“Therefore 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.”
you also will abide in the Son and in the Father
The word “also” serves to add the experience of fellowship with God on a firsthand, experiential basis. Genuine communication with the Father and the Son depends on believing the original message of the gospel.
The word “abide” conveys the idea of persist, continue. “Continue in a vital fellowship with the Son and the Father.” The degree of fellowship with God will determine how well we stand against error.
The “Son” is the key to fellowship with the Father. Christ, the Son of God, is truth itself; to abide in the truth is to abide in Him. Fellowship with the Father depends on fellowship with the Son.
PRINCIPLE:
Fellowship with the Father depends on fellowship with the Son.
APPLICATION:
If we do not have a high regard for Christ, we cannot have fellowship with the Father. If I do not like your personality, we probably will not get along very well. We cannot have a dynamic fellowship with the Father without a vibrant relationship with the Son.
There is an inescapable inference from letting the Word of God grip our souls, and that is that we will have a rich fellowship with God. When we do, He will provide for us at home, at work, and play. We will experience His presence in everything. He will walk us through pain and tribulation. We can trust Him through it all.
John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
There is a big difference between being “in” something and “abiding in” it. This is the story of John 15. The believer (the branch) is in the vine (the Lord) by virtue of union to Him by faith. The vine imparts His life to the branch to produce fruit. We could not produce that fruit without drawing the energy of the vine. When the life of the vine is imparted to the branch, dynamic fellowship occurs.
Jn 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
There is reciprocity in this as well. When we accept by faith the promises of the Word God provides for us, we allow the will of God to flow through us. The fellowship in this is rich.
