Abide in Me

Following Jesus puts us in a peculiar situation. Of utmost importance, it means that we have a relationship with Him. This relationship goes deep, reshaping our lives both personally and publicly. It also means that the world will hate us.

"If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world- therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'Servants are not greater than their master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also."

John 15:19-20

How then are we to bear fruit when the world is hostile to the Gospel? Take a look at Jesus' words in John 15:1-11. It is no coincidence that Jesus gave these words just before the passage quoted above. It is a very hard thing for us to hear that people are against us. So He offers a prescription: to be fruitful, abide in Me.

The word abide comes from the Greek word which is transliterated meno: it is a verb that means "to stay, remain, live, dwell, abide." In addition to this, it has a special annotation: "to be in a state that begins and continues, yet may or may not end or stop." The editors of the concordance referenced went on to note that "'To abide in Christ' is to follow His example of a life obedient to the will of God" (Goodrick, Kohlenberger, and Swanson, 1570).

Here's the deal: if we want to see the world redeemed, we must abide in Jesus. As His people, we need to be intentional about being close to Him and then, at the end of the day, desiring to draw closer still. There is no program or plan that will make the difference. Apart from Jesus, the Church cannot fulfill the Great Commission. Apart from Him, the Christian becomes ineffective.

But we have to count the cost. Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus often warned His immediate followers of this; one instance was in Luke 14. Even as we look back to the passage quoted at the beginning of this post, we can see that the cost is real and is not limited to the financial realm. In fact, it may cost us everything. We who wish to follow Him today must be prepared to heed the same warning.

Bibliography

Goodrick, Edward W., John R. Kohlenberger, and James A. Swanson. Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub. House, 1999. Print.

The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford UP, 1989. Print.

Your Kingdom or Mine?

"For we are not peddlers of God's word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in His presence."

2 Corinthians 2:17

When Paul wrote these words, he was addressing a prevalent fact within Corinth and his world: not all teachers were true. There were false teachers in the apostolic period who were trying to corrupt or dilute the Gospel; Paul would often discuss this issue in his writings.

Now we sit with the codified Scriptures available to us with ease: many people have a copy (or even copies) of the Bible at home, there is an app for that, and God's word is made available to us on the Internet, that great database of human knowledge and existence. Surely we've moved past this issue, right? The only reason it's important now is so that we can understand historical context.

If only that were so. The teachers that Paul was addressing were corrupting the message of Jesus for their own personal gain, either monetary or (perhaps more often) politically. Throughout his letter to the Galatians, Paul addressed the Judaizers, a group who believed that Gentiles needed to first convert to Judaism before they could truly know Jesus. He said that these "false believers" had "slipped in to spy on the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus" (2:4). While the Law of God is good, this was never the question: throughout the rest of that letter, Paul stresses the point that man is saved not by works but by faith in Jesus Christ (2:15-16). Paul drives the point home in Galatians 6:12-15:

"It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised- only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law; but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!"

Today, we need to be aware of false teachers; perhaps we need to be more vigilant than ever because of the sheer amount of unfiltered data and the rapid rate at which it spreads. Jesus came to bring about the Kingdom of God. Why, then, do Christians so often use the Gospel to further their own kingdoms? Friends, I urge you to explore God's word, to pray, and to listen. As God calls us to life and freedom through Christ, He calls us to change the world, reshaping it in His image instead of our own. And this can only be done when we are firmly rooted in Him, surrendered to the fact that He is God and we are not.

Bibliography

The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford UP, 1989. Print.

The Gospel

Sometimes we over-complicate the Gospel. Here are the essentials:

• We are all messed up. That includes you too.
• God loves you so much that He chose to take on flesh and reach out to you, to us.
• Jesus Christ, God incarnate, was obedient to the point of death (Philippians 2:5-11).
• He was nailed to a cross and died (John 19:16-37).
• His body was buried in a new tomb and guarded by Roman soldiers (Matthew 27:57-66).
• On the third day, He rose again (Luke 24:1-7).

Jesus came to save us: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

He came that we "may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

He loves you, and wants to have a relationship with you. Have you met Him?

If you are walking with Christ, I celebrate with you. I pray that God would continue to grow you towards spiritual maturity. If you have not ever heard this story or you are still wrestling with it, ask questions. Start by asking God and exploring His written Word. Then find a pastor or believer and visit. You could even contact me. My prayer for you is that God would change your heart and life as I have seen Him change mine and many others.

Bibliography

The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford UP, 1989. Print.