Remain in my love". Indeed, at all costs! If you lose Christ's love, you lose everything. Are you afraid of losing it? Then see Rom. 8:35-39. Nothing can come between you and the love of Christ - nothing but your free decision. Keep faithful to Him, and He will keep faithful to you. This is a relationship of the highest quality, after the pattern of His relationship with the Father: "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".

The word "remain" suggests endurance. Your fidelity to Christ will at times be demanding, as was His fidelity to the Father: Watch Him at the garden, wrestling with the most cruel depression a human being has ever experienced. He knew that the Father's love was there, but He did not feel it at all. This dry knowledge of the Father's loving presence kept Him faithful to the Father's will, until He felt the Father's love, as the evangelist expresses it with the image of the comforting angel (Lk. 22:44). He had passed the test.