“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Colossians 3:16.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 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.” John 15:1-4.

The words abide and abides are used seven times in John 15:1-8, New King James Version. The Greek word and the English mean about the same thing; “to stay in a given place, state, relation or expectancy”, “Strong’s Concordance”.

Think of when you used to abide with your parents or perhaps in your own home now with your spouse. The question is not was it good or bad but rather, was it not a large part of your life?

At the end of the day, you go home, you socialize with others in that household; like it or not, it is a huge part of your life, if not all of your life.

This is what Jesus means when He says, “Abide in Me”, He is not telling us to visit Him on occasion at church, He is telling us to live with Him as much or more than you live with your spouse or parents; to read His Bible, to ask Him questions, to confide in Him, to seek out a relationship, communion.

He is not a dead man but a living Savior who is seated at the right hand of God the Father. He is not too busy planning and working out the problems of the world. Satan is not in His face taking up all His time obscuring His view of you.

Let us get this straight; Satan may seem to be a big shot here on earth, but he is a defeated foe in God’s economy.

God concerns Himself with you and if you draw near to God, feel free to shove your way right in front of Satan, do not let him intimidate you, especially if you have accepted Christ as your Savior, because you are now an adopted child of God.

Do not get me wrong, we still must respect his rank, so we cannot tell him to go to hell, or tell him what a worthless dirt bag he is (see Jude verses 8-10), but we are not under his authority. Scripture says the following.

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7.

The best way to resist the devil is to quote Scripture to him just as Jesus did during His temptation, see, Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13.

So, to abide in Christ is to dwell with Him, to seek to be like Him, to seek His peace which He guarantees to those that dwell with Him.

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27.

You cannot do this is in a haphazard manner, this is the downfall of the average Christian, they buy the “fire insurance” and go on their way, forgetting about all they have been rescued from.

They then wonder why they cannot collect on the promises in Scripture, which are many.

It is wrong to think that someone can be a Christian and live in the world as if there were no God. This is why folks live a mediocre Christian life, seeing no miracles and few answers to prayer.

Do parents reward their children for disobeying them; does a boss reward an employee for just doing the minimum at their job; why should God reward Christians for doing nothing?

Returning to our subject, notice that it says, “every branch in Me”, this tells us Jesus is referring to Christians, because it says they are in Christ.

And by Christians, I mean those who have accepted Christ as their Savior. This is a voluntary act and is not accomplished by going to church every Sunday, or taking sacraments, or doing penance, or any such ritual.

If anyone has never realized that they have sinned against God, repented of those sins, and turned to Christ as the only payment for their sins, they may call themselves a Christian, but they are not.

I truly have trouble being that blunt, but I must warn everyone of the enormity of their predicament. Please read on regardless of what category you find yourself in.

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

“Inspiration” here means literally, God breathed, when you open a Bible, you are hearing from God Himself.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:12-13.

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” John 15:2.

Jesus states here that, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He [God] takes away”, first phrase. What does Jesus mean by fruit?

Fruit in this passage takes on two forms, the first and most important meaning is the fruit of the Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23.

These are the characteristics that a person will exhibit if they are abiding in Christ. All Christians will show a few of these character qualities but no one will show all of them with any consistency without being in close communion with Christ.

There are no super Christians though, and everyone will fall on occasion, but it is important then that we confess our sin, get back up and continue pressing forward.

God is not counting our failures here but rather like any good parent teaching his child to walk, He picks us up and guides us on.

To make this clear, the fruit of the Spirit is not a matter of memorizing the above verse and attempting to live out each word, such as love, goodness, or gentleness, you will drive yourself crazy with that.

The fruit of the Spirit comes from communion with Christ and in doing so you become more like Jesus and these things become natural out-workings of your personality.

At the same time, it is good to memorize verses like these because they give you a perspective of what your life is supposed to be like and they work like the temperature gauge in your car, you know what your situation is by looking at it.

Sometimes it takes a negative to recognize a positive, so when you get a chance, check out what the fruit of the flesh is. There are 17 listed in Galatians 5:19-21, such as hatred, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, envy and so on.

If you are guilty of too many of these faults, you may want to re-examine your life.

Now the second fruit of abiding in Christ flows out of the fruit of the Spirit. This second fruit is the spreading of the gospel of Christ to the entire world, or at least to all your world.

Christians need to tell others of their need of a savior from sin and the redemption that is in the blood of Christ.

Christians are pretty good about this, at least at first but if they are not abiding in Christ, very often folks will look at their sinful lifestyle and worldliness and dismiss what they are telling them. After all what is the difference?

So, again, if you want power in your witness for Christ, you must abide in Him.

Jesus stated in His dialogue that “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit [God] takes away…” John 15:2a first phrase.

There are two possibilities here; either it means that they die as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, see Acts 4:32 through 5:11.

Or, more likely, it means that God, like any good gardener, tenderly lifts that branch up to where it has a better chance of surviving.

However, Jesus says of every branch that does bear fruit.

“…He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” John 15:2b.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:2-4.

The Christian will never become perfect on this earth and God, in love, will never cease to work with him, as in the Apostle Paul’s case below.

“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.” Philippians 3:12.

“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” John 15:3.

In verse three above the Lord, is referring to the disciples, telling them that they are already saved (clean) because they have believed in Him, even though He had not died on the cross yet.

In this case it is through their faith in what He says of Himself. And witnesses like John the Baptist had confirmed.

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29b.

In the Old Testament, about 2000 B.C. (Genesis 22:1-19) Abraham prophesied when Isaac, his son asked him about a sacrifice they were about to make, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” To which Abraham replied as follows.

“My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” Genesis 22:8b.

Jesus is that Lamb.

“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. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5.

In John 15:4-5, Jesus enlarges on what is simple garden knowledge; a branch cannot bear fruit unless it is attached to the vine.

And in this case, you will not just bear fruit, but you will bear much fruit.

But what does He say, “…without Me you can do nothing”, nothing, what part of nothing is so hard to understand? Yet Christians, pastors and teachers stand up and preach out of Time magazine or some book on psychology.

They dumb down the Scriptures to reach generation X, Y, or Z, because some poll or statistic says that is what they want.

What these poor young people want is an anchor for the soul, they want a truth they can grasp onto, and they want a God who loves them!

That God is the Man Christ Jesus. How simple is that!

John 15:6 is probably the most important verse in this segment, how I wish every Christian in this generation could have this seared into their brains. If you are not a Christian please read on because you are going to say, “Oh yeah, I’ve seen this”.

“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.” John 15:6.

The Lord is talking to believers here even though it sounds as if they are cast into hell. Those who do not abide in Christ have their lives wither up like a half dead branch and men look on their works and see nothing to show the value of a life in Christ, in fact they disdain them, and the testimony of Jesus is rejected.

Unfortunately, it is rejected not because of Jesus or His teachings but because of the slovenly lifestyle of His so-called follower.

As a result, men regard their words and their works as nothing more than dead branches and they gather them up and cast them into the fire.

“I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Mahatma Gandhi.

Take note, “and they are burned”, that will be the description of many a Christian’s sojourn here in this world.

We spend an average of seventy years here on earth; this will be the only time in all eternity when we can do something in sheer faith, once we see heaven that time will be gone for eternity.

What will men say when their works are BURNED UP at the judgment seat of Christ?

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” John 15:7-8.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you…” these last verses, 7-8, in some ways sum up the entire passage. The phrase above is really a condition and if it is followed carefully your prayers will gain great power.

Much more than the average Christian, for He tells us that we not only have to abide in Him but His words have to abide in us.

This suggests a very close relationship along with careful Bible study, it is up to you to decide how much effort you invest in this, be warned though, and do not take this lightly.

The results however are nothing less than an opportunity to glorify God.

“By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” John 15:8.

Abiding in Christ taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 12-24-18 and updated on 3-2-24 ck.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.