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.
Parallel translations
- WEB If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love.
- BSB If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.
- NKJV 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.
- NASB If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.
- NLT When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Keeping Jesus' commandments is how the disciples remain in His love, just as He kept the Father's and remains in His love. Obedience is the path of abiding love.
Overview
Jesus links remaining in His love with keeping His commandments, modeling this on His own perfect obedience to the Father. This is not earning love but living within it; obedience is the natural expression and sustaining channel of loving fellowship. The believer's obedience flows from grace and keeps the relationship of love vital and unbroken.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- John 14:15If ye love me, keep my commandments.
- 1 Jn 5:3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
- 1 Jn 3:21–24Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
- 1 Jn 2:5But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
- 2 Pet 2:21For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
- John 8:29And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.
- John 4:34Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
- 1 Jn 2:1–2My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
- John 17:4I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
- John 14:21He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
- Matt 3:15–17And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
- John 12:49For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
- 1 Th 4:1Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
- John 14:31But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
- Rev 22:14Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
- Isa 42:1–4Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
- 1 Cor 7:19Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.
- Heb 10:5–10Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
- Heb 7:26For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 15:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.