“He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” — 1 John 2:6 (NKJV)
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How do you know that you or someone else knows God? Is there a test to take? John tells us there is a simple way to determine that truth: obedience rooted in love.
We had a saying in our house when our children were growing up: “Delayed obedience is disobedience.” If we say we know Jesus, then we will learn what He wants us to do and do it consistently. It doesn’t mean we will be perfect, but it does mean we allow Him to perfect us so we can experience intimate fellowship with Him and others.
To be consistent, we need to understand what John means when he says to “abide in Him” (1 John 2:6, NKJV). John uses similar wording in one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, John 15. To “abide” means to “remain closely connected to.” The word picture Jesus gives us in John 15 is a vine and a branch. The vine is the life source, and the branch produces the fruit. The branch must remain connected to the vine to produce the fruit it was designed to manifest.
Dr. Tony Evans relates abiding to a teabag. Some dip the teabag in and out of a cup of hot water. This illustrates the Christian who is in and out of church or fellowship with God and others. Others keep the teabag in the water, and the tea seeps into the water and slowly transforms it.
To deepen our fellowship, we need to obey and abide.
— Mickey Weston, Chicago White Sox chaplain
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