As the father has loved me, so have I loved you, abide in my love. 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. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
– John 15:9–11
Oh, I could keep going. It’s so hard to pick one verse from John 15. And I’m certainly drawn in this chapter to John chapter 15:7, because it’s the verse upon which this podcast is based.
John 15:9–11 Reminds Us of the Intensity of Jesus’ Love
“If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” We pray according to God’s word, and the more his word fills us and we abide in it and we pray according to it. We ask whatever we wish according to his word and it will be done for us.
But then you get two verses later and you see this amazing, breathtaking, life-altering verse, John 15:9. “As the Father has loved me.” So just think about that. How much does the Father love the Son? A lot. An infinite perfect love. Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.”
Can you just soak that in today? Jesus loves you with the same intensity and breadth and width and depth of love with which the Father loves him, he loves you. And so he gives this command, abide in my love and just live in my love for you. That’s a good command to live in today. Live today in God’s love for you. Don’t doubt the depth and breadth and width of God’s love for you today. Live in it. And then how do we do that? Verse 10, “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.”
So the way to abide in his love is to walk according to his word. That goes back up to abiding in his word and obeying it. And when we do this, John 15:11, “These things I’ve spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.”
John 15:9–11 Reminds Us of the Promise of Fullness of Joy
Don’t you want to live with fullness of joy in you, with supernatural joy filling you and abide in the love of God for you, in his word to you, and walk in his ways, and you will experience fullness of joy.
These are promises straight from God. So we pray, God, help us to live like this. Help us to abide in your love. We praise you for your love for us, God. We praise you Jesus, for loving us with the same love that the Father has for you. The same love that you share in your Trinitarian nature, oh God, that you love us like this. Oh, glory be to your name. And we praise you for loving us enough to give us your commandments, to show us how to live. So we pray that you’d help us to obey your commandments today and abide in your love as we do, so that your joy may fill us.
God, I pray that over every single person listening right now in my own life, that we would know the fullness of your joy as we abide in your love, when we abide in your word and we obey it. Even now, oh God, as your word clearly commands us to make disciples of the nations. We say yes. We want to obey that word today.
Praying for the Bashgali People
We want to pray for the Bashgali people of Pakistan, this Muslim people group like others we’ve prayed for recently in Pakistan who has little to no access to the gospel, no known Christians, and it’s highly dangerous for any follower of Jesus to go and share the gospel with them because of the dominant Pashtun culture around them.
God, we pray that the Bashgali people would know what it’s like to abide in your love as they receive the gospel. God, send laborers who will pay whatever price is needed to obey your commandment, to get the gospel to the Bashgali people of Pakistan. We pray that the beauty of John 15:9–11, abiding in your love, supernatural joy would be theirs, in Jesus. We love you, God, we love your word and praise you for your love for us. Help us to abide in it all day long today. In Jesus name we pray according to your word. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
