Now this is Unity

Hello once again everyone,

Do you know what never ceases to amaze me with the bible? The fact that each time I pick it up I get something new. I can read the same verse 20 different times and seemingly get something different each time. It’s not that I reinterpret the verse every time. It’s just that my life changes a little and the verse will speak to where I’m at now. Or my understanding of God grows slightly and I am able to glean more because of it. Take for example a verse that has been one of my favorites for close to fifteen years now. You would think if I had been thinking about it for fifteen years there would be nothing new to gain from it. Right? Wrong! This is what I want to chat about today. This hit me probably three weeks ago and I’ve been meditating on it ever sense. You may read it and think “Duh, where have you been?” If so just smile smugly and thank God that I’m finally getting there. Actually I hope that’s the case because it seems so blatant to me now that I can’t believe I’ve always missed it.

What I’m going to do is give you a list of verses and have you read them. See if you can guess where I am going. Then after you’ve read through I’ll tell you what I saw. Good? Good. Lets go.

John 10: 38 … Though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the father is in me and I in him.

John 13: 31-32 … Now the son of man is glorified and God is glorified in him, If God is glorified in him God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him immediately.

John 14: 10-11 Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority but the father who dwells in me does the works. Believe me that I am in the father and the father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.

John 14: 20-21 At that day you will know that I am in my father and you in me and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them it is he who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

John 15: 4-8 Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it will be done for you. By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit; so you will be my disciples.

John 17: 21-23 That they may all be one as you father are in me and I in you that they also may be one in us, that the word may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them that they may be one just as we are one. I in them and you in me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me.

John 17: 26 And I have declared to them your name, and will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.

1 John 2: 24 Therefore let that abide In you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the son and in the father.

1 John 4:12-17 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and testify that the father has sent the son as savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

There ya have it. Quite a bit to read but I wanted to make sure you had the full picture. Believe it or not I could have given you more but these are the clearest picture of what I want to point out. Have ya read them? Good. Have you thought about it? Read through one more time and think about what God is saying here. Go ahead, I’ll wait I need to grab my pizza anyway… Ok, ya got it. Here is what I see in these verses. First I see the obvious and what we are taught growing up. “The trinity, I in you and you in me.” God and Jesus in each other no big revelation there. Lets go back to John 17: 21-23 since that is the verse I’ve loved for so long. I’ve always read that verse as a call for unity. Which it is but lets read it closely. “As you are in me and I in you that (here it is) THEY MAY BE IN US” That’s what I’ve always missed. We always expect God to be in us after all Christ promised the Holy Spirit. But for us to be in them? Wow, that just blows me away. Now some of you may be saying “Wait a minute Larry these verses are not saying we are literally in him but that we need to abide in them. We need to focus on them.” That is why I gave so many verses. You are correct some of these verses are probably saying that. John 15: 4-8 could be read that way. But in it I am still a branch attached to the tree. You can most likely find other verses that support “Abide means leaning into him” I wont argue. But that doesn’t mean these verses aren’t clearly saying we are “In him”

Ok, I buy it. We are in God as God is in us. So how does that make my life any different? What am I suppose to take away from this? I’m not going to tell you. This week I give you a revelation and say spend some time thinking about it and leaning into God asking him. “That means you don’t know then. Right Larry?” You’re kind of right. I have my idea’s. I think I know what it is telling me but I can’t quite bring myself to say it out loud yet. Here is what I do know. It means I’m a much bigger part of Gods family than I ever dreamed of. I also know that there are verses in there that are the infamous “If you than I” (John 14: 20-21). We have to remember those and hold up our end of the bargain. Obviously it’s not a demand for perfection since we can’t accomplish that but it’s also much more than “I’ll follow when it’s convenient.”

My friends I’ve been meditating on this one for three weeks now and I still haven’t come near completely grasping its meaning and power. But I can say that my confidence in who I am in Christ has grown ten fold with this understanding. Not only is God in Christ and Christ in God and the Holy Spirit in that whole mix as well. But I am in God as God is in me. Chew on that for a minute and see if it doesn’t just blow you out of the water. (No pun intended)

What a way to go into the New year. Knowing that we are woven into the very being of Our God the creator of this universe. Have a great New Year and this year lets “Live it Upside Down”