Abide

Scripture Text: John 15:1-17

Human are creatures with a great capacity to love. It is not a stretch to say that we are hardwired to love. This means we will love something, and we will always find something to love. The question becomes are we making wise choices about what or who we love?

God has made a choice about who to love. All of humanity is the object of God's love. Never do we have to wonder or question whether or not God loves us. What we must regularly question is whether we are remaining or abiding in that love. Abiding is more than simply remaining, it is a matter of how we invest our lives. God invites us to abide in the love that is offered.

When we abide in God's love our lives produce fruitfulness. When we choose not to abide in God's love the result is pruning. We must be clear that pruning also happens when we abide and produce fruit. When we are not abiding, the pruning often hurts more and feels like a greater loss. To experience the fullness of life that God longs for us to experience we must abide in God's love.

As we abide in God's love, we must also abide in the love of our spouse. Remember we are going to love someone or something so we must be intentional about who and what we love. Part of abiding in the love of our spouse comes from remembering a key distinction, there are only two types of people in the world, those who are my spouse and those who are not. In order to abide we are clear about this distinction and we only seek and offer our love and affection to the person that is our spouse.

None of this is possible in its fullness unless we are first abiding in Christ. When we are making every effort to keep ourselves connected to the vine that is Christ Jesus, life simply works better. This follows through with marriage. The promise is not that it will be easy, that it will be better and more fruitful. So, we must be careful with whom we abide and who we love.