Living it Out // How to Abide in Love

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now abide in my love.” John 15:9

So Jesus commands us to abide in His love. And as I reflect on that concept of abiding in His love, I wonder how one can abide in love.

As we’ve learned before, abiding means three things:

2. Reside in His love
3. To continue in the particular condition, attitude, relationship of His love.

I think the last one makes the most sense.

To abide in Christ’s love we must continue in the attitude of His love.

When we know someone loves us, truly loves us, we act differently. Their love changes us for the better.

Same goes for our relationship with Jesus. When we dwell on how much He loves us, His love changes us. 

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth.” -1 John 4:16-18

When we discussed Jesus washing His disciples’ feet, we learned that love is sacrificial. The verses above reiterate this point. Jesus laid down he life for us, and we should lay down our lives for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Is sacrificial love hard?
You betcha. It cost Jesus His life, and it might cost us our lives as well.

Is sacrificial love worth it?
Yes. Every single bit.

When we see a friend (or enemy) in need and if we have the ability to help we are called to help. If we ignore the need, that’s denying the power of God’s love in our lives. That is not allowing God’s love to abide in us.

We can love God all day long, but if we refuse to love our fellow people, than we are breaking the commandment we have from God: “whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:21).

Prove your love for Jesus through your actions.

As 1 John 4:18 says, love is more than mere words. Love is action. And to quote Olaf, “Love is putting someone else’s needs before your own.”

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” -1 John 4:16.

Abiding in love and abiding in God are connected at the core. You can’t abide in one and not the other.

So here comes the big question: How do I abide in God?

The answer?

“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given of us his Spirit…Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.” -1 John 4:13,15

Before we can abide in God, God must first abide in us. God must enter our lives and completely take over in order for us to abide in Him and in His love.

I think we often forget that abiding in God’s love is so easy. We think there’s a huge long formula or math equation, when in reality it’s quite simple. If we have Jesus abiding in us, than we can abide in Jesus and His love.

Posted by Kara Beth & filed under Devotionals. This post has 2 comments.