At Home in Papa (part 1)

I have been spending a lot of time studying the upper room discourse (John 13-17) and particularly this idea of "abiding" in Him. This reality is central to the good-news message.

We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!(1Jn 1:3,4)

The greek word for communion or fellowship here is koinonia which literally means partnership, participation, intercourse. Jesus describes what this looks like with the abide language He uses in John chapters 14-17.

"Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. (Jn 15:4-5)

And then He prays here:

that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (Jn 17:21-23)

Simply put? I am in Jesus, Jesus is in me, Jesus is in the Father, the Father is in Jesus again who is in me. I'm in the Father who is in Jesus who is also in me. Then we throw in the Holy Spirit who is also in me as well as in Jesus and the Father...wow! I can't get my mind around it but maybe looks something like this:

The point is that there is this incredibly intimate relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit that has been in place before time existed and we have been created and invited to take part in that relationship fully and completely...mind melting, life changing!