Abide in Christ’s Love!

 “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 it so 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, 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. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. (John 15:1-11)

In these few verses we see our entire purpose laid before us as followers of Christ Jesus. Our purpose is to glorify the Father through the fruits that we produce as followers of Christ! Our purpose is not to “live our best life.” It is not to “follow our hearts.” It is not to “please God so that He will bless us with health or wealth.” Our purpose has little to do with US, and EVERYTHING to do with HIM! 

Look at what exactly Jesus is telling His disciples in this chapter. He is telling them that they must bear fruit. He is telling them, also, that the ONLY way it is possible for a person to bear fruit is to abide in HIM. We must abide in Christ in order to bear fruit and avoid the aweful consequence of not doing so: being removed and burned away! The word used for “abide” is the Greek, men-oh. It means to “remain the same as” and “not to become another” or “different from.”

To abide in Christ means to be like Him! It means to remain the same as Him and to not become different from Him. If you do this, you will bear much fruit! You will still be “dressed” or pruned. This will enable you to bear even more fruit! You see, abiding in Christ is a self-fufilling process of doing great work for the Kingdom of God! The more you do, the more you WILL do! And you please God Almighty as you glorify Him! 

What downside could there be? Only one: NOT ABIDING AND THUS BEARING NO FRUIT. Let us avoid the judgment associated with failing to bear fruit for our Lord! Let us not bear the equally damning consequences of “becoming another” from Him as well! We must stay with Christ’s commandments and teachings. To deviate means to drift into the realm of apostacy, something we see so much of today in the church. 

An Almighty Creator made us in His image. He made us to be creative! We see evidence of this in everything we have accomplished. Yet we are corrupted by sin. Sinful creators will corrupt creatively! We are do good at it that we can even convince ourselves of our own deceptions and lies. It becomes dangerously easy to veer off course from the precious gospel into aberrancy. Let it never be so for you!

ABIDE! Abide in Christ and His Word. Abide in the scriptures and measure everything against this most precious and perfect measuring stick! God has great love and adoration for vines that produce His perfect grapes. Share the wine of Christ’s redeeming blood with those around you!