Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
These words, if you see them in your Bible, are going to be in red letters, which means it’s Jesus who is sharing this idea. Right there at the beginning of the conversation, we receive news that is unbelievable for any human person to hear with their ears. Jesus says to us, I want you to understand love coming from Me in the same way that my Father—the God of glory, the one who has created all things—loves Me. I love you.
I know that for some of us, the idea of trying to fathom the love of God with our brains is more than we can handle. But the thing we do know, at least in some small and limited way, is that if there is a love that can come from the God of the universe, that love is powerful. That love can do things that we can’t even begin to dream about with our own human thinking and planning.
Jesus Loves Us as the Father Loves Him
I love this encouragement from Jesus, who is sharing this with other human people in the Scriptures, because this is something we can take great confidence in even today—right now, wherever we are. This is true about our lives. When He says, “I’ve loved you even as the Father has loved Me. Remain in that love,” you start to think about how the Father loved Jesus. He loved Him so much that, as it says in John chapter 5, when Jesus is explaining His mission on earth, He only does what the Father tells Him to do. The Father loved Him so much that He would instruct Him, guide Him, and direct His steps. Jesus could take confidence and trust in knowing that His life on earth would be led by the direction and insights that come from God.
What Jesus is saying is, I love you the same way. Some of us are filled with mystery when we think about how we live our lives here on earth. How can I be the type of person who’s a good neighbor and a good friend, a good son and a good daughter? How can I actually be who I want to be on earth? Sometimes I’m filled with mystery. I have questions. I don’t know where to go. I don’t know where to turn.
Well, the Father loved Jesus in such a way that He told Him what to say. He told Him in John chapter 7 what to do. Here we are in John chapter 15, having Jesus explain to us how He is connected to His Father, and how His Father expresses His love through Jesus. Jesus is inviting us into the same kind of relationship.
The Vine and the Branches
Right before this is a more famous passage that would be quoted probably more regularly—which is Jesus saying that He is the Vine and we are the branches. A branch connected to the Vine will bear fruit. In other words, when you go outside and you see a branch that’s attached to a tree, you can know that the leaves growing, or maybe even the fruit growing from that branch, is possible because the branch remains connected to the source of life.
What Jesus is inviting us into today is the awareness of this great love that comes from God. It is available for us today, and we have the chance to say yes to remaining, to abiding, to staying connected. When we do so, the fruit that comes from knowing Him won’t be something we need to strive for or try to make come from our lives. Simply abiding and remaining in His love will lead to us bearing much fruit.