Love One Another

“These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

— JOHN 15:17 ESV

One of the main topics Nate and I write and talk about is abiding. We emphasize its importance because we have experienced how God designed us to abide daily. We have experienced life with and without abiding. We have learned that God has a specific order to things, and there is no fruit (impact, influence, intimacy, transformation, revelation, love) apart from abiding.

Recently, I have noticed Nate and me, personally and in conversations with each other, reflecting more on what fruit abiding produces. A little over a week ago, Nate wrote a daily invitation about loving one another.

He discussed how love for one another is produced through first receiving God’s love. It is formed through abiding. Since then, I have been reflecting on how one of the main fruits that abiding produces is genuine love for one another.

John 15:17 is a part of Jesus’ words to his disciples about abiding. For the first 11 verses of John 15, Jesus encourages his disciples to abide. He tells them that there is no life, fruit, or joy apart from abiding in him (v. 1-11). In the second half of his teaching on abiding, Jesus talks about the command to love one another, the disciples being his friends, and his choice of them to bear fruit (v. 12-16).

Although there were no verses or chapters back when John wrote his gospel, I imagine verse 17 to be Jesus’ final words on abiding before he changed topics. I believe Jesus intended to wrap up his comments on abiding with this statement. Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that the command and invitation to abide is always meant to be unto producing genuine love for one another.

Our genuine love for one another, even when we hurt and betray one another, reveals whether or not we are obeying Jesus’ command to abide. That does not mean he expects us to be perfect at loving one another, but if we are abiding daily, genuine love will grow in us and be expressed through us toward one another.

The invitation this morning continues to be, abide. May the fruit of abiding be an observable, genuine, servant-hearted, and sacrificial love for all our brothers and sisters in Christ. Only then will the world look on and know that we are Jesus’ disciples (John 13:34-35).

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