Love One Another

I recieved an encouraging e-mail this morning from a friend (love you, Bekah dear). We had been talking about abiding in Christ two weeks ago at church. We both have been finding ourselves seeking to be abiding in Christ, but struggling to know what exactly it means: how do we live out this “abiding in Christ” in day-to-day living?

My friend sent this quote to me:

We have the Holy Spirit to make the living Christ, in all His saving power, and in the completeness of His victory over sin, ever present with us. It is this that constitutes Him the Comforter; with Him we need never mourn the absent Christ. Let us therefore, as often as we read, or meditate, or pray in connection with this abiding in Christ, reckon upon it as a settled thing that we have the Spirit of God Himself within us, teaching, and guiding, and working.

Let us rejoice in the confidence that we must succeed in our desires, because the Holy Spirit is working all the while with secret, but divine power, in the soul that does not hinder Him by its unbelief.

So what does this mean? Simply this: that we are to live out our days trusting, believing, and rejoicing in the fact that the Holy Spirit makes the power that snatched Christ physically from the tomb, available daily to us. This Spirit is working, living, and abiding in us.

It was interesting how the Lord worked out the timing of her e-mail, since this morning I read in John 15, where Jesus speaks about remaining, or abiding, in Him. v. 4 says:

Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.

Just as a branch trimmed from a tree or a plant plucked from the ground quickly shrivels and dies, so do we, if we do not consistently “feed” on the true Vine — which is Christ.

I wrote in my journal this morning: “But what does this truly mean, to remain in Christ? Father, please teach me what this means.”

I continued reading, and later on, Jesus said:

If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love.

I immediately thought, “Well, what are His commands?” My question was answered in v. 12 and 17.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

This is My command: Love each other.

Hmmm…love each other. It sounds simple enough. But I’m sure you have found, as I have, that the day-to-day living out of these three simple words proves very difficult.

::: There are many times when you don’t feel love for someone, even when you know that you ought to love them. It is then that you must choose to do what you would do, if you loved them. You can’t base whether you act loving to them on feelings.

::: And then there are times when you do feel love for someone, but you know that it’s not right, or not the right time. It is then that love hurts the most. For love is one of the strongest forces in the world. But, even though it is painful, and even though it is hard, you must choose to do what is best for right now, because sometimes, truly loving someone means sacrificing what you feel like doing  for what is best.

Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.