Abiding

This subject of abiding is a departure from the Spiritual Giftedness topic.  I feel there seems to be an urgency of the Lord for me to share about and define this subject.

In John 15:4 Jesus uses the word “Abide”.  The Greek word for abide is:  me'-nō

Vine’s Expository Dictionary defines abide as:

I.     to remain, abide

     A.     in reference to place

                    i.     to sojourn, tarry

                   ii.    not to depart

                 a.     to continue to be present

                 b.     to be held, kept, continually

      B.     in reference to time

                    i.     to continue to be, not to perish, to last, endure

                      a.     of persons, to survive, live

      C.     in reference to state or condition

                    i.     to remain as one, not to become another or different

II.          to wait for, await one

John 15:4 (NKJV)

⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

In this one verse the word  abide is used three times.

I awoke this morning with the awareness that the Lord was calling me to “abide in Him”, and as I began speaking with Him (praying) I found that I was naturally abiding with Him, and He began to abide with me.

In John 15, Jesus describes Himself as the vine and He speaks of the necessity of the branch to abide in the vine (or tree), there is life giving resource (or flow) which sustains the branch when firmly connected to the vine (or tree).  A branch doesn’t have to struggle to remain connected to the vine (or tree), it is a natural consequence of growth.  Abiding for us comes from realizing that although we are sentient beings, we solely depend upon the connection to the life giving flow of the vine (Jesus) to sustain us spiritually.  Without that connection we are severed and we become spiritually dead.

John 15:6 (NKJV)

⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

Jesus doesn’t really give us any options here, either one abides in the vine where you are connected to life in Him, or one chooses not to abide, where the end result is spiritual death and separation from the vine.  Our lives are compared to a grape vine which produces grapes (fruit) as long as the branch is connected to the vine.  Jesus uses the vine and branch metaphor to graphically show how connected we must become to the life giving source of relationship with Him.

John 15:10 (NKJV)

¹⁰ 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.

It really isn’t until John 15:10 that we get a true picture of what it looks like to abide in Jesus. To abide in Jesus means to keep His commandments, and to keep His commandments means to love God with all our hearts and souls and minds and to love our neighbor as ourselves. One way that we display our love for God is through our trust, prayer, and devotion to him. We abide through relationship. We pursue in love.

Matthew 22:37-39 (NKJV)

³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

A.W. Tozier writes in his book ‘Following after God’:

“…We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. "No man can come to me," said our Lord, "except the Father which hath sent me draw him," and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the out working of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: "Thy right hand upholdeth me."

Psalm 63:8 (KJV)

⁸ My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

“In this divine "upholding" and human "following" there is no contradiction.  In practice, however, (that is, where God's previous working meets man's present response) man must pursue God. Or, for our part, there must be positive reciprocation if this secret drawing of God  to eventuate in identifiable experience of the Divine. In the warm language of personal feeling this is stated in the Forty-second Psalm:

  

Psalm 42:1-2 (KJV)

¹ As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

² My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

In other words Tozier is saying that if God is drawing us, we must respond to that drawing to experience His power and presence.

There is a need (or longing) that God puts within the human heart to pursue after Him. 

Why do we do it?  Why do we pursue after God?

The book of Philippians Chapter 3 gives us four good reasons:*

1.      IN ORDER TO KNOW HIM

Philippians 3:7-8 (NKJV)

⁷ But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. ⁸ Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

2.      TO CONFIRM OUR JUSTIFICATION

Philippians 3:9 (NKJV)

⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith

3.      BECAUSE WE ARE SO IMPERFECT

Philippians 3:12 (NKJV)

¹² Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

"Not that I have already obtained or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own."

4.      BECAUSE HE HAS MADE US HIS OWN

Philippians 3:12 (NKJV)

¹² Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

"Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own."

So, what does it mean to abide?  

Let's take a closer look at John 15:4-5.

What does it mean for us to abide in Jesus as branches to the vine?  There are three things which are implied: 

           connection, 

           dependence, and 

           continuance. 

Don’t think of these as three successive steps, but as three interwoven aspects of abiding.  

1. CONNECTION

Abiding in Jesus first of all means having a life-giving connection to him. A branch is connected to the vine, and a vine to the branch. This is what theologians frequently describe as “union with Christ.” Notice that this connection, this union, is mutual. We abide in him and he abides in us (vs. 4). If there is no connection, there is no life, no fruit.

2. DEPENDENCE

Abiding also implies dependence. This aspect of abiding, unlike connection, is not reciprocal. The branch is dependent on the vine, but the vine is not dependent on the branch. The branch derives its life and power from the vine. Without the vine, the branch is useless, lifeless, and powerless. Sap flows from the vine to the branch, supplying it with water, minerals, and nutrients that make it grow. And believers receive the “sap” of Christ’s grace through our life-giving connection to him. We are completely dependent upon Jesus for everything that counts as spiritual fruit (vs. 4). Apart from him, we can do nothing (vs. 5).

3. CONTINUANCE

Abiding also involves continuance. In fact, “abide” means to remain, or stay, or continue. For example, in John 1:38-39, two of the disciples who first encountered Jesus asked him “Where are you staying?” They wanted to know where Jesus made his residence. The word “staying” is the same word translated “abide” in John 15. To abide is to reside. To abide is to continue, to stay, to remain.

May you abide (or remain) in Christ as a branch is connected to the vine.  There is no effort that is expended by the branch other than to literally ‘hang in there”, to rest in the vine.  

May you find the rest that strengthens your trust which in turn furthers and deepens your relationship with Jesus.

God is good all the time―all the time God is good!

Stephen Barnett

Abidin'

Words and Music by Terry Scott Taylor

     Chorus:

No bribin', no conivin', no strivin' will do

They'll never make no change in you

You can hold your breath, stand on your head

Still the changes won't come, till their Spirit led

Abidin', that's when the changes come

Abide in Jesus, He's the best at gettin' it done

     Verse 1

Now, a Christian brother who's name was Ben

Had a real bad problem, seemed without end

His impatience, at times, got the better of him

So he tried many methods like countin' to ten

Still, the harder he tried, the harder it got

Till his face would go red, and he cuss a lot

He'd confess his sin and forgiveness came

But then Ben would go out and do it again

What the ol' boy needed was delivery

And only God's Spirit could set him free

Ben began to abide like a branch to the Vine

Now deliverance is his every time

     Repeat Chorus

   Verse 2

Now, sister Sue had a problem, too

Though not like Ben, she kept her cool

But when it came to gossip, man, that gal could rap!

She found it hard to say something kind

Wound up hurtin' someone every time

With a juicy story, she just couldn't shut her trap

But Sue found the secret of takin' God's rest

And instead of makin' promises and doin' her best

She lets the Lord take that tongue control

Now, instead of sowin' distrust and discord

She's so busy talkin' about the Lord

That she ain't got time to talk about so and so

     Repeat Chorus

©1976 Maranatha! Music

*Four Reasons to Passionately Pursue God by John Piper 11/19/2011

These lyrics are copyrighted by the respective artists and are demonstrated here for educational purposes only and not for profit.