Remain in Christ

John 15:10 (NLT)

10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

Jesus loved the Father and the Father loved Him. Even when the Father placed the sins of the world on Jesus; the Father still loved Jesus for his obedience. Jesus kept His Father’s word even though He suffered and was bruised and killed. We are to obey the commandments of Jesus and remain in His love.

Stuart Briscoe, author and long-time pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, tells the following story:

Many years ago, during the Cold War, I traveled to Poland for several weeks of itinerant ministry. One winter day my sponsors drove me in the dead of night to the middle of nowhere. I walked into a dilapidated building crammed with one hundred young people. I realized it was a unique opportunity.

Through an interpreter I preached from John 15 on abiding in Christ. Ten minutes into my message, the lights went out. Pitch black.

My interpreter urged me to keep talking. Unable to see my notes or read my Bible, I continued. After I had preached in the dark for twenty minutes, the lights suddenly blinked on, and what I saw startled me: everyone was on their knees, and they remained there for the rest of my message.

The next day I commented on this to one man, and he said, "After you left, we stayed on our knees most of the night. Your teaching was new to us. We wanted to make sure we were abiding in Christ."

[Lee Eclov, Vernon Hills, Illinois; source: Marshall Shelley, Changing Lives Through Preaching and Worship (Random House, 1995), p. 147]

Jesus reminds us of the following in John 15:4, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed.” To be useful to the service of Christ we must have a close relationship with Jesus Christ that includes our love for Him. Christ then uses us to minister to others so that we will spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let others come to know Christ because of our devotion to Him.