«　WEEK 2　DAY 5　»

　　1 John 2:24 As for you, that which you heard from the beginning, let it abide in you. If that which you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.

　　3:24 And he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us.

　　[We also need to abide in the Father (v. 24c).] How good it is to have a Father! Our Father is all capable. Our Father is always living [and] never gets old. He takes care of us in every way and in everything….Thank the Lord that God is our Father and that we are not orphans but sons. We are not only abiding in Christ as the organism of the Triune God, in the Lord with His lordship, and in the Son with His sonship, but we are also abiding in the Father with all His care. When we are living in the Triune God, we are living as sons, not orphans. We have a Father. We live in the One who takes care of us. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, “Living in and with the Divine Trinity,” pp. 341-342)

　　Our abiding in the Son and in the Father are both mentioned in 1 John 2:24. When we have the Son, we have the Father, because the Son and the Father are one. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father (John 14:10). When we abide in the Son, we abide in the Father. Our experiences confirm this fact. While we are abiding in the Son, we have the sensation that the Father is with us. We have the Lord, and we have the Father. We have the Son with the Father. When we abide in the Son, we enjoy the fatherhood because the Father is there.

　　We also need to be those who are abiding in God (1 John 3:24a). All these different titles—the Lord, the Son, the Father, and God—bear some significance. In order to understand what it means to abide in God, we need to read 1 John 3:22-24: “Whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, even as He gave a commandment to us. And he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us.” God is the One who gave the commandments. These commandments are that we have to believe in His Son and that we have to love one another. We need to have the faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and we need to have the love to love all the brothers. This is what it means to abide in God. This is a living that includes the main things of our Christian life. Our Christian life is a life that believes in Christ and loves the brothers. As long as we believe in Christ and love all other Christians as our brothers, we are complete….We abide in God because we are keeping His commandments, which charge us to believe in His Son and to love all the brothers of His Son. This is to have faith and love.

　　In 1 John we see that we need to abide in the Lord, in the Son, in the Father, and in God. This presents a full portrait of living in the Triune God. To live in the Triune God is to have a daily life in Christ as the organism of the Triune God, in the Lord with His headship, with His lordship, in the Son with His sonship, in the Father with His fatherhood, and in God with His commandments of believing in His Son and of loving all His other sons. This is what it means to experience the Divine Trinity in our daily life. We abide in God by the Spirit of God (3:24b). Without the Spirit of God there is nothing between us and God. The linking, the connection, between us and God, the Father, the Son, the Lord, and Christ is the Spirit. This “linking Spirit” is in our spirit. If we are going to enjoy a life of abiding in God, we must exercise our spirit, turn to our spirit, touch our spirit, and use our spirit. Then we will touch the linking Spirit. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, “Living in and with the Divine Trinity,” pp. 342-343)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1983, vol. 3, “Abiding in the Lord to Enjoy His Life,” chs. 1-3