As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

I was reading John 14 ('I am the true vine'), verse 9 struck me: 'As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love'. What does it mean? How has the Father loved the Son? How has the Son loved us? What is the relationship between the two and what difference does it make to me?

Well Jesus explains it in the next verse : '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'.

How has the Father loved the Son? In their exclusive and eternal relationship, the Father has shown the Son all of his commands, all of who he is and what his plans are. The Father shows the Son his plans for salvation through the cross. Jesus has already stressed this special relationship earlier in the gospel (5:17, 5:20). The Son abides in this relationship by his obedience to all the Father plans and wills.

How has the Son loved us? In exactly the same way. Out of sheer love he has revealed Himself to us, who he is, his purpose in the cross, what his commands are. And we are to abide in this relationship by obedience. And it's Jesus' will that the same joy that sustains him in his obedience to the Father, would sustain us in our obedience to him and would overflow. (15:11)

The impact this has on me is to make me see the in incredible position that I'm in as a Christian: in the same way the Father loves the Son, so the Son has loved me. And it makes me see that obedience isn't some joyless extra tacked on to the Chritian life but it is how we grow. Oh for fuller and complete obedience! How amazing to be sustained by the same joy that was in Christ. I want to know that kind of joy and obedience.