A MUTUAL ABODE
In John 14:23 the Lord Jesus went on to say, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him." The Father and the Son of the Trinity will go to this one who loves the Lord Jesus. What will They do? Will They empower him or make him powerful and full of impact? No! They will go to make an abode. The word abode here is the noun form of the verb abide. This abode is a mutual one. The lover becomes the Son’s and the Father’s dwelling place, and the Son and the Father become the lover’s dwelling place.
In chapter fifteen, you have the mutual abiding: "Abide in Me and I in you" (15:4). So there is the mutual abiding in the mutual abode. How wonderful! Have you ever realized that in God’s economy He wants to work out the matter of your abiding in Him, taking Him as your abode, so that He may abide in you, taking you as His abode. This is not just to live according to some Scriptures such as husbands love your wives, wives submit yourselves to your husbands, or love your neighbors as yourself. Before you love your wife and before you submit yourself to your husband and before you love your neighbors, you have to abide in Him and let Him abide in you. Let Him within you love your wife. Let Him within you submit to your husband. Let Him do everything in you and through you and with you and for you. This is the Christian life. If I love my wife by myself, that is the expression of me. If a wife submits to her husband by herself, that is just the expression of her. If you love all your neighbors by yourself, that is just you. All these are ethics, not the expression of God at all. But when you would say, "I have been crucified and buried. It is no more I that lives but Christ lives in me. It is not I but Christ who loves my wife. It is not I but Christ who submits to my husband. It is not I but Christ loving the neighbors through me, in me, with me, and for me." These are not merely the real ethics, but also the expression of God. This is the reality that expresses God. This very reality has been lost in today’s Christianity, but the Lord is going to recover it. The Lord’s recovery is not to recover certain doctrines and practices, but to recover the Triune God being wrought into your being to express Him in your daily walk and in the church life.
When these kinds of persons who live Christ in their daily walk come together you have an aggregate. The aggregate is the church life, and the aggregate church life is the reality of the expression of God.
(Concerning the Lord's Recovery, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
