Demand #7 — Abide in Me
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)
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. (John 15:9)
If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 14:11)
Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31)
What abiding is.
To abide, is to stay, continue, or dwell. So Piper says, “Jesus meant: ‘Stay in me. Continue in me. Keep me for your dwelling.'” With the figure of the vine, we understand a little better what “abiding” is. Piper says it best: “Abiding in Jesus means staying vitally connected to the life-giving, power-giving, fruit-producing branch, namely, Jesus.”
What abiding produces.
Piper claims abiding is the “moment-by-moment cause of every good thing in our lives”. Of course, he gets this from Jesus’ statement “Apart from me you can do nothing”. So in John 15, abiding in Jesus results in fruit. No fruit without abiding. So Piper again states that abiding means “staying vitally connected, hour by hour, to the one who alone produces in our lives everything he demands.”
What abiding isn’t.
Abiding produces fruit, so abiding cannot be that very fruit. It is wrong to think we are obeying Christ’s demand to abide if we are just “bearing fruit” or “keeping Jesus’ commandments”. That is the fruit of abiding. Maybe we don’t have abiding quite pigeonholed yet. So…
How do we abide?
Jesus says abide “in me” (Jn. 15:4) and “in my love” (Jn. 15:9). He also says to abide “in my word” (Jn. 14:11). All of this points toward “abiding as continual trust in the truth of Jesus’ words and in the certainty of his love.” We would not be abiding in Jesus’ love if we stopped beleiving that we are loved by him. We would not be abiding in Jesus’ word, if we ceased believing in the truth of that word. Abiding is a continual trust in Jesus’ love and in His words, in other words, a continual trust in Him as a person.
Piper concludes that “abiding in Jesus—in his love and in his word—is trusting that he really is loving us at every moment and that everything he has revealed about himself and his work for us and our future with him is true.”
A warning.
Jesus’ demand that we abide in Him is a warning. In Jn. 8:30-31 (quoted above), Jesus ties abiding in with being a “true” disciple. In John 15, Jesus speaks of the utter destruction of those who, in the words of Piper, “appear to be truly in the vine, but are not”. All of this is to warn us that if we are not abiding, if our lifestyle is one that consistently does not trust in Jesus’ love and in Jesus’ Word continually, then we might very well not be genuinely born again. We may still be on our way to hell.
Such warnings do not prove that we can actually lose our salvation. 1 Jn. 2:19 teaches that those who fall away were never truly saved, they just seemed to be. These warnings should also not cause us to try to earn our salvation by working real hard. No, they are what God uses to prod us onward along that straight and narrow way—the hard way. At times we will need to be warned that our lifestyle is not matching our profession. And they ultimately remind us that it is only God’s free grace given to us because of Jesus Christ’s perfect life, death, and resurrection, that gives us a secure place in heaven. The very warnings to continue believing will help us believe and call us to find refuge in Jesus Christ through ongoing faith and trust. [See this post for more on this point.]
Encouragement.
Piper stresses that ultimately we cannot “abide” on our own. God keeps us in the vine. He does not let us slip through His hand (Jn. 10:27-29). Jesus prays for us and sovereignly determines that our faith will not fail (cf. Luke 22:31-32).
So with all this in mind, let us purpose to abide, moment by moment, in a vibrant trust in Jesus—His love and His Word. Let us seek to put His Word in front of our eyes, so that reading it faithfully, we will be nourished and abide in the vine. Let us use the means of grace in our lives and take advantage of our church and our relationships with other believers, so that we keep on keeping on. Let us press on to higher ground!
—See all posts on, the Demands of Jesus
∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7
The paragraph on “How do we abide?” is especially helpful. I’ve always heard it preached that “you need to abide in Jesus,” but I had no tangible means to pursue this abstraction. Thanks for the thought-provoking post.
God bless,
Nathan
Nathan,
Sorry, but your comments keep ending up in my spam bin! Thanks for the thoughts, though. I agree, that far too many terms were just left as an abstract meaningless concept for me, during my years in fundamentalism. Piper’s books have been a breath of fresh air.
God bless you because of Christ,
Bob
Surely “The Piper” has gone it wrong! And has played the flute for the deceived! To find out what it means “to abide,” and what it means to “stay in the vine,” please have a look at this link:
http://1trumpet.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/the-vine-of-sodom-john-151-17/
If anyone has any question of comments, please do not hesitate to let me know.