The Gospel of John: John 15.9-17

Read and meditate on John 15.9-17.
The measure of Jesus’ love is that He laid down His life for His friends. So must Jesus’ friends love one another.

                                              ⁹“In my love abide, for I
have loved you as the Father loves Me. ¹⁰So
if you keep My commandments, you will know
you are abiding in My love, as I
have kept My Father’s Word, and so abide
in His. ¹¹These things I make known to you that
My joy may always dwell in you, and that
your joy may be complete. ¹²And this is My
commandment: Love each other, just as I
have loved you. ¹³There no greater love can be
than this, that someone love so much that he
would lay his life down for his friends. ¹⁴And you
are My friends if what I command, you do.
¹⁵No longer do I call you servants, for
a servant does not know his master’s work;
but I have called you friends, for all things I
have from My Father heard, these also I
have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose Me,
but I chose and appointed you to be
My friends, and bear much lasting fruit, that all
you ask the Father in My Name, and call
on Him to do, He will. ¹⁷And I command
you: Love each other!”

- John 15.9-17

Reflect
1. Jesus has chosen us to be His friends. Friends of Jesus: What does that mean to you? Complete this prayer: Lord, thank You, Lord, for choosing me as Your friend. Let me show my friendship today by…

2.  Those who are friends of Jesus are loved by Him. And the friends of Jesus love one another as He has loved them. Jesus laid down His life for His friends. What does it mean for you to lay down your life for the friends of Jesus? Help me show Your love to Your friends today Lord, by…

3.  Chosen (v. 16), appointed (v. 16), commanded (v. 17): Put these three words together into a single sentence to explain what it means to be a friend of Jesus. Lord, as I think about my life each day, and what it means to be Your friend, I…

4.  Jesus has entrusted us, His friends, with all things that He has heard from His Father. What are those things? What are we supposed to do with them? What was Jesus’ purpose in entrusting us with all things He had heard from His Father? How can we improve on our stewardship of what Jesus has entrusted to us? I need Your guidance and wisdom, Lord, so that…

5. The key to friendship with Jesus, and all that friendship entails, is abiding in Jesus’ love (v. 9). What does this mean? How would you explain to a new believer what it means to abide in Jesus’ love? Bring together into one prayer the prayers you composed for questions 1-4.

Summary
“This [love] is our fruit about which he said, ‘I have chosen you, that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.’ And what he added, ‘That whatever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you, he will certainly give us if we love one another, seeing that this is the very thing he has also given us in choosing us when we had no fruit, because we had not chosen him. He appointed us that we should bring forth fruit—that is, that we should love one another—a fruit that we cannot have apart from him, just as the branches can do nothing apart from the vine.” Augustine (354-430 AD)

We are the friends of Jesus. We must not squander this privilege, but invest it in bearing abiding fruit for the Lord. How will you pursue this high and holy calling today?

Closing Prayer
You who fear the LORD, praise Him!
All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,
And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from Him;
But when He cried to Him, He heard.
My praise shall be of You in the great assembly;
I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.
The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise the LORD.
Let your heart live forever!
All the ends of the world
Shall remember and turn to the LORD,
And all the families of the nations
Shall worship before You.
For the kingdom is the LORD’s,
And He rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth
Shall eat and worship;
All those who go down to the dust
Shall bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep himself alive.
A posterity shall serve Him.
It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation,
They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born,
That He has done this.

Psalm 22.23-31

Psalm 22.29-31 (Dix: For the Beauty of the Earth)
All the prosp’rous of the earth shall before His mercy fall;
Bending low before His worth, hear them humbly on Him call.
Even those low in the grave He will by His mercy save.

Let the generations all witness to His saving grace;
Let them to all nations call, “Bow before His holy face!”
Let the children of the earth hear of Jesus’ saving worth!

T. M. Moore
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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series IV a and b: John, edited by Joel C. Elowsky, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006. Verse translation of John by T. M. Moore.