It is in John 15 that Jesus explicitly answers the question "How shall we live?" Most Christians are familiar with this chapter of the Bible, especially the first 10 verses, which are known as the allegory of the vine and the branches. In these first verses Jesus uses the word abide(s) 9 times. Christ was apparently trying to emphasize a point here. But what was it? Why does He emphasize the importance of abiding to this extent? To understand why Christ does this we must look at chapter 15 in its entirety. As we read the entire chapter we see that it is broken down into three thoughts.

The Allegory of the Vine
The first thought is found in verses 1-8 where Jesus uses an allegory of a vinedresser, a grape vine and its branches to describe the unique relationship between God the Father, Jesus the Son and all believers. Jesus explains that the Father has supreme authority over His vineyard and that under the Father's care a branch will be trained to produce the quantity and quality of fruit that He desires. Jesus explains that the relationship the disciples have with Him is like a branch, which grows from the vine or the trunk, if you will, of the grape vine. The allegory Jesus uses, of a branch connected to its vine, clearly illustrates the need for every believer to faithfully live in constant relationship with Christ so His life flows through us to the maximum degree possible, thereby producing fruit, which brings glory to God the Father. You see, the fruit (good works and virtuous character) which grows on the branch (believers) is actually produced by the vine (Christ) - the branch's job is to simply stay connected to the vine and to willingly bear the fruit.

Abiding and Obeying: The Key to Loving
The second thought is found in verses 9-17 where Jesus explains that abiding is intimately connected with obeying. These two disciplines, abiding and obeying, are the key to remaining in a loving relationship with the Father, the Son and one another. Jesus describes these loving relationships as being so strong and faithful that there is a willingness amongst the brethren to lay down their lives for one another just as Jesus did for us. This is serious stuff! And yet, Jesus told His disciples these things so their "joy may be full"(verse 11). Hmmm...Abiding-obeying-loving-dying-joy filled -where is Jesus leading us?

Where it all Leads
In the final thought expressed in verses 18-27, Jesus gets very serious. The tone of the discourse has been subtly changing, but now there is no mistaking it. In these last few verses Jesus says the word hate(s)(d) six times along with the word persecute. In the beginning the allegory of the vine and the branches sounded so nice, so non-offensive, so poetic. Lovely songs have been written using these first verses. But now look where Jesus has led us. Jesus has gone from talking about love to talking about hate. He has gone from talking about joy to talking about persecution. He tells His followers because of Him, their lives are about to change dramatically. Theirs will be lives full of difficult circumstances. They can expect to be rejected, despised, hated and even harmed. Jesus is reminding His disciples of words He has previously spoken to them, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it" (Mark 8:34-35).

The events of chapter 15 likely occurred after the last supper, the evening before the crucifixion. Jesus was soon to be leaving His friends and returning home to His heavenly abode. He knew that life for the apostles would be hard and that the best defense would be a strong, abiding relationship with Him. He also knew that they would need continual reassurances of His love and that "abiding and obeying" was the key to remaining in His love.

Making Your Home with Christ
The Christian life does not exempt us from hardships. In fact the reality is, Christian or not, life can be hard, very hard. Because of this reality Jesus emphasizes through the allegory of the vine and the branches the tremendous importance of abiding. These final words of Christ to His disciples are the key to living the "victorious Christian life."

When we abide, we literally make our abode with Christ. We take up residence in Him just as His Spirit has taken up residence in us. Therefore abiding is to encompass every aspect of our life: family, work, friendships, hobbies, entertainment, finances, leisure, politics, etc. Abiding means that Christ is a present and active part of every thing we do: our choices, our deeds, and our thoughts. It means there is no part of us that we keep separate from Him. We invite Him into every area of our life, desiring to glorify God in all we do and acknowledging it is only through Christ that we can bring glory to the One who loves us.

Abiding is remaining in a constant state of relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In John 14:23 Jesus says, "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him"(KJV). What Jesus seems to be saying in John 15 is "come and make your home with me. Stay with me and remain in constant relationship with me. Unless you do, you will find you can do nothing, and you will be in danger of being cast into the fire as a branch that does not bear fruit and therefore does not belong to me. I want you to live with me in the sense that like a branch, which is always connected to the vine, you always remain connected to me. I want you to continually draw your strength for life from me just as naturally as you breathe every breath. If you do this, you will produce good works that are like the fruit of the vine which every vinedresser cherishes."

Jesus returned to His heavenly Father, but not without first equipping us through His Spirit and His word to weather the storms in life and even in the midst of the storms to experience the fullness of His joy.