To be “in” is different from to “abide.” In John 15 the Lord said, “Abide in Me and I in you” (v. 4). This is a mutual abiding. However, most of us Christians understand this mutual abiding as dwelling together. Husbands and wives dwell together, but we are mutually abiding with the Lord. It is not enough to dwell with the Lord; what God wants is mutual abiding. This is something many Christians have not seen. In our concept it is either walking with the Lord or being with the Lord, while dwelling with the Lord is somewhat better, and living with the Lord is even better. What Christians have seen are walking with, being with, dwelling with, and living with. Our natural concept does not exceed “with.” However, what the Bible tells us is not only walking with, being with, dwelling with, or living with, but even more it is mutually abiding in. If we walk with the Lord, we are with Him; if we are with Him, we dwell with Him; if we dwell with Him, we live with Him; and if we live with Him, we have the mutual abiding with Him. Our living with the Lord depends on our dwelling with Him; our dwelling with Him follows our being with Him, and our being with Him requires our walking with Him. In the Old Testament there is walking with God. In the New Testament we see there is being with the Lord. First, there is being with the Lord, then there is dwelling with the Lord. This dwelling with the Lord must reach the point of mutual abiding.
Mutual abiding means that we abide in the Lord and the Lord abides in us. The Lord Jesus wants to mutually abide with us. Without the mutual abiding, the Lord is not satisfied. How then can we abide in the Lord, and how can He abide in us? This is the most central and mysterious teaching in the Bible, yet it has been the most neglected by Christians. The Bible contains many words on the surface. We often illustrate this with chicken feathers and garlic husks. Chicken feathers are not good to eat, and garlic husks are undesirable. However, without feathers the chicken cannot survive, and without husks the garlic cannot grow. The garlic must have husks to grow properly, and for the chicken to grow well, it must have full feathers. When you buy a chicken, you must first examine the feathers. If the feathers are scraggly, do not buy the chicken because it will not be a good one. A chicken can be good only if it has good feathers; good feathers are a guarantee of a good chicken. Eventually, however, no one will eat the chicken feathers. If you invite me to eat chicken, you would not give me a plate of chicken feathers to eat. We northerners love to eat garlic, but you would not give me a pile of garlic husks to eat. That would be an insult to me. Similarly, the vine spoken of in the Bible has a main stalk and supplementary branches and leaves.
Ephesians 5 says that we must be filled in spirit (v. 18), and not just filled but even overflowing with all the fullness of God. When we are filled unto all the fullness of God, what overflows may be a “chicken feather” such as wives submitting to their husbands, or it may be a layer of “garlic husks” such as husbands loving their wives. However, in reality it is the fullness of God that has filled us and has saturated our entire being so that we overflow God. As a result the wives spontaneously submit to their husbands, and the husbands spontaneously love their wives. How can garlic grow without a husk? However, Christianity has concentrated on details but forgotten the main objective. Instead of speaking about God’s filling, their talk is about loving the wives and submitting to the husbands. This is the condition of many Christians today. They do not know the truth, nor do they know the reality of the Spirit; they teach people as religion the husks and feathers of the Bible.
The Lord’s economy, which is entirely different from Christianity, is to dispense the Lord Himself into us not only to be our life but also to be our everything, thereby causing us to be filled with Him. After we are filled, what flows out from within us is God Himself. If you are a wife, then what flows out is submission to your husband. If you submit to your husband, it is not your virtue but the expression of God, the flowing out of God. If you are a husband, what flows out is love for your wife. Your love for your wife is not your characteristic but the overflow of God, the flowing out of God. What the wife overflows is submission; what the husband overflows is love. Whether submission or love, they are the overflow of God Himself.