[Continued from yesterday’s post]

1 John 5:11-12 tells us “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal Life, and this Life is IN His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the Life.”

The Life that God gives is found IN Jesus, and is in fact JESUS Himself! “I AM the Life…..” (John 14:6b) So in other words if we would love others we must have Christ AS our very Life! The Love of the brethren as well as Harmony and Humility towards and with others is a fruit, but it is not the fruit of our labor, it is the fruit of the Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is Love…” Gal 5:22

Each of us have probably seen the need for love in our lives, but at best have only been able to come up with a weak imitation of what God actually defines and  tells us love is. This is because it is not IN us to love others, because Love is what issues from LIFE, and this life is NOT IN us, it IS IN Jesus Christ! The whole matter before us then is whether or not we are receiving Jesus as our life. It is no strain for Jesus to love others IN and THROUGH me, but it is a struggle and embarrassing failure for me to try and love others myself.

Then what am I to do?

In order to answer this lets look at the last part of 1 John 3:14 “He who does not love abides in death.” To abide means to live, remain, to dwell. The issue of love comes down to where we are living. To abide IN anything other than Jesus Christ is to live or abide in death. So again, you say what am I to do? Here is our Lords command and invitation to each of us. “Abide IN Me, and I IN you!” (John 15:4)

Here is our answer, we must abide IN Jesus, and He will undertake to produce and pour His Love and Himself out IN and THROUGH us to all those around us and especially towards those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

God’s call and command for us to love and interact with each other in Humility and harmony is not a call for action on our part, it is the unveiling of His desire to Live and do all this IN us! I believe that it has already been mentioned in a previous post or posts about the importance of meditating and letting God’s word richly dwell within us, but let me say it again. God is calling us to LIVE IN Him and Him IN us and this abiding is accomplished and walked in by us simply receiving and meditating upon His words and commands. “The one who keeps   (meditates, watches, guards and treasures) His commandments ABIDES IN Him and He IN him…..” 1 John 3:24

A lack of true love points to the fact that we are living, abiding, remaining in death, but true love displays that there has been a change IN us, that we HAVE passed out of death and are now dwelling IN Life itself, and His name is Jesus!

May each of us receive and Meditate upon His words and therefore Abide IN Him!

-Ross Holdeman