Remain in me as I also remain in you . . . if you remain in me and my words remain in you . . .

John 15:4,7 (NIV)

When I travel to see my kids, the same road that takes me there brings me home.  It’s a two way road.  And there is an additional way that road is two way: just as I can take that road to see them, they can take that road to see me.  It’s two way.  

Abiding is two way.  If we abide in him, he abides in us.  We don’t pledge ourselves to a cold set of facts.  Abiding in him is not ethereal, intellectual assent.  It is a relationship where he travels the road to abide with us just as we have traveled it to abide with him.

His words are the mechanism of this abiding.  We abide in him as we internalize his words.  Through his words taking residence in us, he abides in us.  We have come to equate his words with the physical printing of the Bible that we carry with us.  And the Bible certainly is his word.  But we must expand our thinking when it comes to his words.  His words are his teachings, his philosophy, his ethic, his character, his aim, his goal, his mission.  Having his words abide in you is much more than reading words from a page or even memorizing passages.  It is letting them invade you, shape you and form you.  When we abide or remain in him in this way, he abides in us.