It changes us.
Here at the end of 31 days, I am only beginning to see it. How this groping for Him, finding Him, and clinging to Him is the secret to the life of joy. Without Him this is all meaningless.
John knew it. This disciple, who later became Apostle, knew what it was to abide. He wrote the infamous chapter on abiding in John 15, and he mentions the word "abide" no less than 20 times in his letters. This idea of coming to Christ, remaining in Christ, and living out of Christ's love--it pervades everything he wrote.
In trying to sum up this month-long journey, I find five things from John that we should know about abiding.
1. When we abide, we know we are loved.
Christ came to abide in us. He wants us so bad that He comes to us first. He doesn't simply reach out a hand to the drowning. He plunges into our muck, and He stays there with us as long as it takes.
He abides with us because He loves us. He stayed to walk among us, teach us, suffer for us, and die for us. And then He sent His Spirit to stay with us still. To remain with us forever.
Throughout the gospel of John, the author refers to himself not by name but as "the disciple whom Jesus loved."He didn't need any other identity or recognition. Though he was one of Christ's most trusted and faithful disciples, with Christ in the most intimate and powerful moments, he did not draw attention to himself. His identity was found in Christ's love for him.
John knew He was loved. And that was enough.
"We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).
2. When we abide, we go to the Cross.
John, this beloved disciple, is the only one mentioned by name as following Christ all the way to the cross. The others fled in fear at some point during that awful day. But John stayed. He was close enough for Christ to look down and speak to him from the cross (John 19:26-27).
John was willing to follow into Christ's suffering because he knew Christ's love. He had been changed by knowing Christ. I doubt he understood what was happening. I am sure he suffered just as Christ's mother did, standing there together watching their hope die. But he knew Jesus, and knowing Him, he entered the suffering. He stayed.
3. When we abide, we believe.
I wonder if John saw it coming. His beloved taken by death and buried in a tomb. I wonder if, having seen the miracles, he expected Christ to defeat the cross, call down His angels, and take up His kingdom then and there. How did John feel when all his hopes and expectations were shattered? When Jesus died?
In John 20, when Mary comes running all breathless to tell the disciples she has seen the empty tomb, John seems to have been waiting for this moment. He and Peter run to the tomb to see for themselves. John 20:8 says "he saw and believed."
While Mary is weeping, John is rejoicing. John 20:9 says that "they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead." But John did not need the prophecy because he knew Christ. Abiding with Christ had taught him to believe.
4. When we abide, we share His joy with others.
John spent the rest of his life telling people about Jesus. He knew the secret of abiding, and he had to share the joy (1 John 1:4). His letters are filled with the joy of knowing Him.
"This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live just as Jesus did" (1 John 2:5-6).
When we really know Him, we can't help but be like Him.
5. When we abide, we love as He loved.
Knowing Christ's love must lead to loving others.
John says this over and over.
"He who loves his brother abides in the light" (1 John 2:10).
"He who does not love his brother abides in death" (1 John 3:14).
"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:8).
"And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God must love his brother also" (1 John 4:21).
And isn't this why Christ came? To show us the way? The way is love.
We know love because it created us, it sings all around us, it walked among us, and it dwells within us.
The world will know love when we abide in it, when it fills us to overflowing and floods our lives with light and hope and joy. Because He abides in us. He draws us to Himself, and He will use us to draw others.
And finally, someday, we will see Him in all His glory. We will fall at His feet in joy of Him and abide with Him forever. And we will know Him because we have been with Him. Because we stayed.
Let it begin today.
Day 31 of Abide: 31 Days of Resting in Him
See all posts from this series here
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