John 15: 9-17, I John 5:1-6   Jesus in John 15 talks about the love passed down from the Father to him and from him to the disciples. This love has been passed down to us spoken of in I John 5 as us being the children of God. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. God then is our loving parent who had love passed down to Christ the Son and passes this parental love to those who believe. Jesus is our example of carrying out this love by keeping the Father’s commandments. If we, like the disciples, keep Jesus commandments we will abide in Jesus’ love. Jesus found joy in this love and tells of it so that his joy maybe in them. That their joy may be complete. The Greek word translated “complete” here means to fill up and to cram like in a net. This joy from God is crammed into our souls – filling them up. God commanded Jesus to become human and die on the cross for our sins. He truly laid his life down for us. So, what is the commandment Jesus...

  John 15:1-8, I John 4:13-21 In John 15, Jesus says another “I am” metaphor statements. Here he says that he is the vine while God is the vine grower. We then are the branches growing out of Christ. By abiding in the vine – Christ, we can bear much fruit but apart from Christ we can do nothing. By abiding in him we glorify the Father and bear much fruit becoming Jesus’ disciples. One of these fruits is told of in I John 4. It is to love our brothers and sisters. We have another “I am” but this refers to God. It says God is Love. Abiding in love then is abiding in God. More powerful is that the God of love will abide in us. This is the only way to have love perfected in us. This love gives us boldness and casts out – drives out all fear. It says whoever fears has not reached this perfection in love. In this love we follow God’s commandment of loving our brothers and sister, bearing fruit on our branch. Unfortunately, so much religion has based itself on fear. Fear of Hell, fi...