Relationship with Jesus
A king’s command is not optional. Jesus is our king and He wants us to know Him. He wants us know Him in a specific way.
He died to bring us into a relationship with Himself and the Father. The New Covenant says, “they shall all know Me” (Hebrews 8:11). How does the Lord want us to know Him? We are to view God through the lens of knowing His love. Any other perspective of what God is like is less than what God has in mind.
Knowing the Father’s love was a normal and ongoing part of Jesus’ life. He understood and experienced His Father’s love. It was a reality to Him. As this is true of Jesus, it is to be true of us as well.
Jesus gave His disciples a commandment to abide in Him. He gave them the key to maintaining this relationship with Himself: by giving them a command to abide in His love. Because it is a commandment, we know that it’s important to Jesus. It was given to people who no longer have Messiah’s physical presence. If it was valid for them, it is valid for us. The Lord wants us to live in the same way He lived. Jesus dwelled in His Father’s love and wants us to know His love in the same way. Both His life and His teachings illustrate that knowing the love of God is normative and vital. Abiding in the love of God is a key to abiding in and relating to Jesus.
Here’s a quote from Craig Keener’s The Gospel of John Volume II
It becomes clear that the sort of intimate union Jesus promises the disciples is not merely a mystical experience, but a relational encounter, for he gives it content with the term “love” (John 15:9-10).
(Thoughts taken from God’s True Love, Chapter 1)
Check out the small group curriculum, based on the book, God’s True Love!
