What Does It Mean To Abide In Christ?

Jesus tells us to abide in Him.  What does He mean by this?  How do we abide in Christ?

Abiding Is

Jesus speaks about abiding in Him in John 15:4 where He says “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.”  The Greek word for abide is “menō” and means “to remain in, to tarry, to not depart from” so when Jesus tells us to abide in Him we are to remain in Him and not to depart from Him.  The word “abide” is close to the English word “abode” which means a dwelling place or where we live.  If we are in Christ, we are living with Christ. He is present with us in our home. He dwells were we dwell.  We remain where He is at, therefore we never depart from where He is at but is there more to it than just abiding or dwelling with Christ?  Yes, there is.

Abiding in Christ

Jesus told the disciples and He tells those of us who believe in Him to “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5). If a branch is attached to the vine, it will bear fruit but “apart from [Jesus we] can do nothing.”  If we are truly abiding in Him we will most certainly be bearing not just a little fruit but “much fruit.”  If someone says that they are a believer and bear no fruit, then they are deceiving themselves.  Fruit shows that a person is abiding in Christ.   The absence of fruit is evidence that they are not abiding in Him for Jesus said that “you will know them by their fruit” (Matt 7:16).  The opposite must also be true that you will know those who are not His by the absence of fruit.

Warning for Not Abiding

Jesus gives us who think we are abiding in Him but really aren’t a very serious warning; “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” (John 15:6).  We must seek the nourishment of the Word of God and Jesus being the Word of God must be our daily intake as we all need our daily bread which is the Word of God.  We cannot separate the Word of God (the Bible) from the Word of God (Jesus, John 1).  A branch that is detached from the vine will wither and die from a lack of nourishment and then it is only good to be set aside for the burn pile.  Many times I counsel with people who are struggling mightily and so I ask them about their time in the Word. Frequently they say “Well, I don’t usually have the time to do it” but what they really mean is that they are not taking the time or making the time for the essential feeding on the Word of God and so they are not really abiding or remaining in Christ.  They become malnourished and their lack of daily bread causes them to be apart from Christ and remember Jesus said “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5b).

Abiding in the Word

Jesus ties in our prayer requests and our answered prayer by our abiding in Him.  He says “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7) but there is more.  Jesus says that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, “my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).  God’s will for our lives is to always glorify Him for that was the purpose for which we were created but we must be abiding in Him and if we are said to be abiding in Jesus we must be abiding in His Word.  What are His words?  His words are the Word of God, the Bible.   We must be abiding in them or be in the Word daily.  If we abide in the Word of God, the Bible, then the Word of God will be abiding in us.   You cannot abide in Christ without abiding in His Word.   The God of the Word is the Word of God and these two cannot be separated, one from the other.

Proof of our Abiding is Obedience

Furthermore, Jesus goes on to say “As the Father has loved me, so have I 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) but how can we abide in His love?  If we say we love Him and don’t keep His commandments, the truth is not in us.  The same author of the Gospel of John writes in his first letter “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:3-6).  John is saying that if we are abiding in Him then we ought to be walking “in the same way in which he walked” and that is a life of obedience.  If we are constantly breaking His commandments, then we are lying to God and we have no truth in us.  Obedience proves that we love Him and this also proves that we know Him because we keep His commandments.

Conclusion

If you say that you know God and are not walking as Christ walked, certainly not in His perfection, but at least striving to obey Him, then you really don’t know Him, no matter what you say. If we really love God, why wouldn’t we deeply desire to do what He asks us to do?  We obey because we love Him, not because we are compelled too.  It should be a natural desire to abide in Him and in His Word.  As John writes “we may know that we are in him [because] whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:56) but whoever “does not keep his commandments is a liar” (1 John 2:4).   That separates the sheep from the goats (Matt 25:32).

Another Reading on Patheos to Check Out: What Did Jesus Really Look Like: A Look at the Bible Facts

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book  Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon