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In Jesus’ farewell message at the last supper, He invited His disciples to abide in Him. Jesus emphasized the importance of abiding in Him to bear fruit in their lives and ministries.
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 4 ABIDE in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it ABIDES in the vine, neither can you, unless you ABIDE in Me.5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who ABIDES in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me, you can do nothing.
The passage above offers a profound insight into the nature of believers’ relationship with Jesus. It emphasises the importance of remaining connected to Him in order to experience growth and fruitfulness.
We must, therefore, know what it means to abide in Christ and then how we Christians can engage in this discipline.
Abide, which is translated from the Greek word meno, means to remain stable, to endure without yielding, and to continue. We become one with the Lord in the new birth experience to partake the fullness, which is Him. But we need to abide in Christ to draw all that He has for us to be fruitful just as the branches draw sap, minerals, water, and nutrients from the vine.
So, abiding in Christ involves being connected permanently to Him, completely depending on Him and continuing in Him.
There are a few ways we abide in Christ. One of the major ways we do so is to let sound doctrine abide in us -1Jn 2:21-24. Doctrines of men or false doctrines do separate us from Christ and thus remove us from our secure position in Christ – 2Pet. 3:17; Gal 5:4.
In the second part, we will discuss other disciplines that we need to engage in for us to abide in Christ.
GOD’S servant: Peter Collins Obeng
GRACE COVENANT GLORY
