Sep 25, 2023
What does it mean to
abide in Christ's love?
"As the Father has
loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 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." John 15:9-10
ESV
Abide means remain or
stay. The idea is that we're fully connected, engaged. In our
multi-tasking world, this is a single-tasking word. We're doing one
thing. We're remaining tethered to Jesus. We draw our life from
him. We take our direction from him.
I've learned that no
matter how much I think this means that I'm single-minded in my
focus on Jesus, I believe there is more room. I don't believe I
achieve anything near the ideal or the standard Jesus is
describing. He is greater than all I can ask or imagine.
If I can keep his
commandments, I can remain in his love. It seems simple. We know
the 2 greatest commands. They're from Matthew 22:36-38, which
paraphrased is love God all you can and love others the way you
love yourself. If I'm honest, I have a gap. If you're in between me
and where I want to go, I'm not so loving. I can easily find ways I
don't measure up. Fortunately, Jesus paid for the gap. But I'm
still called to grow.
Today, let's grow.
Let's try to remain a bit longer or to abide a bit longer. Let's
try to be slower to get angry at someone else and let's be quicker
to love others. In fact, ask God to show you how you can display
love to someone right now and do it. If at any moment, you sense a
gap between where you are and the center of Christ's love, you know
the key: keep his commandments.
Let's be a people
marked by keeping his commandments today. And if you want to do
that better, check out our online community called Follower of One.
Head over to https://community.followerofone.org and
check it out.