Abide in Me, and I in You
When we love ourselves and one another just as the Father loves Jesus the Son of Man*, then this love is an expression of Jesus abiding in us and us abiding in Jesus.
Jesus said in John 15:4, “Abide in Me, and I in you.”
How are we to ‘abide in Jesus’? That is, what is the ‘way’ that Jesus has provided for us to ‘abide in Him’?
John 15:9,10,12, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, … This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”
Therefore, as “you love one another, just as I have loved you” … “you will abide in My love”.
And when Jesus said “abide in My love”, we can understand Him to say ‘abide in Me’ because Jesus is God and ‘God is Love’.
So we express that we ‘abide in Jesus’ as we “love one another, just as I have loved you”.
And how does Jesus ‘abide in us’?
John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
So, the Father and Jesus will, “make Our abode with him” as “he will keep My word”.
If we can say that the word ‘keep’ as used here means to remember and obey, then the phrase “keep My word” could be rephrased to ‘remember My words and obey them’. And to ‘obey them’ means to “love one another, just as I have loved you”.
Therefore, we are expressing that Jesus abides in us as we remember His words and obey them by “love one another, just as I have loved you”.
Said more simply, when we receive Jesus we become one with Jesus and Jesus becomes one with us.
John 14:20, “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
And when we “love one another, just as I have loved you” we are expressing the reality of both the “you in Me” and “I in you” portions of verse John 14:20.
When we love ourselves and one another just as the Father loves Jesus the Son of Man, then this love is an expression of Jesus abiding in us and us abiding in Him.
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
(1 John 4:16)
| Also see |
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| * Jesus the Son of Man |
| The Purpose and Premise of this Website |
| The Love of Others Redefined |
| Other Websites Relevant to this Topic |
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| Where People of all Backgrounds Learn about Jesus |
