The relationship that Jesus has with his Father is a pattern for us to follow in our relationship with Jesus. He leads by example, therefore his interactions with the Father are how we are to interact with the Son.
Three Aspects
John 15:9As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
These verses clearly demonstrate several aspects of this pattern. 1) As the Father loved Jesus; so Jesus loves us. 2) Jesus kept the Father’s commandments; we are to keep Jesus’ commandments. 3) Jesus abides in the Father’s love; we are to abide in Jesus’ love.
Isn’t it interesting that Jesus makes a distinction between the Father’s commandments and the Son’s commandments? Jesus kept the Father’s commandments; he fulfilled the law. Our assignment is to keep the Son’s commandments.
We often measure our Christian walk by the Ten Commandments. Doing this we miss out on our primary assignment – that is to keep the Son’s commandments. The Father’s commandments can be a distraction, a red herring. Allow me to explain.
The Father’s Commandments
Matthew 22:36Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Pay attention to the context of the question: which is the great commandment in the law? Of the commandments of the Father, which is greatest?
Also notice that neither of the commandments that Jesus considered the greatest are included in the Ten Commandments as given to Moses. If we are limiting ourselves to obeying the Ten Commandments, and the ten do not include the two commandments Jesus considered the greatest, what about the remainder of the 613? Do we get to choose which ones are important?
If we think that some day we will be able to reach the goal of obeying the Ten Commandments, we suffer from delusions of adequacy. Also consider this:
Romans 8:2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death.
We have been freed from the law of sin and death. That is not to dismiss these laws. They were instrumental as our tutor. Don’t throw away what you have learned.
The Son’s Commandments
John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
Jesus has greatly simplified our responsibility by reducing the number of commandments from 613 to one, sort of. Although our assignment has been simplified, it is none-the-less beyond our reach.
The interesting thing about the new commandment is that it extends the pattern from the Father to the Son, the Son to us, us to one another. There is now an additional relationship in play – between each of us and one another. The Father relates to the Son; the Son relates to us; we relate to one another. Each relationship starts with the Father, flows through Jesus to us and flows through us to one another, and repeatedly flows through one another to each other.
The new commandment is our primary assignment. Jesus called this a new commandment. The Greek word for new, kainos, means unprecedented, of a new kind. It sounds a lot like “love you neighbor as yourself.” It is not.
The love with which we are to love one another originated from the Father’s love through Jesus, then through another then to us. Loving my neighbor as myself is nothing like loving one another as Jesus loved me.
The New Commandment: An Example
John 13:14If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
Here is an example of what Jesus meant by the new commandment. “As I have loved you, love one another.” I washed your feet, you should wash the feet of one another. But there’s more.
Jesus said as the Father loved me, so have I loved you. In order for the pattern to hold, Jesus must have had his feet washed by the Father; otherwise he would have broken the pattern. Recall that God, using Mary Magdalene, washed Jesus feet.
Another aspect of this example is that the love was specific to the type of love: washing the feet. The individual receiving the love was to replicate that love to one another. The question for us is: How has Jesus specifically loved me? Answering that question, I should minister that gift to others.
Keeping the Commandments
The only way to successfully keep the Son’s commandments is to keep them the same way he kept his Father’s commandments.
John 5:19Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 20For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
This is how Jesus was able to keep the Father’s commandments: He only did what he saw his Father do. He never improvised and wandered off script, enticed by the opportunity to distinguish himself from the Father. He abided in the Father’s love and extended that love to us.
Notice in verse 20, the Father expressed his love toward his Son by showing him what he was doing. If Jesus loves us the way the Father loved him, we should expect Jesus to do the same for us: by showing us what he is doing. Then we can keep Jesus’ commandments the same way he was able to keep the Father’s commandments.
Keeping the Son’s Commandments
John 15:5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 14Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 15Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
Jesus did nothing of himself, doing only what the Father showed him. We follow that pattern by doing nothing of ourselves, but only what Jesus shows us.
Jesus shows his friends what he is doing. We are his friends if we do whatever he commands. The missing piece of the puzzle is how to know what he is showing us. If we could be clear on that, it would take away the mystery.
The Image of the Father
Hebrews 1:3Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
2 Corinthians 4:4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Jesus was the express image of the Father. He did nothing of himself, only what the Father showed him. So much so that he could make this claim:
John 14:9Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
You could see the Father through the Son.
The Image of the Son
Romans 8:28And we know that all things work together for the good to them that love God and to them that are the called according to his purpose. 29For whom he did foreknow them he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.
God works together with those who love him. All things that are done in this manner are good, and they are all according to his purpose. Of this we can be confident. As Jesus was conformed to the image of the Father, God’s purpose is that we would be conformed to the image of his Son.
What does it mean to be conformed to the image of his Son? We don’t improvise. What we see the Son do, that is what we do. We conform to the image of Jesus the same way he conformed to the image of the Father.
Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.
When we do what is right in our own eyes, we are going about to establish our own righteousness; we are not conforming to the image of the Son, and we are not submitting to the righteousness of God.
Stay true to the gifts you have been given, partaking in the divine nature, not operating within the limitations of you own constraints. The strength of the Holy Spirit exceeds your own strength.
The New Commandment
John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
This is how Jesus shows us what he is doing: by his love. He loves each of us differently. This is how the same commandment is able to give us each different assignments. As we pay attention to how he loves us, we, following his command, can step out in faith and love one another with that same love, being confident that, what Jesus commands us to do he will empower us to do.
2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
By keeping the commandments of the Son, we become partakers of the divine nature, exercising the divine strength of God, operating beyond the boundaries of human constraints. When Paul prayed for deliverance from the thorn in his side, God did not remove the thorn, but said he would provide grace, strength that would carry him through. God even explained the purpose for the thorn.
Grace
Grace is so central to the Christian gospel that it should be a term well understood. Yet most would be hard-put to articulate a definition that is consistent with its usage in the the various contexts where it is found in the scriptures. Allow me to offer a definition that brings clarity and consistency to this term.
1 Peter 4:10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
The Bible has a special term for the love of Jesus that is passed from one to one another. That term is grace. Manifold grace is love offered to one another repeatedly. We are to be stewards of that grace as we find ourselves as a link in the chain that joins us as one.
Jesus’ Love
Philippines 1:6Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
We assume this is talking about performing the good work in us, but it does not say that. Consider this: If I die before the day of Jesus Christ, how can he continue to perform the work in me? This passage is talking about a work of love that was begun in us and is then passed on to one another again and again, until the day of Jesus Christ, even long after I have passed.
This tells me that when someone passes Jesus’ love toward me, it is really the Holy
Spirit performing the work. The primary way we receive the love of Christ is through others. Even though it seems like the love has come from them, it was really the Holy Spirit doing the work.
If it is Christ doing the work, then it is a good work, a righteous work. Even though it is Jesus who performs the work, because it was done with our resources, that righteous work gets credited to our account. That righteousness is grace in the context of being passed from us to another.
Romans 8:2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made us free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sin and for sin, condemned sin and death, 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit performing the work through us toward one another is the righteousness of the law being fulfilled in us. The law being spoken of here is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus as found in Romans 8:2. I know this because there is no righteousness in the law of sin and death.
Step One
John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
This is subtle, but the first step in obeying Jesus’ commandment is to receive his love. Jesus is the one who takes the initiative. I cannot love one another as Jesus loved me unless he first loves me. I must confess that I have been resistant to receiving his love from others. That needs to change.
I need to learn to receive his love graciously, with gratefulness that he has invited me to become a partaker in the divine nature in yet a new way.
I also need to learn to love one another graciously, somehow helping them to receive the grace that Jesus has offered, with an attitude of love and respect instead of judgment.
Workers Together
2 Corinthians 6:1 We then, as workers together with him beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
Abiding in the love of Jesus means to continue the work of love toward one another. Receiving the grace of God in vain is receiving Jesus’ love, but failing to extend that love to one another.
Abiding in the love of Jesus, we must resist the urge to establish a righteousness of our own and conform to the image of Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
John 6:28Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe (πιστευσητε, pisteusete) on him whom he hath sent.
Believe in this verse contains the root word for faith. This is the work of God could mean that our assignment from God is to believe (have faith) Jesus, or it could mean that it is God’s work, work that he performs in you. To determine which meaning should be assigned to this verse, we should look at faith, and what it means.
Hebrews 12:2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. He authorizes my faith when he loves me (as the Father has loved him), and he finalized my faith when he loves one another through me. Both the authorization and the finalization of my faith is the work of God.
ing on Jesus is our part in doing the work of God. Faith is believing that what Jesus told us to do, we can do, not limited by the constraints of our own strength. The basis of our faith is obedience to his command. If he tells me to do something, I believe on him so I will do it.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.
Jesus’ New Commandment gives substance to the things I hope for. When Jesus loves me, based on the New Commandment, a new law is written upon my heart, and that law is equivalent to his will.
I walk by faith, not by sight. Faith contains an unseen component, and that’s what makes it exciting, knowing that nothing is too difficult for God.
When we do something that we know is beyond the constraints of our humanity, we know that we have just seen Jesus touch our lives and we have the joy of having been a partaker of the divine nature. These are experiences that we will remember into eternity.
2 Peter 1:3 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
And the similarities Continue
John 20:21Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
Again, the Father sent Jesus and Jesus sends us. Following that pattern, we are to send others.
The way Jesus handled temptation is the way we can be successful at handling temptation. Read the article on Temptation for details.
We can find success in living the Christian life if we learn to follow Jesus, understanding what that means.
One Final Element of the Pattern
John 3:16For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…
Is this an expression of God’s love for Jesus, or for the world? Is this part of the pattern we aspire to? Assuming the answer is yes, we should respond to his love for us the same way he responded to his Father’s love.
Philippians 2:5Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Jesus had everything and lost everything, yet he did not think of himself as being a victim of a robbery. Let’s rewrite this verse, putting myself in the verse instead of Jesus.
Let this mind be in you, which is also in me: Who, being an American, having God-given rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America as enumerated in the Bill of Rights, do not consider it a violation of my rights to be silenced, choose not to defend myself against those who would do me harm, humble myself in the face of the enemy, and become obedient unto death, rejoice that I am counted worthy to suffer a martyr’s death.
But it does not end there.
Philippians 2:9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth: 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is the path to glory that God had in mind for Jesus. I do not aspire to be exalted in such a fashion, nor do I even know what that would look like in my case. If I am found worthy to fellowship in his sufferings, I will reach toward the prize of the high calling.
Hebrews 11:35Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.
These times will be a test of our faith. May we be found faithful upon his return.
New Wine 