Imagine Jesus telling us that we have not been connected to Him. We have thought we were grasping and holding on to the Vine by saying all the right words, but we have missed the whole point of living the kingdom life. We have developed our own kingdoms based on power, comparison, and privilege. I’m wondering what Jesus really meant by His imperative ‘remain in me’?
“The astonishing paradox of Christ's teaching and of Christian experience is this: if we lose ourselves in following Christ, we actually find ourselves. True self-denial is self-discovery. To live for ourselves is insanity and suicide; to live for God and for man is wisdom and life indeed. We do not begin to find ourselves until we have become willing to lose ourselves in the service of Christ and of our fellows.” - John R.W. Stott, Basic Christianity
John 15:4-5 (Amplified Classic Version)
“Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.”
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