Remaining

I never liked the idea of remaining; it seems too much like being left behind. In the Guard, when my unit moved out, someone had to remain as trail party to clean things up and to hand over the position to someone else, and I hated that duty. I wanted to be moving forward; I vastly preferred the quartering party, which was first into the new position. The word "remain" connotes, to me at least, no change, staying stagnant. 

But John, in the verses I read this morning, encourages remaining. 1John 2:24-25 says "See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us–even eternal life."

That kind of remaining suggests steadfastness. By "heard from the beginning," John means the original Gospel message, not all the recent false gospels of the anti-christs. By remaining in, or clinging to, the true Gospel, I will also remain in, or not drift away from, God. My reward for that is eternal life.

This kind of remaining isn't being left behind; I'm not the trail party. This kind of remaining is more like digging in on a dominant position, refusing to leave a stronghold that controls the battlefield. If I believe the Gospel, I already hold the best possible position; I'd be a fool not to remain.