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Abiding in Christ


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10 hours ago, Mlizb830 said:

This week John Ch. 15 has been brought to my attention many times, particularly the parable of the vine and the branches. The word abide resonated with me so much because i realized I'm not sure I even understand how to abide in Him or IF I am. Some weeks I pray faithfully, some not so well. I am a student, so reading, memorizing and studying the Word comes much easier to me, but is that enough to truly be abiding in Him? I still question His will for me and honestly I don't feel like I'm where He wants me. I Love the Lord, but still feel at times disconnected. .......

John 15:2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while ...

biblehub.com/john/15-2.htm

He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit,

and HE prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.

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3 hours ago, simplejeff said:

If it came 'naturally',  then the books of Corinthians, Galatians,  Timothy, et al, would not have been needed to be written with all the warnings to ecclesia in the assemblies.

 

THE POINT WAS:  It does not take a lot of self effort and grunting for the vine to bear fruit.  The branch just must abide in the vine and bearing fruit comes naturally.  In the same way when we are abiding in Jesus He naturally bears fruit and it takes no self effort.  If it is of self it is not of the Spirit.

 

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13 hours ago, Mlizb830 said:

This week John Ch. 15 has been brought to my attention many times, particularly the parable of the vine and the branches. The word abide resonated with me so much because i realized I'm not sure I even understand how to abide in Him or IF I am. Some weeks I pray faithfully, some not so well. I am a student, so reading, memorizing and studying the Word comes much easier to me, but is that enough to truly be abiding in Him? I still question His will for me and honestly I don't feel like I'm where He wants me. I Love the Lord, but still feel at times disconnected. I think the Holy Spirit is teaching me now about relationship with Him. I guess my question would be, how do you, as a Christian, abide in Christ? How do followers "remain" in Him? Because I think it must be more than reading, memory verses and morning prayers. 

 

Question: "What does it mean to abide in Christ?"

Answer:
To “abide” is to live, continue, or remain; so, to abide in Christ is to live in Him or remain in Him. When a person is saved, he or she is described as being “in Christ” (Romans 8:1; 2 Corinthians 5:17), held secure in a permanent relationship (John 10:28–29). Therefore, abiding in Christ is not a special level of Christian experience, available only to a few; rather, it is the position of all true believers. The difference between those abiding in Christ and those not abiding in Christ is the difference between the saved and the unsaved.

Abiding in Christ is taught in 1 John 2:5–6, where it is synonymous with “knowing” Christ (verses 2 and 3). Later in the same chapter, John equates “remaining” in the Father and the Son with having the promise of eternal life (verses 24 and 25). Biblically, “abiding in,” “remaining in,” and “knowing” Christ are references to the same thing: salvation.

The phrase abiding in Christ pictures an intimate, close relationship, and not just a superficial acquaintance. In John 15:4–7, Jesus tells His disciples that drawing life from Him is essential, using the picture of branches united to a vine: “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. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Without that vital union with Christ that salvation provides, there can be no life and no productivity. Elsewhere, the Bible likens our relationship with Christ to that of a body with a head (Colossians 1:18)—another essential union.

Some people take the warning of John 15:6 (branches that do not abide in the vine are thrown away and burned) to mean that Christians are always in danger of losing their salvation. In other words, they say it’s possible to be saved but not “abide,” in which case we would be cast away. But this could only be true if “abiding” were separate from salvation, referring to a state of intimacy with Christ we must strive to attain post-salvation. The Bible is clear that salvation comes by grace and is maintained by grace (Galatians 3:2–3). Also, if a branch could somehow fall away from the vine, resulting in the loss of salvation, then other, very clear passages of Scripture would be contradicted (see John 10:27–30).

It is best to interpret the True Vine metaphor this way: Jesus is the True Vine, obviously. The branches who “abide” in Him are the truly saved—they have a real and vital connection to the Savior. The withered branches who do not “abide” in Him are the unsaved pretenders who feigned an attachment to the Vine but drew no life from Him. In the end, the pretenders will be seen for what they were: hangers-on who had no authentic attachment to Jesus. For a while, both Peter and Judas seemed identical in their walk with Christ. But Peter was attached to the Vine; Judas was not.

John restates the withered-branch principle this way: “They [people now opposed to Christ] went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2:19).

One of the proofs of salvation is perseverance, or sustained abiding in Christ. The saved will continue in their walk with Christ (see Revelation 2:26). That is, they will “abide” or remain in Him. God will complete His work in them (Philippians 1:6), and they will bring forth much fruit to the glory of God (John 15:5). Those who fall away, turn their backs on Christ, or fail to abide simply show their lack of saving faith. Abiding is not what saves us, but it is one of the signs of salvation.

Proofs of abiding in Christ (i.e., proofs that one is truly saved and not just pretending) include obedience to Christ’s commands (John 15:10; 1 John 3:24); following Jesus’ example (1 John 2:6); living free from habitual sin (1 John 3:6); and the awareness of a divine presence within one’s life (1 John 4:13).

https://www.gotquestions.org/abide-in-Christ.html

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15 hours ago, Mlizb830 said:

This week John Ch. 15 has been brought to my attention many times, particularly the parable of the vine and the branches. The word abide resonated with me so much because i realized I'm not sure I even understand how to abide in Him or IF I am. Some weeks I pray faithfully, some not so well. I am a student, so reading, memorizing and studying the Word comes much easier to me, but is that enough to truly be abiding in Him? I still question His will for me and honestly I don't feel like I'm where He wants me. I Love the Lord, but still feel at times disconnected. I think the Holy Spirit is teaching me now about relationship with Him. I guess my question would be, how do you, as a Christian, abide in Christ? How do followers "remain" in Him? Because I think it must be more than reading, memory verses and morning prayers. 

 

BEAUTIFUL question!

I love John 15 too. I think there are 2 sides, theory and practice, both fundamental.

On the "theory" side, even if sometimes we think to know enough about Jesus, to have memorized enough about the Gospel, it is never enough. 

There are a lot of information in that small book called Gospel, that are hidden by some "mainstream" interpretation of men, so we tend to take for granted many verses. Or to think we can wrap up everything is written in a couple of sentences. Often, behind mainstream interpretation, there are just people who called themselves "teacher" against Matthew 23:8-10, because loved to receive praise from one another as in John 5:44. 

So one way to have His Word remaining in you is listening to that questions that arise in your heart when you read the Gospel, and that sometimes you know somewhere deep inside that are not satisfied by standard answers. Jesus wants you to understand something deeper in that cases. (often deeper and simple at the same time). Always be open, never take for granted the understanding of not even a single Word from Jesus. The more we come to know Him, the more we can love Him.

On the practical side it comes to apply what you have understood, and to see Christ in every of your neighbor. Growing in love for God and your neighbors, losing the love for pride, comfort, praises from men, sin, etc. 

 

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14 hours ago, Mlizb830 said:

This week John Ch. 15 has been brought to my attention many times, particularly the parable of the vine and the branches. The word abide resonated with me so much because i realized I'm not sure I even understand how to abide in Him or IF I am. Some weeks I pray faithfully, some not so well. I am a student, so reading, memorizing and studying the Word comes much easier to me, but is that enough to truly be abiding in Him? I still question His will for me and honestly I don't feel like I'm where He wants me. I Love the Lord, but still feel at times disconnected. I think the Holy Spirit is teaching me now about relationship with Him. I guess my question would be, how do you, as a Christian, abide in Christ? How do followers "remain" in Him? Because I think it must be more than reading, memory verses and morning prayers. 

I think you're on a good track already.  One thing to remember is that growing fruit is a process.  We'd like to see fruit fully grown and immediately apparent because watching buds slowly turn into fruit is not always easy.  It's the consistent spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading and study, being with other Christians that helps the process, but we need to do it in a way that helps us to spiritually grow and mature.

A few of the major lessons I've learned over the years are these.  God created each of us to be unique individuals that would reflect His glory to the world in a way that no one else can.  A big part of our spiritual walk with God is about discovering and learning who He made us individually to be.  This is something that goes deeper than just knowing our gifts and talents.  It is about having a clear sense deep inside of who God created us to be.  Each of us needs to walk with God in the natural way in which He created us to.  The way prayer works best for each of us will be different.  For some, it is best in the morning, for others evening, and for others, at various times throughout the day.  For some it's best in a quiet location, for others while taking a walk.  We each need to learn what is best for us at a particular time in our life.  It's the same for bible study.  At different times in our lives, different styles of study will be best for us.  Trying to do things the way other people do it is often a path to spiritual dryness.

Over the years, I've found that I go through definite seasons in my life.  It seems that perhaps every 4 to 6 months that the way I am doing various spiritual exercises needs to change.  I'll have a time where this is a focus on Bible reading.  Then I'll have a time where this is a focus on something else.  Early in my Christian walk, I'd try to force myself to be more disciplined and do things the same way.  I found that often I would just start to burn out on things.   As I learned later, I am simply a person that thrives on these types of changes.  I learn something and grow in one way in one season and then need to move to the next.  My walk with God is one in which He takes me in different directions at various times.  As one season starts to dry up, I've learned to look for the next.   In contrast, I've known some Christians that are on the same routine they've had for decades and they thrive on that.  We each need to learn how this works best for us.

I used to see living the Christian life as God having a giant to-do list for my life and the fruitfulness of my life as to how well I checked items off that list.  I used to look for the big "call" on my life.  I then started to see that the Christian life was about becoming the person God created me to be and walking with Him.  I spent years defining my identify as being a good Christian, a good husband, a good father, a good church member, a good employee, and then viewing my fruitfulness as being how faithful and effective I was in those roles.  I hit a point where God put me in front of a mirror and I had no idea of who the person was looking back at me.  I was a series of masks I had been wearing my entire life.  God started working on me to see myself through His eyes as the person He created me to be and not a collection of expectations of family, church, friends, work, society, etc.  I started finding that many of the things that I used to worry about doing (or not doing) starting naturally flowing out of my life rather than being something I had to force myself to do.  Much of what God wants to do in us and through us is related to us becoming the unique individual He created us to be.

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