We’ve
been contemplating John 15:5 of late.
Today I want to focus on this question: what does Jesus mean when He says
“abide in Me”? In John 15, Jesus
presents an analogy of a vine and a branch.
He invites us to abide in Him.
But what exactly does it mean to abide?
And if we realize that we aren’t abiding in Him, how can we decide to do
so?
According
to my Bible concordance, synonyms for this word are “stay, remain, live,
dwell.” I love the way one translation
puts Jesus’ words: “I am the Vine, you are the branches. Get
your life from Me. Then I will live
in you and you will produce much fruit” (italics added for emphasis). To abide simply means to draw life from
Christ. But how does that work exactly? What are the mechanics of this? First, you have to establish a right
relationship with God, through Jesus.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this, but it is extremely
important. You can’t abide in Jesus if
you don’t have a real relationship with Him.
Secondly,
be in fellowship with Christ. It is
possible to be in genuine relationship with God and yet not be in fellowship
with Him. For instance, is it possible
to be married and not be in communion and intimacy with your spouse? Of course it is. Is it possible to be a child and not be in
close fellowship with your parents? The
answer is yes. You are still their child
forever; that relationship remains intact, no matter what. The issue is your lack of fellowship with
them. The same is true with our
relationship with God.
I
wonder if you can relate to this subject matter as strongly as I do as I write
it. There are episodes in my life where
I run after things that are essentially plastic, stale substitutes. I should know better, but the old hymn had it
right, my heart is “prone to wander.” In
those incidents, salvation isn’t lost, but my fellowship and relational
intimacy with God is affected. Psalm
16:4 says, “Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god” (NKJV). If you can resonate, may I remind you that
Jesus is the vine? Get your life from
Him. In fact, the Bible even declares
that He is your life (Colossians 3:4).
Run back to Him. He wants to
restore and embrace you.
Abiding
in Christ isn’t a formula; it’s a relationship.
Abiding in Christ isn’t checking off a set of boxes to make sure you’ve
done the things needed to ensure that you are abiding. It’s looking to Jesus daily – hourly – to
sustain, fill, and empower you. Let me
conclude with this: Stephen Skelton in his book “The Gospel according to the World’s Greatest Superhero” writes,
“Superman gets his powers from the sun (his
body stores solar energy), forging a…link to Christ, who is the Son – and the
one we get our power from.” I love that picture! Look to the Son to get everything you need.
Kevin
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