John 15
Our relationship to Christ
Verse 4: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”
One of the descriptions for “abide” is “not to depart”. More often than not, we address personal concerns, troubles, and trials of our own or others by being told to “stay close to Jesus”. Or we might offer to someone the advice to “stay in the Word”, or “remember that God loves you and is great to help you”. All true, very true. Yet, specifically, just how do we “not depart” from Jesus? He clearly tells us that we as Christians cannot bear fruit (for Him) if we indeed depart from Him. Basically, abide in Christ, bear fruit. Depart from Christ, not bear fruit.
Our actions are so indicative of our hearts, of our motives, and we can say all the right things (myself VERY included) and never quite find the way to put them into motion. With God’s help, I am the only one who can change my heart. You are the only one who can change yours.
Our relationship to Christians
Verse 17: “This I command you, that you love one another.”
OK, so I/you want to change something. Good. Now what? God has given us the church, the body of believers at-large to come alongside of us to give selflessly of ourselves to help each other “not depart” from Christ. Sometimes in the Greek language we look for “imperatives”, do this, don’t do that, etc. Jesus here makes it clear, this is a command; it’s not optional. No deep knowledge of ancient language necessary to see that our self-LESS attitudes are what He desires to see played out in what we call the Christian life.
Our relationship to the world:
Verse 26 and 27 (potions): “When the Helper comes…He will testify about Me, and you will testify also…”
I mentioned that we cannot do this by ourselves. God knew that. He never wants us to be in a place where we think we don’t need Him. God said He would help, and He did, He DOES! The believer has the Holy Spirit to help in each and every aspect of life, if we would only listen to Him more. So if He is telling us to pray more, read His Word more, stop doing this or that, start doing this or that, whatever that specific “thing” is or more likely, whatever those “things” are, ask Him to help. Let Him help. He said He would.
SO WHAT…?
So, it starts with your/my decision to follow and stay close to Christ. When we do that, we find brothers and sisters to help us, and who we can also help. And God does the majority of the helping, with His Spirit. If we could pattern our lives around the simplicity of God’s plan, we’d surely reflect much more of His glory that we do at present. Simple, not easy.
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