These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
Jesus spoke so that His own joy would remain in His followers and their joy would be made full by abiding in Him and continuing in His love through keeping His commandments, even as He kept His Father's commandments. His joy was His forward-looking delight that His humiliation, suffering and death would not be in vain but would glorify the Father's name, restore the image of God in humanity, and bring pardon and everlasting life. The joy He gives is pure, health-giving and enduring, not shallow gaiety or worldly amusement, and it does not depend on earthly circumstances but flows from connection with Him. It can remain even amid disappointment, dark trials and perplexity by looking to Him in prayer and trust, and serving and obeying Him never requires a gloomy, sorrowful life, for He delights in the happiness of His people. Full joy belongs with bearing much fruit to the Father's glory, reflecting Christ's character in kind words and loving help, and doing His works of compassion to bring others to the truth.
Setting and Context
These words were spoken alone to the eleven after Judas had left the upper chamber, just before the announcement of approaching separation, while a cruel death lay ahead, as hope and comfort meant to strengthen their hearts. The joy to remain in them was His own joy that all humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name, the great object of His mission ever kept before Him to which He first directed their thoughts.
They belong to His words of comfort, counsel and prayer before death in John 13-17 and John 14-16, plainly outlining God's will for those who minister in word and doctrine. That outline gives the philosophy of genuine missionary work for those acquainted with present truth, requiring conversion to understand and practice it. God means just what He says there, and it is the privilege and duty of ministers to believe it verse by verse, watch unto it in prayer, stand upon it faithfully, and live it out before fellow ministers. The words of John 15-17 are to be received in every home as teaching how to obtain grace, since refusing the conditions given leaves a person unready to meet Him in glory. They are understood with new enlightenment when the mind is reshaped by the influence of the Spirit. They were spoken knowing the trials the church would face through unconverted believers and the severe testing of the disciples' faith and courage, giving comfort and consolation to endure without failing and imparting hope and courage to stand fast in the most trying hour.
They belong to the lesson of Christ the true Vine and the Father the Husbandman, showing how anyone can be a branch of the true Vine through vital connection and abiding in Him. Branches share life from the same source and are to live in fellowship and love, while retaining individuality, since their unity does not require uniformity. That union is the basis for laboring together in perfect unity and love, emptied daily of self and cleansed of hereditary and cultivated wrong, filled with the Holy Spirit, and bearing the best quality of fruit to God's glory so that Christ appears in the life. The teaching calls for gaining understanding of the whole fifteenth chapter of John and revealing it in daily life, and for conversion and working with Christ to bring people to truth, without which growth and work they are not branches in the true Vine. It concerns the relation of branch to vine and the spiritual strength that comes through the Word of God.
The instruction prepared the disciples for their future work and taught dependence of human effort on divine power. It prepared them for difficulties, conflicts, trials and temptations, revealing purposes and plans to keep them from blindness and ignorance and helping them remember His love in work and counsel. It imparted hope, courage and consolation simple enough for even children to understand, bringing strength and assurance to every true believer as long as time lasts. Its right quality of joy overcomes the enemy's temptations and comes from helpless souls relying on Jesus Christ, spoken just before crucifixion ahead of great tests and trials awaiting His people. Its new depth of love reaching to laying down life for friends, with friendship tied to doing whatever He commands and love testifying that Christ is formed within, was not understood at the time but was revealed after suffering, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and the resting of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as practical love in deed and in truth that tests genuine experience and sanctification and brings mind and soul and strength into harmony with the divine life like leaven.
On the road to Emmaus the disciples' joy became full when He revealed Himself after explaining the Scriptures and leading them to faith in His life, character, mission, death and resurrection. That faith was to rest on the evidence of the Old Testament law and prophets agreeing with the facts of His life and death, not merely on personal testimony. Aged receivers of present truth including the Sabbath rejoicing in its light illustrate the same lasting, complete joy.
Christ's Own Joy
The joy to remain is Christ's own joy in looking forward to the result of His mission, cheered by the thought that His travail would not be for nothing but that by giving His life for the life of men He would restore the image of God in humanity. He saw Himself lifting people from the dust, reshaping character after the pattern of His own character and making it beautiful with His own glory, viewing the expanse of eternity and the happiness of those who through His humiliation would receive pardon and everlasting life. He already heard the shout of the redeemed and the ransomed singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.
Although a baptism of blood had first to be received, with the sins of the world weighing upon His innocent soul and the shadow of unspeakable woe upon Him, for the joy set before Him He chose to endure the cross and despise the shame. Wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, bearing the chastisement of their peace and healing them with His stripes, He saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied. He was satisfied to suffer and become poor for humanity, paying sin's debt and bringing many to glory by elevating humanity toward God and restoring fellowship with God. His suffering and victory give ground to endure hardship for His sake, and His drawing them to Himself enables them to lay down the burden of sin even through trials and suffering for His name.
That joy was that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name, the great object of His mission which He kept ever before Him and to which He first directed the disciples' thoughts. What rejoiced His heart is placed upon them through living connection with the living, tenderhearted God, for Christ is the Father with His people and He binds them to the Father. That union between Himself and His disciples is carefully guarded, a bond to be valued as they seek what they need.
His joy did not come from earthly circumstances but from His connection with divinity, and those who look to Him can share His consolation and joy even amid perplexity, trouble, and inconvenience. It came from souls rescued through His suffering and death, for when a sinner is converted heaven rejoices, and the joy He shares is therefore rich, deep, full, and abiding, springing from the triumphs of the cross and the salvation of souls. This joy is understood in the light of His love shown by leaving His royal position, facing temptation and gaining complete victory, laying down His life for the sheep, so that through grace and the power He gives they too can overcome trials and share that victory and consolation by trusting Him and serving in meekness. It comes from the unbounded love of God shown in redemption, where Father and Son are one and the Father suffered in the suffering of the Son, and to complete redemption God spares nothing however costly, not even heaven itself, but surrounds men with favors and heaps gift upon gift until the world is flooded with boundless mercy and love, with believers transformed in character by union with Christ receiving that joy as they continue in His love shown in His gift of Himself to recover humanity.
True joy comes only from Christ, and joy from any other source than Christ is valueless, a pretense, an emotion bringing no abiding or lasting satisfaction. He as Redeemer owns His people, loves every soul, gave His life and died on the cross to save men and draw all to Him, and because all power in heaven and earth is given to Him He alone can give true joy and wants His own joy to remain so their joy will be full. Happiness sought without Him ends in disappointment, while keeping His commandments and abiding in His love does not make a person unhappy. His followers appreciate His sacrifice, trust by faith in the atonement and His promises, surrender themselves to Him, and His grace saves the repentant, believing sinner into that full joy of obedience.
Abiding Obedience Love
Jesus spoke these things so that His own joy would remain in His followers and their joy would be full, and that joy belongs to those who abide in Him and continue in His love by keeping His commandments, even as He kept His Father's commandments and abode in His love. This abiding is joined to receiving, believing and living His words, letting them abide within, and being filled with their vivifying, sanctifying power. It is learned by repeating the invitation to abide until it is imprinted on the heart, reading the Word in the light of God's authority, meditating until the understanding is opened to its requirements and human dependence, praying until its meaning with its claims and promises is fully learned, and fixing the eye on Christ alone in quiet waiting to hear His voice. Those who wait in this way will not hear in vain, for the Holy Spirit brings His claims to remembrance so they are not forgotten or neglected, and revives the humble heart that searches Scripture with desire for truth.
At the heart of that obedience is His command to love one another as He loved them, with unselfish, self-sacrificing love demonstrated by His death, even to laying down life for friends. Those who receive that love love others as those Christ has purchased with His life given for the ransom of the world. Obedience is the evidence of friendship with God, and those who do whatever He commands are His friends. Continuing in His love in this way means fulfilling love to God supremely and love to neighbor as self in keeping the first four and the last six commandments. Keeping this new commandment is a step heavenward, and obedience to it gives supremacy, while living in transgression leaves the Lord able to do very little for them.
Obedience that abides in His love lets disciples enjoy His love and glorifies Him before the world and the heavenly universe. It is the Bible test dividing those who love Him and find Him precious and obey from the disobedient, and these words are plain and decided testimony setting out duty to God and fellow men, leaving churches and individuals without excuse if they miss the way. Full joy belongs with bearing much fruit to the Father's glory as proof of discipleship. Such fruit-bearing obedience proves genuine repentance and true conversion, marks His disciples, and makes them trees of righteousness planted and cultured by God, exerting an influence like the Redeemer's in perfect goodness and Christlikeness, with faithful discharge of duty, unity, and laying aside pride, strife, envy, jealousy, evil surmising and hatred.
Full joy comes from abiding in Christ with His words abiding, which brings answered prayer in His name, asking what is willed and receiving it. The servant who does his best is admitted to familiar intercourse with his Master and promoted to positions of trust, called friend rather than servant, constantly consulting the will of his divine Friend in every action and perplexity and bearing witness that the Saviour has entered his life directing all and pervading all. Obedience brings the illuminating, purifying, blissful presence and abode of Father and Son and communion with God through the Holy Spirit. The union is as essential as branch to vine, received by faith, by trusting Him, opening the door of the heart to His love, partaking of the divine nature and escaping worldly corruption.
Perfect obedience brings perfect happiness, and perfect obedience means living the Christ life, diffusing the influence of the cross, and living in harmony with Bible truth with clear discernment and unity with Father and Son, with life purified through obedience to the truth and conformed in thought, word and deed to God's will. Believing His words brings cheerful hope, peace and joy to be shared as light and blessing to others, and working together for Him brings hope, joy, courage and sympathy with power to help others follow His plan. Jesus gives His own joy together with righteousness and peace to make His people completely joyful when sins are confessed with repentance, the rubbish is cleared from the door of the heart, and Christ is welcomed in. Its presence among the repenting commandment-keeping people proves they are graciously visited by God with the Sun of Righteousness risen upon them and are not Babylon.
Nature of Promised Joy
The joy promised is pure cheerfulness and a constant uplifting of the soul to God, not shallow gaiety, levity, amusement, or vain careless words and conduct. It is Christ's own abiding joy remaining in those who keep His commandments and abide in His love, even loving one another as He loved them unto laying down life for friends. It is the sweetness of God's love, a blessing of the Holy Spirit in whom God gives Himself as the source of divine influence, health-giving and life-giving to the world. That joy of the Lord with hope and courage is to be brought into every department of God's work, where spiritual things are then spiritually discerned, and it stands as far above every other joy as holiness is above unholiness, giving strength to the physical, mental, and spiritual powers.
It is enduring and never-ceasing, not fluctuating, a permanent state of the heart found in Him by opening the door of the heart and the windows of the mind to let heaven's sunshine flood the soul temple. It can be possessed even in this world by faith, not only in the hope of heaven, as Christ's joy remains in the one who walks in His footsteps and continues to know the Lord and keep His commandments. It abides amid the church's struggle in a dark world while looking forward to complete happiness when God's will is done on earth as in heaven and sin and death are no more, including the hope of being saved at last, seeing the King in His beauty, and beholding the new earth. It is kept by possessing the soul in patience under insult and provocation, keeping Jesus close every moment as counsellor, refuge, staff, wisdom, sanctification and righteousness, staying calm to please and represent Him in every vexation, grasping the Holy Spirit to strengthen the inner man with all might, and confessing all transgression to God, believing His pledged pardon, acting on it, and living free with sins remembered no more instead of remaining in remorse and sorrow.
It does not depend on worldly frivolities, dissipations, or amusements, and when Christ is enthroned in the life with joy and peace there is no taste for them. When the door of the heart is opened to His love, fountains of pure and never-ceasing joy open in the soul. Fullness comes when the heart is brought into harmony with God, flowing from practical religion reaching the inmost part of life and leading to praise from a full heart.
Serving and obeying Him does not make a person unhappy, sad, gloomy, unbelieving, or doubtful, and does not require a sorrowful life covered with tears. Union with Him brings the light of His presence and a joyful heart, for He takes delight in the joy of His followers, not in their misery, and He is not pleased when they murmur, complain, fret, and make themselves unhappy. Obedience through believing and personally receiving God's Word, living by His requirements, and remaining united to Him by faith brings this full joy rather than mourning, doubt, or uncertainty, and calls every soul to enter His way of peace and find rest by placing all burdens upon Him. God wants obedient children continuing in Christ's love by keeping His commandments, as He kept His Father's commandments, to be joyful, peaceful, and full of joy rather than sad and discouraged.
That joy can remain amid disappointment, denied wishes, trouble, perplexity, dark trials, and inconvenience, for He did not speak to make His followers cross or sad but to turn them to look to Him and draw strength, light, and power from Him. It is kept by meeting trials with prayer and trust rather than seeking reasons for sorrow, by trusting God's ample and complete promises and His love in giving His Son for everlasting life, until Christ is formed within as the hope of glory and the Daystar arises in the heart and the soul cries Abba, Father. Full rest of soul cannot exist while doubt and uncertainty remain, but burdens may be brought to Him, His meekness and lowliness learned, and rest received, as the heart is warmed by a sense of Jesus speaking and by love for Him and the promises of His Word. It is preserved by opening the heart to hope, peace, and the sunshine of His presence in actual personal contact, refusing to dwell on clouds, self, and faults, and speaking with faith, hope, and courage.
It is the joy of obedience and of salvation, received by keeping His commandments and abiding in His love as He kept His Father's commandments, and by remaining faithful to grace given as a branch abides in the vine. Christ dwelling in the soul is a wellspring of joy that removes sadness and gloom, not through self-esteem, self-love, or worldly approval, and accompanies hope, redemption from sin, and power to become children of God. Believing in God and receiving Jesus as personal Saviour makes joy full as He takes away sins, and coming to God in His name and relying on the efficacy of His sacrifice causes His love and joy to abide within, shown outwardly in strength from God, faithful courageous labor for souls, and much prayer as the life of the soul and weapon against the enemy. Full joy belongs to those who receive Christ as sin-pardoning Saviour, who takes away sin, imparts His righteousness, clothes with garments of light, strips off garments of heaviness and mourning, and clothes with joy and gladness, resting on expectation of membership in the royal family as children of the heavenly King and on the gospel as good tidings of great joy, so that when God's promises are freely and fully accepted heaven's brightness is brought into the life, rightly expressed in sober, watchful, yet always cheerful songs of rejoicing and praise and thanksgiving in which heavenly angels join and cannot be silent.
Fruitfulness and Witness
The fullness of joy overflows in praise and thanksgiving to God expressed openly in the congregation. It is praise in prayer and conversation without fanaticism, joined to sanctifying power and to looking for the Lord's coming. It calls for gratitude expressed openly rather than murmuring, including telling children that Christ died for them and helping them choose to be Christians. Those who receive Christ as sin-pardoning Saviour, stripped of garments of heaviness and mourning and clothed with His righteousness and garments of light and joy, have the best right to sing songs of rejoicing, remaining sober and watchful without lightness or frivolity yet always cheerful, with heavenly angels joining their joyous songs of praise and thanksgiving. That full joy makes believers testify when they meet together what the Lord has done for them and how seeking His blessing brings rich experience.
Their speech turns to Christ's coming, the nearness of the end, readiness for His appearing, the heavenly city and New Jerusalem, the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God, the King in His beauty with His kingly crown, the riches given to God's children, and the stream going out from God's throne, with praise to the Lord from the soul. It gives strength so they do not go crippling and mourning as under wrath, but talk of the infinite love shown in the infinite sacrifice of the Son of God, looking forward to entering the gate as sons and daughters of the Most High welcomed to the Father's bosom, crowned by Christ's own hand, and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, and thinking on His love in this way makes them love one another. Remembering and appreciating His goodness as heavenly Father warms the heart with a sense of His love and fills it with joy and thanksgiving. Abiding union with Christ gives this fullness as refreshing cheerfulness and constant uplifting of the soul to God, and when it is enjoyed those around are benefited by fruit-bearing, for kind words spoken and Christian love manifested bring gladness to their hearts.
The joy is joined to the command to love one another as He loved, a sincere lasting love coming through Christ and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. It belongs with abiding in His love through obedience and is seen in a fruitful life marked by self-denial, patience, meekness, and love. Joy is full as believers represent God, share the entrusted light, and live in His love by loving one another, while distrust, jealousy, and harmful speech obstruct that love and light. That full joy belongs with laying aside pride, dignity easily bruised, childish strife, pettishness, envy, jealousy, evil surmising, malice and hatred, and with unity and love by which all know they are Christians and by which they are known by good fruit as a tree is known by its fruit. When the Saviour is welcomed into the heart and His love is reflected in words and life, His joy remains within and makes joy full, revealing His character, light, love and joy.
Pleasant right words and helping others even amid opposition fill the heart and bring the unity of Christian love. Working together for Christ in abiding union, not in separation from Him, brings hope, joy, courage, and sympathy, and gives power to help others follow His plan. This joy makes workers cheerful in service, not long-faced or discouraged. When followers are full of that joy they exert a powerful influence in the world and the church, pointing to the need for religion and Christian righteousness. That full joy fills the heart with the love of God and shows itself in words in harmony with that sacred joy and in labor for souls rather than confining religion to meeting together on the Sabbath.
It brings compassion for a world lying in darkness and moves those abiding in Christ to do His works by opening the Word to those who do not know the truth, helping them break free from Satan's hold to see the beauty and loveliness in Jesus, multiplying souls for His kingdom, and inventing every possible means to bring the precious light of truth to perishing souls. It accompanies unselfish love for sinners freed from sin, freedom from worldly ambition and self-seeking, delight in Christ's triumphs, and growth toward full maturity as seekers draw near to God in righteousness. In the surrounding command to love one another, Christlike love also means warning neighbors, friends, and unbelievers and sharing the truth with them, laboring as missionaries with praise. It cheers the sick with comfort, hope and song rather than long faces.
The verse is fulfilled when souls newly turned from darkness to light, from error to truth, believe with the heart and confess with the mouth. This is seen in new Sabbathkeepers testifying with tears and smiles and hearts full to overflowing, whose gladness is a new experience worked by the unseen presence of Christ in the midst of those gathered in His name. Their turning brings joy to the heart of Christ Himself as well as to witnesses and heavenly intelligences. Christ's joy, which is pure cheerfulness and not shallow gaiety leading to vain words or careless conduct, includes the joy of seeing people obey the truth, and believers share that joy as they trust His word, receive grace and power through it for daily life, and do His works in assurance He will fulfill His promises.
Joy becomes full as God's workers study His Word, heed its instruction and encouragement, and are strengthened by the Spirit to grow in religious experience and serve others. This joy is experienced by taking in God's Word as the bread of life, believing Christ's words, and putting His requirements into practice, bringing full assurance of hope so the obedient believer is not condemned by the law and need not have a hard, miserable life. His words sustain believers like bread and His abiding presence brings full joy as they receive His words and live by them, gaining strength to develop God-honoring characters and seeking unity with one another and with Him. As they share with others the blessings God has given them and do good in Christ's service, they bring His character into their lives and honor the Saviour, and this brings fullness of joy. Christ's joy is desired for the believer alongside salvation through Him, and His presence brings full joy.
Daily Life Application
Take every trial and perplexity directly to the Lord in prayer instead of running to neighbors or other human beings, going to Jesus and telling Him all troubles as a little child asking for the Holy Spirit. Whoever prays in weakness wherever they are will be heard, gaining relief of heart, victory, advance from light to greater light, and a healthful saving impression left upon the mind. In this way believers learn the lessons taught, understand bearing much fruit to His glory, look for someone to help and bless, have something to say to those not abiding in Him, and do the work of drawing with Christ constantly for His name's glory, finding peace and rest in trusting Jesus rather than a restless confused spirit. He left the royal courts and came to this world to meet and overcome Satan's oppression, standing as God's representative to show that man in humanity may take hold of divinity and through that divine nature have power to escape the corruptions in the world through lust, bearing responsibilities under heaven's light with heaven full of blessings and angels all around.
Right principles followed daily and hourly bring Jesus very near in the home, and where He is present there is light and peace and joy with power received from Him and faith working by love in cheerfulness, kindness and love. His indwelling presence is manifested through keeping His commandments and abiding in His love, especially the command to love one another as He loved, with life joined to Christ as His life is joined to the Father shown through obedience to the Word. That Word brings a kind spirit into the family and works for salvation, in a life of obedience without exception or blemish joined to His sacrifice to save. Spouses are not to scold or fret before children because conduct sets a harmful example and scolding gains nothing, and fathers and mothers must bring children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord by teaching them the love and nurture and knowledge of Jesus Christ, with Christian experience growing brighter and stronger as they follow on to know the Lord and seek His power, grace and wisdom, since giving way to passion can harm children's welfare.
Full joy remains incomplete while views of the power and loveliness of Jesus are faint and indistinct. It comes through full trust in God and individual experience with Him, through lying low in humility at the foot of the cross so His glory and loveliness become clear and forcible, through treasuring Christ in the heart until the heart glows with His love, and through studying His character and patterning after it. Close connection with Him as Source of light and wisdom keeps believers from contentment with a feeble experience with no special evidence of nearness to God and makes them strong in Christ who succeed instead of fail, as truth works by love and faith works by love to purify the soul. This joy does not depend on waking with a strong feeling of happiness but is nurtured by looking to Jesus for presence, light and love, thanking Him for sustaining life, trusting Him as living Saviour who intercedes and is ready to bless, and deliberately training mind, thoughts and words to stay fixed on Christ in the light of God's presence as the only safety. Receiving it means arising in God's strength after doing one's own work and laying remaining burdens at Jesus' feet, talking courage and faith instead of despondency and discouragement, and looking to the mighty Healer for His touch and words of courage that fill the heart with hope and joy.
Unbelief, pettish feelings and disturbed speech are to be put away as believers recognize Christ abiding in them and themselves abiding in Him, a life that brings victories and reveals God's salvation. Distrust, jealousy and harmful speech obstruct love and the light entrusted to be shared, while full joy belongs with representing God, sharing entrusted light, and living in Christ's love by loving one another. The joy and peace of abiding in His love through keeping His commandments are experienced as people confess and forsake sin and make things right with one another. It comes as a permanent state of the heart by opening the windows of the mind and the door of the heart to let heaven's sunshine flood mind and soul temple, by possessing the soul in patience under insult and provocation with Christ as staff, wisdom, sanctification and righteousness, by keeping Jesus close every moment as counsellor and refuge, by staying calm and seeking to please and represent Him in every vexation, and by grasping the Holy Spirit as God's gift to strengthen with all might in the inner man. Confess all transgression to God, believe His pledged promise to pardon, act on it and live free in Christ with sins remembered no more instead of staying in remorse and sorrow, looking to Christ and obeying God's requirements with rejoicing rather than dwelling on self, faults, darkness and chronic doubt or speaking unbelief, but speaking with faith, hope and courage.
The words were spoken to keep believers from becoming engrossed with earthly things and forgetting Him in whom hopes of eternal life center, that they may receive and retain life-giving power, peace and joy. This is kept by union with God only through Christ, by feeding on Christ and abiding in His love through keeping His commandments, and is renewed when believers assemble around the communion table to meet and converse with Jesus in receiving the bread and wine symbolizing His broken body and spilled blood. The chapter is a message on faith calling church members under heavy slumber to awake and earnestly seek the promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit instead of neglecting it, cutting away every needless hindrance so the Spirit will flow in rich currents to the soul and bring all other blessings in its train.
Full joy cannot be kept to oneself but keeps the mind constantly ascending to God to receive strength to honor Christian profession, which is what is expected. Taking that promised joy and carrying it out fully brings unity with Jesus Christ in which humanity grasps divinity and divinity lifts humanity so that humanity and divinity combined become one with Christ and one with God. So the person becomes a partaker of the divine nature having escaped corruption in the world through lust, with praise of God on the lips instead of worry, doubt and harsh words to others, and with assurance of forgiven sins in a life honoring Christ. That fullness gives strength not to go crippling and mourning as under wrath but to testify when meeting together what the Lord has done and how seeking His blessing brings rich experience, talking of the infinite love shown in the infinite sacrifice of the Son, of Christ's coming, the nearness of the end, readiness for His appearing, the heavenly city and New Jerusalem, the tree of life in the midst of God's paradise, the King in beauty with kingly crown, riches given to God's children, and the stream from God's throne, looking forward to entering the gate as sons and daughters of the Most High welcomed to the Father's bosom, crowned by Christ's own hand, singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, which makes believers love one another.
He delights in human happiness and is a source of joy, so Christians may enjoy wholesome recreation that does not harm mind or soul, especially while keeping Jesus with them and maintaining a prayerful spirit. When God controls the mind people become true gentlemen and ladies, tasting full joy in delighting in the beautiful things of creation as a little taste of Eden and an expression of His love and what He will do, and in living with elbow room outside the cities to better prepare for eternal life with His peace and gladness filling life. Choosing work in which God can be served and glorified keeps Jesus from being eclipsed and allows this joy to be experienced by those connected with Him and walking with God, learning from Jesus unto fullness and the living water He gives.
These words are plain decided testimony setting out duty to God and fellow men, leaving churches and individuals without excuse if they miss the way, make mistakes, follow human devising and lose their souls. The main thing in the whole chapter is that He died on Calvary's cross to save the perishing that they might have eternal life, with love laying down life for friends set before believers, so daily life matters greatly and calls for watching the tone of thoughts, watching words spoken, and watching unto prayer. Loving and serving Him and bringing others to Him makes believers happy even under affliction as they appreciate God's love and give thanks, with gladness brought to hearts long depressed, and this joy of abiding, keeping commandments, bearing fruit and loving one another prepares followers to meet Him at His coming with joy. True Christianity reveals His character in human life, for His divinity clothed in humanity helps and restores fallen humanity to God and shows the perfection of character people may attain.
Abiding brings communication with heaven through prayer, asking and receiving, and faith resting the helpless soul on Christ, with His joy remaining and made full as humanity works God's will and ways in union with divinity. That abiding experience includes self-denial and pruning of fruitless branches and leads to learning the truth, with obedience bringing the illuminating purifying blissful presence of Father and Son and communion with God. In this life the person cooperates with God, overcomes what cripples spiritual growth, and allows God to work within and form the character. The words of John 15-17 are to be received in every home as teaching how to obtain His grace, and refusing the conditions given leaves a person unready to meet Him when He comes in glory.
Jesus spoke so that His own joy would remain in His followers and their joy would be made full by abiding in Him and continuing in His love through keeping His commandments, even as He kept His Father's commandments. His joy was His forward-looking delight that His humiliation, suffering and death would not be in vain but would glorify the Father's name, restore the image of God in humanity, and bring pardon and everlasting life. The joy He gives is pure, health-giving and enduring, not shallow gaiety or worldly amusement, and it does not depend on earthly circumstances but flows from connection with Him. It can remain even amid disappointment, dark trials and perplexity by looking to Him in prayer and trust, and serving and obeying Him never requires a gloomy, sorrowful life, for He delights in the happiness of His people. Full joy belongs with bearing much fruit to the Father's glory, reflecting Christ's character in kind words and loving help, and doing His works of compassion to bring others to the truth.
Setting and Context
These words were spoken alone to the eleven after Judas had left the upper chamber, just before the announcement of approaching separation, while a cruel death lay ahead, as hope and comfort meant to strengthen their hearts. The joy to remain in them was His own joy that all humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name, the great object of His mission ever kept before Him to which He first directed their thoughts.
They belong to His words of comfort, counsel and prayer before death in John 13-17 and John 14-16, plainly outlining God's will for those who minister in word and doctrine. That outline gives the philosophy of genuine missionary work for those acquainted with present truth, requiring conversion to understand and practice it. God means just what He says there, and it is the privilege and duty of ministers to believe it verse by verse, watch unto it in prayer, stand upon it faithfully, and live it out before fellow ministers. The words of John 15-17 are to be received in every home as teaching how to obtain grace, since refusing the conditions given leaves a person unready to meet Him in glory. They are understood with new enlightenment when the mind is reshaped by the influence of the Spirit. They were spoken knowing the trials the church would face through unconverted believers and the severe testing of the disciples' faith and courage, giving comfort and consolation to endure without failing and imparting hope and courage to stand fast in the most trying hour.
They belong to the lesson of Christ the true Vine and the Father the Husbandman, showing how anyone can be a branch of the true Vine through vital connection and abiding in Him. Branches share life from the same source and are to live in fellowship and love, while retaining individuality, since their unity does not require uniformity. That union is the basis for laboring together in perfect unity and love, emptied daily of self and cleansed of hereditary and cultivated wrong, filled with the Holy Spirit, and bearing the best quality of fruit to God's glory so that Christ appears in the life. The teaching calls for gaining understanding of the whole fifteenth chapter of John and revealing it in daily life, and for conversion and working with Christ to bring people to truth, without which growth and work they are not branches in the true Vine. It concerns the relation of branch to vine and the spiritual strength that comes through the Word of God.
The instruction prepared the disciples for their future work and taught dependence of human effort on divine power. It prepared them for difficulties, conflicts, trials and temptations, revealing purposes and plans to keep them from blindness and ignorance and helping them remember His love in work and counsel. It imparted hope, courage and consolation simple enough for even children to understand, bringing strength and assurance to every true believer as long as time lasts. Its right quality of joy overcomes the enemy's temptations and comes from helpless souls relying on Jesus Christ, spoken just before crucifixion ahead of great tests and trials awaiting His people. Its new depth of love reaching to laying down life for friends, with friendship tied to doing whatever He commands and love testifying that Christ is formed within, was not understood at the time but was revealed after suffering, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and the resting of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as practical love in deed and in truth that tests genuine experience and sanctification and brings mind and soul and strength into harmony with the divine life like leaven.
On the road to Emmaus the disciples' joy became full when He revealed Himself after explaining the Scriptures and leading them to faith in His life, character, mission, death and resurrection. That faith was to rest on the evidence of the Old Testament law and prophets agreeing with the facts of His life and death, not merely on personal testimony. Aged receivers of present truth including the Sabbath rejoicing in its light illustrate the same lasting, complete joy.
Christ's Own Joy
The joy to remain is Christ's own joy in looking forward to the result of His mission, cheered by the thought that His travail would not be for nothing but that by giving His life for the life of men He would restore the image of God in humanity. He saw Himself lifting people from the dust, reshaping character after the pattern of His own character and making it beautiful with His own glory, viewing the expanse of eternity and the happiness of those who through His humiliation would receive pardon and everlasting life. He already heard the shout of the redeemed and the ransomed singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.
Although a baptism of blood had first to be received, with the sins of the world weighing upon His innocent soul and the shadow of unspeakable woe upon Him, for the joy set before Him He chose to endure the cross and despise the shame. Wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities, bearing the chastisement of their peace and healing them with His stripes, He saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied. He was satisfied to suffer and become poor for humanity, paying sin's debt and bringing many to glory by elevating humanity toward God and restoring fellowship with God. His suffering and victory give ground to endure hardship for His sake, and His drawing them to Himself enables them to lay down the burden of sin even through trials and suffering for His name.
That joy was that all His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name, the great object of His mission which He kept ever before Him and to which He first directed the disciples' thoughts. What rejoiced His heart is placed upon them through living connection with the living, tenderhearted God, for Christ is the Father with His people and He binds them to the Father. That union between Himself and His disciples is carefully guarded, a bond to be valued as they seek what they need.
His joy did not come from earthly circumstances but from His connection with divinity, and those who look to Him can share His consolation and joy even amid perplexity, trouble, and inconvenience. It came from souls rescued through His suffering and death, for when a sinner is converted heaven rejoices, and the joy He shares is therefore rich, deep, full, and abiding, springing from the triumphs of the cross and the salvation of souls. This joy is understood in the light of His love shown by leaving His royal position, facing temptation and gaining complete victory, laying down His life for the sheep, so that through grace and the power He gives they too can overcome trials and share that victory and consolation by trusting Him and serving in meekness. It comes from the unbounded love of God shown in redemption, where Father and Son are one and the Father suffered in the suffering of the Son, and to complete redemption God spares nothing however costly, not even heaven itself, but surrounds men with favors and heaps gift upon gift until the world is flooded with boundless mercy and love, with believers transformed in character by union with Christ receiving that joy as they continue in His love shown in His gift of Himself to recover humanity.
True joy comes only from Christ, and joy from any other source than Christ is valueless, a pretense, an emotion bringing no abiding or lasting satisfaction. He as Redeemer owns His people, loves every soul, gave His life and died on the cross to save men and draw all to Him, and because all power in heaven and earth is given to Him He alone can give true joy and wants His own joy to remain so their joy will be full. Happiness sought without Him ends in disappointment, while keeping His commandments and abiding in His love does not make a person unhappy. His followers appreciate His sacrifice, trust by faith in the atonement and His promises, surrender themselves to Him, and His grace saves the repentant, believing sinner into that full joy of obedience.
Abiding Obedience Love
Jesus spoke these things so that His own joy would remain in His followers and their joy would be full, and that joy belongs to those who abide in Him and continue in His love by keeping His commandments, even as He kept His Father's commandments and abode in His love. This abiding is joined to receiving, believing and living His words, letting them abide within, and being filled with their vivifying, sanctifying power. It is learned by repeating the invitation to abide until it is imprinted on the heart, reading the Word in the light of God's authority, meditating until the understanding is opened to its requirements and human dependence, praying until its meaning with its claims and promises is fully learned, and fixing the eye on Christ alone in quiet waiting to hear His voice. Those who wait in this way will not hear in vain, for the Holy Spirit brings His claims to remembrance so they are not forgotten or neglected, and revives the humble heart that searches Scripture with desire for truth.
At the heart of that obedience is His command to love one another as He loved them, with unselfish, self-sacrificing love demonstrated by His death, even to laying down life for friends. Those who receive that love love others as those Christ has purchased with His life given for the ransom of the world. Obedience is the evidence of friendship with God, and those who do whatever He commands are His friends. Continuing in His love in this way means fulfilling love to God supremely and love to neighbor as self in keeping the first four and the last six commandments. Keeping this new commandment is a step heavenward, and obedience to it gives supremacy, while living in transgression leaves the Lord able to do very little for them.
Obedience that abides in His love lets disciples enjoy His love and glorifies Him before the world and the heavenly universe. It is the Bible test dividing those who love Him and find Him precious and obey from the disobedient, and these words are plain and decided testimony setting out duty to God and fellow men, leaving churches and individuals without excuse if they miss the way. Full joy belongs with bearing much fruit to the Father's glory as proof of discipleship. Such fruit-bearing obedience proves genuine repentance and true conversion, marks His disciples, and makes them trees of righteousness planted and cultured by God, exerting an influence like the Redeemer's in perfect goodness and Christlikeness, with faithful discharge of duty, unity, and laying aside pride, strife, envy, jealousy, evil surmising and hatred.
Full joy comes from abiding in Christ with His words abiding, which brings answered prayer in His name, asking what is willed and receiving it. The servant who does his best is admitted to familiar intercourse with his Master and promoted to positions of trust, called friend rather than servant, constantly consulting the will of his divine Friend in every action and perplexity and bearing witness that the Saviour has entered his life directing all and pervading all. Obedience brings the illuminating, purifying, blissful presence and abode of Father and Son and communion with God through the Holy Spirit. The union is as essential as branch to vine, received by faith, by trusting Him, opening the door of the heart to His love, partaking of the divine nature and escaping worldly corruption.
Perfect obedience brings perfect happiness, and perfect obedience means living the Christ life, diffusing the influence of the cross, and living in harmony with Bible truth with clear discernment and unity with Father and Son, with life purified through obedience to the truth and conformed in thought, word and deed to God's will. Believing His words brings cheerful hope, peace and joy to be shared as light and blessing to others, and working together for Him brings hope, joy, courage and sympathy with power to help others follow His plan. Jesus gives His own joy together with righteousness and peace to make His people completely joyful when sins are confessed with repentance, the rubbish is cleared from the door of the heart, and Christ is welcomed in. Its presence among the repenting commandment-keeping people proves they are graciously visited by God with the Sun of Righteousness risen upon them and are not Babylon.
Nature of Promised Joy
The joy promised is pure cheerfulness and a constant uplifting of the soul to God, not shallow gaiety, levity, amusement, or vain careless words and conduct. It is Christ's own abiding joy remaining in those who keep His commandments and abide in His love, even loving one another as He loved them unto laying down life for friends. It is the sweetness of God's love, a blessing of the Holy Spirit in whom God gives Himself as the source of divine influence, health-giving and life-giving to the world. That joy of the Lord with hope and courage is to be brought into every department of God's work, where spiritual things are then spiritually discerned, and it stands as far above every other joy as holiness is above unholiness, giving strength to the physical, mental, and spiritual powers.
It is enduring and never-ceasing, not fluctuating, a permanent state of the heart found in Him by opening the door of the heart and the windows of the mind to let heaven's sunshine flood the soul temple. It can be possessed even in this world by faith, not only in the hope of heaven, as Christ's joy remains in the one who walks in His footsteps and continues to know the Lord and keep His commandments. It abides amid the church's struggle in a dark world while looking forward to complete happiness when God's will is done on earth as in heaven and sin and death are no more, including the hope of being saved at last, seeing the King in His beauty, and beholding the new earth. It is kept by possessing the soul in patience under insult and provocation, keeping Jesus close every moment as counsellor, refuge, staff, wisdom, sanctification and righteousness, staying calm to please and represent Him in every vexation, grasping the Holy Spirit to strengthen the inner man with all might, and confessing all transgression to God, believing His pledged pardon, acting on it, and living free with sins remembered no more instead of remaining in remorse and sorrow.
It does not depend on worldly frivolities, dissipations, or amusements, and when Christ is enthroned in the life with joy and peace there is no taste for them. When the door of the heart is opened to His love, fountains of pure and never-ceasing joy open in the soul. Fullness comes when the heart is brought into harmony with God, flowing from practical religion reaching the inmost part of life and leading to praise from a full heart.
Serving and obeying Him does not make a person unhappy, sad, gloomy, unbelieving, or doubtful, and does not require a sorrowful life covered with tears. Union with Him brings the light of His presence and a joyful heart, for He takes delight in the joy of His followers, not in their misery, and He is not pleased when they murmur, complain, fret, and make themselves unhappy. Obedience through believing and personally receiving God's Word, living by His requirements, and remaining united to Him by faith brings this full joy rather than mourning, doubt, or uncertainty, and calls every soul to enter His way of peace and find rest by placing all burdens upon Him. God wants obedient children continuing in Christ's love by keeping His commandments, as He kept His Father's commandments, to be joyful, peaceful, and full of joy rather than sad and discouraged.
That joy can remain amid disappointment, denied wishes, trouble, perplexity, dark trials, and inconvenience, for He did not speak to make His followers cross or sad but to turn them to look to Him and draw strength, light, and power from Him. It is kept by meeting trials with prayer and trust rather than seeking reasons for sorrow, by trusting God's ample and complete promises and His love in giving His Son for everlasting life, until Christ is formed within as the hope of glory and the Daystar arises in the heart and the soul cries Abba, Father. Full rest of soul cannot exist while doubt and uncertainty remain, but burdens may be brought to Him, His meekness and lowliness learned, and rest received, as the heart is warmed by a sense of Jesus speaking and by love for Him and the promises of His Word. It is preserved by opening the heart to hope, peace, and the sunshine of His presence in actual personal contact, refusing to dwell on clouds, self, and faults, and speaking with faith, hope, and courage.
It is the joy of obedience and of salvation, received by keeping His commandments and abiding in His love as He kept His Father's commandments, and by remaining faithful to grace given as a branch abides in the vine. Christ dwelling in the soul is a wellspring of joy that removes sadness and gloom, not through self-esteem, self-love, or worldly approval, and accompanies hope, redemption from sin, and power to become children of God. Believing in God and receiving Jesus as personal Saviour makes joy full as He takes away sins, and coming to God in His name and relying on the efficacy of His sacrifice causes His love and joy to abide within, shown outwardly in strength from God, faithful courageous labor for souls, and much prayer as the life of the soul and weapon against the enemy. Full joy belongs to those who receive Christ as sin-pardoning Saviour, who takes away sin, imparts His righteousness, clothes with garments of light, strips off garments of heaviness and mourning, and clothes with joy and gladness, resting on expectation of membership in the royal family as children of the heavenly King and on the gospel as good tidings of great joy, so that when God's promises are freely and fully accepted heaven's brightness is brought into the life, rightly expressed in sober, watchful, yet always cheerful songs of rejoicing and praise and thanksgiving in which heavenly angels join and cannot be silent.
Fruitfulness and Witness
The fullness of joy overflows in praise and thanksgiving to God expressed openly in the congregation. It is praise in prayer and conversation without fanaticism, joined to sanctifying power and to looking for the Lord's coming. It calls for gratitude expressed openly rather than murmuring, including telling children that Christ died for them and helping them choose to be Christians. Those who receive Christ as sin-pardoning Saviour, stripped of garments of heaviness and mourning and clothed with His righteousness and garments of light and joy, have the best right to sing songs of rejoicing, remaining sober and watchful without lightness or frivolity yet always cheerful, with heavenly angels joining their joyous songs of praise and thanksgiving. That full joy makes believers testify when they meet together what the Lord has done for them and how seeking His blessing brings rich experience.
Their speech turns to Christ's coming, the nearness of the end, readiness for His appearing, the heavenly city and New Jerusalem, the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God, the King in His beauty with His kingly crown, the riches given to God's children, and the stream going out from God's throne, with praise to the Lord from the soul. It gives strength so they do not go crippling and mourning as under wrath, but talk of the infinite love shown in the infinite sacrifice of the Son of God, looking forward to entering the gate as sons and daughters of the Most High welcomed to the Father's bosom, crowned by Christ's own hand, and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, and thinking on His love in this way makes them love one another. Remembering and appreciating His goodness as heavenly Father warms the heart with a sense of His love and fills it with joy and thanksgiving. Abiding union with Christ gives this fullness as refreshing cheerfulness and constant uplifting of the soul to God, and when it is enjoyed those around are benefited by fruit-bearing, for kind words spoken and Christian love manifested bring gladness to their hearts.
The joy is joined to the command to love one another as He loved, a sincere lasting love coming through Christ and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. It belongs with abiding in His love through obedience and is seen in a fruitful life marked by self-denial, patience, meekness, and love. Joy is full as believers represent God, share the entrusted light, and live in His love by loving one another, while distrust, jealousy, and harmful speech obstruct that love and light. That full joy belongs with laying aside pride, dignity easily bruised, childish strife, pettishness, envy, jealousy, evil surmising, malice and hatred, and with unity and love by which all know they are Christians and by which they are known by good fruit as a tree is known by its fruit. When the Saviour is welcomed into the heart and His love is reflected in words and life, His joy remains within and makes joy full, revealing His character, light, love and joy.
Pleasant right words and helping others even amid opposition fill the heart and bring the unity of Christian love. Working together for Christ in abiding union, not in separation from Him, brings hope, joy, courage, and sympathy, and gives power to help others follow His plan. This joy makes workers cheerful in service, not long-faced or discouraged. When followers are full of that joy they exert a powerful influence in the world and the church, pointing to the need for religion and Christian righteousness. That full joy fills the heart with the love of God and shows itself in words in harmony with that sacred joy and in labor for souls rather than confining religion to meeting together on the Sabbath.
It brings compassion for a world lying in darkness and moves those abiding in Christ to do His works by opening the Word to those who do not know the truth, helping them break free from Satan's hold to see the beauty and loveliness in Jesus, multiplying souls for His kingdom, and inventing every possible means to bring the precious light of truth to perishing souls. It accompanies unselfish love for sinners freed from sin, freedom from worldly ambition and self-seeking, delight in Christ's triumphs, and growth toward full maturity as seekers draw near to God in righteousness. In the surrounding command to love one another, Christlike love also means warning neighbors, friends, and unbelievers and sharing the truth with them, laboring as missionaries with praise. It cheers the sick with comfort, hope and song rather than long faces.
The verse is fulfilled when souls newly turned from darkness to light, from error to truth, believe with the heart and confess with the mouth. This is seen in new Sabbathkeepers testifying with tears and smiles and hearts full to overflowing, whose gladness is a new experience worked by the unseen presence of Christ in the midst of those gathered in His name. Their turning brings joy to the heart of Christ Himself as well as to witnesses and heavenly intelligences. Christ's joy, which is pure cheerfulness and not shallow gaiety leading to vain words or careless conduct, includes the joy of seeing people obey the truth, and believers share that joy as they trust His word, receive grace and power through it for daily life, and do His works in assurance He will fulfill His promises.
Joy becomes full as God's workers study His Word, heed its instruction and encouragement, and are strengthened by the Spirit to grow in religious experience and serve others. This joy is experienced by taking in God's Word as the bread of life, believing Christ's words, and putting His requirements into practice, bringing full assurance of hope so the obedient believer is not condemned by the law and need not have a hard, miserable life. His words sustain believers like bread and His abiding presence brings full joy as they receive His words and live by them, gaining strength to develop God-honoring characters and seeking unity with one another and with Him. As they share with others the blessings God has given them and do good in Christ's service, they bring His character into their lives and honor the Saviour, and this brings fullness of joy. Christ's joy is desired for the believer alongside salvation through Him, and His presence brings full joy.
Daily Life Application
Take every trial and perplexity directly to the Lord in prayer instead of running to neighbors or other human beings, going to Jesus and telling Him all troubles as a little child asking for the Holy Spirit. Whoever prays in weakness wherever they are will be heard, gaining relief of heart, victory, advance from light to greater light, and a healthful saving impression left upon the mind. In this way believers learn the lessons taught, understand bearing much fruit to His glory, look for someone to help and bless, have something to say to those not abiding in Him, and do the work of drawing with Christ constantly for His name's glory, finding peace and rest in trusting Jesus rather than a restless confused spirit. He left the royal courts and came to this world to meet and overcome Satan's oppression, standing as God's representative to show that man in humanity may take hold of divinity and through that divine nature have power to escape the corruptions in the world through lust, bearing responsibilities under heaven's light with heaven full of blessings and angels all around.
Right principles followed daily and hourly bring Jesus very near in the home, and where He is present there is light and peace and joy with power received from Him and faith working by love in cheerfulness, kindness and love. His indwelling presence is manifested through keeping His commandments and abiding in His love, especially the command to love one another as He loved, with life joined to Christ as His life is joined to the Father shown through obedience to the Word. That Word brings a kind spirit into the family and works for salvation, in a life of obedience without exception or blemish joined to His sacrifice to save. Spouses are not to scold or fret before children because conduct sets a harmful example and scolding gains nothing, and fathers and mothers must bring children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord by teaching them the love and nurture and knowledge of Jesus Christ, with Christian experience growing brighter and stronger as they follow on to know the Lord and seek His power, grace and wisdom, since giving way to passion can harm children's welfare.
Full joy remains incomplete while views of the power and loveliness of Jesus are faint and indistinct. It comes through full trust in God and individual experience with Him, through lying low in humility at the foot of the cross so His glory and loveliness become clear and forcible, through treasuring Christ in the heart until the heart glows with His love, and through studying His character and patterning after it. Close connection with Him as Source of light and wisdom keeps believers from contentment with a feeble experience with no special evidence of nearness to God and makes them strong in Christ who succeed instead of fail, as truth works by love and faith works by love to purify the soul. This joy does not depend on waking with a strong feeling of happiness but is nurtured by looking to Jesus for presence, light and love, thanking Him for sustaining life, trusting Him as living Saviour who intercedes and is ready to bless, and deliberately training mind, thoughts and words to stay fixed on Christ in the light of God's presence as the only safety. Receiving it means arising in God's strength after doing one's own work and laying remaining burdens at Jesus' feet, talking courage and faith instead of despondency and discouragement, and looking to the mighty Healer for His touch and words of courage that fill the heart with hope and joy.
Unbelief, pettish feelings and disturbed speech are to be put away as believers recognize Christ abiding in them and themselves abiding in Him, a life that brings victories and reveals God's salvation. Distrust, jealousy and harmful speech obstruct love and the light entrusted to be shared, while full joy belongs with representing God, sharing entrusted light, and living in Christ's love by loving one another. The joy and peace of abiding in His love through keeping His commandments are experienced as people confess and forsake sin and make things right with one another. It comes as a permanent state of the heart by opening the windows of the mind and the door of the heart to let heaven's sunshine flood mind and soul temple, by possessing the soul in patience under insult and provocation with Christ as staff, wisdom, sanctification and righteousness, by keeping Jesus close every moment as counsellor and refuge, by staying calm and seeking to please and represent Him in every vexation, and by grasping the Holy Spirit as God's gift to strengthen with all might in the inner man. Confess all transgression to God, believe His pledged promise to pardon, act on it and live free in Christ with sins remembered no more instead of staying in remorse and sorrow, looking to Christ and obeying God's requirements with rejoicing rather than dwelling on self, faults, darkness and chronic doubt or speaking unbelief, but speaking with faith, hope and courage.
The words were spoken to keep believers from becoming engrossed with earthly things and forgetting Him in whom hopes of eternal life center, that they may receive and retain life-giving power, peace and joy. This is kept by union with God only through Christ, by feeding on Christ and abiding in His love through keeping His commandments, and is renewed when believers assemble around the communion table to meet and converse with Jesus in receiving the bread and wine symbolizing His broken body and spilled blood. The chapter is a message on faith calling church members under heavy slumber to awake and earnestly seek the promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit instead of neglecting it, cutting away every needless hindrance so the Spirit will flow in rich currents to the soul and bring all other blessings in its train.
Full joy cannot be kept to oneself but keeps the mind constantly ascending to God to receive strength to honor Christian profession, which is what is expected. Taking that promised joy and carrying it out fully brings unity with Jesus Christ in which humanity grasps divinity and divinity lifts humanity so that humanity and divinity combined become one with Christ and one with God. So the person becomes a partaker of the divine nature having escaped corruption in the world through lust, with praise of God on the lips instead of worry, doubt and harsh words to others, and with assurance of forgiven sins in a life honoring Christ. That fullness gives strength not to go crippling and mourning as under wrath but to testify when meeting together what the Lord has done and how seeking His blessing brings rich experience, talking of the infinite love shown in the infinite sacrifice of the Son, of Christ's coming, the nearness of the end, readiness for His appearing, the heavenly city and New Jerusalem, the tree of life in the midst of God's paradise, the King in beauty with kingly crown, riches given to God's children, and the stream from God's throne, looking forward to entering the gate as sons and daughters of the Most High welcomed to the Father's bosom, crowned by Christ's own hand, singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, which makes believers love one another.
He delights in human happiness and is a source of joy, so Christians may enjoy wholesome recreation that does not harm mind or soul, especially while keeping Jesus with them and maintaining a prayerful spirit. When God controls the mind people become true gentlemen and ladies, tasting full joy in delighting in the beautiful things of creation as a little taste of Eden and an expression of His love and what He will do, and in living with elbow room outside the cities to better prepare for eternal life with His peace and gladness filling life. Choosing work in which God can be served and glorified keeps Jesus from being eclipsed and allows this joy to be experienced by those connected with Him and walking with God, learning from Jesus unto fullness and the living water He gives.
These words are plain decided testimony setting out duty to God and fellow men, leaving churches and individuals without excuse if they miss the way, make mistakes, follow human devising and lose their souls. The main thing in the whole chapter is that He died on Calvary's cross to save the perishing that they might have eternal life, with love laying down life for friends set before believers, so daily life matters greatly and calls for watching the tone of thoughts, watching words spoken, and watching unto prayer. Loving and serving Him and bringing others to Him makes believers happy even under affliction as they appreciate God's love and give thanks, with gladness brought to hearts long depressed, and this joy of abiding, keeping commandments, bearing fruit and loving one another prepares followers to meet Him at His coming with joy. True Christianity reveals His character in human life, for His divinity clothed in humanity helps and restores fallen humanity to God and shows the perfection of character people may attain.
Abiding brings communication with heaven through prayer, asking and receiving, and faith resting the helpless soul on Christ, with His joy remaining and made full as humanity works God's will and ways in union with divinity. That abiding experience includes self-denial and pruning of fruitless branches and leads to learning the truth, with obedience bringing the illuminating purifying blissful presence of Father and Son and communion with God. In this life the person cooperates with God, overcomes what cripples spiritual growth, and allows God to work within and form the character. The words of John 15-17 are to be received in every home as teaching how to obtain His grace, and refusing the conditions given leaves a person unready to meet Him when He comes in glory.