The Truth About Abiding - John 15:1-8
“Abide” is word we seldom use in our language today. We perceive it to have a fancy meaning and connotation that we consider not to be defining of our daily lives in our 21st century world.
Abide is defined as “to remain, to continue, to stay.”
In fact, to say another way, “abide” is a being verb not a doing verb. Our being can be in things physically like our houses, neighborhoods, etc. Or we can find our being, namely our identity, in things around us such as sports, friends, relationships, etc. What are we finding our identity in? In reality, we all find our identity, worth, value, being in something. Therefore, whether we know it or not… we all abide. We need not ask the question if we are abiding but what we are abiding in.
John 15:1-8
John 15 are literal words of Jesus to His disciples… how moving this is! When we open up this text we see a few things immediately. First, Jesus is the vine and God the Father is the vinedresser (v.1). Jesus is the life source and the Father is the one who sovereignly looks after all, disciplines lovingly, and prunes faithfully and justly (v.2). Secondly, we see the goal of all Christ Followers… Fruit (v.2).
Going a little further we see Jesus command His disciples, and us, to abide (v.4). He proclaims to His disciples that the only way branches, Christ followers (v.5), can bear fruit is they are connected to the Life Source. He says simply: when we abide in Him we produce fruit and prove to be His disciples (v.8).
I believe the idea of abiding in Christ is what Paul was getting at in Acts 17:28 when he proclaimed to the Areopagus, in Athens, that “In Him we live and move and have our being.”
We are commanded to abide in Him: have our being in Him, identity in Him, heart in Him and Him in us (v.4). Only then can we bear fruit. Only then can we find ourselves in Him. Only then can/will He abide in us. Abiding is not difficult. Abiding in Jesus is what it means to know Jesus. We must ask: What are we abiding in?
My Fears
When it comes to the idea of abiding I have two fears of our understanding of it: (1) That we don’t believe it is really for us and (2) that we believe it to be something extra we do.
Abiding in Christ, according to John 15, is for all Christ followers. My fear is that so often we read this texts, and texts alike, and somehow come to the understanding that this is for the “super-Christian”, that abiding is for the person who wants to go above and beyond in their walk with Christ. When we have done this in our minds we have first not given the text justice in which Jesus calls all of us to abide in Him and secondly we have separated abiding in Him and knowing Him. Abiding in Christ is at the very core of knowing Him. We are all called to abide in Him.
This leads me to my second fear. I believe that we, including myself, for so long have taken abiding, a being verb, and turned it into a doing verb. When Jesus calls us to abide in Him, He is not calling us to do something extra. He is calling us to literally take up residence in Him and Him in us, to be planted, and to not be moved. Spiritual disciplines, such as praying, reading scripture, going to church, are of the utmost importance when it comes to abiding in Christ but they are not the end of what it means to abide in Christ but the beginning. While we must be vigilant in our faithful pursuit of Christ by practicing these things we must not be under the impression that they themselves are the end. Spiritual disciplines, though vital, are merely a means to the end, namely to know Jesus more and abide in Him more fully.
To abide is for all Christians. It is to find our being in Christ, to take up residence and be planted in Him and not move. So, let us ask ourselves: What are we abiding in?
May our prayer be that our hearts reflect what Paul proclaimed in Acts 17:28. That we may “live and move and have our being” in Him. This is what it means to abide.