John 15:16

Are you Abiding in Christ?


I've been camping out in John 15 a lot in the past few weeks. I thought that I would pass along what thoughts have come out of it.

There is a lot in the chapter, but I thought I would camp out on one verse and the thoughts that have come with the verse (thoughts that I would consider healthy)

John 15:16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you."

Here we see that we did not pick Jesus, He picked us! He picked us through coming to earth as a sacrifice for us so that we can have a relationship with Him and be able to spend eternity God in a perfect world. All we do is respond to Christ picking us. We respond by accepting Christ as our Savior.

Since God is a loving God he does not force us to love him, because that would not be love. It would be something else, think about it when you love someone you want them to love you back but you don't force them to love you, if you did they really would not be loving you. God operates the same way, he has to, since after all we were created in his nature and because of this we desire love the way he desires love.

Since we have responded to Christ picking us, he has appointed us to bear fruit. I believe that this fruit he desires us to bear is both internal (spiritual growth) and external (a growing ministry). We bear fruit by abiding (or remaining) in Christ, that is making every decision/action in light of what Christ has done for us. That we consider Christ in everything we do, that he is present in every decision we make. If we abide in him, he will abide in us and we will bear fruit and it will last!

Also, if we abide in Christ we will have this deep intimate relationship with Christ where he is so intertwined in our life and the decisions we make that our will and hearts desires will become the same as His heart desires and his will! Because of this, he will give us what ever we ask in the name of Christ. He will do this because we will want the same things that he wants!

These are the things that I am LEARNING through this passage, the fact that I am learning them means that I am not currently there and because of my sin nature I probably will never completely get there. But that is no reason not to strive to get there I will do my best to get there and I hope that you will do the same!

I hope that this passage is as challenging and convicting to you as it is to me!