City Life Starter

The Word

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Exegesis

“Remain in my love.”

Or in other translations, “abide in my love”. The idea is the same and this is a plea from Jesus to His disciples, but also to us. Jesus, knowing that he was so close to His death, wanted His disciples to understand how important it was to remain in His love. That they do not find love in any earthly desires or things. That they need to find their sustenance and fulfillment in Jesus.

Jesus uses the word joy together with abiding in Him and keeping His commands. This becomes very simple to us, that is, if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us(James 4:8), and this is how we will get true joy. To abide/remain in Jesus’ love and let Him guide us in our daily actions.

To remain in Jesus’ love isn’t an act based service to God through obeying commandments, it is first to love Jesus as our Savior, and through this love, we submit ourselves to Him as our Lord and choose to follow His commandments. As Paul says in Romans, either we become slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. We follow and obey Jesus through our love to Him because He first loved us.

Jesus wants us not forget our true love. We cannot forget why we were saved, why we need the Holy Spirit in our lives to guide us. This life makes it easy to forget, and once we fail to abide/remain in Jesus, we let the desires of the world take hold. When this happens, we get easily hurt and will never find our true joy and peace that only Jesus can give.

Application

Make it a point to tell Jesus how much He means to you. To pray to the Father and express your joy and gratitude. Ask Him to fill your heart with joy and remind you why you need Him in your life. Find time to let the Holy Spirit fill you and guide you in your day. Always put Jesus first in your actions and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in all that He tells you. As you grow in faith, through prayer and reading scripture, you will see your joy be unshaken and unmoved. This is where you fill find your true joy.

Prayer

Thank you Father for sending Jesus to die for my sins and to save me from eternity without you. Let me learn to abide and remain in your love and teach me every day to grow closer to you. Do not let the desires of this world take hold, but help me to find my true joy within your love. Thank you Father for finding me and showing compassion to me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.