In John 15:4 Jesus says, “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.”
Jesus describes the union we are to have with Him by using the word Abide.
Abide can be described as:
1.Connection with God
2. Dependence on God
3. Continuance, (Greek) Meno, with God every step.
Obedience + Abiding = Fruit
The one who keeps God’s commandments lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” 1 John 3:24
Abiding is a constant state that we are to live in.
When we live in this way we bear GOOD fruit.
In the books of 1,2, & 3 John, we see abide, love, and truth mentioned multiple times.
I am going to tie in all three and how obedience causes us to abide. Also, how to live in obedience of the greatest commandment.
The greatest commandment: How do we love like God?
1 John 5:2-3 says that the love of God is keeping His commandments.
God’s Commandments:
- Love God
- Love your neighbor as yourself
So basically the number one way to love like God is keeping those commandments (obedience).
When we obey we have fellowship with God, therefore we ABIDE.
Love and Truth
God’s truth(reality) always comes from love.
Real love is wanting the highest good for yourself and others.
Sticking with God’s truth is always love even if yourself or others don’t like it.
Love in deed and truth.
Word and deed.
Talk and truth.
“Dear children, let us not love with words. or speech but with actions and truth.” 1 John 3:18
We must do deeds because of His love not FOR his love.
When we truly do this and love in the way God says to love, we ABIDE in God and God abides in us. When we have this union we bear good fruit.
Jesus the true vine and us as the branches.
Fruit in character:
Fruits of the spirit – Galatians 5:22-23
Fruit in every other area:
Grace, Mercy, Peace, love, joy etc.
In the book, “Pigs In The Parlor”, the author states:
“Fruit is not produced by independent action or by self-effort: it only comes by abiding in the vine! So the keyword is “abide.” To abide in the vine means to stay connected to Jesus so that the life of Christ will flow into the branch and the fruit will result. How does one abide? “IF YE KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS, YE SHALL ABIDE. Abiding is synonymous with keeping the lord’s commandments. And what shall we have by obedience and abiding? MY LOVE…MY JOY – THE FIRST FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!”
I read that part of the book months after I had written the statements above!
Love in truth.
We cannot truly love God, ourselves, or others without the truth and reality of God’s word in us.
Grace and truth.
God’s word is the ultimate measurement tool.
When we accept how he sees things, then we can accurately measure ourselves and others, thus loving ourselves and others the way God commands.
As we do this, everything else prospers as our soul prospers. Everything outside of us comes from what is already in us. If you see something outside of you that you don’t like, check with God about your soul.
“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” 3 John 1:2
When we abide, everything will have life, color, and vibrancy.
Abiding is a journey.
You can become closer and closer to Jesus, bearing more and more fruit as life goes on.
Some of the fruit won’t be seen until the next generation.
The blessing isn’t only about us or for us.
Think generational.
Ex. The Old Testament prophets never saw the Messiah they prophesied about. The fruit of their obedience showed up years later and they were never able to see it.
They paved the way for Jesus’ coming, and yet we got the blessing of salvation by doing nothing.
That is the goal for the next generation. Us building not only on Jesus but with Jesus in our daily lives, so the next generation can keep on running the race we started. Inheriting spiritual and physical fruit.
Everything in God is a journey to be discovered!
That is why we must always ABIDE.
Every step of the way has to be what the Father tells us to do, just as Jesus only said or did what the Father told him.
Apart from Him we can literally do nothing.
There are pages in heaven written about every single day of our lives. We have to obey and abide daily to live out those pages.
Hello Melanie, I am a Glory Carrier and I was praying today telling Jesus I want to really know Him and then I found your email in my inbox and found your site. Thank you for this sharing key’s to lasting fruit. I am learning how to keep His Word and Abide in Him and the way you explained it made it more simple, practical and non-religious so that I could grasp it. I’m leaving this email simply to say thank you and let you know it means allot to me. God Bless you In Christ.
Thank you for reading!