Let us move forward into John 15 because this theme continues on. It uses different words, but John is still trying to get this idea across to us that He lived with us. And this puts us under certain obligations because He has chosen us to live with Him.
So, He tells His disciples here during His Passover message.
Really interesting section of Scripture, especially in terms of what we are doing today in the Feast of Tabernacles. The metaphor is a little different; not a lot, but it uses a different word. The meaning is the same, even though the Greek word is different.
He emphasizes abiding. You shall abide in Me, I in you. The word underlying abide is meno. It is Strong's number 3306, and it means to remain or to continue, to stay or reside, lodge, dwell, or sojourn. You sojourn for a time in Myrtle Beach for the Feast.
However you want to define it in terms of an English word, an English synonym, it connotes remaining in the same place over a period of time. It can be a short time or it could be a long time, but you are remaining in the same place or state or condition for a period.
He uses the metaphor here of the vine and the branches. The branches, individual called-out ones, the individuals among the elect must abide or remain in Him or with Him. They must be attached to Him or as He also says, in Him. He is our dwelling place where we remain or lodge or dwell for a time.
Now we are human. We think of time in finite bits: a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year, decade, century, millennium. We can expand our mind out to thinking, well, maybe, you know, maybe a millennium. That is still way, way more than we have ever lived. But not too much longer than, let us say, Noah lived. Noah walked with God for a long time.
But you know what? Those are piker figures. God wants us, Christ wants us to remain in Him forever, for all eternity. Not just for a few years of our physical lives, but He wants us forever. He loves us forever if we are part of His elect, His Bride. He wants us side by side with Him forever.
So He is our dwelling place where we remain for a time and in this life, that would be our whole converted life. Say you were called at 30 and you die at 70 or 80 years. Well, that is your time as a branch abiding in the vine. But that is just the beginning. That is just where we learn to prepare for what is ahead. Because even though we die, He gets our spirit and He is eager to plug that thing back in and give us a spirit body so that we could abide in Him forever, for all eternity.
It is hard to fit in our finite brains where we use only 10 or 15% most of the time, or less. But this is an Old Testament concept. What I am talking about is the very finite time of our physical lives. That is an Old Testament concept, that we dwell with God now. And that is fine.
But you have to remember that the children of Israel were very physical beings and they did not have the Spirit of God. But they understood the concept that we are supposed to abide with God or they might say Yahweh. And in the covenant they would know that, that they were dwelling with their Lord, because their Lord lived in Jerusalem or He lived in the Tabernacle in the wilderness. And so they had this concept, and those few who had the Holy Spirit understood that there was a lot more behind that than just the physical idea of God being near.
We could rebel and do something else, but we saw in John 15 what happens to those branches that after they are pruned a bit, do not bear any fruit. They go on the fire. Not good.