Post by Once4all on Sept 13, 2011 0:45:16 GMT -5
Do we have a correct understanding of what "indwell" or "abide in" means? Take 1 John 4:16 for example:
(1 John 4:16 NASB) We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
We seem to take for granted the concept of God abiding in us, but how do we abide in God?
In John 15:4, Jesus says "Abide in me, and I in you." But then in John 15:7, he says, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you."
Jesus spoke the words of life (John 6:68); his teaching was one of love: Loving God and loving one another.
1 John 4:10-13 NASB
(10) In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
(11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
(12) No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
(13) By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
This could be a huge discussion. When I think of the heavy emphasis on love in the scriptures, and how the apostles speak of renewing our minds and cleansing our hearts, and how Jesus said that the words he has spoken are spirit and life, I think that God indwells us in the sense that we develop a spirit of love that matches His in quality.
(Psalms 119:11 NASB) Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.
When Jesus said "I and the Father are one," he didn't mean they were the same person or being. He meant that they were united in one spirit, the spirit of love. And he desires that same spirit of unity for all of his disciples:
(John 17:23 NASB) I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
(Philippians 2:2 NASB) make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
Okay, enough. It's hard to stop. One verse leads to a dozen others.
(1 John 4:16 NASB) We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
We seem to take for granted the concept of God abiding in us, but how do we abide in God?
In John 15:4, Jesus says "Abide in me, and I in you." But then in John 15:7, he says, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you."
Jesus spoke the words of life (John 6:68); his teaching was one of love: Loving God and loving one another.
1 John 4:10-13 NASB
(10) In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
(11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
(12) No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
(13) By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
This could be a huge discussion. When I think of the heavy emphasis on love in the scriptures, and how the apostles speak of renewing our minds and cleansing our hearts, and how Jesus said that the words he has spoken are spirit and life, I think that God indwells us in the sense that we develop a spirit of love that matches His in quality.
(Psalms 119:11 NASB) Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.
When Jesus said "I and the Father are one," he didn't mean they were the same person or being. He meant that they were united in one spirit, the spirit of love. And he desires that same spirit of unity for all of his disciples:
(John 17:23 NASB) I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
(Philippians 2:2 NASB) make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
Okay, enough. It's hard to stop. One verse leads to a dozen others.
