God's Word can help us do that.
Help keep us doing what? And, who are the "us"?
Well, God's Word can keep us abiding in Christ's love, conditional only to our willingness and commitment to do so.
"Us" means all those who are followers of Jesus Christ.
Guess what?
Jesus Himself is our example and mentor of this kind of keeping. In fact, Jesus is our perfect example and gives us encouragement to imitate Him. He kept His Father's commands. Keeping God's commands was what kept Jesus in His Father's love and similarly, keeping Jesus' commands is what keeps us abiding in His love.
Jesus was comforting His disciples and the apostle John records it in John 15:10 (NIV), in this regard,
"If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love."
When one person loves another, they tend to comply with each other's wishes. It's like yet another cliche, "your every wish is my command". The motivating force...love.
This is not something that is being forced, compelled or obligated. However, the "proof is in the pudding" (pardon, the adage); you say you love someone, then show it in your actions. True in everyday life, true within the spiritual sphere.
This is what Jesus was conveying to His disciples. He loved them (see John 15:9) and they say they love Him. To keep in this type of love, obey His commands, Jesus instructed.
Yes, Jesus being God, kept His Father's commands perfectly. We, being human beings, do fail; however, we aim for such perfection out of our love for Him and all He has done for us.
Moses and David of Old Testament times loved and revered God immensely and realized His love for them. They did very valiantly in following God's commands and abiding in His love, yet they did blunder; rather miserably at times.
Don't think though, "I'm a lesser saint then they were, how in the world will I have any success in this?"
The apostle Peter was often putting his foot in his mouth but he really did love Jesus and eventually became a very strong pillar of the gospel of Jesus Christ, thousands coming to Christ listening to his preaching. He abode in God's love by keeping His commands.
Grasp this...all of those patriarchs' attitude and motivation was to please God and Jesus. They each, respectively, had a close relationship with Him which they constantly developed. The stronger the relationship with our Heavenly Father, the greater the desire to obey His Word and talk with Him, thus abiding in His love.
You know yourself, especially when you were young, when you disobeyed your parents, you would not wish to be in their presence too much until things were made right. Your parents didn't stop loving you, and you likely didn't stop loving them, but because of the disobedience you stepped out of that love-obey connection. When you did follow instructions, you abode basked in their love and privileges for you. Similarly, bridge that over to life with Christ and being in His love.
Take a peek at some of the commands Jesus obeyed. In Luke 2:51, we see He obeyed His earthly parents when they asked Him to follow them back to Nazareth. If you recall He had stayed back in the Temple at Jerusalem and His parents were at first unaware of it. They anxiously searched for Him until they found Him.
"Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them..." (Luke 2:52 NIV)
Sometimes obedience can be difficult and even unpleasant. In Matthew 4:1 (NIV) we read that
"Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil"!
We know that Jesus got the victory there; nevertheless, it couldn't have been an easy thing to do especially on the heels of forty days and nights of fasting. Yet He was very familiar with God's Word and used it as His defense. His relationship with God His Father was so close it "kept Him" in more ways than one.
Another snapshot of Jesus' obedience to His Heavenly Father, God, is found in Matthew 26 and verse 39 (NIV). He's in the garden of Gethsemane, praying,
"My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will."
Jesus attitude was to obedience and doing His Father's will even though it would be an agonizing experience as we are all aware. He was speaking of having to go through with the crucifixion and being forsaken by His Father! His Father being the very One Whom He was obeying!
We can glimpse this attitude even beforehand at the time of "the last supper" in the upper room where Jesus is giving a lengthy discourse that covers several chapters of the book of John. He prays to Heaven with a very clear conscience that He has completed all He was sent to do and His going to the cross was as good as done. He says to His Father, God,
"I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do..." (John 17:4 NIV).
What a beautiful attitude of obedience and abiding in His Father's love.
For us followers of Jesus Christ, glance back at the John 15:10 verse quoted earlier. See the little word "if"? This is a conditional proposition on our part. It has nothing to do with God's stance. God is there with His full and free outstretched arms of love, just a-waiting for us to keep His commands. If we do, He promises, we shall be kept in His all encompassing love.
What are some of those commands?
Remember the expert of the law who inquired of Jesus as to who his neighbor was that he was supposed to love, and Jesus gave him the story of the good Samaritan? That lawyer asked that question because Jesus had given him an answer to another question. That answer touched a bit too close to home in such a way that must have gotten at his conscience. Jesus had told him to,
"Love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind..."
Jesus didn't stop there, His addendum was,
"...Love your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:25-37, esp vs 27 NIV).
Samaritans were people Jewish people despised and visa versa. Yet the story Jesus told was one in which a Samaritan took pity and had mercy and compassion upon someone who was very likely Jewish. How's that for bluntly putting it to you!?
Who is the unlovable person or the person with whom you clash? Love the Lord your God, and incidentally, yourself, enough to love that "neighbor" as yourself. It's one of God's commands.
Many years ago I made a list of the "one another's" in the New Testament. I believe they came from the King James Version of the Bible as that was what I used to read a lot. I'll give a selection of them to you below as they too, are commands of God that we can obey.
From Mark 9:50,
"Have salt in yourselves and have peace with one another."
John 13:34,
"A new commandment I give unto you,...love one another ..."
1 Thessalonians 4:18,
"...comfort one another with these words..."
Those were the words that we would meet the Lord in the air and then be with Him forever. When we lose a loved one, glean comfort from the fact we will see him/her again, if they too had been the Lord's.
Romans 13:8,
"Owe no man anything, but to love one another..."
Are you in debt? Pay up and be free of that so you can abide more fully in God's love. Yes, that is so easy to say...however, even small actions in that direction are a start; and a start at keeping God's commands and abiding in His love.
Romans 12:10,
"Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another..."
In fact if you continue reading down to the end of that chapter, you'll see a whole slew of commands. Romans 12:16 being one to point out,
"...Be of the same mind one toward another..."
That can be a difficult task, believe you me!
Then we have Romans 15:5, 7, 14 telling us to be,
"...likeminded one toward another....to receive one another... and to be full of goodness,...knowledge...able to admonish one another..."
That last one about admonishing one another may be considered an affront to those being admonished. How dare someone confront you! Therefore, I believe that we need to have that humble mindset Jesus Christ had that we read about in Philippians 2:5-8 to accept correction in the right spirit knowing it is for our good. If someone is off base with it you think, go away and examine yourself in God's presence. He will reveal to you if there is any truth in it or not. If there is, deal with it and thank the other person. If not, still show your brotherly love to him or her and guard your mind, heart and tongue from launching backlash or slander. Not easy, I know!
I think I won't list anymore as there are about 50 of them altogether. Search the Scriptures and dig them out. The few above get the message across and set you on a quest to keep on keeping on and abiding in Christ's love.
The steadfast love of God will never cease. Constantly abide in Him and His love.
"We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19 KJV).
He will never leave us; He is constant in our lives as much as we wish it. He's there for you. It all hinges on the big, respective personal, "IF".
~ERC July 2019~
A song about Constantly Abiding written by Anne S. Murphy in 1908 as sung by Temple Baptist Church, Powell, Tennessee. A lovely old piece.
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