Words of Life: An Enduring Legacyنموونە

Legacy: Heaven on earth is our business.

If you could stay anywhere, where would it be? If you could build any house for yourself, what would it look like?

Today’s passage is all about where we stay and the kind of dwelling place we build. A quick look at the text reveals that the word ‘remain’ appears frequently. In fact, the Greek word menó, meaning 'remain’, is used 11 times in John 15. As Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure, he repeatedly tells them to remain in or with him. Other translations render this word as ‘dwell’ or ‘abide’. The key to a fruitful life, it seems, is making yourself at home with Jesus.

To fully grasp this, we need to turn back to John 14 briefly. The disciples, anxious about where Jesus is going, hear his reassurance: ‘My Father’s house has many rooms’. The word for ‘rooms’ is the noun form of menó: monaé. Here, Jesus connects the disciples’ future eternal home with the place he wants them to live in the present. He instructs them to live in Heaven’s ways and, by following his commands, experience the blessings of their eternal home today.

William Booth, Founder of The Salvation Army, is said to have declared, ‘Making heaven on earth is our business.’ Christians are called to demonstrate, and work for, God’s Kingdom on earth, in the present as it is in Heaven for eternity. We are challenged to invest our lives in things of eternal significance. By abiding in Christ, we bear witness to the ways in which Heaven touches earth. We don’t simply wait for death to experience God’s presence – we begin the move into our eternal home today, in what Charles Wesley terms ‘present, everlasting heaven’.

Pray and reflect upon these words:

Wrestling on in mighty prayer,
Lord, we will not let thee go
Till thou all thy mind declare,
All thy grace on us bestow;
Peace, the seal of sin forgiven,
Joy and perfect love impart;
Present everlasting Heaven,
All thou hast and all thou art.

Charles Wesley (SASB 298 v 4)