1John 2:23-29
"Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.
These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him."
ABIDE
To remain. To stay. To sojourn. There is an enduring quality. The place where you abide is your abode. It is a place where something (you) lives. Home. If you spend much time on the internet, it is your home page. It’s the direction you’re facing, and the Person you’re desiring. It’s a destination, and a state of being. This is where you’re always heading, and this is where you’re always keeping yourself. You keep yourself there, and overstay your welcome, only it never runs out. Your welcome never runs out in this place. It is the home for your heart. Home sweet home.
Knowledge —> Fellowship —> Constancy
We could think in dog terms and not be too far off. The word literally means, stay. Have you ever tried to teach a dog to stay? Full of impulses and animal instincts, there is actually one instinct which can come quite naturally for dogs.
For our our dog at least, there is home, which is basically her den, the place where her pack is living - and it has been a tumultuous season for our Laska. For months she’s had no idea where her den was. Loss of home. And yet, she has remained crystal clear on one thing, and that is her home sweet home. Right at the feet of her master.
Like Mary. The Master went to visit the physical structure where Mary and Martha stayed. He stayed there for a little while. And where do we find Mary?
Here we get two commands. Something is (to be) living/abiding in us. We are (to be) living/abiding in something. It is almost symbiotic. Symbiosis - the living together in more or less intimate association or close union of two dissimilar organisms.
[Like Nemo living in the anemone...]
The first command in this writing was, do not love the world. John says this because the world is NOT our home. It is not the home for our heart. We give our heart to it so freely, and yet it is that which will never and can never be home. The stuff we have, the stuff we want, the things we want to do - this life is not the abode for our soul. At best it is a tent. Cotton candy. Manure. It will never satisfy.
Consider the idyllic world of a two-year old. Playrooms filled with PAW Patrol cars and Thomas the Train engines and Tonka trucks. Stuffed animals and teddy bears and soft comfy blankets and not a care in the world. Uncomplicated. Innocent. Not a care in the world. Daily bread and sippy cups, messes cleaned up. No worldly responsibilities. Implicit trust in your parents. Learning to listen them. They got this. They take care of you. Home sweet home. If you will, our soul’s sweet spot. Can you remember those days? For most of us, we outgrow them and the tables get flipped.
And our adult sense of duty and responsibility kicks in and screams at us, saying, no, life is not like this. That’s not life in the real world. If I may be so bold, what IS the prevailing reality about the so-called real world? Broken. It is broken. It was broken, a long time ago. Isn’t ours a pilgrimage which ultimately recognizes that life this world is not at all the life for which we were created? Home sweet home is not here - but it exists. And life offers us veiled glimpses of it.
Is there not in each one of us this longing for home sweet home? The way it used to be? Isn’t there a part of us that just loves to go home to that place where we can just rest and relax and let the worries and cares of the world pass us by for a few days? Lay our burdens down? Where our parents, they got this? Home sweet home. Yes, there are the requisite chores, but let’s let somebody else be in charge, even if only just for a little while. Home sweet home.
Obviously life happens and those days of growing up in home sweet home or going back for a visit disappear all too quickly. We get older and head off to college to make our way in the world. Graduation. Job. Bills. Marriage and then kids. Responsibility. Burdens. The burdens and the cares of the world. For a season perhaps we can go back and be back in our home sweet home for a few days. Altho then our parents get older and before long we have to take care of them. All too soon we have to say goodbye to them. Or they decide to downsize and sell our home sweet home out from under us. The losses (real and felt) of home sweet home in my opinion shows just how strong our internal wiring for home sweet home really is.
In this case, we're talking about going home to what home was always meant to be. It is life lived with our heavenly Father in charge, with our Creator, the One Who fashioned us in His image, to bear His image, to be like Him and to be with Him. This is true north. And following Christ in this life then becomes a lifelong adventure of reorienting our compass towards Him. Towards home sweet home. In all things. For truly in Him we live and move and have our being.
Revelation 3:20
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”
Zechariah 2:10-11
“Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” declares the LORD. Many nations will join themselves to the LORD in that day and will become My people. Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.”
John 1:14
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 14:23
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.
2Corinthians 6:16
Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,
“I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM;
AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.”
Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Revelation 21:3
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.”
Isn’t this what was fundamentally lost back in the Garden? At one point, there was this clear sense of dwelling with God. And then the first couple chose to not abide in that place? Abiding/constancy lost. And where did they wind up? Hiding. Darkness. Fellowship lost. They cast God out of "their" abode (or tried), and they were cast out. Paradise lost. Knowledge of God lost - slowly and surely. This then has been the divine rescue-and-restoration mission, the long march of history whereby the God Who made us for Himself is tearing down the wall of separation and rebuilding His home among men. Only it is not a physical tabernacle or some temple built with human hands. No, the venue for this dwelling, this divine habitation? It's my heart…
2Corinthians 3:2-3
You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Jeremiah 31:33
“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Ephesians 3:14-19
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Home. Home base. The place we learned (or should have learned) was safe. The place we came home to. The place we ran to when “IT” was chasing us. Do you remember “IT”? “Not it! You’re it!” Home meant safety. Security. And everything we needed was there. There was no need to go anywhere else. Think about it, grownups - isn’t there a part of you, that child within you, that would love to go home? Assuming that home was what it could and should have been. Going home. Isn’t there something about going home to be with your parents? In the home where you grew up? And you can kind of shed the cares and the worries of the world and just be a kid again? Don’t we all love going home? Until your parents sell your house. Cuz it’s your house too, isn’t it? It's your home. And we are all wired for home. The place where we live. Where we stay. All our stuff is there - until our folks sell it in that garage sale or stuff it in a box and make us take it. Again, I know not all homes are created equal. Brokenness sadly is an equal opportunity offender. And of course we all grow up. And our parents kick us out of the house… But think about the home where you grew up - if you can. Wasn’t there a level of trauma associated with leaving it? Or when your parents did sell it? I think we are all wired for home - and the real truth is that there is nothing on God’s green earth which will ever suffice. Nothing, no thing, no one in this world will ever be a suitable abode for any of us. Home is not a physical location on spaceship earth. It never was. It is a Person. Jesus. Jesus making Himself at home in my heart. Writing His Word on my heart. Sending His Spirit to live in my heart. And me learning that home sweet home, what home was always meant to be, is with Him. In Him. To live there. Learning to stay. To abide.
Abiding means life. As much as anything. Eternal life
-For a two year old, survival means staying right there at home sweet home. Life. Life is pretty much guaranteed - as far as he knows. Resting, doing life right there w mom and dad.
-Jesus asked His disciples if they were going to leave too, and they said no, we’re staying with You, Jesus. You alone have the words of life, eternal life. Abundant life. Overflowing life. All found only in Jesus - with Him, IN Him. They had learned this truth…
Abiding teaches/produces truth
-Every son knows that Dad (and Mom) speaks truth. His words are true. My kids (until they go the unfortunate way of teens) believe every word I say. Until life or I myself begin to give them reason not to trust my word, they believe everything I say. Faith of a child.
-But on that thought - are we taking the time to listen? So many competing voices…
Abiding produces confidence
-And unlocks the promises of God. It is not how much faith I have in God and His promises - it the object of my faith. Every son knows what this means. Home sweet home means resting in the faithfulness of my Father. “But Dad, You promised!” Every son is confident that Dad’s promise is bankable… Until his earthly dad - as all earthly dads are wont to do - happens to go back on a promise. And then the doubts creep in. But no - abide in Me, and let My Words abide in you, He says…
-And to that point, a deceiver stabs you in the back - or rather the heart - because they betray your confidence. You trusted them, and they convinced you to put your confidence in their word, and they betrayed it. They betrayed you. They betrayed your confidence.
-And this One in Whom we abide not only knows our every thought, but He also teaches us about all things. He is no deceiver - Our daddy always tells the truth, and will never betray our trust. Home sweet home. Just rest in Him and in His Word and in His faithfulness.
-And there is the confidence to approach Him without shame. When we are doing our own thing and not listening to Him, not doing what He wants, what does it look like when He shows up? When dad gets home? There is no bounding out to meet Him. Tail all waggy. Nope - tail is between the legs. Ears are back. Eyes are droopy. Shame. Guilt. John is saying let’s not go there, people!
Abiding produces righteousness
-Litmus test #5, btw
-#1 - confessing our sins (1.8-10). #2 - keeping His commands/word (2.3-5). #3 - loving your brother (2.9-11). #4 - confessing the Son (2.22-23). and now this - doing righteousness.
-We keep doing it. Practice, practice, practice. How did Lionel Messi get to be the best footballer on the planet?
-Born of Him - what kind of soccer player is Messi most likely to beget?
With all our hurrying and worrying, let’s be asking the Lord to do what He needs to do to help us learn to stay. To stay right with Him. To abide right here, with Him, in His Word, His Word and Spirit in us. Home sweet home.
Isaiah 29:13-14
Then the Lord said,
“Because this people draw near with their words
And honor Me with their lip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,
Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous…”
I will put My Spirit in you, says the Lord. Not by might not by power but by My Spirit, says the Lord. Every day, every hour, every moment - learning to rest in Him, to rely on Him, learning to go to Him in our hearts. It takes a lifetime - and then some. But every day can be a new beginning. Let’s begin again, abiding in Him, coming home to Him in our hearts, right now. Home sweet home. Glory. We were made for this...
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