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      "Getting Along With One Another"
      John 15:12-17
      Theme: The ability to fulfill the command to love is found in Christ not in oneself.

        1. The Example Christ’s Love – 15:12

          1. The Essential Proof of Obedience

            1. Jesus comments in this section continue on the theme of fruitfulness that results from the supernatural obedience that He enables us to perform
            2. Naturally, each of us is a "lover of self," unwilling to deny ourselves for the sake of anyone.
            3. However, as we abide in Christ – finding strength through His enabling grace to be conformed to His image, we find the ability to do as He commands.
            4. Obedience to the commands of Christ is single-most important evidence that we are abiding in Christ – cp. v. 10.
            5. The single-most important indicator of one’s love for Christ is the fruit produced by the depth of the relationship – the obedience to the commandment to "love one another" – "This is My commandment, that you love one another."
            6. This is laid down by Christ as the greatest proof because only when we abide in Christ – in His words, in His love – that we will be able to keep on loving one another.

          2. The Example of Proper Obedience

            1. In this day, people have reserved the right to define love in whatever way suits them best.
            2. However, Jesus honed the parameters of genuine love when He said "… that you love one another, just as I have loved you."
            3. In that this love between believers is supernaturally obtained through abiding in Christ and Christ in us, it is necessary to not settle for a love that is common among men.
            4. Essentially Jesus declares that His example ought to be the standard of love that characterizes that which is seen as genuine fruit produced from being part of the true vine.
            5. Essentially, the following verses are an elaboration on what features characterize Jesus’ love as we express it toward one another as believers.

        2. The Evidences of Christ’s Love – 15:13-16

          1. It Is Established in Its Commitment – v. 13

            1. Having called attention to that fact that we are to love one another the way that He has loved us, Jesus gives to us the first feature: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."
            2. This provides us the depth of commitment – and established the fact of His love beyond any question.
            3. He calls upon us to see as proof of His love the fact that He would willingly sacrifice His own life in order to save us from the wrath of God.
            4. Instead of clamoring after His own gratification and well being, Jesus surrendered His life in an expression of supreme devotion both to the will of God and for our deliverance from sin.
            5. This describes the love of Jesus for us as initiating – He loved while we were still unlovely – cp. Romans 5:8.
            6. Essentially, Jesus made our need for deliverance His great passion – seeing our need and meeting it before we even had enough sense to seek His help.

          2. It Is Experienced through Its Camaraderie – v. 14

            1. Jesus gives to us the second feature of the love He expects to exist between believers – "You are My friends …"
            2. For men to claim to have Jesus as a friend somewhat meaningless – perhaps even presumptuous – cp. Matthew 7:23
            3. What is important is that Jesus, of infinitely higher class, claims a sinner as His friend thus elevating Him to His own level for fellowship – cp. Ephesians 2:6
            4. Instead of holding us at arm’s length because of our inferiority to the glorious Son of God, Jesus, with infinite condescension, has given us the unspeakable privilege of being His friends
            5. The emphasis here is not that Jesus calls Himself our friend, but He calls us His friend "… if you do what I command you."
            6. A person cannot claim friendship with Christ Jesus while rejecting His Word.
            7. Rather, friendship with Jesus Christ is something that results from the application of grace that changes the heart and mind of a man and brings them to a place of obedience to Christ.
            8. As such a man obeys Christ, the intimacy with the Son of God is the joyous benefit – cp. 1 John 1:6-7; James 2:23
            9. Thus, the love of Christ for us results in camaraderie and intimacy with Christ Jesus as His friends.

          3. It Is Enriched by Its Communication – v. 15

            1. The third feature of the love of Christ is that it allows the strength of the friendship to increase through confiding in us – "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing;"
            2. The Lord states that since you are my friends and share in the priorities as seen in your obedience, it is not fitting for me to keep you in the dark.
            3. Essentially, He is saying that He takes them fully into His confidence and trusts them with the precious truths of God.
            4. He continues: "… but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father, I have made known to you."
            5. Jesus is not satisfied with servile obedience – He desires a heart in us that realizes that He has brought us into His confidence and desires us to follow Him out of loyalty.
            6. He has "made known" the glorious truths concerning God – bringing us into the place where we can know God Himself – a state of great privilege.
            7. Thus, as we love one another, we must bring one another into our confidence – trusting one another to share Christ – cp. 1 John 1:1-4.

          4. It is Exact in Its Concern – v. 16

            1. The final aspect of Christ’s love that is mentioned is that it possesses a definitive purpose – "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit …"
            2. This love is not something that is casual or in any way arbitrary – There is no way that men would have come to Christ without the initiating work of Christ is reaching out to men.
            3. This initiative was not without specific or exact intention – that it would result in our productivity to the glory of God – cp. v. 8
            4. When a sinner is loved by Christ and drawn to Him by grace through faith, converted and made alive by the power of the Spirit of God so that they are placed into Christ Jesus ("the true vine"), the fruit that is produced through them will glorify God and is therefore not susceptible to the refining fires of the Judgment Seat of Christ – "… and that your fruit would remain" – cp. vv. 5-6; 2 John 8
              1. The NT describes fruit as: godly attitudes - Galatians 5:22, 23
              2. Righteous behavior - Philippians 1:11
              3. Praise - Hebrews 13:15
              4. … and especially leading others to faith in Jesus as Messiah and Son of God - Romans 1:13–16
            5. The present benefit is such fruitfulness is the blessing of effectual prayer – "… so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you."
            6. Once again the idea of intimacy and fellowship with God is contrasted to those who are fruitless – cp. v. 7

        3. The Exchange of Christ’s Love – 15:17

          1. The Regulation of Love

            1. Jesus returns then to the primary means by which our love for Christ is displayed – the supernatural ability to love what is otherwise unlovely – "This I command you, [so] that you [might] love one another."
            2. Again, Jesus emphasizes that the ability to do what is so unnatural (the essential definition of fruit) comes from obeying Christ out of a devoted response to His love for us.
            3. He is essentially stating that our abiding in him finds itself primarily established in our obedience to Him; the foremost commandment proving our discipleship is that we love one another with the same love He possesses for us.
            4. Thus, as a "regulation" it characterizes all of those who are part of those faithfully abiding in Christ.

          2. The Reciprocation of Love

            1. This is not to suggest that we will find it easy – at times those needing our love are most unlovely.
            2. Our ability to love one another depends entirely on our perception of Christ’s love for us – a love that has so abundantly been "shed abroad in our hearts" that it spills out onto those around us – cp. Romans 5:5
            3. "The logic here is simple and clear. I, being in myself unlovable, cannot keep on loving my brother, who also is often very unlovable (at least as I see him), unless I constantly reflect on (and remain in) the love of Christ for myself."

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