ABIDE
“4 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. 5 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 ESV
It’s interesting for me to hear people in my life talk about having roommates. The only roommate I’ve had is my little brother and that really doesn’t count, so I’m amused by their stories. While there are certainly exceptions, the majority of how I hear my friends talk about my roommates is pretty neutral. They see them in the morning, go about their own business during the day, and occasionally see them awake in the evening and say goodnight. If they have a better relationship, maybe they even go out to lunch from time to time, especially towards the beginning of the semester. In some ways, I came to see and practice “abiding” in Jesus in this roommate-like manner.
I figured that to abide meant to just have some kind of morning routine that included a devotional and some prayer. After that, assuming that I had “checked” the abide box, I would go about my day, and then close my day with a prayer. As I reflect, I see that it’s almost like I had this subconscious belief that after our time together in the morning, I would leave my room and live my life, while Jesus would stay in my room. I had come to define abiding as a once a day check in—I had come to see Jesus as my roommate.
“Meno”
Rather than implying this sporadic encounter idea, the Greek word translated as “abide” (“meno”) is simply defined as, “to remain in the same place over a period of time—‘to remain, to stay.’” In another part of the New Testament, the same root word is used to say that the apostle Paul “stayed” at a certain place for two years (Acts 28:30). In other words, to abide in Jesus is to stay with him over the course of time. This makes perfect sense when we look at the metaphor used by Jesus--He is the vine, we are the branches. We intuitively know that if a branch is disconnected at any point from its source, it will wither.
To abide is to live in the presence of God, as God’s friend.
Friends
“15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15 ESV)
Here Jesus calls his disciples “friends,” but it’s important to recall the context. Whenever we think of the word “friend,” we think of someone who we enjoy that we see once, twice, maybe even three times a week if they’re close. We call people who we haven’t seen in months our friends, or in some cases we call people we’ve never even met in person our friends (ie Facebook). I don’t think this is what Jesus had in mind.
The ones whom Jesus is calling “friends” are people who have journeyed with him. They’ve seen him at his best, they’ve been with him when he’s tired; they’ve walked with him almost everywhere he’s gone nearly every day for three years. They were Jesus’ apprentices, learning how to walk, talk, live like him.* They were not his roommates, they were his companions.
In my best understanding, this is what it means to “stay, reside, abide” with Jesus: Like his original disciples, shaping our everyday lives around his teaching and example, involving him in our everyday life, following him wherever he goes. Like the disciples, we don’t do this in order to earn Jesus’ love—they were chosen and loved as they were. Rather, we seek to become more like Jesus (be his apprentice) because we are simply accepting his invitation into a better kind of life (the “eternal kind of life” in the language of theologian Dallas Willard). To summarize, we allow Jesus to shape our lives around His teachings and example, and like his original friends, we “do life” with Jesus.
Practicing this a little more every day, we then let the process work, trusting that we will experience growth as naturally as a branch produces fruit when it stays with its vine.
If bearing fruit, or experiencing God’s “eternal kind of life” is so simple, then why do so few of us claim to experience it. What gets in the way? We’ll be tackling this question next week.
How?
One day this week, give this a try:
As opposed to purely studying the Bible, or reading someone else’s reflections about the Bible, try reflectively reading the Bible, seeking to hear what God is speaking to you and your specific life situation. Here’s how:
Pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you and help you understand Scripture.
Read a short Psalm (ie Psalm 23) or a passage in the book of John (ie John 15:1-15).
Ask yourself 3 questions
What are You (God) saying to me today?
How does this intersect with my life (what does it have to do with my real, everyday life)?
What’s the invitation Jesus is making to me here?
Write down your responses. Take a few moments throughout the day to think about what you wrote.
For this perspective on apprenticeship to Jesus, I’m indebted to a 2017 talk by John Mark Comer: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rebuilders/id1462274371?i=1000437047856