Stay in My Love

By James Tarter

Many believers in Jesus know about abiding in the Vine in John 15, but few realize the content of His command there: stay in My love. This command seems so easy to obey and fulfill, but examining it closer reveals its key point: our opportunity to live in fellowship with our Father God like Jesus had with Him while on earth.

Some believers realize our great opportunity from John 15 or other Scriptures, but I know of no one who realizes that this is a theme of John’s whole Gospel and 1John. English readers do not see this theme because a shortened translation of “ina” as "that" or "to" instead of "so that" systematically veils how many prominent verses relate to abiding in Jesus in John 15. We can see this theme and a better meaning of 22 key verses with ina’s consistent meaning instead of the shorter one. We can also see a needed part of a believer’s foundation for his/her life on earth: ina’s consistent meaning reveals sources of vital outcomes and shows why most of us have not fully moved into them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781716568480

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Copyright Page

Stay in My Love

James Tarter

Copyright 2020, 2022 by James M. Tarter.  All rights reserved.  Permission granted to make copies for purposes consistent with furthering the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.

Published by James M. Tarter

ISBN 978-1-71656-848-0

Eleventh Edition

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE® (1995 Updated Edition): 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.  (www.Lockman.org)

I call the 1995 New American Standard Bible the NAS.  I do not use the 2020 NAS because this book was substantially completed in 2019 before the 2020 Update was published. I add boldface, underlining, and capitals to specific words and phrases in Scriptures in order to add my emphasis for discussion.  I also occasionally call parts of verses a or b.

A quote about telos in Chapter 2 is taken from the New Testament Dictionary in the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, Spiros Zodhiates, AMG Publishers, 2008.

A comparison of two Greek words for know in Chapter 4 and for ask in Chapter 6 is taken from Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, W. E. Vine, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996.

Introduction: Stay in Me and My Love: Jesus’ Hidden Command and Our Opportunity for True Life

I am amazed at how God has put a vital command right before our eyes in John 15:9, and about everyone has not seen it for what it is – including me for over 40 years.  Jesus commanded: abide (= stay) in My love. God is so loving and faithful to us in Jesus: how can I not stay in His love?  His command is not about not staying in His love; it is the opportunity God gives us to stay in His love like Jesus stayed in His Father’s love.  When we see its meaning in Chapter 1, we can see that all of us should improve our staying in God’s loving fellowship and life to like Jesus stayed in it.

Chapter 2 brings out the second key issue about John 15.  Standard translations of John’s Gospel and 1John miss much of the emphasis on the special life and fellowship that God makes available to us in Jesus.  This emphasis has been lost by an ambiguous translation of the Greek conjunction "ina" in 12% of John’s 213 ina’s, where the first part of ina’s link is easy to miss.  In most contexts, that or to fits John’s ina, but that has many English meanings unlike his use.  With 25 ina’s, the context lets that or to give an apparent meaning that differs from what I find for all of John’s ina’s (telos: projecting a source to an end, outcome, or purposeful goal).  You will see how "ina = so that" for these 25 ina’s (in contrast to the shortened that 24 times in the KJV and 23 times in the NAS) brings out this missing content: ina as so that reveals key sources of vital desired outcomes and shows why most of us have not fully moved into them.

How does fully translating John’s ina impact John 15:9’s stay in My love and 15:4’s stay in Jesus?  In an amazing way you can see, so that for these 25 ina’s reveals stay in Jesus with its full meaning as a key theme in all of John’s Gospel and 1John, and this theme normally should be a part of the foundation for a believer’s life on earth.

I shall describe a similar book at the same epub price in order to help potential readers choose the best book. Stay in My Love essentially duplicates Chapters 1-6 of Abide in Jesus, which adds a far more thorough examination of all of John’s ina-Scriptures after that Chapter 6. The Afterword gives more information about the contents of Abide in Jesus. I believe most readers would be served better by Stay in My Love, this book.  It focuses on seeing the vital true content in John’s Scriptures that is normally not seen because 25 translations of ina as the full so that are reduced to that or to.

Chapter 1: Our Life in Jesus Shown in John 15:4-10

John 15:1-17, especially v. 4-10, is about a life in Jesus beyond all we ask or think, even if we can say all of the right words.  But we can grasp and move into the reality of this life that God gives His children in Jesus: He gives us the opportunity to stay in the life and fellowship with Father God, His Son Jesus, and other believers in Him, which He compared to His life with His Father.  God commands us very clearly to abide (= stay) in His love in John 15:9 and explains the gist of what this means in v. 10. But for over 400 years we believers have added distracting ideas that have hidden the key content of v. 9-10 for us.

Let us see more exactly what I have just declared. Consider what Jesus said in John 15:4a and 15:9-10:

⁴Abide in Me, and I in you….  (John 15:4a)

⁹Just as My Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; ABIDE IN MY LOVE.  ¹⁰IF 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)

You see the command in v. 4 and the capitalized command in v. 9.  Abide means to stay, remain, or continue.  I usually write a simpler stay in My love or stay in Me [Jesus, God, or Him].  V. 9 could seem like God’s easiest command to obey, but v. 9-10 show an opportunity – we can live like Jesus did – instead of what people can do routinely.  We MUST NOT MIX stay [abide] in My love with great truths of God’s faithful love in Jesus to all believers and His always being with us.  Here are two of many Scriptures stating these other two great truths:

For I am convinced that neither…nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Rom. 8:38-39)

…I am with you always, even to the end of the age.  (Matt. 28:20)

John 15:9 commands us disciples, stay in His love.  We often add ideas of how I can disobey, or the consequence (penalty) if I disobey.  But v. 10 shows that these ideas are not the heart of this command: "¹⁰IF you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just AS I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love." All