Remain in His Love

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”

John 15:9 (NIV)

Jesus did not only tell us that He loves us. He told us to remain in His love.

That distinction matters, because it is entirely possible to hold the right doctrine in your head and still live as though you were alone, rejected, or permanently on trial.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”

Begin with the standard Jesus sets, because it is staggering. He does not say, “I love you as much as I am able,” or “I love you considering what you are like.” He measures His love for His disciples by the Father’s love for the Son. That is love without beginning, without limit and without hesitation, flowing eternally within the Trinity. Jesus says: that is the love I have towards you.

And consider when He said it. This is the Upper Room, the night before the crucifixion. Judas has already gone out into the dark. Peter is hours away from denying he ever knew Him. Every man in that room will scatter before morning. Jesus was not addressing a group of spiritual achievers.

Now the command: “remain.” The Greek is meno, and John uses it eleven times in the first eleven verses of this chapter. It means to stay, to abide, to dwell, to make your home. It is residence language, not visiting language. The King James renders it “abide,” and older Christians often preferred that word because it carries more weight than “stay.”

Notice too that this sits inside the vine metaphor. Jesus has just said, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (verse 5). Remaining is not an emotional exercise; it is the ordinary condition of a branch that has not been cut off. And the promise attached is fruitfulness, with the sober warning that “apart from me you can do nothing.”

So when pressure comes, remain. When somebody misunderstands you, remain. When you fail and the accuser starts his work, remain in what Jesus has already said about you rather than in what you feel about yourself.

Now here is where careful reading matters, because two errors sit on either side of this verse.

The first error is to hear “remain in my love” as “keep God loving you,” as though His affection were a subscription that lapses without payment. That contradicts the whole New Testament. Romans 8:38-39 insists that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Your acceptance was secured once for all when Jesus said, “It is finished.”

The second error is to conclude that holiness therefore does not matter. But read the very next verse: “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:10). Obedience is woven directly into abiding.

How do these fit together? Through a distinction theologians make between our position and our communion. Your position in Christ is fixed: justified, adopted, secure, and not up for review. Your communion with Him, the warmth and immediacy of the relationship, is affected by how you live. A child does not stop being a child by disobeying, but a child who defies his father all day will not enjoy the closeness that is his by right.

That is why security in God’s love does not make us careless about holiness. It does the opposite. When you know you are loved, obedience stops being a fee and becomes a response. 1 John 5:3 can therefore say that “his commands are not burdensome.” Fear produces grudging compliance; love produces glad obedience, and only one of those lasts.

Notice also what Jesus says this produces. Verse 11: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” Abiding is not grim endurance. It is the route to joy.

So what does remaining look like on an ordinary Tuesday?

It looks like preaching the gospel to yourself before the day preaches something else to you. Feelings will not lead you here; the Word will.

It looks like dealing with sin specifically rather than living under a general fog of guilt. Name it, confess it, receive cleansing, and move on. Unconfessed sin is the most common reason people feel distant from a God who has not moved.

It looks like refusing to make decisions from insecurity. You do not need the approval of every person you will meet today. You do not need every situation to go your way before you can have peace.

And it looks like returning. You will drift during the day. Remaining is not a single act but a habit of coming back, sometimes many times before evening.

Think of a phone and its charger. Nobody plugs in once in January and expects the battery to last until Christmas. You come back to the charger every evening, not because the power has moved, but because you have been using what it gave you all day. Remaining is like that: not a single connection, but a daily return to the source.

Start this morning from a place of security in Christ rather than trying to reach one by lunchtime. Stay close to Jesus today, and let His love steady your emotions, your decisions and your relationships.

One further note on why abiding is described as a place rather than an effort.

Notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say “work at my love” or “achieve my love.” He says remain in it, which assumes you are already there. Nobody is told to remain somewhere they have not arrived.

That single grammatical detail settles a great deal of anxiety. The Christian life does not begin with a distance to close. It begins with a position to hold.

So when you feel far from God, the question to ask is rarely “how do I get back in?” It is more often “what have I allowed to obscure where I already am?” Usually it is unconfessed sin, exhaustion, or simple neglect, and all three have straightforward remedies.

Do not visit God’s love occasionally. Remain there. Let the love of Jesus become the place from which you live, serve, obey and face this day.

Reflection

1. Do you live from security in Christ, or are you still trying to reach it by performing well? What is the practical evidence either way?

2. Jesus links abiding with obedience. Is there a specific area of obedience that would deepen your enjoyment of His love this week?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, You measured Your love for Your disciples by the Father’s love for You, and You said it on the night they all failed You. Thank You that my position in You is settled and cannot be revised. Teach me to make my home in Your love rather than visiting it occasionally. Where sin has dulled my sense of nearness, show me plainly so I can confess it and be cleansed. Keep me from making decisions out of insecurity today, and let obedience be my glad response rather than my anxious payment. In Your name, amen.

Declaration

I do not visit God’s love; I live there. My position in Christ is settled, and I face this day from security rather than for it.

Pastor Ras
All Nations Community Church

Enjoyed today’s devotional? Sign up for our newsletter and never miss a daily devotional.