Read: John 15; Sing Revelation Hymn (lyrics here)
John 15:3-5
This text again is so rich. So profound. So overwhelming. I am never sure where to start, where to end and how to consolidate the notes and thoughts and commentary. But especially today it feels heavy on my heart.
Abide in me. Abide in me. What a glorious and incomprehensible concept. The Savior is inviting the sinner to abide in Him. Jesus came down to earth to rescue us, redeem us, and restore us. He then goes on to open his hand reaching out, saying abide in me. Wow. yet, often, most days, most moments if we are be honest we chose not too. We chose to abide in ourselves or materialism, or earthly pleasures, or religion, rather than Christ. My commentary says in this moment Jesus emphasizes steadfastness and permanence to his disciples.
Jesus then goes on, abide in me, and I in you. He in us. Us in Him. This is truly incredible. We are just saved we are invited in. We are called by Christ to be in Him and He is us. It truly is the only way. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot bear our own fruit as we talked about yesterday. Everything flows out of Him and His glorious, restorative love. Every breath we are given, every day, week month are a gift. Do we return them in praise?
In the sermon link today for John 15 the pastor asks about this. As we navigate these first few verses. These versus are of utmost importance. They are discussing a true believer. A way to see if you are in Christ alone and the way of telling is if you are bearing His fruit. The pastor asks, if someone were to follow you around for the day- what does your life demonstrate about what it means to be a Christian? I was running as I listened to this and literally stopped. The I kept running and had to pause the message. What does my life show? A false perfectionism where I don't demonstrate grace and mercy because I am shaping what I think Christianity should look like? An abuse of grace where you throw all behaviors to the wind saying to the world, I can look like you and act like you and talk like you and be entertained like you, because God's got this? Or are we able to show that we are striving to be like Christ, because of Christ, because of His love for us, and because of Him and through Him we are offering everything back to Him?
15:5 Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing.
Sister, friend, what are you abiding in? Are you hoping in Christ, is your salvation in Christ? Are you bearing fruit through Christ? An apple tree should not grow snakes. We are His, and He is ours. Is your life reflecting the most merciful love of our glorious King?
Abide in Him.
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