If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Remaining in Christ is a living union like a branch joined to the vine, drawing life, nourishment and power to bear fruit from him, without whom nothing can be done. His words remaining in believers means his life dwelling in them as they daily take the Word into heart and soul, study it, treasure it and let it shape mind, motive and action. The little word if makes the promise conditional, so asking does not bring automatic answer from mere belief but from continuing in him in obedient love and keeping his commandments. That oneness reshapes desire into harmony with his will, so those who abide ask in his name and to the Father for what is right — likeness to him, the Spirit, grace to bear fruit and his glory — and not selfishly or for worldly pleasure, and their earnest prayers are answered though not always in the way or time expected. So abiding bears much lasting fruit of Christlike character, unselfish love and service, and soul-winning labor, which glorifies the Father and marks those who bear it as his disciples.
Verse Setting and Imagery
The promise belongs to the parable of the true vine and its branches, which sets out the relation that must exist between Christ and his people and the necessity of vital connection for life, growth and fruitfulness. Abiding in him as the branch abides in the vine is necessary in order to bear the right quality of fruit, and when believers remain in him with his words remaining in them they may ask according to that living relationship and receive what they ask. Their abiding gives them his spirit and will, so their requests are in harmony with him, and this dependence, like a branch drawing nourishment and life from the vine, enables fruitfulness because power to bear fruit comes from Christ and not from the branch. The picture includes fruitless branches removed and fruitful branches tended and pruned to bear more, with abundant, lasting fruit glorifying the Father, explaining genuine sanctification and making known the mystery of the Christian life. This connection brings believers into fellowship and unity with love for one another while preserving each person's individuality, since unity does not mean sameness or uniformity.
It was spoken as comfort, counsel and prayer to the disciples in the upper room before departure, separation and death, as he approached Gethsemane and gathered every comfort and blessing before his great suffering rather than dwelling on his sufferings. It belongs to his instruction before separation, preparing them for their future work by teaching that their efforts had to be joined with divine power, for without God's agency they would fail to do the work appointed to them. It is among his final promises before crucifixion, a precious promise and advantage for those who abide by seeking to understand his will in order to do his will, giving true believers strength, assurance and courage to stand firm through trials. It is part of solemn instruction identifying those who love God and keep his commandments, to be understood and proclaimed in the setting of the last days, and a call to humble the heart before God and seek the preparation needed to meet Christ at his coming with joy.
These farewell words were to prepare and strengthen the disciples for future work, trial, affliction and temptation to lose faith, mingling bright hope with the dark prospect so they would not fail. They did not fully understand them until after the resurrection, but afterward they repeated them to steady one another in disappointment and trial, and the words stayed their hearts and brought peace and hope to believers. The setting is Jesus reminding his disciples of the lesson of the vine, which represents the union of his church with himself and the Father, as they approached Gethsemane.
The verse stands in John 13-17 where the richest promises are found, and in John 15-16 about difficulties in the world, and it plainly outlines God's will for those who minister in word and doctrine and are acquainted with present truth. God means just what he says in it, it is the privilege of believers to believe it, and they must believe every word of it and live it out before fellow workers, which calls for conversion and genuine missionary work. It needs to be studied with hearts open to divine teaching and eyes fixed on Jesus, even committed to memory, with the meaning of every word searched out. Its truth kept in the mind as a storehouse of truth supplies the richest consolation to impart to others, giving a word in season to the oppressed, the sorrowful, the afflicted and to those ready to perish, putting Thus saith the Lord and It is written on the lips, and making the soul like a garden whose waters fail not, refreshing all around. The chapter gives an important lesson for resisting the world's influence and is to be read and obeyed as guidance for those who choose obedience to Christ rather than allegiance to the world.
Christ used the plain figure of vine and branches so that looking upon a vine would call his precious lessons to remembrance, for rightly interpreted nature is the mirror of divinity. He gave this lesson to make his relationship to his followers and their relationship to him understood, with a figure as plain as a mirror held before them, leaving no excuse for misunderstanding. The lesson is to be studied to know what Christ is to those who believe and abide in him and in what light the Lord regards them, giving a completeness that it is the privilege of believers to contemplate and have. Abiding means the will submerged in his will, so that the fullness and richness of the Living Vine — his goodness, mercy, compassion and love — is seen in life and character, as the parent stock is to the branch, illustrated by the parable of the vine as by no other.
The verse calls to look to Jesus, believe in him, and pattern life after him, with spiritual nourishment, peace, joy and freedom found in Christ and hearts changed by his love. It teaches that believers must abide in him in a living, vital connection, unlike a spurious or merely outward connection, and that this close, ongoing connection is available to everyone and should shape conduct throughout daily life. True branches have vital connection to Christ, and abiding in Christ is connected with bearing abundant fruit, for God the Husbandman cultivates his servants, shaping and pruning their lives so they become more like Christ and fruitful in his service. Those solidly converted belong to Christ and glorify God through lives marked by self-renunciation as fruit-bearing branches of the vine.
Meaning of Abiding
Abiding in Christ is a living, vital union like a branch in the parent vine stock, drawing sap, nourishment, life and fruit-bearing power from him. Without him nothing can be done and the branch withers, for the power to bear fruit comes from Christ and not from the branch, and without daily sustenance from him fruit cannot be borne. Abiding means knowing him personally and practically and not only in theory, keeping the mind in a praying, supplicating position, leaving the case in the hands of God, fighting the fight of faith, and asking for the Holy Spirit and special help. Those who abide keep his blessed presence as life and light and truth bringing freedom and strength and grace, and as they water others their own soul is watered and the seed sown is watered. Receiving his words gives them his life like nourishment from the vine, and his life in them produces fruit like his rather than by their own effort, distinguishing the living Christian who bears his works from the fruitless professor who only claims to belong to him.
Abiding is a settled, mutual indwelling and oneness, not a casual or off-and-on touch; the believer remains in Christ and Christ remains in the believer, and the will is brought into oneness with his will and submerged in his will. It is maintained by receiving him by faith, trusting in him, continuing to exercise faith, and becoming partakers of the divine nature, and it is the sure result for every person who receives Christ and believes with power to become a son of God. Having his words abide means obeying the Word and allowing it to sink deep into the soul, where it shapes memory, actions, motives, judgment, and love for God and others, and supplies all needed wisdom, sufficiency, and power. Though believers cannot be with Christ in person as the first disciples were, abiding is maintained through his Holy Spirit sent to guide into all truth, and through this power they too can bear witness for the Saviour. This union is as essential to the life and fruitfulness of the believer as the union of the branch to the vine is to the branch, with the vine sustaining the branches and not the reverse, and from it nothing including affliction, storm, tempest, persecution, life, or death can separate.
This union joins believers to one another through their shared union with the vine, bringing fellowship and unity with love for one another, while preserving each person's individuality. Unity does not mean sameness or uniformity, nor does Christlike unity with harmony of action require separate institutions to surrender their individuality or fields of work. Those who so abide are as distinct branches drawing all sustenance from one source, the parent stock Christ Jesus, daily emptied of self and cleansed of hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, depending wholly upon him, wearing his yoke and receiving his Spirit, learning meekness and lowliness from him, and finding rest and peace. This life is seen in laying pride and dignity down and putting away childish strife, pettishness, envy, jealousy, evil surmisings, malice and hatred, laying down life for friends, and being known like a tree by good fruit so all men know Christians by their love. Abiding bears the best quality of fruit and makes fruitful work and cooperation possible, laboring together in perfect unity and love, and this instruction is urged as a remedy for dissension and a guide to living in unity with Christ and one another.
Abiding is shown by keeping his commandments, continuing in his love as he kept his Father's commandments, doing his works in thought, word and deed as branches joined to the living Vine, and loving one another as he loved them. Remaining in his love is joined to keeping his commandments, sharing his joy fully, and through union with him sharing in the divine nature, with cherishing and obeying his words bringing joy and peace. The surrounding verses connect this abiding relationship with bearing fruit, continuing in his love, and keeping his commandments, and continuing in his love brings peace as the conditions on which salvation depends are daily met. God's standard is perfect obedience to his law, but eternal life comes only through obedience and faith in the Savior, who gave his life so that through his grace people may overcome.
There are true branches with vital connection and spurious branches with merely outward connection, where profession alone proves nothing and only the quality of fruit borne proves to the world and to heavenly intelligences that believers are branches of the True Vine. Fruitless branches are removed, and fruitful branches are purged and pruned and cleansed and purified by the Master that they may bring forth more fruit and the fruit may abide. Failure to abide leaves a branch unable to bear fruit, withered, cast forth, gathered and burned, while maintaining abiding by bringing the life of Christ into the spiritual circulation by daily eating the Word renews the soul as blood gives life to the whole body and forms Christ within, the hope of glory. Neglect to read and study the Bible brings spiritual starvation, whereas abiding makes believers fruit-bearing branches who glorify the Father by bearing much fruit as his disciples.
Obedience to the commandments is the Bible's test for those who have received the privilege of light, and keeping God's commandments is the evidence that a person loves God, knows him and abides in him. Believing and taking his word into practical life means obeying it, and this leads to eternal life, with believers receiving life by remaining connected to Christ as branches remain connected to the vine. Christ's love is shown through keeping his commandments.
Meaning of Words Abiding
Christ lives in his followers through his word, and to receive his words is to receive his life as a branch receives nourishment from the vine. Asking and receiving belong together with that indwelling, for fruit is not produced by human effort but by his life working within those who depend on him and draw from him. His words are spirit and life that quicken, and the vital connection is maintained by receiving and obeying them, with him rather than the faults of others kept as the focus of the inner life. To think and talk of him, to meditate on him and obey his word, is to have the word live inside rather than merely to explain Scripture, and this brings his love, growth in grace and knowledge, reflection of his image, partaking of the divine nature, and an influence for winning souls that continues beyond any single effort.
To have his words remain is to eat his flesh and drink his blood by daily eating the Word, taking it into the very soul. That eating is dwelling in him and having him dwell within, living by him unto eternal life and resurrection at the last day. It sustains the spiritual circulation as blood sustains the body, renews the soul, and forms Christ within as the hope of glory, so that neglect to read and study brings spiritual starvation. It means reading and rereading every requirement and lesson given to the disciples, believing and practicing them, and setting them before others in clear lines that they can understand. Careful study of the Bible, treasuring it in the heart as a priceless treasure, meditating on his love, mercy, purity and excellence, and searching it with faith to know his will are what it means for his words to abide. The mind thus becomes a storehouse filled with the treasures of the Bible, the walls of memory hung with promises, so that speech becomes a talent approved by God and angels and the stored promises can be given to the weary and heavy laden in time of need.
Once sunk deep into the soul, the word shapes memory, actions, motives, judgment, and love for God and others. Obedience lets it sink deep, and continuing in faith keeps the union that supplies all needed wisdom, sufficiency and power for asking with assurance. It gives his mind and attributes, brings the will into oneness and harmony with his and the Father's will, so that requests accord with the divine will and are granted. It produces steady faith working by love that purifies from moral defilement, and the resulting abundance of fruit shows that his words remain and are at work within, as evidence of a life pleasing to God.
Conditions for Answered Prayer
Those who remain in Christ with His words remaining in them may ask what they will and it shall be done unto them, for their prayers are answered in that living relationship. This abiding is union with Christ as strength to resist temptation, for without Him nothing can be done, and as they abide their prayers are answered, they bear fruit that glorifies the Father, they are shown to be His disciples, and they continue in His love through obedience to His commandments. The union shapes petitions so they do not seek favors selfishly but are moved by pure and holy desires and ask for what God can grant. Asking answered in this way belongs to the picture of vine and branches, where abiding in Him is the condition for bearing fruit and revealing Him to the world, and is necessary for spiritual fruitfulness joined to appreciating His sacrifice and living sacrificially to bless and strengthen others.
The little word if makes the promise conditional on living connection. Faith does not mean that anything asked will automatically be given merely because one believes, but must rest on abiding and obedience. Keeping the commandments shows love and faith and gives evidence that a person truly knows and abides in Him, and asking according to this relationship is joined to obedience and faith, not a substitute for duty. These are conditions for receiving blessing, and the promise does not authorize running ahead of Christ but calls to follow Him prayerfully and humbly. This connection brings the fullness available through the crucified and risen Savior who pleads on their behalf, living faith claims this privilege, humble reliance can remove difficulties in religious experience, and parents need faith strong enough to endure testing.
To claim the promise in prayer without meeting its conditions insults God. Claiming the promises while disobeying their conditions is a false claim that dishonors God, and those who obey the Word may confidently rely on the promises and lay hold of eternal life. Answered prayer depends on abiding with His words abiding, which means showing true faithfulness, loving God, and keeping His commandments and doing what He requires, and God will meet His conditions when people meet theirs in covenant whose fulfillment bears much fruit that glorifies the Father and proves discipleship. Prayer must agree with how they live, for prayers are of no avail when conduct goes against them, though believers have the privilege of approaching with holy boldness to ask for His light. A father who prays and then scolds his children cannot expect that prayer to benefit them unless he confesses his wrongdoing to God.
Because they are one with Christ they ask in His name and to the Father in His name. They ask only what pleases God, and the promise to give what is asked is joined to bringing forth lasting fruit that glorifies the Father and marks His disciples. Asking in His name expresses belonging to Him and filial love and obedience to Him and the Father, and is not a bare appeal but a petition made in faith in Christ and His sacrifice. The Father receives believers as His children, pardons their sins, adopts them into His family, and grants sanctification and holiness for service and readiness for an immortal inheritance, so that those who trust Christ as sin-bearer, propitiation, and intercessor may claim heaven's gifts through grace as generous provision for those who return to loyalty through faith. Their petitions are presented through Christ as Advocate, and as His life changes their desires to accord with God's will, their prayers and fruit-bearing serve God's glory and ascend with the fragrance of His righteousness.
Fruit That Glorifies God
Abiding bears much fruit, and abundant, lasting fruit glorifies the Father and marks and proves those who bear it to be Christ's disciples. Remaining in Christ with His words living within makes prayer answered in that living relationship, and the promise to give what is asked is joined to asking the Father in Christ's name and to the purpose of bringing forth fruit. This dependence, like a branch drawing nourishment from the vine, enables fruitfulness, for the power to bear fruit comes from Christ and not from the branch. Fruitless branches are removed and fruitful branches are tended to bear more, while remaining in Christ's love is joined to keeping His commandments, sharing His joy fully, and loving one another as He loved. Its fruit includes caring for others, praying with them, and seeking God's blessing for them.
The fruit required is the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance — with patience, humility and purity added, in contrast to the works of the flesh and the fruit of transgression. Abiding as the branch abides in the vine is necessary in order to bear this right quality of fruit reflecting the parent stock and His character. Abiding is proved by bearing fruit that testifies to a change wrought by grace and to fellowship with Christ, and without that fruit there is no full assurance of faith in coming to God, while works that show no fruit deny that a person is abiding in Christ with Him abiding in them. Anyone not bearing the fruits of the Spirit is not abiding in Christ, and a life that produces no such fruit does not show that Christ abides in the heart. Bearing this fruit requires living up to the requirements of the law so that no condemnation of the law comes upon them and fruit is borne to the glory of God, with a heart filled with Christ's love and learning His meekness and lowliness, since self-exaltation and unchristlike traits obscure Christ and do not show sanctified oneness with Him.
This life is seen in kindly words and deeds, unselfish deeds, Christlike words, tenderness, purity of character, holy obedience, and benevolence sustaining God's work. Christ's character, especially unselfish love and self-sacrifice for others, appears as fruit and glorifies the Father, and that fruit is evidence to the world, angels, and people that a person is a branch of the true vine and a disciple of Christ. Those whose lives do not show Christ's tenderness are not accepted as God's representatives. This life means continuing in Christ's love as He kept His Father's commandments and abode in His love, with full joy, with laying down life for friends, and with being friends and not servants through doing whatever He commands. It is known like a tree by good fruit so that all men know Christians by their love, in unity, fellowship and love, laying pride and dignity down and putting away childish strife, pettishness, envy, jealousy, evil surmisings, malice and hatred.
The fruit includes appreciating Christ's sacrifice and living sacrificially to bless and strengthen others. Faithful soul-winning bears much fruit that glorifies the Father, in labor to cooperate with God, work out salvation, warn neighbors and save perishing souls so they are prepared when judgment falls, with saved people in the city of God crediting those warnings with saving them from loss. Such missionary labor to bless others, strengthen them, pray with them, warn, save and win souls gives breadth, stability and saving influence to Christian experience.
Branches draw their nourishment and power from the Vine, not from themselves, and without daily sustenance from Christ they cannot bear fruit, for apart from Him people can do nothing. Christ abides in His followers through His word, and receiving His words gives them His life like receiving nourishment from the Vine, so they do not produce fruit by their own effort but Christ's life in them produces fruit like His as they depend on and draw nourishment from Him in living faith in His righteousness. This connection is the source of spiritual life and fruit and distinguishes the living Christian, who bears Christ's works, from the fruitless professor who only claims to belong to Him. As branches of the true vine, believers depend on Christ rather than their own strength and are to keep growing through the truth, learning meekness, purity, and higher aspirations, cultivated and pruned by God the Husbandman to become more like Christ. Human abilities and talents are to be used in religious life, and kindness, compassion, pity, and the love of God are fruit borne by a branch joined to Christ, with abundant fruit joined with humility and lowliness like Christ's.
His words abide in a person whose life bears the fruit of selfless love and service, while selfishness, love of money, pride, and separating from the poor show that His words do not abide in the heart. Abiding in Christ leaves no room in the heart for selfishness, and those who abide in Him find their fullest satisfaction in His service. When His love remains in His followers, they love those for whom He died and obey His command to love one another as He loved them.
Living the Promise Daily
The promise is to be carried into daily experience and fulfilled hour by hour, making faith in Jesus a living reality for the believer and for those associated with him. It is a precious advantage to be kept in view and never forgotten, especially in trial when it is most easily lost sight of, giving strength, assurance and courage to stand firm. When tempted or tried the needy may plead it and ask Christ for help, for He understands the need and will not disappoint those who come sincerely. Earnest dependence brings strength for trials, victory over temptation, comfort in perplexity, and the perfecting of character by the Father and the Son working together. Those who abide seek to understand His will in order to do it, and receive light to discern hindrances to abiding and to value the privileges given them.
Abiding keeps the blessed presence of Jesus, who is life and light and truth, bringing freedom and strength and grace, watering the soul while watering others and watering the seed sown. To remain united with Him with His words remaining within is to share the divine nature, to keep His commandments and remain in His love as He kept His Father's commandments, and so to bear much fruit to the Father's glory. Meditating on His love, mercy, purity and excellence strengthens the soul and gives vigor to faith, wisdom, sanctification and righteousness, with peace and rest found in Him. When faith grasps the promises the Father lifts burden, perplexity and anxiety and fills the soul with cheerfulness, peace and a wellspring of joy, even stirring yearning for the Saviour in the night season. His joy then remains within and joy is made full, a new experience for souls turning from darkness to light, with Christ Himself present though unseen, and those who claim a whole salvation through His whole sacrifice receive rich blessing, cleansing from sin and freedom from iniquity instead of darkness saying they cannot be saved.
Union with Christ shapes petitions so they are in harmony with Him, moved by pure and holy desires for what God can grant. Desires shaped by His teaching do not seek favors selfishly, ask nothing amiss, unreasonable, or for riches and worldly pleasure, but ask only what pleases God and in His name as one with Him. What is asked is what is right, likeness to Christ, His Spirit and will, and grace to bear fruit to His glory, belonging to the vital union by which branches bear fruit only by remaining in the vine. Prayer in the right spirit bears the fruit He wants and gives assurance and hope, for Christ came to bring divinity to humanity that people may share the divine nature and overcome corruption by grasping His divinity through prayer.
Asking rests on true piety and trust in His promises, putting away selfish motives, confessing helplessness and need, and trusting Him as a willing Redeemer who invites the weary and burdened to come for rest. He may delay giving in order to awaken a sense of need, and those who come to Him in faith do not seek Him from selfish motives, for He is ready and willing to save those who come.
Living faith claims the blessing before it is felt or realized, stepping out on the Word and going straight forward knowing the prayer is answered. Feeling has nothing to do with faith, being as distinct from faith as east is from west, so lack of felt spiritual power or feeling spiritually destitute is no reason to stop believing. When a petition is sent up God hears, and the evidence is not a felt change but His promise to give when asked. By exercising faith, continually laying hold of the promise with the whole heart and undivided allegiance, cooperating with Him and working to answer one's own prayers, the believer brings about the answer and God reveals Himself as He does not to the world, giving power to fight and overcome self.
Earnest prayers offered in faith are answered, though not necessarily in the way or at the time expected or devised, but when most needed, at the very time of greatest need. This rebukes unbelief that limits trust in God, which is sinful, and calls for grateful service as His instruments in disinterested labor to help and save souls even when meeting prejudice, ingratitude and lack of response.
The promise belongs to those who obey God's word, keep His commandments and do what pleases Him, which shows love and faith, gives evidence of truly knowing and abiding in Him, and grounds confidence to ask for forgiveness and Christ's righteousness and to lay hold of eternal life. Claiming the promises while disobeying their conditions is a false claim that dishonors God, and only those who obey can claim them. This requires trust in Christ, yielding the will, consecration, drawing on heaven's resources, and putting evil from heart, home and church to live and pray wisely in harmony with His law.
It is a call to come to Him in necessities with faith in Jesus as Saviour and receive the grace needed every day and every hour, including God's Spirit and grace to bear fruit. The mind is to be kept in a praying, supplicating position, the case left in God's hands, the fight of faith fought against the enemy's shadow, asking for the Holy Spirit and special help. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is to be sought earnestly now rather than neglected for a more favorable time by those who have had light, cutting away every needless hindrance so the Spirit flows in rich currents bringing all other blessings and awakening from heavy slumber. Such faithful soul-winning warns neighbors and saves perishing souls so they are prepared when judgment falls, bearing much fruit that glorifies the Father, and the power given after conversion may work miracles for His glory rather than prove personal perfection.
Ministers in word and doctrine acquainted with present truth are to believe every word of what God means just as He says it and live it out before fellow ministers, which calls for conversion and genuine missionary work. Parents and children are to seek God's help to overcome, bringing perplexities and needs to Him with the trust of a child speaking to a parent, asking Him to shape them and form His image in their lives. Humble reliance removes difficulties in religious experience, gives faith strong enough to endure testing, avoids scolding and harmful example, and prepares united for the city of God. One weak in faith may take the Bible to God, present His word, and ask for sacred nearness and help to speak clearly and wisely to those sought for Him, praying for acceptance, confessing mistreatment and seeking forgiveness as hearts are softened.
Close fellowship through faithful obedience makes a person one with Christ in duty, admitted to familiar intercourse with Him and promoted to positions of trust. The one who talks most familiarly with the divine Leader gains the most exalted conception of His greatness and is most obedient to His commands, inquiring constantly at the throne of grace what the Lord would have him do, consulting his divine Friend about every action and whether each way is His will, looking constantly to Jesus and lifting the heart to God in every perplexity and uncertainty, so that Christ enters the life and directs and pervades all. This communion is fellowship with the one who knocks and opens to Him, requiring the soul to be quiet enough to hear the Spirit's voice revealing Christ's love, leading to fewer words that chafe and irritate. Knowing to be in Him the living vine and bringing forth fruit to His glory requires having nothing to do with worldly books and presentations, not wanting even a taste of them.
Understanding His instruction requires minds reshaped by the Spirit of God, and the promise calls for faith rather than making up for lack of faith through drugs, with living by the principles of health reform linked to His keeping people well.
Remaining in Christ is a living union like a branch joined to the vine, drawing life, nourishment and power to bear fruit from him, without whom nothing can be done. His words remaining in believers means his life dwelling in them as they daily take the Word into heart and soul, study it, treasure it and let it shape mind, motive and action. The little word if makes the promise conditional, so asking does not bring automatic answer from mere belief but from continuing in him in obedient love and keeping his commandments. That oneness reshapes desire into harmony with his will, so those who abide ask in his name and to the Father for what is right — likeness to him, the Spirit, grace to bear fruit and his glory — and not selfishly or for worldly pleasure, and their earnest prayers are answered though not always in the way or time expected. So abiding bears much lasting fruit of Christlike character, unselfish love and service, and soul-winning labor, which glorifies the Father and marks those who bear it as his disciples.
Verse Setting and Imagery
The promise belongs to the parable of the true vine and its branches, which sets out the relation that must exist between Christ and his people and the necessity of vital connection for life, growth and fruitfulness. Abiding in him as the branch abides in the vine is necessary in order to bear the right quality of fruit, and when believers remain in him with his words remaining in them they may ask according to that living relationship and receive what they ask. Their abiding gives them his spirit and will, so their requests are in harmony with him, and this dependence, like a branch drawing nourishment and life from the vine, enables fruitfulness because power to bear fruit comes from Christ and not from the branch. The picture includes fruitless branches removed and fruitful branches tended and pruned to bear more, with abundant, lasting fruit glorifying the Father, explaining genuine sanctification and making known the mystery of the Christian life. This connection brings believers into fellowship and unity with love for one another while preserving each person's individuality, since unity does not mean sameness or uniformity.
It was spoken as comfort, counsel and prayer to the disciples in the upper room before departure, separation and death, as he approached Gethsemane and gathered every comfort and blessing before his great suffering rather than dwelling on his sufferings. It belongs to his instruction before separation, preparing them for their future work by teaching that their efforts had to be joined with divine power, for without God's agency they would fail to do the work appointed to them. It is among his final promises before crucifixion, a precious promise and advantage for those who abide by seeking to understand his will in order to do his will, giving true believers strength, assurance and courage to stand firm through trials. It is part of solemn instruction identifying those who love God and keep his commandments, to be understood and proclaimed in the setting of the last days, and a call to humble the heart before God and seek the preparation needed to meet Christ at his coming with joy.
These farewell words were to prepare and strengthen the disciples for future work, trial, affliction and temptation to lose faith, mingling bright hope with the dark prospect so they would not fail. They did not fully understand them until after the resurrection, but afterward they repeated them to steady one another in disappointment and trial, and the words stayed their hearts and brought peace and hope to believers. The setting is Jesus reminding his disciples of the lesson of the vine, which represents the union of his church with himself and the Father, as they approached Gethsemane.
The verse stands in John 13-17 where the richest promises are found, and in John 15-16 about difficulties in the world, and it plainly outlines God's will for those who minister in word and doctrine and are acquainted with present truth. God means just what he says in it, it is the privilege of believers to believe it, and they must believe every word of it and live it out before fellow workers, which calls for conversion and genuine missionary work. It needs to be studied with hearts open to divine teaching and eyes fixed on Jesus, even committed to memory, with the meaning of every word searched out. Its truth kept in the mind as a storehouse of truth supplies the richest consolation to impart to others, giving a word in season to the oppressed, the sorrowful, the afflicted and to those ready to perish, putting Thus saith the Lord and It is written on the lips, and making the soul like a garden whose waters fail not, refreshing all around. The chapter gives an important lesson for resisting the world's influence and is to be read and obeyed as guidance for those who choose obedience to Christ rather than allegiance to the world.
Christ used the plain figure of vine and branches so that looking upon a vine would call his precious lessons to remembrance, for rightly interpreted nature is the mirror of divinity. He gave this lesson to make his relationship to his followers and their relationship to him understood, with a figure as plain as a mirror held before them, leaving no excuse for misunderstanding. The lesson is to be studied to know what Christ is to those who believe and abide in him and in what light the Lord regards them, giving a completeness that it is the privilege of believers to contemplate and have. Abiding means the will submerged in his will, so that the fullness and richness of the Living Vine — his goodness, mercy, compassion and love — is seen in life and character, as the parent stock is to the branch, illustrated by the parable of the vine as by no other.
The verse calls to look to Jesus, believe in him, and pattern life after him, with spiritual nourishment, peace, joy and freedom found in Christ and hearts changed by his love. It teaches that believers must abide in him in a living, vital connection, unlike a spurious or merely outward connection, and that this close, ongoing connection is available to everyone and should shape conduct throughout daily life. True branches have vital connection to Christ, and abiding in Christ is connected with bearing abundant fruit, for God the Husbandman cultivates his servants, shaping and pruning their lives so they become more like Christ and fruitful in his service. Those solidly converted belong to Christ and glorify God through lives marked by self-renunciation as fruit-bearing branches of the vine.
Meaning of Abiding
Abiding in Christ is a living, vital union like a branch in the parent vine stock, drawing sap, nourishment, life and fruit-bearing power from him. Without him nothing can be done and the branch withers, for the power to bear fruit comes from Christ and not from the branch, and without daily sustenance from him fruit cannot be borne. Abiding means knowing him personally and practically and not only in theory, keeping the mind in a praying, supplicating position, leaving the case in the hands of God, fighting the fight of faith, and asking for the Holy Spirit and special help. Those who abide keep his blessed presence as life and light and truth bringing freedom and strength and grace, and as they water others their own soul is watered and the seed sown is watered. Receiving his words gives them his life like nourishment from the vine, and his life in them produces fruit like his rather than by their own effort, distinguishing the living Christian who bears his works from the fruitless professor who only claims to belong to him.
Abiding is a settled, mutual indwelling and oneness, not a casual or off-and-on touch; the believer remains in Christ and Christ remains in the believer, and the will is brought into oneness with his will and submerged in his will. It is maintained by receiving him by faith, trusting in him, continuing to exercise faith, and becoming partakers of the divine nature, and it is the sure result for every person who receives Christ and believes with power to become a son of God. Having his words abide means obeying the Word and allowing it to sink deep into the soul, where it shapes memory, actions, motives, judgment, and love for God and others, and supplies all needed wisdom, sufficiency, and power. Though believers cannot be with Christ in person as the first disciples were, abiding is maintained through his Holy Spirit sent to guide into all truth, and through this power they too can bear witness for the Saviour. This union is as essential to the life and fruitfulness of the believer as the union of the branch to the vine is to the branch, with the vine sustaining the branches and not the reverse, and from it nothing including affliction, storm, tempest, persecution, life, or death can separate.
This union joins believers to one another through their shared union with the vine, bringing fellowship and unity with love for one another, while preserving each person's individuality. Unity does not mean sameness or uniformity, nor does Christlike unity with harmony of action require separate institutions to surrender their individuality or fields of work. Those who so abide are as distinct branches drawing all sustenance from one source, the parent stock Christ Jesus, daily emptied of self and cleansed of hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, depending wholly upon him, wearing his yoke and receiving his Spirit, learning meekness and lowliness from him, and finding rest and peace. This life is seen in laying pride and dignity down and putting away childish strife, pettishness, envy, jealousy, evil surmisings, malice and hatred, laying down life for friends, and being known like a tree by good fruit so all men know Christians by their love. Abiding bears the best quality of fruit and makes fruitful work and cooperation possible, laboring together in perfect unity and love, and this instruction is urged as a remedy for dissension and a guide to living in unity with Christ and one another.
Abiding is shown by keeping his commandments, continuing in his love as he kept his Father's commandments, doing his works in thought, word and deed as branches joined to the living Vine, and loving one another as he loved them. Remaining in his love is joined to keeping his commandments, sharing his joy fully, and through union with him sharing in the divine nature, with cherishing and obeying his words bringing joy and peace. The surrounding verses connect this abiding relationship with bearing fruit, continuing in his love, and keeping his commandments, and continuing in his love brings peace as the conditions on which salvation depends are daily met. God's standard is perfect obedience to his law, but eternal life comes only through obedience and faith in the Savior, who gave his life so that through his grace people may overcome.
There are true branches with vital connection and spurious branches with merely outward connection, where profession alone proves nothing and only the quality of fruit borne proves to the world and to heavenly intelligences that believers are branches of the True Vine. Fruitless branches are removed, and fruitful branches are purged and pruned and cleansed and purified by the Master that they may bring forth more fruit and the fruit may abide. Failure to abide leaves a branch unable to bear fruit, withered, cast forth, gathered and burned, while maintaining abiding by bringing the life of Christ into the spiritual circulation by daily eating the Word renews the soul as blood gives life to the whole body and forms Christ within, the hope of glory. Neglect to read and study the Bible brings spiritual starvation, whereas abiding makes believers fruit-bearing branches who glorify the Father by bearing much fruit as his disciples.
Obedience to the commandments is the Bible's test for those who have received the privilege of light, and keeping God's commandments is the evidence that a person loves God, knows him and abides in him. Believing and taking his word into practical life means obeying it, and this leads to eternal life, with believers receiving life by remaining connected to Christ as branches remain connected to the vine. Christ's love is shown through keeping his commandments.
Meaning of Words Abiding
Christ lives in his followers through his word, and to receive his words is to receive his life as a branch receives nourishment from the vine. Asking and receiving belong together with that indwelling, for fruit is not produced by human effort but by his life working within those who depend on him and draw from him. His words are spirit and life that quicken, and the vital connection is maintained by receiving and obeying them, with him rather than the faults of others kept as the focus of the inner life. To think and talk of him, to meditate on him and obey his word, is to have the word live inside rather than merely to explain Scripture, and this brings his love, growth in grace and knowledge, reflection of his image, partaking of the divine nature, and an influence for winning souls that continues beyond any single effort.
To have his words remain is to eat his flesh and drink his blood by daily eating the Word, taking it into the very soul. That eating is dwelling in him and having him dwell within, living by him unto eternal life and resurrection at the last day. It sustains the spiritual circulation as blood sustains the body, renews the soul, and forms Christ within as the hope of glory, so that neglect to read and study brings spiritual starvation. It means reading and rereading every requirement and lesson given to the disciples, believing and practicing them, and setting them before others in clear lines that they can understand. Careful study of the Bible, treasuring it in the heart as a priceless treasure, meditating on his love, mercy, purity and excellence, and searching it with faith to know his will are what it means for his words to abide. The mind thus becomes a storehouse filled with the treasures of the Bible, the walls of memory hung with promises, so that speech becomes a talent approved by God and angels and the stored promises can be given to the weary and heavy laden in time of need.
Once sunk deep into the soul, the word shapes memory, actions, motives, judgment, and love for God and others. Obedience lets it sink deep, and continuing in faith keeps the union that supplies all needed wisdom, sufficiency and power for asking with assurance. It gives his mind and attributes, brings the will into oneness and harmony with his and the Father's will, so that requests accord with the divine will and are granted. It produces steady faith working by love that purifies from moral defilement, and the resulting abundance of fruit shows that his words remain and are at work within, as evidence of a life pleasing to God.
Conditions for Answered Prayer
Those who remain in Christ with His words remaining in them may ask what they will and it shall be done unto them, for their prayers are answered in that living relationship. This abiding is union with Christ as strength to resist temptation, for without Him nothing can be done, and as they abide their prayers are answered, they bear fruit that glorifies the Father, they are shown to be His disciples, and they continue in His love through obedience to His commandments. The union shapes petitions so they do not seek favors selfishly but are moved by pure and holy desires and ask for what God can grant. Asking answered in this way belongs to the picture of vine and branches, where abiding in Him is the condition for bearing fruit and revealing Him to the world, and is necessary for spiritual fruitfulness joined to appreciating His sacrifice and living sacrificially to bless and strengthen others.
The little word if makes the promise conditional on living connection. Faith does not mean that anything asked will automatically be given merely because one believes, but must rest on abiding and obedience. Keeping the commandments shows love and faith and gives evidence that a person truly knows and abides in Him, and asking according to this relationship is joined to obedience and faith, not a substitute for duty. These are conditions for receiving blessing, and the promise does not authorize running ahead of Christ but calls to follow Him prayerfully and humbly. This connection brings the fullness available through the crucified and risen Savior who pleads on their behalf, living faith claims this privilege, humble reliance can remove difficulties in religious experience, and parents need faith strong enough to endure testing.
To claim the promise in prayer without meeting its conditions insults God. Claiming the promises while disobeying their conditions is a false claim that dishonors God, and those who obey the Word may confidently rely on the promises and lay hold of eternal life. Answered prayer depends on abiding with His words abiding, which means showing true faithfulness, loving God, and keeping His commandments and doing what He requires, and God will meet His conditions when people meet theirs in covenant whose fulfillment bears much fruit that glorifies the Father and proves discipleship. Prayer must agree with how they live, for prayers are of no avail when conduct goes against them, though believers have the privilege of approaching with holy boldness to ask for His light. A father who prays and then scolds his children cannot expect that prayer to benefit them unless he confesses his wrongdoing to God.
Because they are one with Christ they ask in His name and to the Father in His name. They ask only what pleases God, and the promise to give what is asked is joined to bringing forth lasting fruit that glorifies the Father and marks His disciples. Asking in His name expresses belonging to Him and filial love and obedience to Him and the Father, and is not a bare appeal but a petition made in faith in Christ and His sacrifice. The Father receives believers as His children, pardons their sins, adopts them into His family, and grants sanctification and holiness for service and readiness for an immortal inheritance, so that those who trust Christ as sin-bearer, propitiation, and intercessor may claim heaven's gifts through grace as generous provision for those who return to loyalty through faith. Their petitions are presented through Christ as Advocate, and as His life changes their desires to accord with God's will, their prayers and fruit-bearing serve God's glory and ascend with the fragrance of His righteousness.
Fruit That Glorifies God
Abiding bears much fruit, and abundant, lasting fruit glorifies the Father and marks and proves those who bear it to be Christ's disciples. Remaining in Christ with His words living within makes prayer answered in that living relationship, and the promise to give what is asked is joined to asking the Father in Christ's name and to the purpose of bringing forth fruit. This dependence, like a branch drawing nourishment from the vine, enables fruitfulness, for the power to bear fruit comes from Christ and not from the branch. Fruitless branches are removed and fruitful branches are tended to bear more, while remaining in Christ's love is joined to keeping His commandments, sharing His joy fully, and loving one another as He loved. Its fruit includes caring for others, praying with them, and seeking God's blessing for them.
The fruit required is the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance — with patience, humility and purity added, in contrast to the works of the flesh and the fruit of transgression. Abiding as the branch abides in the vine is necessary in order to bear this right quality of fruit reflecting the parent stock and His character. Abiding is proved by bearing fruit that testifies to a change wrought by grace and to fellowship with Christ, and without that fruit there is no full assurance of faith in coming to God, while works that show no fruit deny that a person is abiding in Christ with Him abiding in them. Anyone not bearing the fruits of the Spirit is not abiding in Christ, and a life that produces no such fruit does not show that Christ abides in the heart. Bearing this fruit requires living up to the requirements of the law so that no condemnation of the law comes upon them and fruit is borne to the glory of God, with a heart filled with Christ's love and learning His meekness and lowliness, since self-exaltation and unchristlike traits obscure Christ and do not show sanctified oneness with Him.
This life is seen in kindly words and deeds, unselfish deeds, Christlike words, tenderness, purity of character, holy obedience, and benevolence sustaining God's work. Christ's character, especially unselfish love and self-sacrifice for others, appears as fruit and glorifies the Father, and that fruit is evidence to the world, angels, and people that a person is a branch of the true vine and a disciple of Christ. Those whose lives do not show Christ's tenderness are not accepted as God's representatives. This life means continuing in Christ's love as He kept His Father's commandments and abode in His love, with full joy, with laying down life for friends, and with being friends and not servants through doing whatever He commands. It is known like a tree by good fruit so that all men know Christians by their love, in unity, fellowship and love, laying pride and dignity down and putting away childish strife, pettishness, envy, jealousy, evil surmisings, malice and hatred.
The fruit includes appreciating Christ's sacrifice and living sacrificially to bless and strengthen others. Faithful soul-winning bears much fruit that glorifies the Father, in labor to cooperate with God, work out salvation, warn neighbors and save perishing souls so they are prepared when judgment falls, with saved people in the city of God crediting those warnings with saving them from loss. Such missionary labor to bless others, strengthen them, pray with them, warn, save and win souls gives breadth, stability and saving influence to Christian experience.
Branches draw their nourishment and power from the Vine, not from themselves, and without daily sustenance from Christ they cannot bear fruit, for apart from Him people can do nothing. Christ abides in His followers through His word, and receiving His words gives them His life like receiving nourishment from the Vine, so they do not produce fruit by their own effort but Christ's life in them produces fruit like His as they depend on and draw nourishment from Him in living faith in His righteousness. This connection is the source of spiritual life and fruit and distinguishes the living Christian, who bears Christ's works, from the fruitless professor who only claims to belong to Him. As branches of the true vine, believers depend on Christ rather than their own strength and are to keep growing through the truth, learning meekness, purity, and higher aspirations, cultivated and pruned by God the Husbandman to become more like Christ. Human abilities and talents are to be used in religious life, and kindness, compassion, pity, and the love of God are fruit borne by a branch joined to Christ, with abundant fruit joined with humility and lowliness like Christ's.
His words abide in a person whose life bears the fruit of selfless love and service, while selfishness, love of money, pride, and separating from the poor show that His words do not abide in the heart. Abiding in Christ leaves no room in the heart for selfishness, and those who abide in Him find their fullest satisfaction in His service. When His love remains in His followers, they love those for whom He died and obey His command to love one another as He loved them.
Living the Promise Daily
The promise is to be carried into daily experience and fulfilled hour by hour, making faith in Jesus a living reality for the believer and for those associated with him. It is a precious advantage to be kept in view and never forgotten, especially in trial when it is most easily lost sight of, giving strength, assurance and courage to stand firm. When tempted or tried the needy may plead it and ask Christ for help, for He understands the need and will not disappoint those who come sincerely. Earnest dependence brings strength for trials, victory over temptation, comfort in perplexity, and the perfecting of character by the Father and the Son working together. Those who abide seek to understand His will in order to do it, and receive light to discern hindrances to abiding and to value the privileges given them.
Abiding keeps the blessed presence of Jesus, who is life and light and truth, bringing freedom and strength and grace, watering the soul while watering others and watering the seed sown. To remain united with Him with His words remaining within is to share the divine nature, to keep His commandments and remain in His love as He kept His Father's commandments, and so to bear much fruit to the Father's glory. Meditating on His love, mercy, purity and excellence strengthens the soul and gives vigor to faith, wisdom, sanctification and righteousness, with peace and rest found in Him. When faith grasps the promises the Father lifts burden, perplexity and anxiety and fills the soul with cheerfulness, peace and a wellspring of joy, even stirring yearning for the Saviour in the night season. His joy then remains within and joy is made full, a new experience for souls turning from darkness to light, with Christ Himself present though unseen, and those who claim a whole salvation through His whole sacrifice receive rich blessing, cleansing from sin and freedom from iniquity instead of darkness saying they cannot be saved.
Union with Christ shapes petitions so they are in harmony with Him, moved by pure and holy desires for what God can grant. Desires shaped by His teaching do not seek favors selfishly, ask nothing amiss, unreasonable, or for riches and worldly pleasure, but ask only what pleases God and in His name as one with Him. What is asked is what is right, likeness to Christ, His Spirit and will, and grace to bear fruit to His glory, belonging to the vital union by which branches bear fruit only by remaining in the vine. Prayer in the right spirit bears the fruit He wants and gives assurance and hope, for Christ came to bring divinity to humanity that people may share the divine nature and overcome corruption by grasping His divinity through prayer.
Asking rests on true piety and trust in His promises, putting away selfish motives, confessing helplessness and need, and trusting Him as a willing Redeemer who invites the weary and burdened to come for rest. He may delay giving in order to awaken a sense of need, and those who come to Him in faith do not seek Him from selfish motives, for He is ready and willing to save those who come.
Living faith claims the blessing before it is felt or realized, stepping out on the Word and going straight forward knowing the prayer is answered. Feeling has nothing to do with faith, being as distinct from faith as east is from west, so lack of felt spiritual power or feeling spiritually destitute is no reason to stop believing. When a petition is sent up God hears, and the evidence is not a felt change but His promise to give when asked. By exercising faith, continually laying hold of the promise with the whole heart and undivided allegiance, cooperating with Him and working to answer one's own prayers, the believer brings about the answer and God reveals Himself as He does not to the world, giving power to fight and overcome self.
Earnest prayers offered in faith are answered, though not necessarily in the way or at the time expected or devised, but when most needed, at the very time of greatest need. This rebukes unbelief that limits trust in God, which is sinful, and calls for grateful service as His instruments in disinterested labor to help and save souls even when meeting prejudice, ingratitude and lack of response.
The promise belongs to those who obey God's word, keep His commandments and do what pleases Him, which shows love and faith, gives evidence of truly knowing and abiding in Him, and grounds confidence to ask for forgiveness and Christ's righteousness and to lay hold of eternal life. Claiming the promises while disobeying their conditions is a false claim that dishonors God, and only those who obey can claim them. This requires trust in Christ, yielding the will, consecration, drawing on heaven's resources, and putting evil from heart, home and church to live and pray wisely in harmony with His law.
It is a call to come to Him in necessities with faith in Jesus as Saviour and receive the grace needed every day and every hour, including God's Spirit and grace to bear fruit. The mind is to be kept in a praying, supplicating position, the case left in God's hands, the fight of faith fought against the enemy's shadow, asking for the Holy Spirit and special help. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is to be sought earnestly now rather than neglected for a more favorable time by those who have had light, cutting away every needless hindrance so the Spirit flows in rich currents bringing all other blessings and awakening from heavy slumber. Such faithful soul-winning warns neighbors and saves perishing souls so they are prepared when judgment falls, bearing much fruit that glorifies the Father, and the power given after conversion may work miracles for His glory rather than prove personal perfection.
Ministers in word and doctrine acquainted with present truth are to believe every word of what God means just as He says it and live it out before fellow ministers, which calls for conversion and genuine missionary work. Parents and children are to seek God's help to overcome, bringing perplexities and needs to Him with the trust of a child speaking to a parent, asking Him to shape them and form His image in their lives. Humble reliance removes difficulties in religious experience, gives faith strong enough to endure testing, avoids scolding and harmful example, and prepares united for the city of God. One weak in faith may take the Bible to God, present His word, and ask for sacred nearness and help to speak clearly and wisely to those sought for Him, praying for acceptance, confessing mistreatment and seeking forgiveness as hearts are softened.
Close fellowship through faithful obedience makes a person one with Christ in duty, admitted to familiar intercourse with Him and promoted to positions of trust. The one who talks most familiarly with the divine Leader gains the most exalted conception of His greatness and is most obedient to His commands, inquiring constantly at the throne of grace what the Lord would have him do, consulting his divine Friend about every action and whether each way is His will, looking constantly to Jesus and lifting the heart to God in every perplexity and uncertainty, so that Christ enters the life and directs and pervades all. This communion is fellowship with the one who knocks and opens to Him, requiring the soul to be quiet enough to hear the Spirit's voice revealing Christ's love, leading to fewer words that chafe and irritate. Knowing to be in Him the living vine and bringing forth fruit to His glory requires having nothing to do with worldly books and presentations, not wanting even a taste of them.
Understanding His instruction requires minds reshaped by the Spirit of God, and the promise calls for faith rather than making up for lack of faith through drugs, with living by the principles of health reform linked to His keeping people well.