The Word
Vol. 9 No.
23
Upper Room Discourse
John 15:10-11
This week we note verses
10 and l1 where we are given the means for capacity to love with the result
of having the joy of Jesus Christ. How do we have capacity for love and joy? “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.”
The
“if” statement (maybe you will and maybe you will not) answers the question as
to how we “abide” in the love of Christ. It is also indicating the volition of the
individual; indicating your attitude toward Bible doctrine. “Commandments” is ENOTLE referring to the scriptures, the Mind of Jesus Christ (1Cor
“Keep”
is TEREO that means “to keep, observe, obey, keep under guard.” It’s the overall action of
consistently guarding and applying the Word of God in your soul.
We must remain in Jesus’
love by exactly the same means which He has always remained in the His Father’s
love. That is, obedience to the Father’s Will and Plan as now given to us in
His Word. That total obedience is what Jesus testified too as noted in verse 10
and is the type of obedience we too must have in order to abide in His Love.
Abiding in the Love of
Christ is a continuing communion with Him. It is maximizing your fellowship
with Christ on a daily basis.
Next we have “you
will abide in My love”, the
Future, Active, Indicative, of MENO. This
is the result of guarding God’s Word in your soul; YOU WILL abide in the love
of Jesus Christ. Then we have, “just
as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love”, here Jesus is referring to His life as
the prototype for the unique spiritual life of the Church Age believer. He is
our example which we must follow.
Our complete translation of
Principles of Jesus
Christ as the Prototypical Spiritual Life
The humanity of Christ, during
His incarnation and First Advent, utilized the prototype spiritual life that
relied on Divine power in the fulfillment of the Father's Plan for the
incarnation. During the First Advent, the humanity of Christ executed God's
Plan in the filling of the Spirit and with the Word of God resident within His soul
inside God’s Power System (
When our Lord operated inside
God’s Power System, (Bible Doctrine in the Soul and Filled with the Holy
Spirit), He was abiding in the love of God the Father. The love of God the
Father means in Grace He provided everything necessary for Jesus Christ to
overcome sin and be victorious all the way through the Cross. That same love
and power is also available to every Church Age believer. The operational-type
spiritual life is now delegated so that the same Divine power that Christ had
is available to Church Age believers for the fulfillment of God's Plan for the
Church Age.
Observing God’s mandates means
procedure which is doing a right thing in a right way. This means that the
believer has residence, function, and momentum inside God’s Power System (
Eph 1:19-22, “And what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward
us who believe. These are in
accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20which He
brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His
right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and
authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in
this age but also in the one to come. 22And He put all things in
subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23which
is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
Then in verse 11
we have, “These things I have spoken
to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made
full.” Remember that Love goes back to “the abiding life” in verse 7, where the
abiding life is found in the believer who is Occupied with the Person and Word
of Jesus Christ, which means making Bible Doctrine the number priority within
your soul. Therefore, the picture is set for us: Having the Word in your soul,
vs. 7, means you will have the AGAPE love of God in your soul, which results in
having the Joy of Jesus Christ, +H inside your soul, vs. 9-10. So you see it
all goes back to Bible Doctrine resident within your soul. Based on the
condition of your soul you will express the love of God, and as a result have
the Joy or +H of God. As Jesus states later in
A. The concept of joy is
taken from the corrected translation of
1. There is
encouragement from being in union with Christ.
2. There is comfort
from virtue love because you have entered the door of hope on God’s agenda into
the unique spiritual life,
3. There is
fellowship with the Holy Spirit per
4. Being merciful
and compassionate is a part of joy or happiness.
5. Bringing your
joy to completion is thinking on the other side of the door of hope; the
integrity envelope of personal love for God the Father and impersonal love for
all mankind.
6. Your one
objective is maximum glorification of God.
B. Definition.
1. Etymology:
a. The Hebrew noun
SIMCHAH means joy or gladness and is synonymous with the Greek word CHARA.
b. CHARA comes from the Greek noun CHAIRO which is a primary verb that
means, “to rejoice, or be glad.” Therefore, the noun CHARA means, “joy,
gladness, or happiness.”
c. Joseph Thayer defines the
New Testament usage of CHARA as: joy, gladness, (the joy received from you, the
cause or occasion of joy, or of persons who are one’s joy).
d. The Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament, Kittel, Vol IX, page 369, notes that the
“eschatological significance of joy is connected with hope.” Therefore it is
part of your confident expectation of what God has awaiting for you,
2. Joy is a system
of thinking doctrine and is accompanied by enthusiasm for that doctrine. Joy is
thinking not emoting (exaggerated emotions).
3. Joy is good
thinking resulting in good emotional response to that thinking. Joy is doctrine
circulating in the seven compartments in the stream of consciousness. Then as
you go through the gate of hope on God’s agenda it eventuates in sharing the
happiness of God.
4. This joy has a
response which includes animation in the soul, enthusiasm, and exultation.
Exultation is a liveliness of the spiritual victories that will come to you and
with these victories the proper and true Biblical elation as a response to
doctrine, as the use of doctrine in perception, metabolization, and
application.
5. Joy must be
defined as cognition. Joy is a system of thinking related to Bible doctrine.
From this cognition we have a response. The emotion is not the
joy but the response to it.
6. Joy is inner
liveliness caused by response to metabolized Bible doctrine in the soul’s
stream of consciousness. Joy is perception and metabolization of Bible
doctrine. Joy is animated thinking.
7. Joy is the
reality of the spiritual life in the thinking of your soul. Joy is related to
Christian fellowship in
8. Joy begins in
spiritual childhood with the deployment of the basic Problem Solving Devices as
a result of perception of basic Bible doctrine. When the believer has confident
expectation (hope) in God’s plan and purpose for his life and continues his
momentum in the application of Divine integrity, he attains the objective of
joy, which is synonymous with “Sharing the Happiness of God.” So joy begins in
spiritual childhood but is enhanced and reaches its operational function as you
move from orientation to the Word of God to confident expectation in the Plan
of God into Divine integrity – Spiritual Maturity status.
9. Joy is both
Sharing the Happiness of God (+H) and the invigorating response and lively
excitement related to both the pleasure and exultation of possessing both an
eternal and temporal relationship with God. Sharing the Happiness of God is joy
brought to completion.
10. Joy is also the
application of virtue and values in Occupation with Christ and rapport with
God.
If you would
like more information on this subject,
you may
listen to lessons 10-060 through 10-062.
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