What do you think when you hear the phrase, “abide in Christ?” It is common in American evangelicalism to understand this in an almost Buddhistic nirvana-type way … or if you prefer, a 60s burned-out hippie: “You just have to abide, man.” Abiding in Christ is understood as a Zen-like detachment that simply accepts things the way they are and goes with the flow, allowing the Spirit to flow through us like water through an inanimate pipe. Jesus’ teaching about abiding in him is reduced to our inner, individualistic life and is quite passive. Christ is the house, and we are abiding in the recliner.
Abiding in Christ, however, is not a passive relationship in which you “let go and let God.” Jesus commands us to abide in him in John 15:4, which calls for activity. This activity includes having Jesus’ words abide in you (Jn 15:7). Jesus’ words abiding in you is the same as Jesus himself abiding in you (compare Jn 15:5 and 15:7). To have Jesus/Jesus’ words abiding in you means that his words captivate your heart; his words control your mind, will, emotions, affections, and actions. Earlier in his Farewell Address, Jesus told his disciples, “If you love me, keep/guard my commandments” (Jn 14:15). The one who abides in Christ is the one who guards or cherishes Jesus’ commands and, therefore, obeys him. You are only abiding in Christ when the entirety of your life is governed by the words of Jesus. The faithful, fruitful disciple is the one who thinks Jesus’ thoughts after him because his heart is saturated with Jesus’ words.
To have your heart controlled by Jesus’ words, for the word of Christ to dwell in you richly (as Paul says in Colossians 3:16), you must know his word. To know his word, you must hear and meditate on his word. You don’t receive his word by osmosis or some direct revelation. You receive his word by reading it and/or hearing it in and through the Scriptures.
While we have individual responsibilities to abide in Christ, we do not abide in Christ in isolation. Abiding in Christ has a corporate or communal dimension. To be a branch in the True Vine is to be a branch with all the other branches. Abiding in Christ requires remaining in active, peaceful communion with other Christians. Abiding in Christ means living faithfully as an individual with the rest of the members of the church. The call to abide in Christ is for you to be a faithful individual within the church.
You are to actively live with the words of Christ controlling you so that you contribute to the overall life and mission of the church. This goes to the fruit that the Father expects from the branches. The fruit is that which contributes to transforming a chaotic and sinful world into a place of peace under the lordship of Jesus. This fruit is anything and everything about us that participates in Jesus’ mission.
Your inner life is important, but it is not the be-all-and-end-all of the fruit God expects. What the word of Christ produces in and through us is the world God intends. Our thoughts, words, and deeds should aim to create God’s peace in relationships. When the Spirit is operating in our relationships, this is what we see (Gal 5:22-23). When our lives produce this fruit, we know we are truly abiding in the Vine.