Jesus’ Outlandish Promise

I want to speak to one of the most puzzling verses in the Bible: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” John 15:7. Take that verse out of context, and it sounds like pure prosperity gospel nonsense. What are we to make of Jesus’ outlandish promise?

I sang those words as a child, a song I learned at a Bible camp: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” When I was a child, I didn’t think much about the stupendous promise Jesus was making, but now, as an adult, I’m wondering…

Is this text a carte blanche promise that if we satisfy certain conditions, we can get whatever we want?

Yes, it is a promise. But it’s not as simple as the prosperity preachers would have it. The context and conditions make it more complicated.

These words of Jesus are part of the Upper Room discourse, words He spoke to His men the night before He died. When we yank those words out of context – when we treat them like calligraphy we might find at Hobby Lobby – we badly understand what Jesus was promising.

This promise from Jesus is an “if-then” statement with two clauses under “if.”

1. “If you abide in me…”

In the opening verses of John 15, Jesus uses the expression “abide in me” in His analogy of the vine and the branch. Just as the branch doesn’t occasionally visit the vine but is connected in dependent residence in the vine, in that same way Jesus wants us to take up permanent, intentional residence in Him. So everything He is saying here is to be taken in that context. As is always the case, Jesus has nothing to say to people who don’t care what He means and have no intention of obeying Him.

Many things look different from the inside than they do from the outside: falling in love or marriage or parenting, for example, or losing a loved one to death. Some experiences can be understood not by description but only by experience. So it is with this “abiding.” Jesus is speaking to people who understand what He is saying and want to do it.

So what does it mean to “abide” in Christ? Tens of thousands of gallons of ink have been used to explain the answer to that question. (Out of curiosity, I asked Google that question, and it came back with almost seven million hits.) Even though “abide” is a word we don’t use much, we know it well enough to know what it doesn’t mean. We know we don’t “abide” in a hotel or a vacation home; we “abide” in our houses, our own homes. There is a sense of settled permanence in “abiding.”

For me to “abide” in Christ is to assume a settled life posture of intimate dependence on Him – His resources for my needs, His affection for my heart, His nourishment for my soul.

The problem is my fickle heart: with me, there’s no such thing as a “settled life posture.” I wish I could say that a Christ-follower can make a once-for-all decision to abide in Christ and then rest there, secure and contented for the duration.

But that’s not how it works. Abiding in Christ isn’t an on-off switch, it’s more like a sliding scale. Although my standing before God is secure and settled in Christ, my abiding in Him is always subject to challenge and change.

Some days I’m abiding in Christ more than other days. Some days – when I am in a state of rebellion or despair – I’m not abiding in Christ at all. In other words, my quest to abide in Christ is not an item I can check off on a list: I will spend the rest of my earthly life learning how to abide in Christ, more and more fully, more and more consistently.

2. “…and my words abide in you”
 
The second condition in the “if-then” statement is almost as difficult. What does it mean to let the words of Christ “abide” in me? Surely, it means that I take His words to heart and think deeply about them, cherish them, marinate in them.

But here I have the same problem with my fickle heart: some days letting His words abide in me is easier, and some days – when I am distracted, discouraged, rebellious – I have very little interest in letting the words of Christ abide in me.

So I can see how Jesus could make such a lavish if-then promise.
 
He knows that there is a direct correlation between the state of my heart and the effectiveness of my prayers. When I am in that state of abiding in Jesus –deeply and constantly aware of my dependence on Him – and when His Word is filling and shaping my imagination, ambitions, and priorities, that’s when my prayers are not tainted by my selfishness, vanity, and anxiety. When I am in a state of abiding in Christ and His Word flourishing in me, my prayers will be wise and generous, not shallow and self-centered.

My prayers will align far more closely with His will, and I will see Him grant what I request. That’s when I discover what it means to delight myself in the Lord, and I see Him give me the desires of my heart (Psa 37:4).

Persevere,
Paul Pyle
Pastor of Discipleship