Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE DEMAND OF LOVE” Part 2
John 15.12-17
This evening, I bring you the second part of an examination of John 15.12-17. Before we take up where I left off last time, it would be good for us to read the passage together and for me to summarize it for those of you who were not here when I first visited this text.
Please find John 15.12-17 in your Bible or on your Bible app and stand, reading along silently while I read aloud:
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth 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.
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
I previously drew a contrast between the concept of love as it is imagined by the unsaved people of this world who are utterly cut off from spiritual reality and love as it is shown in God’s Word. The way the unsaved of this world envision love is to imagine that it sanctions the unbridled and unrestrained pursuit of personal pleasure. No boundaries. No limitations. And indeed, no judgment of others, regardless of their conduct.
Sadly, many professing believers approach this matter of love without noticing changes in values or practices from their former profession. If that is the case with you, this will be an excellent opportunity for God to bless you with new insights and opportunities for service.
To illustrate the position and practice of the unregenerate, this is how a young couple will justify their willingness to fornicate. Same-sex couples use the same justification to justify their sexual misconduct. They imagine that their pursuit of personal pleasure apart from the sanctity of marriage is acceptable so long as they claim to love one another and feel oozy and gushy toward one another.
Setting aside my affection and love for those enslaved by such sinful confusion, it is necessary to point out that quite apart from anyone’s desire to self-authenticate their actions or motives, there is the matter of rightness and wrongness that is entirely up to God. Call whatever you are doing, love all you want, but if it involves sexual activity outside the boundaries of marriage as outlined in the Bible, it is a sin and cannot be love. God, who is love, has the sole prerogative to show His creatures what real love is and how it is to be expressed.
I illustrate this with the Apostle Paul’s comment in his first letter to the Corinthian Church, 13.5, known to many Christians as the love chapter. Paul wrote that charity, ἀgάph love,
“Doth not behave itself unseemly.”
To refresh your memory, that phrase is found in the middle of the apostle’s inspired description of the expressions of love people are to display for one another. The Greek word translated “behave unseemly,” ἀschmonέw, refers to behaving disgracefully, dishonorably, and indecently.[1] In other words, genuine love will not do certain things. Authentic love is restrained in its expressions of honorable deeds toward God and others.
Remember, as well, I pointed out that not only is the love one has for another human being demanding, but also the love one has for God. How can this be seen? It can be seen in the insistence that God and the Savior must be appropriately expressed by obedience to God and the Savior.
The apostle attested to this some fifty years later in Second John 6, where he wrote,
“And this is love, that we walk after his commandments.”
If what you call love is not demanding, it isn’t love at all. Rather, it is a perversion of love, a delusion about love, and a distortion of the love that reflects the nature of God, Who is love.
Having dealt with verses 12-15 last time, let us take up with verse 16:
Verse 16:
“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”
We will examine this verse a phrase at a time:
First, the phrase “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” We recognize that this chapter is steeped in love, is concerned with those who love, shows some of the responsibilities of love, and shows the context in which one’s status is changed from being a servant of Christ to being a friend of Christ because of love. It is in this context that we find our verse.
In first-century Palestine, it was common for disciples to attach themselves to a particular rabbi for instruction, not vice versa.[2] In all likelihood, Saul of Tarsus became a student of Gamaliel in this way.[3] However, the Savior demonstrates that He was not tradition-bound by emphatically stating that such was not the case with the relationship He established with His men:
“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.”
Consider three implications of our Lord’s statement, reminding ourselves once more that the statement was uttered in the context of love:
First, the Lord Jesus Christ chooses His disciples. That is a crucial fact to recognize. The implications are enormous. Three things to notice in this regard:
First, notice the timing of His choosing His disciples. Three years earlier, at the beginning of His earthly ministry, which began when He was baptized by John the Baptist at the south end of the Jordan River, the Lord Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness for forty days. When He returned from His wilderness temptations, He was pointed out by John the Baptist to Andrew and John, who then recruited their brothers.[4] Sometime later, the Lord Jesus Christ returned to Galilee for the first time since the beginning of His public ministry and went to Capernaum. Those He had called to be His first disciples He called once more, Matthew 4.19. The third calling of the first of Christ’s disciples is found in Luke 5.1-11.
However, these three events in the lives of the earliest of Christ’s disciples are not the records of the Lord Jesus choosing them. They are the historical records of Him informing them they had been chosen to follow Him, the times when He communicated to them His decision that they were to be His disciples. What is crucial to us is the timing of Christ’s decision to make those men, or anyone, to be His disciples. He clearly stated that He makes the choice. The question for us to ask is, when does the Lord Jesus Christ make the choice?
Perhaps we can best answer this question by searching out when God the Father made His choice. Ephesians 1.4 speaks of God’s choosing:
“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”
Second Thessalonians 2.13 also speaks of God’s choosing:
“God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”
Second Timothy 1.9 reminds Timothy of the timing of God’s purpose to save and to call us:
“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”
Since the Lord Jesus said, “I and my Father are one,”[5] and since He also said, “I do always those things that please him,”[6] and since believers are “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,”[7] which takes place in eternity past, is it conceivable that the timing of Christ’s choosing does not coincide with the timing of God the Father’s choosing? I don’t think so. The Father and the Son did their choosing at the same time. Thus, while Christ’s choice was made known during the chosen person’s lifetime, the time when Christ did the choosing was an eternity past. Some would argue Christ’s decision was contingent upon each individual’s act of will, but I find no support for that in God’s Word.
Next, notice the basis of Christ’s choosing of His disciples. If Christ’s choosing took place in eternity past, on what basis must His choice have been made? It could not have been made based on anyone’s good works or any merit, since it was long before anyone existed. This is consistent with what the Bible teaches about salvation being by grace through faith and not of works lest any man should boast, Ephesians 2.8-9:
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
As well, let us not forget Isaiah 64.6:
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”
Our best deeds are nasty in God’s sight, and we are incapable of meriting salvation.
Therefore, while the Lord Jesus Christ must have reasons for His choices since He is not arbitrary or capricious, His reasons for choosing who He chooses are unknown to us except for the certainty that the reasons do not lie in us. Since salvation is by grace, and since the choices the Lord Jesus made took place in eternity past, there can be no possible argument that anyone whose sins are forgiven in any way deserves so wonderful a gift from God as Jesus Christ for a Savior. The timing of Christ’s choosing is an eternity past. The basis of Christ’s choosing is purely a matter of God’s grace, His unmerited favor.
Third, notice the necessity of His choosing. I do not suggest that Jesus Christ has to save anyone, since that would contradict salvation by grace. The Lord Jesus fulfills no obligation by saving sinners. I am asserting that if Jesus Christ chooses to save any sinner graciously, He must decide who He will save.
Why so? There are two irrefutable reasons why my Lord Jesus must choose who He will save if He decides to save: First, Jesus Christ has to choose because no sinner will select Christ Jesus himself unless God has influenced him. Romans 3.10-12 explains why this must be so:
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Isaiah’s prediction from centuries earlier is fulfilled in each unaffected sinner’s life, Isaiah 53.3: “He [Jesus] is despised and rejected of men.”
The second reason why Jesus Christ has to choose who He saves is because of every sinful man’s inability. What spiritual accomplishment can a sinner who is dead in trespasses and sins actually perform? Dead in trespasses and sins is how the lost are described in Ephesians 2.1. Moreover, in Romans 5.6 the Apostle Paul writes,
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Thus, unsaved people are spiritually powerless. There are so many other passages reinforcing what we have seen here that even if sinful individuals would choose Christ, they could not choose Christ because of their spiritual deadness and impotence. To sum up the spiritual reality, a sinner would not select Christ if he could, and he could not choose Christ if he would. Therefore, for anyone to be saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ had to do the choosing in eternity past.
However, the discovery of who Jesus Christ chose is revealed by who chooses Jesus. I am not trying to be clever. I am pointing out that while God has revealed to no one who Jesus Christ chose before time began, Christ’s selections are revealed by the eventual responses of elect sinners to the Gospel message. Using picturesque language in which those Christ has chosen are described as sheep, the Lord Jesus speaks to this matter in John 10.27-28:
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Only those chosen before time are designated sheep by the Savior. Yet, only when those chosen respond to the Gospel, identified in this passage as His voice, is eternal life given and public knowledge that they are Christ’s sheep established. Allow me to elaborate on how what is termed conversion[8] takes place, in four ways:
First, it takes place utilizing God’s Word. No sinner becomes a believer in Jesus Christ, no sinner’s sins are forgiven, and a lost person cannot come to faith in Jesus Christ apart from the ministry of God’s Word. This is irrefutably established in the epistle of James, the first of the New Testament books to be written, in James 1.18:
“Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”
Thus, for the new birth to occur and for sinners to turn from their sins and turn to Christ in faith, the Word of God must somehow be involved. There is no salvation without exposure to the sinner of some portion of God’s Word.
Next, it takes place through Gospel preaching. Jesus Christ commanded that the Gospel be preached to every creature, Mark 16.15. Sinners who appropriately respond to the presentation of the Gospel through preaching are saved from their sins. Such is both declared and recorded in the New Testament. In First Corinthians 1.17-18, we catch a glimpse of the importance of the means of spreading the Gospel by preaching:
17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
In Second Timothy 4.1-4 Paul exhorted young Timothy in light of the importance and place of Gospel preaching in God’s plan:
1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Third, it takes place utilizing the Spirit’s wooing and regenerating. Though the Lord Jesus Christ announced that He chooses, and though it is clear that He paid the price on Calvary’s cross and is thereby the only savior of sinful men’s souls, Scripture points out three indispensable roles the Holy Spirit plays in the salvation of every sinner. In his second letter to the Corinthian congregation, the Apostle Paul described the Holy Spirit, in Second Corinthians 4.13, as the Author of faith.[9] Knowing that one’s reconciliation to God is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit’s ministry is vital to every sinner’s conversion. It was to Nicodemus that the Lord Jesus spoke of the Spirit’s role in the new birth, in John 3.3-8:
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
It would be to His disciples that our Lord spoke of the Spirit’s work of wooing sinners, in John 16.7-11, showing sinners their need of Christ:
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
Thus, the supernatural ministry of persuading sinners that they need the salvation that only Jesus Christ provides, providing the required faith to trust Christ,[10] as well as the miracle of the new birth that gives life to the spiritually dead sinner corresponding to them placing their Spirit-given faith in Christ, is the indispensable work of the Holy Spirit. While the sinner must look to the Lord Jesus and only the Lord Jesus as the Object of saving faith, nothing happens without the cooperative involvement of the blessed Holy Spirit.
Finally, employing the convert’s faith in Christ. When the man of God preaches the Word of God and lifts the Son of God in the Gospel message, the Spirit of God applies the Word of God to the sinner’s heart. Some of those who hear the Gospel respond in faith, believing by coming to Christ, trusting Him, and embracing Him as the sufficient savior of their souls. This happens when God gives the gift of faith to the sinner as he hears God’s Word.[11] Romans 10.17 declares,
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Of those sinners who hear God’s Word preached, those chosen “in Christ Jesus before the world began” will be born again by the Spirit of God and eventually come to Christ, thereby revealing that they are Christ’s sheep now given eternal life. How wonderful it is when God brings together the Word of God through the preaching of the Gospel, the person of the blessed Holy Spirit, and faith in Jesus Christ as the only savior of sinful men’s souls to bring about the salvation of that person who God’s Son chose before the foundation of the world. It is all done in love, and the result is a saved sinner who will forever be a trophy of God’s grace through Jesus Christ in love.[12]
My experience has been that there seem always to be those who cry out in protest to this, “What you say violates man’s free will!” However, I have never met a believer who protested that he was saved from his sins against his will, and I have never heard of such a person. I am sure someone will dredge up an anecdote of a person who tried to commit suicide by drowning himself and objected to being rescued by a good Samaritan or lifeguard. However, such does not apply to salvation since unsaved sinners are already dead in their trespasses and sins.
The fact is that Jesus Christ is the sovereign God, the Second Person of the Triune Godhead, Who chose unworthy sinners to receive His gracious salvation and benefit from His precious shed blood eons before any sinner ever existed. Had the Son of God not made such choices, no one sinner would have turned from their sins to a welcoming Savior. Therefore, let no one protest by crying out, “Unfair!” The word to use instead is “Grace” or perhaps “Mercy.” What the unsaved say is of no significance to me. What the believer says is of little importance to me. However, what the Word of God says should be decisive for each of us. In God’s Word, Jesus Christ said,
“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.”
If you are one of the elect, Jesus Christ has chosen you. If you are not one of the elect, Jesus Christ has not chosen you. However, the only way sinners will ever know on this side of eternity if Jesus Christ chose them is when they choose Jesus Christ by responding to the Gospel message and turning from their sins to Jesus Christ in faith believing. If anyone within the sound of my voice is lost, I urge you to choose Jesus Christ today.
We turn now to the phrase “and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit.” When we focused on the first portion of John 15.16 and the word translated “chosen,” we dealt with the Greek word ἐklέgomai, which refers to selecting someone or something for oneself.[13] The Lord Jesus Christ indeed pointed out to His remaining apostles that He chose them and that they did not choose Him. The selections made by the Lord Jesus Christ were selections made in eternity past. Still, they were selections no one knew anything about until those who had been selected responded to the Gospel message. Thus, sinners discover that the Lord Jesus Christ has chosen them when, in response to the Gospel, they choose Christ.
This phrase reveals a second glorious truth. The Lord Jesus Christ not only chose them, but He also ordained that they go and bring forth fruit. Thus, we see our Lord circling back in His conversation with these men to the allegory in John 15.1-6, in which He spoke of the true vine, the husbandman, the branches, and the fruit.
I would like us to hover over this word “ordained” momentarily. The word is a form of the Greek tίthemi. It ranges in meaning from placing something in a particular location to depositing something somewhere, assigning a task to someone, or changing someone’s experience or condition.[14] One suggests the possibility that the Lord Jesus Christ was expressing a Semitic concept to His men, similar to expressions used in the Old Testament for God’s appointment of Abraham as the father of many nations (Genesis 17.5 and Romans 4.17), the ordination of the Levites (Numbers 8.10), and when Moses commissioned Joshua (Numbers 27.18).[15]
How do we understand what the Lord Jesus Christ meant when He made this statement to His men? I suggest we pay attention to how the Lord previously used the word and how the word is used elsewhere in the New Testament. Look back to John 15.13, where the Lord uses this same Greek word, there translated “lay down”:
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
As well, notice Acts 13.47, where the word is translated “have set”:
“For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.”
Lastly, First Timothy 1.12, where the word is translated “putting”:
“And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.”
People frequently feel that the initiative concerning spiritual matters is with them. However, the Lord Jesus Christ assured His followers that such is not the case. As usual, they did not choose Him when disciples attached themselves to a particular rabbi. Students worldwide delight in seeking out the teacher of their choice and attaching themselves to them. But our Lord’s disciples did not hold the initiative.
On the contrary, it was the Savior who chose them. And not only did He choose them, but He also assigned to them their task. And what was their task? What is our task? It is twofold. First, we are to go. The first function of Christ’s disciples, then and now, is that we are to be emissaries of Christ. The second function, then and now, is that we should “bear fruit” verse 2. This is not a decision that you and I make, just as it was not a decision Christ’s apostles made. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ does the choosing, so does the Lord Jesus Christ do the ordaining. Are we to do nothing? Not at all. What we do is the obeying. What we do is the implementing of our Lord’s will for our lives. What we do is go and bear fruit.
Third, in John 15.16, the phrase “and that your fruit should remain.” This short phrase provides two issues for our consideration:
First, in this phrase is the word “fruit,” a word used five times by our Lord in the first five verses of this chapter and six times in the first eight verses. The word “fruit” is central to our Lord’s allegory of the true vine, the husbandman, the branches, the fruit produced by the pruned branches, and the fruit not produced by the branches that are removed entirely and burned.
The question that needs to be asked is, what is the “fruit” to which our Lord refers in His allegory? Though it is generally understood that the most likely meaning of bearing “fruit” is bringing sinners to Christ, the “fruit” of new believers in Christ, our Lord is intentionally imprecise about what “fruit” is here. He leaves it to the New Testament epistles to further clarify what “fruit” means, with spiritual “fruit” of some sort being His evident design.
The New Testament identifies a number of different types of spiritual fruit. In Galatians 5.22-23 the Apostle Paul identifies a type of spiritual fruit he labels “the fruit of the Spirit”:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Contrasted with “the works of the flesh,” which are evil deeds that are a natural outgrowth of a person’s sinful nature, there are two things about the fruit of the Spirit, the supernatural outgrowth of a believer’s indwelling by the Holy Spirit. I want to clarify: First, the fruit of the Spirit is singular, meaning that it is one thing. Galatians 5.19-21 are listed plural types of sinful behavior. The fruit of the Spirit, on the other hand, is singular. There are not fruits of the Spirit, but fruit of the Spirit.
Next, while the works of the flesh are deeds that are done (Paul writes, “they which do such things” in verse 21), the fruit of the Spirit is a single thing (again, fruit, not fruits) that is described from a series of different perspectives that provide for us a description of personality traits that comprise a believer’s Spirit-affected personality.
In Philippians 1.11, the apostle identifies another type of fruit as “the fruits of righteousness.” Modern translations reflect their inferior Greek texts by translating this as fruit, singular when it should be fruits, plural.[16] Thus, Paul is referring in this verse to righteous deeds as the conduct that is produced by righteousness, deeds that are the direct outgrowth of a virtuous nature.
In Hebrews 13.15 we see that praising God is yet another spiritual fruit, the fruit of our lips expressing thanks to Him:
“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”
Then there is Romans 1.13 and 15.28, both describing the fruit of financial offerings given to advance the cause of Christ:
1.13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
15.28 When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.
Though many think that these verses refer to souls brought to Christ, Paul specifically points out in Romans that he preached the Gospel only in virgin territory where others did not preach the Gospel.[17] Careful attention to context establishes that fruit in these two verses refers to giving monetary offerings. Giving money to the cause of Christ is spiritual fruit.
Thus, fruit in John 15.16 should be seen expansively to include souls brought to Christ, giving that is used to finance the spread of the Gospel to reach souls for Christ. Thirdly, personality traits produced by the Spirit of God termed the fruit of the Spirit, righteous deeds reflecting the new nature, and expressions of praise and thanks given to God. Each of these five is appropriately recognized as spiritual fruit produced by branches that abide in the True Vine.
But there is a second thing to notice in this phrase. The fruit they will bear is not transient but will remain, with the word translated “remain” being the same Greek word for abiding, mέnw. Reflect on this for a moment. Fruit that remains is quite the opposite of someone who makes a profession of faith in Christ, is baptized, serves God for a while, and then begins to cool down, back off, and become increasingly scarce. That is not what is meant by fruit that remains or abides.
Granted, every Church will experience those who fall away. Christ’s allegory at the beginning of John 15 includes just such a tragic type of occurrence with the removal of unproductive branches. But what about ministries that are characterized by large numbers of professions of faith, many baptisms, fervent activity for a short periods of time, and then dramatic drop-offs of service and attendance as a characteristic of that Church’s ministry? Some describe it as having a very large front door, whereby people come into the Church, but a very large back door, with many of those who are coming also eventually going out.
As applied to the individual who is a genuine Christian, this also suggests that the various kinds of spiritual fruit will always be present in the Christian’s life. Righteous deeds, faithful giving, verbal praise and thanksgiving, Christ-like personality, and involvement in bringing others to Christ will always, in varying degrees, be part of the real Christian’s life.
And, finally, in John 15.16, the phrase, “that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” This is a portion of Scripture that Charismatics and Pentecostals have twisted beyond recognition, and it’s been my observation over the last forty-plus years in the Gospel ministry that almost everyone else in the Christian community has begun to follow suit in thinking that this phrase means what the Name It and Claim It people think it means, or pretend it means in order to take advantage of their donors.
I don’t think Kenneth Copeland really believes what he says it means. I don’t think Creflow Dollar really believes what he says it means. I don’t think Joel Osteen really believes that it means what he says it means. I don’t think T. D. Jakes actually believes that it means what he says it means. I think that they say that it means something so they can get people to give money to them. That’s my opinion, privately held, publicly expressed.
One of the principle features of sound Biblical interpretation is to pay careful attention to the context in which a verse or phrase is found, and also to withhold your final conclusion about what something means until you have considered it in light of what the rest of the Bible teaches.
With that in mind, reflect with me on what the Lord Jesus Christ said only moments before in John 15.7:
“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
Does this verse not give you the distinct impression that the Lord Jesus Christ is assuring His apostles that the guarantee of requests being granted is derived from those requests coming from someone who is abiding in Christ, with Christ’s words also abiding in him? You cannot separate verses 16 from verse 7. Thus, there is no promise here of a Gulfstream jet or a mansion with a private air strip near it for the asking. How do I know? Think about this, folks. Someone who abides in Christ, with Christ’s words abiding in him, would never ask for such things. You have never known a spiritual Christian to ask for such things. That’s not the way spiritual people pray.
Add to that contextual consideration the fact that the verb used by the Savior in this last phrase of John 15.16 is a subjunctive form of the verb didwmi, meaning the Lord’s answer to the request is conditional upon the spiritual situation of the person doing the praying.
As well, let us consider John 14.13, which words the Lord spoke a bit earlier after leaving the Upper Room:
“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
Here we begin to see that to ask God for something in Jesus’ name is akin to abiding in Christ and Christ’s words abiding in you while asking. Then there is John 16.23 and 26, spoken just a few minutes after the occasion of our text:
23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you.
Thus, it is evident that the Lord Jesus Christ’s intent at the end of John 15.16 was not to provide a blanket guarantee for praying Christians to expect to get anything they want when they pray for it. It was a promise that the believer who abides in Christ, the child of God who approaches God and asks in Jesus’ name, will undoubtedly receive what is desired because what is desired is God’s will and because God rewards His children who abide in Christ and who ask in Jesus’ name. As a result of this, the Christian who seeks to glorify God is informed, instructed, and encouraged in this matter of prayer.
If there was one takeaway from John 15.12-15, it is that love is demanding because of loving commands. If there is one takeaway from John 15.16, it is that love is demanding because of a loving choice made in the past purposed that the ones chosen would prayerfully bear fruit that remains.
I am out of time and not finished with the passage. Lord willing, I will wrap things up with John 15.17 next time.
__________
[1] Bauer, Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), page 147.
[2] G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, Commentary On The New Testament Use Of The Old Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), page 493.
[3] Acts 22.3
[4] John 1.37-42
[5] John 10.30
[6] John 8.29
[7] First Peter 1.2
[8] Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki & Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), page 30.
[9] See footnote for Second Corinthians 4.13 Paul Barnett, The Second Epistle To The Corinthians - NICNT, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), page 240.
[10] 2 Corinthians 4.13
[11] Ephesians 2.8-9
[12] Ephesians 1.4-5
[13] Bauer, pages 305-306.
[14] Bauer, pages 1003-1004.
[15] Beale & Carson, page 493.
[16] NASB (1977), NIV (1984), ESV (2001), Nestle-Aland (1979), UBS (1983)
[17] Romans 15.20
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