What it means to Abide in Christ

In John 15, Jesus tells us that he is the one true vine. He says that any branch that does not produce good fruit will be cut off of the vine, or cut away from Christ. And the branches that do produce good fruit he will prune and care for so they will continue to grow and produce fruit. Throughout the first eleven verses, Jesus uses the words, "Abide in me." What does it mean to abide in Christ? Abide can be defined as to remain in, to live in, or to continue. So to abide in Christ means to remain in him. So in order to remain in Christ, we must have constant communion and relationship with the Father. Jesus tells us what that looks like in these verses. 

We learn from verse 1-2, that we must allow God to work in our lives. This is how He prunes us. As we need, God will cut out sin that prevent us from growing. In verse 3, he speaks of how the word of God has made us clean. In order the Word to cleanse us, we must listen for the Holy Spirit to speak to us through it. We can't grow without the power of God's Word cleansing us. 

Verses 4 and 5 speak of abiding in Him. Jesus says that just as the branch abides in the vine to produce good fruit, we must abide in Christ so we can produce fruit. There are two kinds of good fruits we can produce. The first one is the fruit that causes us to grow spiritually as an individual. It is how we are personally growing in our walk with God. The second is fruit that grows the body of Christ. It is how are we reaching the lost and bringing people into the presence of God. The first kind of fruit greatly impacts the second. As we mature and learn more, we need to go share that knowledge and word with the world that has no idea what they are missing. 

In verse 7, we learn that our relationship with Christ must be the basis for answered prayer. Jesus wants us to know and realize that when we abide in him, our prayers will be answered. Though the answers will be in his will and not our own, they will be answered. We see from verse 8 that as we abide in him, it must glorify the Father. The fruit that we bear needs to bring glory to God, if it brings glory to anything else, that we will be cut off of the vine. Our fruits must be rooted in the love of God. Verse 9 says, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love." So we must our relationship with Christ must be rooted in love so that we can love as Christ did.

He tells in verse 10, that when we keep his commandments we are abiding in him. We must walk the walk that we talk. This is also how we will abide in his love. For us to love as Christ, we need to keep the commandments that the Father laid out. Lastly Jesus tells that as we abide in him and commune with him, we will be filled with joy. He tells us that our joy will be filled.