A Love From Above

A Love From Above
By Dudley Hall www.sclm.org

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. (John 15:9-10)

It is still hard to believe that God the Father loves us as much as he loves the Son. We could maybe be coaxed into accepting that he loves us some because we are recommended by Jesus, but the very thought of being loved the way God the Father loves the Son stretches us beyond credibility.

He said it. If we choose to ignore it, we dishonor him. If we live with some sense of false humility that is only willing to be somewhat loved, we are denying the very grace of God.

Jesus indicates that the key to his life was in abiding in the Father's love. He could not have endured the cruel remarks and desperate circumstances had he not stayed in conscious awareness of the Father's love. He refused to believe his feelings or other's opinions when they contradicted the fact that the Father loved him unconditionally.

He tells us that we must abide the same way. We can experience the love of the Father only as we keep his commandments like Jesus kept the Father's commandments.

What commandments? Is he talking about the Ten mentioned in Exodus? Is he referring to the hundreds of laws the Jews had added to the original Ten? What has Jesus commanded? He said we are to abide in his love. We are to live according to his word which tells us what he has done that elevates us to sons of God. These are not commands given to motivate us to live cleaner and more religiously. They are commands that instruct us in how to access the grace that is ours in union with Christ.

Earlier Jesus had said that all the commandments could be summarized in this: Love God and love others. Now he is revealing how that can be done. As we are aware of the privilege of being connected to the vine we can allow his life to flow through us and actually love God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves. We have been endowed with a love from above that frees us to do what we could never do apart from the Vine