedom for the disciples' chosen actions implicit in the design. Abiding in the love of Jesus is not just a moral demand, but also an abiding in the love of Jesus, and therefore uniting believers to each other and to Jesus and the Father.[3] Jesus reminds them that just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. Thus, Jesus next reminds his followers that he, too, was free to act in obedience or disobedience to his Father's commandments and offers himself as a model of obedience and abiding love. Christ abides in the love of the Father so that to be obedient to the Father, those who belong to Christ are required to abide in divine love.[4] 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. Joy becomes a salvific gift. Jesus urges his disciples to choose obedience and to experience his abiding love so that they may also experience this kind of total joy. The "joy" Jesus goes on to speak of is the joy that he knows because of his absolute obedience to the Father, and the perfect unity they share. The whole meaning and purpose of the mission of Jesus is to bring joy.[5] For too long, the church seems to have been against joy. I came across the story of a Scottish minister a couple hundred years ago in Scotland. It was wintertime. He had two churches. The first service was a little late. As luck would have it, however, a river connected the two churches. The preacher simply put on ice skates and skated to the church. Well, there was an uproar, and the leaders of the church called a meeting. Sabbath Law did not allow people to skate on the Sabbath. The preacher responded that Sabbath law allowed works of necessity and that it was necessary for him to get to church on time. Nevertheless, the head of the committee said, "The point, young man, is not that you skated on the Sabbath, but rather, did you enjoy it?" Among the best arguments for Christianity are the joy, certainty, and completeness of their lives. Yet, among the best arguments against Christianity are the somber, joyless, self-righteous, smug, and complacent lives of all too many Christians. When Christians become narrow and repressive, Christianity dies a thousand deaths.[6] 12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another[7] as I have loved[8] you. Jesus clarifies what his commandment is. In a sense, he reduces the Torah to the all-encompassing command to love each other in a continuous, ever-present way. The content of that love receives its definition from Jesus. Love has Christological content. Jesus loved them throughout their life together but he will also love them to the point of dying on the cross for them. Thus, as nebulous and undefined as human beings can be about love, John does not let us go down that path. We have so much difficulty with love. Teens will flee parents because they fear burial under an avalanche of love from which they will not escape. Teens know they need to leave home and forge new friendships and new loves but fear the love of their parents will keep them from such discoveries. Adults are no different. Adults will talk about the need for personal space and room to grow. We fear the type of love that smothers.[9] To love at all is to be vulnerable. If you love anything, your heart will stretch and break. You can protect your heart by wrapping it safely around hobbies and luxuries, keeping it safe in the casket of your selfishness. However, your heart will steadily change into something unbreakable, impenetrable, and irredeemable. Your heart will not fulfill its purpose. In fact, the longing of your heart is one of the hints we have of the possibility of fulfillment in God.[10]We want to love and to receive love. It seems placed deeply within us while at the same time something so difficult for us to learn. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. First, it is the greatest love because it comes to expression in the greatest act of giving, the giving of his own life (see also 10:11, 15, 17). Yes, this was how Jesus loved them. His love was sacrificial, and thus becomes the template of the love followers of Jesus are to have for each other. Followers of Jesus are his friends. His love is constant; it goes to the very end (13:1). Moreover, it is revelatory — it results in Jesus revealing himself to the ones he loves (14:21), and the following statements of Jesus disclose even more about his love for them. In Nazi Germany, some people ended up in concentration camps because they gave aided prisoners and orphans. It is rare to find love so present in a human being. It undercuts theological arrogance and pious isolation. Such an act is more than justice is and greater than faith or hope. Such an act is the presence of God in the form of a human being, for God is love. In every moment of genuine love, we are dwelling in God and God in us.[11] 14 You are my friends (φίλοι)[12] if you do what I command you. Here is an obedience that flows from the friendship disciples have with Jesus. There is nothing trivial or incidental about the designation "friend" when it comes from Jesus' lips. The direct implication of verses 12-14 is that if the disciples obey Jesus' commandments, they are his friends. As his friends, they know Jesus will gladly give his life to save theirs. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle states that there are three types of friendships. The first is a friendship of utility, such as business associates. The second is a friendship of pleasure, such as fishing friends or bridge partners. The third is true friendship, in which one loves the other simply for the sake of the other. One has no other motive. Further, Aristotle teaches that true friendship is only possible among real equals! An employee cannot have a true friendship with a boss, for example, because too many other motives exist. Well, Aristotle did not know Jesus, of course. In John, he is the Word made flesh, the son of God, the one sent by his heavenly Father. Yet, is it not amazing, then, that Jesus would call us friends! What does it take to forge a friendship? Well, the answers will vary depending on just whom you ask. The two people who have been friends since college will tell you that friendship requires a shared experience that binds you together for a lifetime. Ask the three girlfriends who share shopping and coffee together every Saturday and they will say it is about having common interests over which you can connect. A group of inseparable 7-year-old boys will tell you that it helps to have a mutual admiration for all things Spiderman, as well as moms who let you spend time together at one another's houses after school. These are all great answers. For most of us, and I am tempted to say all of us, we can count the number of deep friendships we have on one hand. 15 I do not call you servants[13] any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. Second, Christ’s love creates a relationship of openness in which he discloses everything he has heard from his Father. Jesus clearly distinguishes the kind of relationship that exists between himself and his disciples from any sort of master/servant hierarchy. With his friends, Jesus has openly shared all that his Father has told him. No secret cache of esoteric knowledge keeps Jesus artificially elevated above his disciples on some "master" level. Though clearly Jesus' messianic identity, his intimate relationship with the Father, could warrant a dominant position, he nevertheless declares their official relationship to be one of friendship. Once in this relationship, Jesus expects certain actions from the disciples - love. However, no action originating from the disciples made the friendship possible. Jesus alone initiates and establishes the friendship. He chose the disciples. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. Further, I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. Here is language that recalls the true vine imagery that opened this segment. One further demonstrates love and friendship for the disciples by the mark of openness, respect, and reciprocity that define their relationship. "Bearing fruit" is the reciprocal action Jesus requires of those he has chosen as his friends. This "fruit," since it is what distinguishes Jesus' friends from all others, is love - abiding, enduring, and steadfast love for others as for oneself. The bearing of fruit will lead to a special relationship with the Father: so that the Father will give you, whatever you ask him in my name. Finally, it is a productive love because his love that chooses and appoints his disciples brings forth their production of abiding fruit and their reception of whatever they ask (see also 15:7). The Spirit makes it possible to pray to the Father “in the name of Jesus.”[14] Those bearing this fruit, this love, become part of an even greater relationship, finding favor with the Father even as they have with the Son. The love that Jesus commands of his disciples and then returns to them through the power of both the Father and the Son have the potential to transform the world.17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. Hence, to love others like Jesus has loved them, the disciples will be asked as Jesus was to reveal what they have seen and know (15:27) and may even be asked to give their lives (15:20; 21:18-19) all so that they might give out love to others. Jesus is on his way to make his love a reality (16:16-20), but for the disciples to take advantage of it, they must follow Jesus’ commands. To move from the status of slaves, a status associated with sin (8:34) and second-class standing (8:35) and be his friends — those for whom Jesus has given his life — they must love one another (15:14, 17). Jesus’ love is certainly pre-eminent, preceded only by the love of the Father for Jesus. It provides both the example for and the possibility of the disciples’ love, but the disciples themselves must act to live in the love Jesus offers them. The way in which they show their love for Jesus is not in exclusive devotion to Jesus, but by loving one another. This might seem like an in-group exclusivism, but on the heels of the following warning about the hatred of the world (15:18ff) the disciples’ love for one another is a necessary source of strength considering the adversity from those outside their circle. Nevertheless, even in their testimony before those who hate them, the proclamation might result in others hearing and believing (17:20). Jesus has chosen and appointed his disciples so that they might go out and bear fruit (15:16). The only way they can do that is to abide in him (15:5), and the only way to abide in him is to keep his commandment — to love one another. When the disciples follow Jesus’ command, the circle is completed. To show that they love Jesus, they first should love each other. Then, the Father will love them (14:21, 23). Hence, in this instruction, Jesus is asking his disciples to embody the characteristic that defines the love of God. God’s love moves out to others — from the Father to the Son, from the Son to the disciples, and from the disciples to one another and to the world (17:18-21), the desired recipients of God’s love from the beginning (3:16).
[1] Many scholars suggest that verses 1-6 did not originally belong to the Last Discourse because it uses present tenses rather than future tenses, which predominate in the discourse.
[2] The verb "remain" or "abide" used in verse 9 is in the aorist form (which seems to suggest a translation of "begin to remain" or "start remaining"). However, coupled as it is with the imperative, it primarily serves to make Jesus' command to "love" more emphatic.
[3] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 183.
[4] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.2 [68.2] 758.
[5] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.2 [64.3] 182.
[6] Sheldon Vanauken in A Severe Mercy writes:
"The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians -- when they are somber and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths."
[7] Present imperative, grammatically suggesting that this be continuous love.
[8] Past tense
[9] Get out of My Life! But First, Could You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall? A Parents' Guide to the New Teenager, 1991.
[10] C. S. Lewis put it in his book, Four Loves.
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possible be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable."
[11] In a sermon entitled "The Power of Love," Paul Tillich, writes of a Swedish woman who aided prisoners and orphans during the First World War. She ended up in a concentration camp herself because she gave aid and comfort. Tillich writes, "It is a rare gift to meet a human being in whom love – this means God – is so overwhelmingly manifest. It undercuts theological arrogance as well as pious isolation. It is more than justice and greater than faith or hope. It is the very presence of God in the form of a human being. For God is love. In every moment of genuine love we are dwelling in God and God in us."
[12] Throughout his gospel, John employs two different verbs for love - agapao and philio - which he uses synonymously. The Greek for the noun "friend," philos, likewise stems from one of those two verbs. For Jesus, and for John, one who is a friend is one who is loved.
[13] Although one could translate the term used here as "slave," it is unlikely that usage was intended. Jesus had played the role of rabbi, teacher and spiritual master to these 12 followers throughout his public ministry. The master/servant image would normally be the established relationship between Jesus and his disciples. However, Jesus now turns his back on that traditional pattern and declares that his followers are more than just students. They are his friends.
[14] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 203-4.
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