As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
We are not called to be receivers only, not vessels that are filled to the top and then carefully sealed. We are called to reciprocate the love we first receive from Jesus. He loved us first, but does not insist that we remain in his love. We must signal our desire for that relationship by means of his commandments. But this is not the same as a king saying he will favor subjects who keep the laws. Such laws may be arbitrary, and not at all related to relationship. But the commandments of Jesus are all about living out a healthy loving relationship, first with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, second with the creatures they have made, and finally, third, with creation as for the sake oneself and others. It isn't as though Jesus is a political leader making promises to try to boost the economy, but who cares little or not at all for those to whom he makes such promises. Jesus only cares about the economy at all because it can affect those who matter to him. He isn't interested in anything in an abstract and arbitrary way.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.
The reason Jesus gives us commandments, and not merely suggestions or requests, is because he wants us to remain in his love, and because to do otherwise has consequences. It isn't as though love is some wishy-washy concept with no impact on reality or day-to-day life. To fail in ones obligation to love has repercussions, for oneself and for others. Love is not defined by wishful thinking but rather by universal laws that dictate that things will only function as they are meant to function when we make of ourselves a gift and do not try to hoard what is given to us. This is true in the created order because it points to the reality of the uncreated life of the Trinity.
I have told you this so that my joy might be in you
and your joy might be complete.
Jesus did not command us to remain in his love merely to avoid negative consequences. He did so above all so that we would be fully able to receive the gifts he himself desired to give us. If we choose to leave relationship with him then he can no longer fill us with his Holy Spirit, or the love, joy, and peace, that are his fruits (see Galatians 5:22). He reminded us that this joy could only result from his own thick conception of love, not the thin, worldly, sentimental version. We are called to love in a way that would seem to generate anything but joy, because it leads inevitably to the cross, just as it did for Jesus. We are called, not only to love others as ourselves, which is often in fact deficient, but rather, much greater, as Jesus himself loved us. It is a love that necessarily requires laying down ones life for one's friends. And this group is not narrowly defined, for, like Jesus, we too must seek to make friends even with our enemies. But although we are called to pour ourselves out, and give our very lives to bear fruit, there is nevertheless joy, the greatest possible joy, on the far side of the sacrifice.
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (see Hebrews 12:2).
We become true friends with Jesus when we come to understand him. But this is not a mere understanding of his preferences or hobbies, but rather of that which matters most to his heart. And this is to be an experiential knowledge, one gained by living our lives together with Jesus, as he himself demonstrates what it means to truly love, both by showing his love for us, and by giving us the grace to give his own love to others.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
The only way we can really know what the master is doing is when he himself does it in our hearts. It is too exulted for mere intellectual comprehension. We draw lower, created things to us by knowing them. But we ourselves are drawn upward to higher things by love.
Like Matthias, we too are meant to be witnesses to the resurrection, which is the ultimate victory of love over hopelessness and despair. To do this we need to walk ever more closely with Jesus himself, allowing the grace of our baptism to bear fruit in our lives.
Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men
who accompanied us the whole time
the Lord Jesus came and went among us,
beginning from the baptism of John
until the day on which he was taken up from us,
become with us a witness to his resurrection.
Matthias had a particular calling. But we are all called to be the friends of Jesus, no matter how poor and lowly we may be at the beginning.
Phillips, Craig, and Dean - Friend Of God
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