ABIDING IN CHRIST
by Jean LeStourgeon

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
- John 15:12 (NKJV)

Loving one another is the Christian life. Without it we are nothing and we do nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Paul tells us we could even have a faith mighty enough to perform miracles, to live a life of poverty, or to even die for our faith, but unless love undergirds all of our good works - we do nothing that truly glorifies God! In Romans 13:8 Paul wrote, "let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law - love is the fulfillment of the law."

To love one another requires us to be in relationship with one another and to be in relationship with one another is the core of a covenant community. To love one another is to fulfill God's design for us. After all, He created us to be in loving relationship with Him and with others.

Unfortunately, for many different reasons along this pathway of life, many of us have abandoned a basic need for relationship - the need to really connect with others at the deepest level of our souls. We fear being rejected, we fear being judged, we fear we are so different no one would understand us, we fear the cost, the time, the pain and yes, even the shame.

In this attempt to preserve ourselves we put a mask on our face and we get busy doing instead of being. In this way we end up rejecting the very means through which God has ordained to meet our needs- through relationships in the body of Christ. When we neglect relationships within the body of Christ we ignore God

The truth is God has made each of His people like earthen vessels, and filled them with the treasure of His love and power (2 Corinthians 4:7). We are simply conduits of the living God through which His life, love and provisions flow; we are partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). As Matthew Henry said, "This is a high expression: we should not dare to use it if we did not find it in the scriptures."

When the life of Christ in us is poured out in love onto the church, onto the body of Christ, the fragrance of God's glory and love and presence fills our senses, and that is when we experience unity and that is covenant community.

In John 15, the allegory of the vine and the branches, Jesus teaches His disciples that the key to a loving relationship with Him, the Father and one another is in the discipline of abiding. This edition of ChristianDiscipleship.com was written to encourage our readers in their personal relationship with Christ and the body through examining the principles of abiding. Both the Bible Studies and the Devotionals this month are based on John 15. In Book Works you will find a review on Bruce Wilkinson's book Secrets of the Vine that will encourage you in your life of abiding. How Shall We Live looks at the three main thoughts of John 15 and why Jesus spoke emphatically to His disciples about abiding. We pray, as this new year begins, you will seek to abide more deeply in the True Vine, and that your resolve will be strengthened through this edition of ChristianDiscipleship.com.

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