“This is my command: Love each other”. John 15:17
We are in in-dwelt by the Spirit when we are born again Jesus taught. This occurs by faith when we unify with God’s Son, via a new covenant belief in His redemptive act on the cross. The Spirit is the guarantee of eternal life when believing we become One with Christ the Son as He is One with God the Father.
During the last supper with His disciples Jesus used the shared cup of wine as a symbol of His blood to be soon shed on the cross for all believers: After supper, he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you. (Luke 22:2)
Christ taught Nicodemus the following: Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8)
Jesus began to establish the disciples in His Kingdom by imparting the Spirit after His resurrection, before His ascension. God alone establishes us in His Kingdom: Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” These men would build Christ’s church with the leadership of Christ’s Spirit indwelling their minds.
The apostle Paul taught that we are established in the kingdom by the Spirit when we believe in Christ’s work on the cross: And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)
Abiding in His presence with the Spirit leading is the only way we can possibly abide in love which is the fulfilling of all the requirements of God: “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love”. John 15: 9-10 NASV Abiding in His presence brings the result of loving others, bringing a fullness of joy to our experience, and the lifestyle of loving others sincerely equates to obedience to Christ’s law in the Spirit: “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you”. NASV John 15: 11-12 And, “This is my command: Love each other”. John 15:17