Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 9, 2021) Joh 15:9-17

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

John Gill

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love—Not that their continuance in the heart’s love and affection of Christ depended upon their observation of his commands; for as the keeping of them is not the cause or reason of the saints having an interest in the love of Christ, so it is not the cause or reason of their abiding in it; but to such that observe the commandments of Christ he will continue to make further discoveries of his love, and let them see more clearly and largely what a value he has for them, and how much he loves them: or the sense is, that by keeping the commandments of Christ, his disciples and followers show that they love him, and continue in their affection to him:

Just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love—The commandments of the Father kept by Christ were not only the precepts of the moral law, and the rites of the ceremonial one, which he strictly observed; but the preaching of the gospel, and submitting to the ordinances of it, doing of miracles, and laying down his life for his people; in performing which, as his Father testified his approbation of them, and how strongly he was affected to him, what an abiding he had in his love; so Christ hereby showed his constant and continued love to his Father; and which was done by him, that the world, as well as his disciples, might know how much he loved him; see Joh 14:31.

11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

John Gill

This is my commandment, that you love one another—Christ had been before speaking of his commandments; and he mentions this as the principal one, and to which all the rest may be reduced; for as the precepts of the second table of the moral law may be briefly comprehended in this one duty, love to our neighbour, so all the duties of Christianity, relative to one another, are reducible to this, by love to serve each other. This was the commandment which lay uppermost on Christ’s heart, and which he knew, if attended to, the rest could not fail of being observed. The argument by which, and the manner in which, he presses it, is as before:

As I have loved you—Than which nothing can be more strong and forcible; see Joh 13:34.

13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.

John Gill

You are my friends—This is an application of the foregoing passage, and more, clearly explains it. The character of “friends,” is applied to the disciples of Christ; and belongs, not only to his apostles, but to all that love him, believe in him, and obey him; to whom he has showed himself friendly, by laying down his life for them: for this clearly shows, that Christ had respect in the former words, to his own laying down his life for his people, in consequence of his great love to them; whereby he has made them friends, and who appear to be so by their cheerful obedience to him:

If you do what I command you—Not that their doing of the commandments of Christ interested them in his favour; or made them his friends; or was the reason and motive of his laying down his life for them, and showing himself in such a friendly manner to them: but the sense is, that by observing his commands from a principle of love, they would make it appear that they were his friends, being influenced by his grace, and constrained by a sense of his love in dying for them, to act such a part.

But you, Israel, my servant,

Jacob, whom I have chosen,

the offspring of Abraham, my friend; ISA 41:8

Sotah 31a:7

The Gemara asks: And with regard to Abraham himself, from where do we derive that he acted out of a sense of love? As it is written: “The offspring of Abraham who loved me” (Isa 41:8).

Tractate Gerim 4:3

Beloved are proselytes by God, for Scripture everywhere uses the same epithets of them as of Israel; as it is stated, But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen (Isa 41:8). Jacob is here interpreted as ibid. 44:5, Another will call on the name of Jacob—these are the proselytes of righteousness (cf. towards the end of this tractate). The order of the quotations in V is confused. The term “love” is applied to Israel, as it is stated, “I have loved you,” says the Lord (Mal 1:2), and the term “love” is applied to proselytes, as it is stated, And loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing (Deu 10:18). Israel are called “servants,” as it is stated, For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants (Lev 25:55) and proselytes are called “servants,” as it is stated, To be his servants (Isa 56:6). The term “accepted” is used of Israel, as it is stated, It shall regularly be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord (Exo 28:38), and the term “accepted” is used of proselytes, as it is stated, Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar (Isa 56:7). The term “keeping” is applied to Israel, as it is stated, The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand (Psa 121:5), and the term “keeping” is applied to proselytes, as it is stated, The Lord watches over the sojourners (ibid. 146:9). The term “ministering” is applied to Israel, as it is stated, But you shall be called the priests of the Lord;

they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God (Isa 61:6), and the term “ministering” is applied to proselytes, as it is stated, And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him (ibid. 56:6).

Beloved are proselytes seeing that our father Abraham did not circumcise himself when he was twenty or thirty years of age, but when he was ninety-nine years old (cf. Gen 17:24); since if he had circumcised himself when he was twenty or thirty years old, no Gentile would have become a proselyte when he had passed the age of twenty or thirty. The Holy One, blessed be he, kept putting it off until he had reached ninety-nine years, so as not to close the door in the face of proselytes, and to allow more days and years so as to increase the reward of those who do His will, as it is stated, The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious (Isa 42:21). Our father Abraham called himself a ger, as it is stated, I am a stranger [ger] and a sojourner with you (Gen 22:4). Similarly David, king of Israel, called himself a ger, as it is stated, For I am a sojourner [ger] with you (Psa 39:13), and likewise it states, For we are strangers before you (1Ch 29:15).

Beloved is the land of Israel because it makes proselytes fit to be received. If a man says in the land of Israel, “I am a proselyte,” he is accepted at once, but outside the land of Israel he is not accepted unless his witnesses are with him. Beloved is the land of Israel because it atones for iniquities and transgressions, as it is stated, And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity (Isa 33:24).

And so you find in the four classes that stand before the Holy One, blessed be he, as it is stated, One will say, “I am the Lord’s,” another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, “The Lord’s,” and name himself by the name of Israel (ibid. 44:5). One will say, “I am the Lord’s,”—this alludes to one who belongs wholly to the Omnipresent and has no admixture of sin. Another will call on the name of Jacob—this alludes to the proselytes of righteousness. Another will write on his hand, “The Lord’s”—this alludes to those who repent. And name himself by the name of Israel—this alludes to those who fear heaven.

15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

John Gill

No longer do I call you servants—As they and the rest of the people of God had been, under the legal dispensation; for though they were children, yet differed nothing from servants; and were very much influenced and impressed with a servile spirit, a spirit of bondage to fear, being kept under tutors and governors by a severe discipline; but now Christ being come in the flesh, and being about to lay down his life, and make reconciliation for them, henceforward he would not use, treat, or account them as servants:

For the servant does not know what his master is doing—Designs to do, or is about to do; he is not made privy to all his counsels and purposes; these are only opened to him as necessity requires; which was pretty much the case of the Old Testament church, who, comparatively speaking, were used as servants; and had not the knowledge of the mysteries of grace, and of the counsels of God, as they are now laid open under the gospel dispensation:

But I have called you friends—That is, accounted, reckoned of them, used them as his friends and familiar acquaintance; whom he told all his mind to, and would go on to treat them as such; by leading them more and more, as they were able to bear it, into the designs of his grace, and the doctrines of his gospel: just as Abraham was called the friend of God, and proved to be so, by his not concealing from him the thing he was about to do:

For all I have heard from my Father I have made known to you—Not all that he knew as the omniscient God, for there was no necessity that all such things should be made known to them; but all things which he had delivered to him as man and mediator, by his Father, respecting the salvation of men; all things which he himself was to do and suffer, in order to obtain eternal redemption; and the whole of the gospel, as to the essential and substantial parts of it, they were to preach; for otherwise, there were some things which as yet they were not able to bear, and were reserved to another time, to be made known to them by his Spirit.

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

John Gill

These things I command you—The doctrines which Christ said, as one having authority, concerning the vine and branches; his love to his disciples, in laying down his life for them, and in accounting and using them as friends, and not servants; in choosing, ordaining, and sending them forth, for the ends above mentioned; these were delivered by him with this view, to promote brotherly love among them:

That you will love one another—This lay much upon his heart, he often mentions it; this is the third time it is expressed by him, in these his last discourses; and indeed, since he had declared such strong love and affection for them, it was but right and proper they should love one another; nor does anything more tend to increase mutual love among the saints, than the consideration of their common interest in the unchangeable love of their Lord.