John 15:10-11 “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Jesus is very clear that the way to abide in Him, the vine, is through obedience. We don’t like that word, obedience. It conjures up images of a dog training school, and we don’t like that. However, He also tells us that this is also the way to be filled with joy. Everyone would like that! Among the devil’s lies (and he has a lot of them) is the whopper that sin brings joy. Exactly the reverse is true. Sin may bring pleasure for a moment – if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be very tempting – but it cannot bring joy. Jesus makes it clear that His joy, which is the deepest, highest kind, comes through abiding in Him in obedient faith. The devil paints God as a mean taskmaster who tries to keep us from having fun. Nothing could be further from the truth! God desires joy and peace for us, and the degree to which we lack those things is an indication of how disobedient to Him we are being in our attitudes and actions. No one has ever made a full commitment to Christ as Lord and found Him lacking in any way. That statement is one that atheists would contest violently, but that’s because they are in the opposite position, and want to justify themselves at the expense of everything else. They don’t realize that their rebellious attitude is cutting them off from the only source of true joy, not to mention eternal life.

I have committed my life to Christ, but that doesn’t mean I’ve always been obedient, or even that I’m always obedient right now. However, experience has certainly taught me the truth of what Jesus said in today’s passage. It is when I am obedient to Him that I have unshakable peace and joy, not when I am being pulled by the temptations of the flesh and the world. As hard as it has been to grasp that myself in practical application, I should have great empathy for those in my flock who are having that struggle. I need to encourage and assure them that the rewards for obedience are far more than worth it, whatever pleasures we might need to let go of. Part of the difficulty is immaturity, being unable to delay gratification. Like little children, we can’t get it through out heads and hearts that what comes in the future gives meaning to what is right now. The highest form of obedience is when we can’t see the benefit at all, but we do it because the Lord has said to do so. That’s a hard thing to get across, because none of us are fully mature!

Father, thank You again for Your patience with me. I dare say You are looking forward to my maturity even more than I am! Help me express Your patience toward those who are less mature than I am, remembering how much room I myself have to grow. Help me be increasingly obedient and lead the flock to do the same, so that we may be filled with Your joy indeed, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!