John 15:9-17 - Christlike Love

⁹ "Just as the Father has loved me, [so] I have also loved you. You should continue to receive [or, respond to] my love. [Note: The next verse tells how this can be done]. ¹⁰ If you obey my commandments, [then] you will continue receiving my love; just as I have obeyed my Father's commandments and [so] continue receiving His love.

¹¹ I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in your hearts, and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My commandment [to you] is this: You should love one another just as I have loved you. ¹³ No one has [any] greater love than to give up his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You people are my friends if you do what I command you to. ¹⁵ I do not call you slaves anymore, for a slave does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have told you everything that I heard from my Father. ¹⁶ You [apostles] did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you to go and bear much fruit [i.e., through their evangelizing], and that your fruit should last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask Him for in my name [i.e. by my authority]. ¹⁷ I command you to do these things so that you will [demonstrate your] love for one another. [Note: Or this may mean that His command was to love one another, as in verse 12].