John 15:9-17: The Christian Company

John 15:9‑17  •  12 min. read  •  grade level: 8
 
IN the last discourses of the Lord there is a progressive unfolding of the truth, which prepares the disciples for the setting aside of the earthly Jewish system, with which they had been connected, and the introduction of the new Christian company, heavenly in origin and destiny, though left for a while in the world to represent Christ—the Man in the glory.
As we listen to the Lord’s utterances, we do well to keep in mind the two great facts that underlie the whole teaching of the farewell words. First, the great fact, repeatedly brought before us, that the Lord was about to leave the world in view of taking a new place as Man in heaven; second, the fact that a divine Person—the Holy Spirit—was coming from heaven to earth. Consequent upon these two great facts there would be found in this world a company of believers united to Christ in the glory, and to one another by the Holy Spirit. It is to this new company, represented by the disciples, that the Lord addresses Himself in these last words.
Having revealed to His disciples the desire of His heart that they should bear fruit—the expression of His own lovely character—in a world from which He will be absent, He now presents before them the new Christian company in which alone fruit can be found. Is it not plain that the full expression of fruit demands a company; for many of the graces of Christ could hardly be expressed by a disciple in isolation? Longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and other traits of Christ, can only have their practical expression as we are found in company with others. In the opening verse of John 13 we are told that during the absence of Christ there are those on earth that He calls “His own,” and that He loves them to the end. The fact that He loves them to the end proves that in spite of all failure, they will exist to the end. Outwardly “His own” may be broken and scattered but under His eye they still remain. “The Lord knoweth them that are His.” Happy for those believers who delight in the company of “His own.” If Christ personally were present on earth we should all like to be in His company; but if He is gone we shall surely like to be with those who express something of His character. If, in the midst of all the confusion of Christendom, we can still find a few who, without any pretension, morally set forth something of Christ they will surely be very attractive to the heart that loves Christ; while the great religious systems of men, in which there is so much of man and so little of Christ, will cease to attract.
How important then that we should give earnest heed to a passage that unfolds to us the great moral features of the new Christian company that forms Christ’s Assembly during His absence. In speaking of the Christian company we must beware of narrowing it down to a limited number of saints on the one hand, or enlarging it to include those that are not Christ’s on the other.
(V. 9, 10). The first and greatest mark of the Christian company is the love of Christ. The Christian company is loved by Christ. They may be almost unknown by the world, or if known despised and hated, but they are loved by Christ; and such the depth of His love, that it can only be measured by the Father’s love to Christ. The Father had looked down upon Christ as a Man on earth, and loved Him with all the perfection of divine love; and now Christ, from the glory, looks upon His own in this world, and, through the opened heavens, there streams down upon them the love of Christ.
To such the Lord says, “Abide in My love.” Their enjoyment of their blessings, as well as their power in testimony, will depend upon their abiding in the conscious sense of the love of Christ. Those other solemn words of the Lord, “Thou hast left thy first love,” addressed to the angel of the Church of Ephesus at a later day, indicate the first step on the road that leads to the ruin and scattering of the Christian company on earth. Their next downward step was they ceased to give a united testimony to Christ—the candlestick was removed (Rev. 2:4, 54Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 5Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. (Revelation 2:4‑5)). When Christians walked in the enjoyment of divine love, nothing could stand against their united testimony. When they lost their first love to Christ, through losing the sense of Christ’s love to them, they soon ceased to present a united testimony before the world. How often has the history of the Church as a whole been repeated in local companies of the saints. If, however, any would answer to the Lord’s words and continue in His love, let them take heed to the Lord’s directions, for He points the way. We can only continue in His love as we walk in the path of obedience, “If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love.” The child that pursues his own will, in disobedience to the parent, has very little appreciation, or enjoyment, of the parent’s love.
So with the Christian; it is only as we walk in obedience to the Lord’s revealed mind that we shall retain the enjoyment of the Lord’s love.
It has been well said, that we keep ourselves in the love of Christ “as one would abide in the sunshine by keeping in the place where the sunshine falls. The love of Christ rests on the way of obedience, and shines along the path of His commandments. The keeping His commandments does not create the love, any more than walking in sunny places creates the sunshine; and accordingly the exhortation is not to seek, or merit, or obtain the love, but to remain in it.” The Lord, Himself, was the perfect example of One who trod the path of obedience, for He could say, “I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.”
(V. 11). The second great mark of the Christian company is “joy:” but it is Christ’s joy. The Lord can say, “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” This is not mere natural joy, still less the joy of the world. It is Christ’s joy, a joy that flowed from the “uninterrupted sense and enjoyment of the Father’s love.” There are, indeed, earthly joys which are sanctioned by God and, in their place and time, can be rightly used; but such joys will fail us, “Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away.” The wine of earthly joy runs out. We may indeed “drink of the brook in the way,” but the brook in the way dries up. (Psa. 110:77He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head. (Psalm 110:7); 1 Kings 17:77And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. (1 Kings 17:7).) There is however a fountain of joy within the believer that springs up into life eternal and will never fail. Thus it is the Lord can speak of His joy as that which can “remain” in us. This indeed is a joy that will outlast the passing joys of time—the joy that “remains.” The joy that has its source in the Father’s love will be as lasting as the love from which it springs.
Moreover the joy of which the Lord speaks is not only a joy that remains, but He can say to His disciples it will be “in you.” Being in us it is not like the joy of this world, dependent upon outward circumstances. The Psalmist could say, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and wine increased” (Psa. 4:77Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. (Psalm 4:7)). Earthly joys depend on the prosperity of outward circumstances; the gladness of the Lord is in the heart. In His outward circumstances the Lord was an outcast Man and lonely—the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. In His pathway of perfect obedience to the Father’s will, He abode in the constant realization of the Father’s love, and in that love He found the constant spring of all His joy. We too, in as far as we walk in obedience to the Lord, shall abide in the realization of His love, and, in the sunshine of His love we shall not only find His joy, but, a fullness of joy that leaves no room for grieving over the failure of all things earthly.
(Vv. 12, 13). Thirdly the new company is characterized by love. It is not only loved, but is a company that loves, for this is the Lord’s command, “That ye love one another as I have loved you.” This love is not to be after a human pattern, which ofttimes is a selfish love; but a love that has no less standard than the Lord’s love to us, a love in which there is nothing of self, for the Lord can say, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Here death is viewed, not in its atoning character, but, as the supreme expression of love. Earthly love is often drawn out by something in its object that is lovable. Divine love rises above all our weaknesses and failures and loves in spite of so much that is unlovely. Such is the love of Christ, and such is the love that we should cherish toward one another. A love that is not indifferent to failures and blemishes, but, rising above all that is unlovely, serves its object even to making the greatest possible sacrifice—the laying down of life for a friend. As one has said, “No greater proof of love can be given; no higher standard set.”
(Vv. 14, 15). Fourthly the Christian company is a trusted company enriched with the confidences of Christ and the secret counsels of the Father’s heart. The Lord treats His own not merely as servants, to whom directions are given, but as friends to whom secrets are communicated, for the Lord can say, “All things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.” It is not indeed that the disciples were not servants of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:11Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: (2 Peter 1:1); Jude 11Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: (Jude 1); Rom. 1:11Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Romans 1:1)). But they were more than servants, they were friends, and, if “the privilege of being servants is great, that of being friends is greater.” The servant, as such, “knoweth not what His Lord doeth.” He only knows the task allotted to him, and is only given the needed directions for its performance. The servant who is treated as a friend knows more; he is told the secret purpose of His Master for which the work is undertaken. And yet more, for a friend is one to whom we speak of our affairs knowing they will be of deepest interest to him though not directly concerning him. Thus it was that God treated Abraham—the man who is called the friend of God—He says “Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do.” But again we see that obedience to the Lord’s commands secures the place of a friend, as before it retained the enjoyment of love. We shall know little of the counsels of the Father’s heart unless we walk in obedience to the Lord’s commands. Being in the path of obedience the Lord treats us as friends by the confidences to which He admits us, communicating to us all that He has heard of the Father.
(V. 16). Fifthly the Christian company is a chosen company, as the Lord says, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” The choice was on His side, not ours. Blessed that it is so: had we, in some moment of emotional enthusiasm, chosen the Lord as our Master to go and bring forth fruit, we should, under the stress of circumstances, long since have turned back. The volunteers, that at times crossed the path of the Lord, received but small encouragement, and went but a little way with One who had not where to lay His head, and was ever in reproach with men. But of those He called He could say, “Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations” (Luke 6:13; 9:1; 22:2813And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles; (Luke 6:13)
1Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. (Luke 9:1)
28Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. (Luke 22:28)). Here it is surely no question of the sovereign choice to eternal life, but the love that chose and ordained us to bring forth fruit on earth, and that the fruit should abide. Blessedly fulfilled in the Apostles, for the graces of Christ expressed in their lives have made them examples to the flock for all time.
(V. 16). Lastly the Christian company is a praying and dependent company having access to the Father in the name of Christ. Enjoying the love of Christ, and admitted to the confidences of Christ as His friends, they will be so instructed in His mind, that whatsoever they ask of the Father in the name of Christ, He will be able to give.
Such is the Christian circle according to the mind of the Lord. A circle in which all that is Christ’s can be known and enjoyed, for how sweetly the little word “My” falls on our ears from the lips of the Lord. Connected with His own He can say, “My love,” “My joy,” “My commandments,” “My friends,” “My Father,” and “My name.” Here too, as one has said, is found the “whole history of love in the love of the Father to the Son, the love of Jesus to His people, the love of His people to one another; each stage being both the source and the standard of the next.”
The picture of the Christian company, as thus portrayed by the Lord, is indeed beautiful, but alas we seek in vain to find any general practical expression of the Lord’s desires amongst His people. Even so, divided and scattered though we be, let us not order our walk by any lower standard but each seek individually to answer to the mind of the Lord.
(V. 17). “These things,” of which the Lord has been speaking, were introduced with the love of Christ to His own; their end is to bind the disciples together in love to one another. Thus we can appreciate the fitness of the Lord’s words. “These things I command you, that ye love one another.”