ABIDE

PART TWO

“If  you keep My commandments,
you will abide in My love”
JOHN 15:10

LOVE is not an attribute of God; it is what HE is within the essence of HIMSELF. HE IS Love. Therefore, in order for me to know what Love is, I must know HIM who is Love. A man’s concept of love can only be true to the extent that he KNOWS God and LOVES God. There are many within the Christian world who that think because God is Love, HE simply overlooks how we live, how we misrepresent Him in this world and how we treat one another. This is one of the lies that keep us from developing into HIS LIKENESS.

“For God so loved the world
that HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON”
Luke 22:32

Love does not overlook sin, it atones for it. True Love is righteous; it is holy and it ever seeks to bring others into its reality. It is in keeping the commandments of God, that I am enabled to live within its powerful sphere of influence. I cannot do evil, think evil and walk in my SELF and think to abide in God. It is an absurdity. The next couple of verses bring out the reason why we are to KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS…

“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you,
and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you“
JOHN 15:11 – 12

It is in LOVING others that we abide in that which is LOVE. Seeking God’s love for our SELF is the very antithesis of actually finding it. When we cut others off from our life, we cut off the very means by which we are to abide in HIS LOVE. When we fail to speak truth, when we remain unconcerned about the spiritual condition of our brothers and sisters, we will find ourselves outside the scope of HIS LOVE. Apathy and neglect are the sins that clothe themselves in religious garments of “it is none of my business”, “it is between them and God” or “I don’t know if such a thing is true”. Love finds out, love searches out, love cares that a man has not progressed in his walk with God. Love risks relationship to be an extension of God’s heart and desire. Love ever seeks to be God’s heart to God’s people. It does not ignore sin; it does not overlook the issues that hold a life from the streams of HIS Grace.

Some are willing to help with the symptoms of sin but love goes to the core of the matter. Love ever seeks right “being” through which right “doing” becomes the effortless expression. People can only do right by becoming right. It is easier to cater to the symptoms than to actually deal with the root of the matter which results in the same circuitous pattern of behaviour. To love a person requires caring enough to bring them to the point of pain and discovery; to be willing to walk along side someone till we see a heart made free by His love within.

We are to LOVE ONE ANOTHER, AS HE HAS LOVED US! He is not interested in leaving me in my darkness, my carnal tendencies and my own lack of development. HIS Love for me reveals the hidden things, the things that I am blind to in order that I may grow up into HIM. His Love in others confronts me, helps me and causes me to consider my ways. The Love of God is what motivates us to interact with one another, HIS Truth is what makes us FREE and HIS Joy is the fruit of relationship.

“…but, speaking the truth in love,
may GROW UP in all things into Him who is the head—Christ”
EPHESIANS 4:15

Ω

“If we want the advantages of love,
then we must be willing to take the risks of love.
And that requires vulnerability.
Of course, we can refuse this path
and trod another one devoid of openness.
But the toll on such a road is extremely high.”
Charles (Chuck) Swindoll

Brian Troxel