The Life of Discipleship, Part 3: Abiding in Christ

Abiding in Christ is an important aspect of our discipleship that encompasses loving God with our whole being, studying and abiding in His Word, aligning our lives according to its principles, and following Jesus’ teachings and example.

In Jesus’ Farewell Discourse the night before His death, He spoke to His disciples about the need to abide in Him and the blessings and benefits of doing so. He expressed the importance of keeping a close connection with Him, emphasizing that doing so will cause us to bear fruit. Disciples are meant to bear fruit, and when they do so, it brings glory to God, as Jesus explains in John 15:

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples (John 15:4–5; John 15:8 NKJV).

Jesus then goes on to highlight the connection between loving Him and keeping His commandments and the blessings and joy that come with abiding in Him.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:9–11).

If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him (John 14:23 NIV).

Jesus made a distinct connection between our love for Him and obedience to His teaching in saying, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). The Greek word translated as keep in this passage means to attend to carefully, to observe. In other words, if we love Jesus, we will observe, comply with, and follow what He has taught and apply its principles to our lives. Our love for Jesus is manifested through keeping His words, putting them into practice, and patterning our lives around their principles.

In the Gospel of John, we read that abiding in Jesus’ words is a defining factor of discipleship as Jesus says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31). Of course, that can be much easier said than done when it comes to some of the hard sayings of Jesus, such as “Whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27 NIV), followed a few verses later by “any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).

In these verses, Jesus is laying out the spiritual principle that heeding God’s call, following Him, and doing His bidding is of first importance. Jesus calls us to commit our whole lives to Him—to trust Him alone for our salvation, and then to follow Him as His disciples. When Jesus says “Follow Me,” the path He calls you to follow is your path of discipleship. It’s an individual path, and each follower of Jesus has a distinct path. The principle is that the disciple belongs to God, his first allegiance is to God, and he loves and follows God with all his heart, soul, and mind.

The Lord doesn’t call everyone to the same forms of service, to the same manifestations of discipleship, nor does He ask the same commitments or sacrifices of all His children. Throughout history, there have been many examples of people who did great works for the Lord amidst varying circumstances—including foreign mission fields, government, business, wealth, some from a sickbed, in poverty and dire physical circumstances, some in front of a classroom, some world-famous, and many unsung heroes. The common thread through each testimony of Christian commitment and discipleship that inspires and motivates us is the love for Jesus that each had, and their faithfulness to the calling the Lord gave them.

In whatever ways the Lord calls each of us to follow and serve Him, the principle of abiding in Jesus refers to the continuous nurturing of an enduring relationship with Jesus. Jesus called His disciples to abide in Him, to have His words abide in them, and to obey His teachings. And as we do so, we will abide in His love, we will bear fruit, and we will have His abiding joy in us as His disciples.

Jesus said that we must abide in Him, for apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:4–5). Many of us are willing to have a “coffee break” with Jesus, but “abiding” means much more than a brief visit. In the original Greek, “abide” means to dwell, to continue with. … As you linger in His presence, God reveals more of His mind to you. He grants you a greater revelation of Himself, His plans and purposes for your life…

[We need to] make ourselves available to God as the number one priority of our lives. As we put away the distractions, which can range from our work to the filling of time with futility (such as hours before a TV set), He increases us in spiritual power. As you walk before the Lord, He makes you spiritually robust. As Isaiah wrote: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).—K. A. Paul¹

J. C. Ryle describes abiding in Christ as “a habit of constant close communion with Him.” Just like grafted branches need to artificially be sealed to the root with tape until the cells merge and take hold to the vine, these habits may feel artificial at first.

However, if we focus on the purpose of these habits—remaining and abiding in Christ as our life source—and not the habits themselves, they can help us develop a lifelong bond in Christ that becomes more natural with time.

An important component of abiding in Jesus is reading, studying, meditating on and memorizing His Word. God has revealed Himself to us through the Bible. It is within the pages of the Bible that we learn about God and His love for humanity and His plan for our salvation. God tells of His love for us and how we as imperfect and finite beings can be in relationship with Him. In the Bible we hear the teachings of Jesus, see the example of His love, and are invited to be born again and become a child of God, thanks to His sacrifice for us.

The more we abide in His Word and let His Word abide in us, the more we learn and grow in our understanding of how to live our lives in alignment with His will and in a manner that reflects Him and His love. The time we take each day to read the Bible and other devotional resources opens us up to letting Him speak to us through what we read, to receiving His instruction and guidance, and His help through life’s problems and difficulties. His Word reminds us of the moral code that we are meant to follow and provides us with guidance when we are faced with decisions.

As we abide in His Word, we become more aware of the value He places on each individual, and the love and compassion He has for every human being. As we absorb the truth contained within these pages and apply them to our daily living, we anchor our lives on Him. We become like the wise man who built his house upon the rock in the parable Jesus told. The rain came down, the winds blew and beat against that house, but his house did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. Jesus summarized His point in this parable by saying, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24–27 NIV).

Taking time daily to read what God has said to us in His Word provides a way to navigate through the maelstrom of information and input that we are flooded with each day. It enhances our spiritual ability to discern truth and falsehood. It makes it easier to keep our hearts centered on the things that are important for living our lives in accordance with God’s will. It helps us to survive and overcome all that life brings our way.

Making the time to read and study God’s Word daily is not an easy task—it requires self-discipline. But taking regular time to read Scripture and commune with God strengthens us spiritually and makes us stronger Christians, who are grounded in God’s truth and love. Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63). The connection with God that we forge as we read His Word helps us to be Spirit-led in our interactions with others, in our decision-making, and in our ability to stay strong in the face of daily temptations.

If we want to abide in Christ, then we need to take time with Him and His Word. It is through the regular deep absorption of the water of His Word in our hearts that we are gradually renewed and transformed to become more like Him. It is through the application of what we read and meditate on that we have the grace to align our lives with His will. For His Word is “a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path” (Psalm 119:105).

It really isn’t until John 15:10 that we get a picture of what it looks like to abide in Jesus. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” To abide in Jesus means to keep his commandments and to keep his commandments means to love God with all our hearts and souls and minds and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37–39). One way that we display our love for God is through our trust, prayer, and devotion to him. We abide through relationship. We pursue in love. We pray in love. We obey in love.

And here is the good news: We love Jesus because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). We didn’t choose him; he chose us, and he chose us to walk out our faith in obedience to him (John 15:16). Apart from Christ, we cannot do anything (John 15:5). This is also good news to the weary person who thinks he must muster up strength to pursue and know Christ (and to love his neighbor—a fruit Jesus emphasizes). He provides the grace and the strength…

Jesus reminds us that there is no greater love than someone laying down his life for his friends. He then says, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:13–14).

Jesus tells us that we are his friends (let that soak in for a minute) if we obey his command to love, and that command is fulfilled through abiding. … And the offer to be Jesus’s friend—the author and perfecter of our faith, the Alpha and Omega, the Beautiful One, the one who bore our sins and transgression—the offer to be his friend is irresistible for the Christian.

Abide in him, and he will abide in you. He who began a good work in you will complete it (Philippians 1:6). He who called you is faithful; he will surely do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24).—Trillia Newbell³

The “abide in Me and I in you” principle is the foundation of our relationship to God and our walk with Christ and connects with the principle of loving Him with all our heart, soul, and mind. If you love someone, you want to spend time with them. Disciples are called to walk as Jesus did. We read in John’s first epistle: “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:6). We do so by endeavoring to follow the example Jesus set and to study and apply the principles of His words and actions to our lives.

Jesus set the example for us, as He took on humanity and lived the life of a human being, and did so perfectly, without sin. In the book of Philippians we read that “He, being in very nature God, took on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:6–7 NIV). His earth life was the image and very example of God living a human life, and “in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19). What better example to pattern our lives after, what greater role model could there be, what more excellent guiding principles could exist than the life of Jesus and His teachings!

The phrase abiding in Christ pictures an intimate, close relationship, and not just a superficial acquaintance. In John 15:4–7, Jesus tells His disciples that drawing life from Him is essential, using the picture of branches united to a vine. Without that vital union with Christ that salvation provides, there can be no life and no productivity.—Got Questions⁴

To be a healthy disciple of Jesus, feeding on God’s Word must be your first priority. Jesus called it “abiding.” … No other habit can do more to transform your life and make you more like Jesus than daily reflection on Scripture. As we take the time to contemplate God’s truth, seriously reflecting on the example of Christ, we are “transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.”—Rick Warren

Abiding in [Christ] means receiving and believing and trusting in the words of Jesus. It means receiving the love of Jesus for the Father and for his people and the joy that Jesus has in the Father and in us.—John Piper

“We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16).

“Whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:5–6).

“Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1–3).

Thank You, Jesus, that You are the Vine and I am a branch. Help me day by day to abide in You and to be fruitful in all I say and do. I know that without You I can do nothing, but I also know that as I rest in You I can bring forth the sort of fruit that is pleasing to the Father. I want to abide in You and rest in You and remain in You. Amen.⁵

¹ K. A. Paul, Left for Dead (Encourager Media, 1997).

² Vera Christian, “How to Abide in Christ,” https://www.verachristian.com/connecting-the-dots/how-to-abide.

³ Trillia Newbell, “Learning to Abide in Christ,” Desiring God, June 10, 2014, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/learning-to-abide-in-christ

⁴ “What Does It Mean to Abide in Christ?” GotQuestions.org, https://www.gotquestions.org/abide-in-Christ.html.

⁵ “Prayers on Abiding in Jesus,” Knowing Jesus, https://prayer.knowing-jesus.com/Prayers-on-Abiding-in-Christ#.