THE TREASURE INSIDE
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 decieve 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.
(1 John 2: 24-27)
John reminds the faithful of an important aspect of the teaching of Jesus: that it abides in us, and because of that we abide in the Father and in the Son.
The promises of the Lord are not somewhere "out there" but are always within us. Even when we listen to the world around us, when it tries to rattle us and deceive us, God's Word is written inside our hearts.
All of these days of Advent, preparing for the coming of the Lord, we have been reminded of God's promises. The Lord is with us, the Lord watches over us, the Lord remembers us and brings us into His own celebrations and kingdom. Whether we are safely with the flock in the fold or a lost sheep strayed into rough territory and tangling briars, our Shepherd watches over us. When we are with the flock, He keeps us in secure places. When we are lost, He comes seeking us, to rescue us wherever we are - even when we let fear drive us further and further away from the safety of the fold. His promises are written in the very fabric of creation, beyond the power of any worldly authority to eliminate them or obscure them. He moves in advance of those who would harm us, keeping us from utter destruction. For those who believe, we shall see the very face of God.
John was well aware of how our daily lives, our daily struggles, can cause us to forget these things. He knew that it is in our nature to start thinking of these promises as being outside ourselves, and he wanted to "cut that off at the pass." He wanted to remind the faithful that all these things that we have learned "from the beginning" abide in us. And because they are in us, we are in God.
"Abide."
It's a word we don't use a lot outside "church language" and poetry. It's from a German root meaning "to wait", from Latin origins meaning "trust" and Greek "to believe." "Abide" itself in English means to wait for something, to endure without yielding, to withstand. To bear patiently, to remain stable or fixed in a state. Abide.
James said that trials come to us in order to build our endurance. John reminds us to endure in what we have learned. God weaves all these things together, back and forth, taking the single strands of our lives and making strong fabric from them.
How easy it is to let the promises slide out of the forefront of our minds. How easy it is to let anxieties nibble away at our assurance that the Lord watches out for us - after all, broken-down cars, shrivelled bank accounts, empty cupboards, these things are immediate to us, right in front of our eyes. We forget that the Word of the Lord abides within us, the Word that was in the beginning of Creation, present with God.
John must have seen those anxieties weighing down on believers in the community. He must have seen them getting rattled and shaken in their faith. He really wants to remind them of what they have become a part of, because he repeats it in this passage. The Word is in you, the Lord is in you, the Word of the Lord is in you, and because it is rooted in you, you are likewise rooted in the Lord, inside the very being of God the Father and His Son.
Do not let your faith be shaken, for not only is the treasure of the Word inside you, but you are the treasure inside the Lord. You are deep in the heart of God. How can you think that He would not protect that? How can you think He would forget what is in His very heart? How can you think that He would lose that?
Abide in the Word. Hold on, stand fast, endure in the Word of the Lord, and God Himself, the Word that was from the beginning will abide in you.
Abide
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 decieve 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.
(1 John 2: 24-27)
John reminds the faithful of an important aspect of the teaching of Jesus: that it abides in us, and because of that we abide in the Father and in the Son.
The promises of the Lord are not somewhere "out there" but are always within us. Even when we listen to the world around us, when it tries to rattle us and deceive us, God's Word is written inside our hearts.
All of these days of Advent, preparing for the coming of the Lord, we have been reminded of God's promises. The Lord is with us, the Lord watches over us, the Lord remembers us and brings us into His own celebrations and kingdom. Whether we are safely with the flock in the fold or a lost sheep strayed into rough territory and tangling briars, our Shepherd watches over us. When we are with the flock, He keeps us in secure places. When we are lost, He comes seeking us, to rescue us wherever we are - even when we let fear drive us further and further away from the safety of the fold. His promises are written in the very fabric of creation, beyond the power of any worldly authority to eliminate them or obscure them. He moves in advance of those who would harm us, keeping us from utter destruction. For those who believe, we shall see the very face of God.
John was well aware of how our daily lives, our daily struggles, can cause us to forget these things. He knew that it is in our nature to start thinking of these promises as being outside ourselves, and he wanted to "cut that off at the pass." He wanted to remind the faithful that all these things that we have learned "from the beginning" abide in us. And because they are in us, we are in God.
"Abide."
It's a word we don't use a lot outside "church language" and poetry. It's from a German root meaning "to wait", from Latin origins meaning "trust" and Greek "to believe." "Abide" itself in English means to wait for something, to endure without yielding, to withstand. To bear patiently, to remain stable or fixed in a state. Abide.
James said that trials come to us in order to build our endurance. John reminds us to endure in what we have learned. God weaves all these things together, back and forth, taking the single strands of our lives and making strong fabric from them.
How easy it is to let the promises slide out of the forefront of our minds. How easy it is to let anxieties nibble away at our assurance that the Lord watches out for us - after all, broken-down cars, shrivelled bank accounts, empty cupboards, these things are immediate to us, right in front of our eyes. We forget that the Word of the Lord abides within us, the Word that was in the beginning of Creation, present with God.
John must have seen those anxieties weighing down on believers in the community. He must have seen them getting rattled and shaken in their faith. He really wants to remind them of what they have become a part of, because he repeats it in this passage. The Word is in you, the Lord is in you, the Word of the Lord is in you, and because it is rooted in you, you are likewise rooted in the Lord, inside the very being of God the Father and His Son.
Do not let your faith be shaken, for not only is the treasure of the Word inside you, but you are the treasure inside the Lord. You are deep in the heart of God. How can you think that He would not protect that? How can you think He would forget what is in His very heart? How can you think that He would lose that?
Abide in the Word. Hold on, stand fast, endure in the Word of the Lord, and God Himself, the Word that was from the beginning will abide in you.
Abide
Labels: Christmas
posted by Sarah | 10:57 AM
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