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STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT FOR INDIVIDUAL MEDITATION AND FAMILY WORSHIP | ......................................................... ............................. I.. ..I.inn....Iiiiiiniiniii[n j Tuesday, August i. John 15 :7 -11. ■ | By R. A. TORREY
- ing in Him, and really having His life in us. When we thus abide and bear fruit and continue in His word, then He loves us with just the same kind o f love and just the same degree o f love as the Father loved Him. In this wonderful love we must abide, or continue. The way to abide in this love is by keeping His commandments. This is the way in which He Himself abode in the Father’s love. And then comes joy, fullness o f joy, our joy filled full. (This is the force o f the word translated “might be full” in the Authorized Version, “ ful filled” in the Revised Version. “ Fulfilled” is better than “be full,” but “filled full” would be a still more exact rendering o f the Greek). The joy that we get by abid ing in Christ and so bearing fruit, is Christ’s own joy ( “ m y joy” ), i. e., it is the joy that Christ Himself not only gives, but pos sessed. The 1 world has no such joy as that to give. Note how everything in these verses is related to Jesus —"my Father” (1, 8 , 10), “my words” (v. 7), "my disciples” (v. 8 ), "my love” (v. 9), “my command ments” (v. 10 ), “my joy” (v. 1 1 ). Wednesday, August 2. John 15 :12 , 13. Verses 12 to 17 form a complete section by themselves, beginning and closing with Christ’s one all-conclusive commandment for His disciples, “ LOVE ONE ANOTHER .” These verses however, are closely connected with the verses that go before, for the secret o f loving one another is abiding in Christ Jesus, and with what follows, for over against the love o f all true disciples o f Christ for one another is the hatred o f the world for Christians. In verse 12 our Lord repeats His law for believers, “Love one another, even a s j have loved you.” His love to us is the standard o f measure o f our love to one another. The
In verse seven we have one o f the moSt wonderful statements in the Bible on the subject o f prayer; in fact, one o f the most wonderful statements made on any subject. W e find here the whole secret o f the prayer that is omnipotent, that gets whatsoever it asks (R. V .). There is no need to qualify the words o f the Lord Jesus as here found. He says, and He means what He says, that i f we abide in Him, and His words abide in us, that ask whatsoever we will it shall be done unto, us. What it is to abide in Him we have already seen. When we thus abide in Hina, having no life o f our own, but letting Him live His life out in us and through us, then our prayer itself is a manifestation o f the Christ life, and it is Christ praying through us, and the Father heartth Him always (ch. 11:42), and so He will hear our prayers that are o f that sort. But notice there is something else mentioned in this verse beside ou r abiding in Him, and that is that H is words abiding in us. It is through the medium o f His words that Jesus comes to abide in us (cf. ch. 14:23). It is vain to talk o f Christ abiding in us if we are neglecting His words. Meditation upon His word, laying up His word in our hearts, obeying that word absolutely, is one o f the secrets o f mightt praying. Three great things are mentioned in this chapter as resulting from abiding in Jesus Christ: (1) Power to bear much fruit. (2) Power to get in prayer whatsoever we ask. (3) Fullness o f joy (v. 11). By our abiding in Him and thus bearing much fruit, not only we are blessed, but the Father is “glorified,” and so we become His disciples. Real dis- cipleship means more than a mere profes-' sion o f faith.in the Lord Jesus, it means the fruit-bearing that comes from really abid-
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