The Father calls us to be a yielded lovers of Him. This phrase 'yielded lover of God' seems to capture the dynamic that Christ is after in verses 15, 21 & 23. That of one who obeys out of love for the one who commands. It is in stark contrast to and wars against the false human idea of having to work (obey) to gain God's love & favor.
We are hearing a lot among many Christians today about "the love of God" and showing, expressing or experiencing the love of God. We hear this and we're not always sure if this is a reactionary pendulum swing from some prior emphasis (or deemphasis) that did not express the love of God. Or is this a new form of the "sloppy agape" we talked about in the 80s. Some have a legitimate concern that this emphasis on the loving of God could leave behind other essential parts of the gospel message like man's sinfulness or the judgment or our need to repent of our sins. But the expression 'Yielded Lover of God' seems to best capture the heart, Spirit and balance of this current call to express and experience 'the love of God'. This seems to me to be something the Spirit would call His Body to in Christ.
In these verses Jesus creates a connection between loving Him/loving the Father and (loving) obedience to Him and the Father. It captures the essence of our pursuit as believers and disciples of Jesus Christ – to love and follow Him wherever He leads us.
We often struggle with this call. We struggle with obedience. Because so many times we want to prove that we are worthy to be loved. Jesus settles this in verse 18. There he says, speaking of the Father, that the Father would not leave us as orphans, alone in this world. He settles it by saying to us that we are already fully loved, "I adopted you" "I chose you to be my child". Now the Father says, "Follow me, let me lead you and you will discover who I am and I will manifest Myself to you. I do this because of the love I already have for you."
