PERFECT LOVE DESIRED IN US

CONTINUOUS & ABIDING LOVE DESIRED

“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” John 15:9

This surely is Christ's superlative word concerning His love for His own as He loved them to the end (John 13:1). It leaves nothing more to be said. What the love of the Father is for the Son, who can tell? The very suggestion fills the soul with the sense of profound depths which cannot be fathomed, of heights that cannot be scaled, of breadths which cannot be encompassed, and of dimensions beyond our knowledge. And that love of God for the Son is the measure and nature of the love of the Son for His own. And yet, how passing wonderful it is, when we remember that, however vast that love of God for His Son may be, that Son is worthy of it while we are unworthy of love at all. Yet here is the glory of His love. He loves us in spite of our unworthiness, knowing that He is able to make us worthy. In very deed such love is,

"A deep where all our thoughts are drowned."

Two thoughts are immediately suggested, the first, by what He had said before: "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again;" (John 10:17) and the second, by what He added now: "I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love." (John 15:10) The perfection in us which He seeks (continuous and abiding love), and which inspires His love is that of the selflessness which suffers to serve. The law of abiding love is that of obedience. This is seen in the note in Isaiah 50 following His calling in Isaiah 49.