Who's in charge here?

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 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.  –John 15:9-10 (ESV)
 
Our culture has a problem with the idea of commandments. Maybe it’s the value we place on individualism. Maybe it’s the fact that our country was founded by rebels. Maybe it’s the sense of betrayal we have felt in more recent times when those in authority were incompetent or worse. We’re willing to service requests, consider suggestions, even to entertain proposals, but the idea of following commands leaves us uneasy.
 
Yet that’s where we find ourselves when we examine the conversations Jesus had with His closest friends, especially the ones in the days and hours leading up to His arrest and crucifixion. With the disciples’ training window rapidly closing, things of first importance came to the surface, and many of those were given as imperatives.
 
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  –John 15:12 (ESV)
 
As their master and rabbi, Jesus certainly had the authority to issue commands with no explanation – He had chosen them for apprenticeship and they had willingly come under His instruction. But Jesus, though authoritative, was not authoritarian in His approach. He wanted His followers to understand the why and how.
 
Along with His commands, He gave them the reason: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” He followed that with the example that would soon be much more than hypothetical: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.“
 
You are my friends if you do what I command you. –John 15:14 (ESV)
 
Obedience wasn’t the destination. Joy was the destination. Obedience would be the vehicle that got them there. But that commandment… as I have loved you… And how was that? How, exactly, did Jesus love?  Gracefully. Sacrificially. Self-emptyingly. Obediently.
 
Where did Jesus find His joy? Most of the people Jesus came to save wouldn’t recognize, acknowledge, or appreciate what He did. If Jesus was waiting for the applause, there would be no joy. So where was the joy? It was in knowing He had done the will of His Father.
 
These things I command you, so that you will love one another.  –John 15:17 (ESV)
 
Here’s the thing: I can’t love like that. I don’t have it in me. This is why I have to abide. “Remain in my love.” Unless I am allowing His Spirit to infuse the effort, I will be unable to carry out the commandment. This isn’t about earning His favor. He saw value in me and invited me to be His apprentice before I even understood what that meant.
 
But acceptance of that apprenticeship means I’m following with the objective of becoming like Him. It isn’t easy, but He never said it would be. In fact, He promised the opposite. Thankfully, yes – there is joy in the journey.