Devotionals

He who hates Me hates My Father also (John 15:23).

The word ‘hate’ is miseo and means ‘to detest’, to ‘love less’, even ‘to persecute’. Jesus had spoken this to the disciples before. But like all things repeated in Scripture, the repetition is for emphasis - it is a truth that is not to be missed. 

But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me (John 15:21).

The world hates Christians because it hates God’s truth that has set Christians free from sin and death. The world hates Christians because it remains under the power and authority of Satan, the lord of the earth. The world hates Christians because it hates Jesus Christ. The world hates Christians because it does not know God.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:19).

The world hates the Christian because the world is under the dominate evil of Satan who is lord of the earth. As Satan hates the Father, Son, and Spirit, he also hates those who belong to them. Because Jesus has chosen us out of the world to be His own, he hates us even more than he hates those under his evil influence. It is because Jesus has chosen us out of the world that we no longer belong to the world - we no longer share in its spirit, we are no more dominated by its purposes and goals, we are no longer governed by its principles.

These things I command you, that you love one another (John 15:17).

What is Christian love supposed to look like? Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another. He repeated that command several times because He knew how difficult it would be given our life in sinful flesh. But as stated earlier, it was necessary to repeat the command because of the opposition and persecution they would face as they went out into the world as His Apostles. How is love for one another to be fleshed out in the fellowship of the saints?

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  (John 15:16).

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit . . . (John 15:16).

As stated earlier, the fruit that Christians are to bear is Jesus Christ living His life in every believer without limitation or restriction. It would include those spiritual characteristics mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23, but is not be limited to them. Ultimately, it is full conformity to Christ, which is the goal of being a Christian in the earth. (Romans 8:29) For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. It is Christ-likeness in every aspect of our being and life - His affections, dispositions, graces, attitudes, etc. 

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:15).

It is no secret that friends share information with each other, sometimes very important information. One of the key elements in the friendship between Jesus and His followers is the fact that He has disclosed a great deal of information to them - information about the Father, the Holy Spirit, His Messiahship, salvation, God’s plan for the ages, heaven, hell, etc. Of course, He did not disclose all we would want to know, but He has given to us information that is sufficient for us to live victorious Christian lives in a lost and sinful world.

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you (John 15:12-14).

These are some of the more difficult verses to accept, mainly because they are misunderstood. “How can a person be commanded to love?” “What kind of friendship is based on obedience to commandments?”

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 remain in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:10-11).

There can be no spiritual fruit for the Father, and no consistent living in Christ’s love, unless there is the real subjection of our will to the Father’s will. It is only in our obedience to the Word of the Lord that we enjoy fellowship with Him and He with us.

As the Father loved Me, I also have 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 remain in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:9-11).

As a child, I asked my mother one day if Jesus really loved me. She said that He does. I asked her how much Jesus loved me. She said, “Jesus loves you so much, He stretched out His arms and died for you.” She, of course, was referring to His crucifixion, which is the expression of God’s great love for us. (Romans 5:8) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples (John 15:8).

How is the Father glorified in our bearing much fruit? The word is edoxasthe, from which we get the word ‘doxology’; ‘to praise’ or ‘to honor’. God the Father is praised and honored when we, as His spiritual children, are conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ, when we surrender completely to the Christ-life, when we die to self and allow Jesus to live in and through us.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you (John 15:7).

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned (John 15:5-6).

John 14 & 15 can be difficult to understand based upon the traditional approach to the subject of God’s grace and man’s responsibility. John 14 emphasizes God’s grace upon the believer. John 15 emphasizes the believer’s responsibility to God. Throughout the entirety of the discourse, it is to be maintained that God’s grace sustains the believer, even though the believer may fail in his responsibility to God. But that has always been the case throughout Scripture.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me (John 15:4).

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:3).

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:1-3).

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you (John 15:1-3).

The metaphor of the vine and branches is one most common to Christians. But do we understand what the metaphor means? We might know a bit more about vines and branches than most other folks because we live in an area where grapes are grown in abundance. Even so, the spiritual dynamics of the biblical metaphor can be lost to us if we try to interpret it in light of the physical realities of the vineyard vine and branches.

I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here (John 14:30-31).

There are a couple of reasons why Jesus said, I will no longer talk much with you. (1) They would leave the upper room and walk across the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane where He would be arrested. The disciples would flee for their lives. John and Peter would quietly follow Jesus through the remaining events leading up to the crucifixion. So, the conversations with Jesus and the disciples would come to an end until after the resurrection.

You have heard Me say to you, “I am going away and coming back to you.” If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, “I am going to the Father,” for My Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe (John 14:28-29).

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27).

The peace that the world gives is shallow, unstable, and unsatisfying because it is a false peace. We talk much about peace, but we have known very little of peace. We have all sorts of ‘peace-keeping’ societies, groups, and organizations, but all of the civilizations of the world are experiencing conflict within themselves or with others. Besides that, all the nations of the world are armed to the teeth! Well did the Apostle Paul write (1 Thessalonians 5:3), For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27).

In this text we should understand the difference between the peace Jesus gives, and the peace the world gives. We also need to ask the question, is there a difference between the peace Jesus left with the disciples, and the peace He would give to the disciples? We will also need to understand how the peace that Jesus gives assuages a troubled and fearful heart.

He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you (John 14:24-25).

As children we use to play ‘She loves me, she loves me not’ with the petals of a flower. We would pluck a petal and say, ‘She loves me’, then pluck another petal and say, ‘She loves me not’. We would continue to do this until the last petal plucked would ‘confirm’ whether or not ‘She loves me’. Of course that was a silly game based on chance, and it really confirmed nothing with regard to another person’s affection.

If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:23).

Here Jesus patiently explains to His disciples this solemn truth - God has fellowship only with those who believe in, and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who love Him, and who obey His Word. The world cannot, and does not experience such fellowship with God. Only those in Christ Jesus can enjoy such fellowship. There is no such thing as ‘the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man’. God is the Creator of mankind, but only Father to those who love and believe in Him through Jesus Christ.

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him (John 14:21).

John 14:1-31 is called the Paschal (Passover) Discourse. It was spoken to the disciples while they were in the upper room eating the Passover and the Lord’s Supper with Jesus. It was intended to give comfort to the disciples who were upset over the news that Jesus was going to be crucified. That comfort is noted in 4:1, Let not your heart (the seat of spiritual life) be troubled (agitated, tossed like the waves of the sea in a storm). He then directed their attention away from loss through crucifixion to hope and assurance through resurrection:

A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also (John 14:19).

The last time the ‘world’ saw Jesus Christ was when He hung on the cross of Calvary. After His resurrection He appeared to over 500 people, but they were the privileged few who were either already saved, or would be saved when He appeared to them (1 Corinthians 15:4-8).