As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 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. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. – John 15:9-11

Abide.

To live, to dwell.

Old English ābīdan ‘wait,’ from ā- ‘onward’ + bīdan (see bide).

It has a sense of waiting, and in its literal sense, means to wait onward. Moving forward in a waiting state.

As Jesus prepares his disciples for the next step, the new, the unknown, he reminds them: abide. He has already assured them that though they will not see him, he is not leaving them “as orphans”–he will come to them in the person of the Holy Spirit–a new experience of Emmanuel, God With Us. He assures them of his love, as real as the love with which the Father has loved him. And he tells them to wait in that love, to live there, to make their home in the love he has for them.

And then he gives them some very practical instruction: to abide is to obey.

Hmm.

For a lot of us, the thought of abiding involves something less tangible. Golden, sun-dappled walks in the woods. Uninterrupted journaling. Maybe some great music.Slow meditation in solitude.

But obedience?

Abiding is obeying.

Not a kicking-my-heels, stubborn saying-I’m-sorry-when-I’m-not-really-sorry obedience. Not drudgery.

It is soaring, run-in-the-path-of-your-commands-for-you-have-set-my-heart-free obedience. The kind of obedience that makes crooked paths straight, that creates a road in the desert.

But it is also abiding in the context of messy reality, of a community of broken people.

The first commandment, to love Him. The second, to love all of the broken mass of humanity made in his image. And in the context of the second command of Christ, others fall into place: telling the truth to myself and others. Not coveting what others have or are or do. Not setting my highest affections on anything or anyone but the one who designed those affections.

So, how is obedience abiding?

When I obey, it is sometimes with joy and gratitude, and I abide. And sometimes it is with great reluctance, and it drives me to seek Emmanuel, God With me, indwelling me, that deep well of peace that is offered to me to refresh my own parched soul. “Live out of this abudance,” he whispers. “Why fend for yourself like an orphan? I did not leave you as an orphan. I have come to you, and I have overflowing resources for you. Abide in my love. Why are you trying to obey in your own strength? Draw on my abundant power-the power that raised Christ from the dead,now living in you. It is enough.”

It is enough to inspire obedience.

And the end is not obedience in itself.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.  John 15:11

The end is joy. Full joy. Abundant, overflowing, enough-for-everyone joy!

We obey. We abide. We are filled with joy!

The joy comes through the hard things, coming to the end of ourselves, discovering that we do indeed belong, are indeed adopted, are beloved children and not castaways. We abide in an obedience that springs from gratitude in some moments and in others reveals the depth of our own disobedience. Sometimes we are dispobedient and experience the conviction that is itself a sign of Emmanuel, God With Us. But in any case, the path of obedience is one of abiding. 

And abiding leads to joy.