By Professor E M Blaiklock MA LITT D
ABIDING: In 1 John 1:24, days the Cambridge Greek Testament, “the
arbitrary distinctions introduced by the translators of 1611 reach a climax. The same Greek word is translated in three different ways in one verse: 'abide ... remain ... continue.' Elsewhere it is rendered in four other ways, making seven English words to one Greek; 'dwell' (John 2: 39; 6: 56; 14: 10, 17), 'tarry' (4: 10; 21: 22, 23), 'endure' (6:27), 'be present' (I4:25)." This inconsistency is to be regretted. The idea of 'abiding' is characteristic of John and should be translated uniformly by one word. Here he says in summary:
"Let the truth which first brought you to salvation dominate your thought and feeling. In such case you will remain in spiritual union with the Father and the Son." Or perhaps the order is significant. John says 'the Son and the Father,' stressing the thought that by abiding in Christ we abide in God.
And what is this but 'eternal life?' Eternal life, as every reader of John's Gospel is made to realise, is not a duration of being dating from death to eternity, but a quality of living, available for the existence of earth, and necessarily indestructible because it is the life of God. Such is His promise, says John, using for the first time a word common in Paul and Luke.
And what is "abiding in Christ" ? Slightly modified, Godet's definition runs: "Abiding is that continuous act whereby we lay aside all that which we might derive from our own strength to draw all from Christ by faith." Only the surrendered, who have foresworn the arrogant pride of life, can
"abide" thus. Only those who have ceased from struggling and self-assertion can know the rest and blessedness of such dependence. Searching for living illustration of that truth my mind returns to a white room gleaming with steel and polished tiles. I lie on a narrow table and look up. A great arclight shines above. You recognise, no doubt, the place.
You may have shared the experience. Day has come slowly, and you know, so drastic is the coming surgery, that you may not see another dawning of the light and the slow miracle of breaking day. And yet as you lie there and extend your arm for the needle full of pentathal you have a sense of deep peace. You can do nothing, nothing, nothing. You are utterly surrendered to the skill of men. Your part is to cease from the indecisions which preceded this hour, the anxieties of the counted days, the doubts and fears, and leave skill of swift brain and delicate fingers to act... You go into the dark, and like Moses, meet God there.
The illustration throws a little light. It is infinitely safer to commit one's person to the eternal Christ than to the skill of men. Nor will He have us ever lie passive, inactive, and still.
His enablement is for battle and for toil. But surrender to Christ which must precede all abiding, all blessedness, all usefulness, all victory, is like the surrender which submits to the body's wounding that good may come.