43. Obey and Abide

John 15:10 (NRSV)  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, 

just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

Reference has been made to the entrance into a life of rest and strength which has often come through a true insight into the personal love of Christ, and the assurance that that love indeed meant that He would keep the soul. In connection with that transition, and the faith that sees and accepts it, the word surrender or consecration is frequently used. The soul sees that it cannot claim the keeping of this wonderful love unless it yields itself to a life of entire obedience.

This is the thought we have here now in our Savior's teaching. After having in the words, "Abide in My Love," spoken of a life in His Love as a necessity He states what its one condition is: "If you keep My Commandments, you shall abide in My Love." This is surely not meant to close the door to the abode of His Love that He had just opened up. No—the precept is a promise. "Abide in my Love," could not be a precept if it were not a promise. Through His Will, loved and done, lies the path to His Love.

Obedience is the positive keeping of the commandments of our Lord, and the performance of His Will in everything in which we know it. Faith in Christ as our Vine, in His Enabling and Sanctifying Power, equips us for this obedience of faith, and secures a life of abiding in His Love. It is the Heavenly Vine unfolding the mystery of the life He gives. It is to those abiding in Him to whom He opens up the secret of the full abiding in His Love. It is the wholehearted surrender in everything to do His Will, that gives access to a life in the abiding enjoyment of His Love.