Joy and Personal Love for God; John 15:13-17

Psalm 104:15 ^NASB “And wine which makes man’s heart glad.” God is the one who has supplied wine for the joy of man’s soul. In John 15 Jesus Christ is the vine. God the Father is the vine dresser. The owner of the vineyard is growing the vine and the grapes for the purpose of enjoying the end product. The picture that we have is that the end product is related to joy, as per Ps. 104:15. What happens in the growth process on the vine is that the branch that does not grow is lifted up—they are “in Me”, i.e. in fellowship with the Lord, but they don’t bear fruit. In the second category is the branches that bear fruit and are pruned so that the shoots that were not producing did not take energy that could be used in fruit producing. The first category represents the immature but growing believer who still needs to be lifted up and encouraged so that he can produce fruit down the road. The second category is the believer who is producing fruit but needs to be trimmed and pruned so that the sugar can get to his fruit in order to produce wine for the joy of man’s soul. This is the goal, and why joy is the ultimate in the Christian life. You don’t get there until you have spiritual maturity. This is not something that happens when you are a new believer. Once again, it is not until the plant reaches maturity that you have fruit production. Spiritual production which is reached at maturity is what produces joy. God can then in turn enjoy the fruit of His vineyard. God’s purpose in our fellowship with Him is to bring us to maturity.

The problem today is that most pastors, most Christians, most churches, only have a vision for bringing people to Christianity and not to maturity. Maturity is tough because it produces a challenge before people that is far beyond simply showing up and singing hymns for a few minutes and hearing a 20-minute sermon. It takes time, energy and effort, and a tremendous amount of study in the Scriptures to let our thinking be transformed. One of the greatest problems we have is not just the sin nature and our proclivity to sin but the antagonism of the cosmic system and cosmic thinking that has always permeated our souls. That is why Jesus is going to come back and deal with this enemy in verse 18. From verse 18 on the problem is the world system, and how we deal with the world is to advance in spiritual life; but here he is talking about the joy that is the result of maturity.

So to conclude the discussion of the vine analogy Jesus brings this to a head by saying, “These things have I spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” It is that sweetness from the vine that goes into the fruit. He is going to put His joy in you as a result of doctrine that your joy in the fruit, the cluster of grapes, may be full; PLEROO has the idea of bringing it to completion.

Then He moves from the concept of joy, that inner happiness, the joy of the Lord, to the concept of love. John 15:12 ^NASB “This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”

John 15:13 ^NASB “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” This is a great definition for love: that if you love someone you will sacrifice yourself completely for that person. That is the evidence for that love. This is exemplified in the cross, but that is not what Jesus is talking about here. This is not a cross passage. If you take this passage as referring to what Jesus is going to do on the cross then you have a major problem in the understanding of the atonement. The plural of PHILOS [filoj] is used here for “friends.” Verse 13 speaks of laying down life for “his friends,” not enemies. Romans 5:8 says, “For while we were yet ‘sinners’, Christ died for us.” We were His enemies when He died for us. We were at enmity with Him. If we take verse 13 as being cross related we are going to end up with limited atonement, that Christ died only for the saved. Then He will say in verse 14, “You are my friends, if you do what I command you.” If verse 13 is talking about salvation then this indicates a works salvation. But that can’t be what this is saying because it would be a contrast with many other passages of Scripture. What Jesus is doing here is calling them to discipleship, to commitment in terms of their future ministry as apostles—to put Him first, to lay down their life for Him. They are already believers. If they do what He commands them then they will be at the level of a friend of God because they are fulfilling His purpose and plan for their life. In verse 15 they are His friends because He has revealed everything to them. That is, everything that He was to reveal. God the Father committed to Jesus a specific body of revelation to communicate during the first advent, and this is what Jesus is referring to. Now they are no longer slaves who do not know anything but are friends.

John 15:16 ^NASB “…that you should go and bear fruit.” Here fruit still has the primary meaning of internal character, although Paul does use the word “fruit” in one place in Romans where it might refer to converts. In every other place where the word is used it refers to internal transformation of character. He is calling them here to go and be mature. It is not our responsibility to convert people. It is God’s responsibility to make the truth clear to the unbeliever under the executive ministry of God the Holy Spirit, but it is our job to communicate the gospel. It is not our job to get people saved. We can’t manipulate them to be saved, force them to be saved; that is their decision. “I appointed you” is a reference to their appointment as apostles. He is giving them their marching orders, and it is almost tantamount to the great commission in Matthew 28. He doesn’t appoint us. We have ambassadorship later on but we are not appointed. This appointment is apostolic and doesn’t apply to us at all directly. The prayer promise is directly primarily to the apostles. [17] this is the point of this entire section: abiding so that we can love one another. “This I command you, that you love one another.” This is the mark of the disciple of Christ, the true follower, the mature believer.