Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 15:9-13

"Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father`s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and [that] your joy may be made full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." — John 15:9-13 (ASV)

1. Above, our Lord urged His disciples to remain united with Him; here He shows what this involves. He makes three points:

1. To abide in Him is to abide in His love.
2. To abide in His love is to keep His commandments: if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.
3. His commandment is to love: this is my commandment, that you love one another.

He does two things regarding the first point:

1. He recalls the benefit granted to the disciples.
2. He urges them to persevere: abide in my love.

2. He says that the fact that we abide in Christ is due to His grace, and this grace is the effect of His love: I have loved you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).

It is clear from this that all our good works are ours because of the benefit of divine love. For they would not be ours unless faith acted through love, and we would not love unless we were first loved. And so He reminds them of this benefit by saying, as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you.

3. The word “as” sometimes indicates an equality of nature and at other times a similarity in action. The Arians, who erred about this passage, wanted the as to indicate an equality, and because of this they concluded that the Son was inferior to the Father. But this is false. We must say, then, according to Augustine, that the word as indicates a likeness in grace and love.Tractates on the Gospel of John 82.4. For the love with which the Son loves His disciples is a certain likeness of that love with which the Father loves the Son.

To love someone is to will their good. Therefore, the Father loves the Son according to His divine nature, willing for Him the infinite good that He Himself possesses by sharing with Him the one and same nature that He Himself has: for the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself does (John 5:20). He also loves Him according to His human nature: because Israel was a child, and I loved him: and I called my son out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1). And from this, God and man would be similar.

But the Son did not love the disciples in either of these ways. He did not love them to the point of their being God by nature, nor to the point that they would be united to God so as to form one person with Him. But He did love them up to a similar point: He loved them to the extent that they would be gods by their participation in grace: I say: you are gods (Psalms 82:6); he has granted to us precious and very great promises, that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

He also loved them to the extent that they would be united to God in affection: he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him (1 Corinthians 6:17); for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). Thus, the Father communicated a greater good to the Son (with respect to each of the Son’s natures) than the Son did to His disciples. Yet, as was said, there is a similarity.

4. Abide in my love. This is like saying, “Because you have received such a great benefit from my love, abide in it so that you love me.” Or it could mean, abide in my love because I love you—that is, abide in My grace so you will not be excluded from the good things I have prepared for you. This meaning is more fitting. The thought is this: persevere in this state so that you will be loved by me through the effect of grace: every one should remain in the state in which he was called (1 Corinthians 7:20). He who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1 John 4:16).

5. Now He shows what it means to abide in His love.

1. He shows that it means to keep His commandment.
2. He illustrates it with an example: as I also have kept my Father’s commandments.
3. He eliminates an assumption: these things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you.

6. He says, abide in my love, and you will do this if you keep my commandments, for this is the way you will abide in My love.

Keeping the commandments is an effect of divine love—not only of the love by which we love, but also of the love by which God loves us. For from the fact that God loves us, He influences us and helps us to fulfill His commandments, which we cannot do without grace: in this is love, not that we love God but that he loved us first (1 John 4:10).

7. He adds an example when He says, as I also have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. For just as the love which the Father has for Him is the model or standard of Christ’s love for us, so Christ wants His obedience to be the model of our obedience. By saying this, Christ shows that He abided in the Father’s love because in all things He kept the Father’s commandments. For He submitted to death: he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8); and refrained from all sin: he committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips (1 Peter 2:22). These things are to be understood of Christ in His human nature: he has not left me alone, for I always do the things that please him (John 8:29). And so He says, I...abide in his love, because there is nothing in me, as a human being, opposed to His love.

8. Now, so that they do not think He is urging them to keep His commandments for His own benefit and not for theirs, He says, these things I have spoken to you—that you keep My commandments for your own good—so that my joy may be in you. Love is the cause of joy, for everyone rejoices in what he loves. But God loves Himself and creatures, especially rational creatures, to whom He grants an infinite good. So Christ rejoices in two things from all eternity:

1. In His own good and that of the Father: I was delighted every day, playing before him (Proverbs 8:30).
2. He delights in the good of the rational creature: delighting in the sons of men (Proverbs 8:31), that is, in the fact that I am shared in by the children of men.

He rejoices in these things from eternity: as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so will your God rejoice over you (Isaiah 62:5).

Consequently, our Lord wants us to become sharers of His joy by observing His commandments. He says, that my joy—the joy I take in My divinity and that of My Father—may be in you. This is nothing other than eternal life, which, as Augustine says, is joy in the truth.Tractates on the Gospel of John 83.1.

That my joy may be in you means, in effect, that you may have eternal life: then you will delight yourself in the Almighty (Job 22:26). And He says, that your joy may be full, referring to the joy I take in My own humanity.

The goods in which we rejoice are either imperfect or imperfectly possessed, and so in this life our joy cannot be full. But it will be full when we perfectly possess perfect goods: enter into the joy of your Master (Matthew 25:21).

9. Now our Lord states what His precepts are:

1. He states His commandment.
2. He presents an example: as I have loved you.
3. He recalls a benefit: you are my friends, if you do the things that I command you.

10. The commandment He gives is the commandment of charity, which He wants us to keep: this is my commandment, that you love one another.

Since there are many other commandments of the Lord in the sacred writings, why does He say that His commandment is only the practice of charity?

The answer, according to Gregory, is that charity is the root and end of all the virtues.Forty Gospel Homilies 27.1. It is the root, because it is from charity, firmly rooted in the human heart, that we are led to accomplish all the other commandments: he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law (Romans 13:8). Therefore, all the commandments are, in a way, directed to this: that we do good to our neighbor and not harm him, which is done best through charity. Charity is the end because all the commandments are directed to it and by it alone are given strength: the aim of our charge is love (1 Timothy 1:5). So He says, this is my commandment, that you love one another, since everything comes from charity as its source, and all things are directed to charity as their end. As Gregory puts it: just as many branches of a tree spring from one root, so the many virtues are produced from one root; and the branch of a good work has no life if it is not united to the root of charity.Forty Gospel Homilies 27.1.

11. Since we read in Matthew that the law and the prophets depend not only on love for God, but also on love for neighbor (Matthew 22:40), why does Christ mention here only love for neighbor?

The answer is that one is included in the other. A person who loves God must love his neighbor and the things that belong to God; and the person who loves his neighbor for the sake of God must love God. Now although the objects of these acts are different, the outcomes are the same.

There are two reasons why He mentions love of neighbor rather than the love of God. By doing this, He wants to teach and lead them to help their neighbor and to become strong enough to endure sufferings from those who will persecute them. To do both of these, charity for our neighbor is necessary.

12. Here He shows by an example how we should love our neighbor: as Christ loved us.

Christ loved us in the correct order and efficaciously. His love was orderly because He loved nothing in us except God and in relation to God: I am the mother of beautiful love , and efficacious because He loved us so much that He delivered Himself for us: Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:2). So we should love our neighbor in a holy way, for his good, and efficaciously, by showing our love through our actions: let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18).

13. Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Here He shows the efficacy of love, which is that one undergo death for his friends; this is a sign of the greatest love.

Yet one could object that it is a sign of greater love when someone lays down his life for his enemies, as Christ did: but God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

We should answer that Christ did not lay down His life for His enemies so that they would remain His enemies, but to make them His friends. Or, one could say, that He laid down His life for His friends—not in the sense that they were friends who loved Him, but rather were those whom He loved.

It is clear that the sign of the greatest love is to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. This is so because there are four lovable things to be put in order: God, our soul, our neighbor, and our body.

We should love God more than ourselves and our neighbor. For God's sake, we ought to give our very selves—body and soul—and our neighbor. We should lay down our body for the sake of our soul. For our neighbor, we should expose our body and our physical life for his salvation.

Consequently, since our physical life is the best thing we have after our soul, exposing it for our neighbor's sake is the greatest thing we can do and a sign of the greatest love: in this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him (1 John 4:9).