There’s a difference between walking somewhere and living there.
You can walk through a neighborhood without calling it home.
You can visit a city without moving there.
That’s the difference between walking in truth and abiding in truth.
Walking describes what I do.
Abiding describes where I live.
I can make a truthful decision without truth having transformed me.
I can choose to love someone today without becoming a loving person.
I can obey a command without allowing that command to reshape my heart.
This is the difference between behavior and formation.
Behavior asks:
What should I do?
Formation asks:
Who am I becoming?
Take forgiveness.
Jesus says,
Forgive.
Someone hurts me.
I forgive them.
I have walked according to the command.
But abiding goes deeper.
I don’t just forgive this person.
I become a forgiving person.
Forgiveness becomes part of who I am.
It’s one thing to choose love.
It’s another thing to abide in love.
It’s one thing to obey a commandment.
It’s another thing for that commandment to become the settled place from which you live.
John writes about:
“the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.”
—2 John 2
I love that word.
Abides.
Truth isn’t supposed to visit you.
Truth is supposed to live in you.
Maybe that’s what Jesus is after when He says:
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.”
—John 8:31
Not just—
What does Jesus want me to do in this situation?
But—
Who is Jesus forming me to become?
Because you can take a trip to forgiveness.
You can visit generosity.
You can stop by patience.
You can spend a little time in love.
And then leave.
But Jesus isn’t inviting us to simply visit His way of life.
He’s inviting us to abide.
To remain.
To stay.
To make ourselves at home.
Walking is about where you go.
Abiding is about where you stay.
Truth isn’t supposed to be somewhere you occasionally visit.
Truth is supposed to become home.
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