IN the fifteenth of John and the chapters connected with it, we get, not the sovereignty of grace towards us, but our responsibility and blessing as we walk in it. The Lord is looking for our walk as disciples consequent upon our position as clean through His word.
He has put us in a certain position in which, through grace, we are to glorify Him. It is not here: " We love him because he first loved us;" but " He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father." He puts us in the place of favor, and of consequent responsibility; but it is not that there is any doubt, for He adds, " As I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." In His own path, where He enjoyed His Father's love, He had always unbounded joy, and it was a path of undivided obedience, and we should walk so as to have Christ's joy fulfilled in us.
In "the vine" He is looking at Himself on earth. Of course I have unclouded joy belonging to my place in heaven; that is another thing; when looked at in Christ in heavenly places, we are simply perfect. But it is on earth that He would have His joy abide in us, and that our joy might be full. All through He puts our responsibility first. It is " abide in me," not " I will abide in you." He calls on us to abide in Him that He may abide in us.
It is not a question of safety, or of God's keeping them to the end, it is entirely one of fruit-bearing. We are called in the active reverence of our hearts to stay continually with Christ, to abide in Him, to be constantly drawing from Him in active diligence of heart. The " I in you" is consequent on our abiding in Him. That we should bring forth much fruit is what He is thinking of, and He presses it upon us, that we can produce nothing without direct supplies from Himself. But abiding in Him (ver. 14), I get guidance of heart, and the words of Christ direct all my thoughts.
(J. N. D.)