"[That] which you [all] heard from the beginning, in you let it be remaining. If in you should be remaining what from the beginning you [all] heard, also you in the Son and in the Father you will remain."
-What you heard from the beginning was God’s Word, the words of Jesus - so, a command here, and I do have a choice: let those words of Jesus be remaining/abiding in you. Recall the words of Jesus: "If you remain in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine (John 8.31); you do not have His Word remaining in you, because you do not believe Him Whom He sent (John 5.38); if anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. [But] if you abide in Me and My Words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you (John 15.6-7); remain in My love - if you keep My commands you will remain in My love (John 15.9).
-Clearly our Lord puts a huge premium on the idea of remaining in Him, in His love, in His Words. And there are two ways to look at it, I suppose. Two sides of the same coin. The remaining is something we do. It is a command, which is fundamentally an appeal to our will. We have a choice. Let it be remaining. It is on us, our responsibility. We devote ourselves to His Word and take pains to absorb ourselves in it, we learn it and memorize it and carefully apply it, turning not to the right or the left. And so there are people who will apply themselves to this whole remaining thing, to remaining in God’s Word(s), and you will of course see it playing out in their lives in the form of a visible life and walk of faith. We will describe them as faithful. And that is clearly more of the language here. But the remaining is also something which God does, which plays out in the life of the person whose heart is truly trusting in Christ. The abiding/remaining heart abides. This is broadly referred to as the perseverance of the saints, describing that life which has been regenerated by Christ, made new as the Holy Spirit applied God’s Word to their heart and brought forth brand new eternal life. Regeneration. Metapmorphosis. Old things gone, all things made new (2Corinthians 5.17) - for any and all who are (having put their trust) in Christ. The person thus transformed is a completely new creation. And this change is permanent. Forever. They will remain forever. You and I and all God’s people will see that their faith will persevere for the rest of their lives. The Word which they believed will prove to be that which they believe forever. IF they truly did believe.
-”Take care, brothers, watch out that there will not be found in any of you an unbelieving heart which (does not remain but rather) stands away from the living God (in unbelief)...” (Hebrews 3.12)
-Yes, there is a camp of those who will insist that a person can unbelieve, can undo this regeneration by choosing to no longer remain in the Word. Others - this writer included - will maintain that "unregeneration" is not a thing, that it not possible and that such a "used-to-be-a believer" never truly believed to begin with. That verse in Hebrews alone lands people on both sides of this discussion. Suffice it to say, what both camps will prescribe, and what matters most is that right now, in this moment, such a person, any person must now (choose to) remain in His Word. No matter where you (or anyone else) might think you may have been in this whole believe-and-remain thing, right now, simply believe. Be believing. Present tense, Continuing action in the present. Now and continuously. That is precisely what John says here, nothing more, nothing less. And the person thus remaining in God’s Word will genuinely be that person who is remaining in both the Father and the Son.
-But what John is really getting at here is what he already aluded to back in 1John 2.7, the new/old command to love one another. These words of Jesus, which these believers had heard from the beginning, John is saying that THESE words from John 13.33 specifically need to be remaining in them, remaining in them not as guests, as words which they had heard but did not heed, but rather remaining in them as permanent residents, as family members, as words which influenced them and defined who they were, words which colored their thoughts and words and deeds. Love one another. These were the words which they had heard from the beginning. These were the proof of the pudding. Loving one another - remaining steeped in these words - goes hand in hand with remaining in the the Son and the Father (and of course those Two go hand in hand as well - there is no abiding in just one of Them...). The person who is continuing to love their brother is one whom you can know is in the Father and the Son. Is it in you?
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