{"id":5291,"date":"2022-11-23T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-24T00:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=5291"},"modified":"2022-11-17T20:47:50","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T03:47:50","slug":"abiding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=5291","title":{"rendered":"Abiding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wrote about &#8220;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=5187\" target=\"_blank\">abide<\/a>&#8221; a few weeks ago when we saw it in 1 John. Most of the uses of &#8220;abide&#8221; are in <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=John+15%3A1+-+16&amp;version=ESV\" target=\"_blank\">John 15<\/a>: the vine and the branches (verses 1 &#8211; 16). Here are just a few observations with little comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAbide\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit\u2026unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me (4)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Whoever abides in me and I in him\u2026bears much fruit. (5)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away (6)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask\u2026 (7)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Abide in my love. (9)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father\u2019s commandments and abide in his love. (10)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide\u2026 (16)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away\u201d (6) &#8211; best we figure out what <em>abide <\/em>means and do it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I\u2019m not bearing \u201cmuch fruit,\u201d I\u2019m not abiding. (5) (That&#8217;s basic mathematical logic: &#8220;IF anyone abides in me and I in him, he bears fruit.&#8221; Abiding => Fruit. Therefore, No fruit => No abiding.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are promises for those who abide:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Answered prayer (7, 16)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Love (9, 10)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Joy (11)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This &#8220;abiding&#8221; section includes commands:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Abide: &#8220;Abide in me and I in you&#8230;&#8221; (4)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Obey: &#8220;If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love&#8230;&#8221; (10) <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Love: &#8220;This is my commandment that you love one another&#8230;&#8221; (12)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bear fruit: &#8220;I have appointed you to go and bear fruit&#8230;&#8221; (16)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A rich section. Books, probably libraries, have been written about it. But of all the metaphors Jesus used, this one of abiding as a branch does in a vine seems the most permanent. Jesus is the bread of life, but I can eat bread today and not eat bread tomorrow. He is the living water, and, again, I can take a drink or not. He&#8217;s the light, but I can close my eyes or open them. Abiding doesn&#8217;t seem like something one can turn on or off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, \u201cIf you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples&#8230; (John 8.31, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>And now, little children,\u00a0abide\u00a0in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. (1 John 2.28, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wrote about &#8220;abide&#8221; a few weeks ago when we saw it in 1 John. Most of the uses of &#8220;abide&#8221; are in John 15: the vine and the branches (verses 1 &#8211; 16). Here are just a few observations with little comment. \u201cAbide\u201d \u201cIf anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away\u201d &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=5291\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Abiding<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s8X9bo-abiding","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5292,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5291\/revisions\/5292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}