Universal Awakening
John 15:7-11 (ESV)
Jesus’ message to His disciples
7 If you abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By
this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my
disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Abide in my love. 10 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. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be
in you, and that your joy may be full.
7 If you abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
What does it mean?
7 It is the indwelling of His words
that secures the harmony in one of asking in accordance with the divine will.
8 By this my Father is glorified,
that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
What does it mean?
In doing this, whatever ye ask, my
Father is glorified, in order that ye may bear much fruit, and that ye may
become my disciples.
9 As the Father has loved me, so
have I loved you. Abide in my love.
What does it mean?
Jesus has passed from the thought of
their discipleship to the foundation of their union with Him and with God. By
“My love” is meant, not “love to Me in your hearts,” but, “My love towards you.
The one produces the other. “We love Him because He hath first loved us.
10 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.
What does it mean?
Keeping of His commandments is the
outward proof of love towards Him; so that the love of the human heart towards
Christ, which itself flows from Christ’s love to us becomes the condition of
abiding in that love. While we cherish love for Him, our hearts are abiding in
that state which can receive His love for us.
11 These things I have spoken to you,
that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
What does it mean?
The joy is that which Christ Himself
possessed in the consciousness of His love towards the Father, and of the
Father’s love towards Him. The brightness of that joy lit up the darkest hours
of His own human life, and He wills that it should light up theirs. In the
consciousness of their love to God, and of God’s love to them, there would be
in them, joy which no sorrow could ever overcome. Jesus has told them of the
true source of peace. His own peace He has given to them. He tells them now of
the source of joy, and has spoken the word that they may possess the very joy
which was the light of His own heart.
These biblical words contradict much
of what is taught in churches today, that we are separate from Christ and God.
Although the message was originally meant for the disciples of Jesus, they are
meant to all who call themselves Christians. The aim of Christians ought to be
discipleship.
What does this mean?
The standard definition of “disciple”
is someone who adheres to the teachings of another. It is a follower or a
learner. It refers to someone who takes up the ways of someone else. Applied to
Jesus, a disciple is someone who learns from Him and lives like him — someone
who, because of God’s awakening grace conforms his or her words and ways to the
words and ways of Jesus. Or, you might say, as others have put it in the past,
disciples of Jesus are themselves “little Christs” (Acts 26:28; 2 Corinthians
1:21).
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