“Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him,
and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us,
by the Spirit whom He has given us.”
(1 John 3:24)
When you read the above verse
Or indeed any verse in the Bible
Notice words like:
He, Him, His
AND
he, him, his
Now immediately, some people will say:
“You’ve just written the same line TWICE!”
And to be true – I have
In the sense that the words are the same
And written in the same order
But the difference is in the detail
And sad to say
Many people
Over time – as in ages past
But unfortunately
Especially in today’s world
Have become lazy
As regards their reading, spelling and grammar
(Which when you stop to think about it
I find so hilariously funny
As Maths is my subject and definitely NOT English)
So in an effort to try and make things simple
When you come across a “Big” H
Like when it says: He, Him and His
The words are referring to God
And if the word begins with a “small” h
As in: he, him and his
Those words are referring to us
So the verse that I started with could read like this:
“Now (the man) who keeps (God’s) commandments abides in (God),
and (God) in (the man). And by this we know that (God) abides in us,
by the Spirit whom (God) has given us.”
(1 John 3:24)
And just one final point to note
When it says, or as I have said, “the man”
“man” means “mankind”
To include female as well as male
My title for today’s Devotional was:
Abide – to remain stable or fixed in a state of love
This is a Dictionary meaning of the word “abide”
But also refers to the Bible
As the context of the word “abide”
Is in relation to us and God
“Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him,
and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us,
by the Spirit whom He has given us.”
(1 John 3:24)
Do you want to be in a fixed state of love with God?
Do you want your relationship with God to be loving and stable?
Do you believe that this is even possible?
When anyone comes to Jesus…
Meets Him and hears Him…
Feels, senses and / or receives His love…
And responds by accepting Him…
As their own, personal Saviour…
And commits to Him as Lord of their life…
He (that is Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit)
Comes and lives in that person (by the Holy Spirit)…
Comes and resides with and walks with that person(by Jesus) …
Comes as Almighty God whom we can call “Our Father”
And ABIDES with us
Almighty God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Is the One who ABIDES with us
And since He is God
HE makes it possible for us to ABIDE with Him
ALL the hard work is done by GOD
When WE accept Him
So when we READ 1 John 3:24
It is NOT from the point of view of asking a question:
“Am I doing this?
Am I keeping His commandments?”
But rather it is from the realisation
That because God ABIDES with me
I DO keep His commandments
It comes naturally to us
Because He ABIDES with and in us