John 15:5-11, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.5“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. (NLT) Us bearing fruit brings glory to God, but the fruit is good for us!
Whatever brings Him glory in our lives is for our benefit!
Kim
To begin to really understand this verse, let’s take a look at what it means to remain.
Remain (verb) – stay in the place that one has been occupying
Occupy
1. To fill up (time or space)
2. To dwell or reside in
3. To hold or fill (an office or position).
4. To engage or employ the attention or concentration of
To remain is to be constant. There are many things we remain in, but is Christ/the Word one of them? Are you constantly occupying the Word? Have you given place for Christ to fully occupy you? We are instructed to remain in Him and have His words remain in us. If you are tired of remaining in obesity, sickness, depression, strife, unforgiveness – any stronghold where you feel stuck – then start remaining in Him, by remaining in the Word. You cannot remain in the darkness of those strongholds and in His light at the same time.
John 1:1-5, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God,and the Word was God. 2He existed in the beginning with God. 3God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4The Word gave life to everything that was created and his life brought light to everyone. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”
Matthew 6:22-23, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
Luke 24:45-49, “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
2 Timothy 1:7, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
2 Timothy 3:1-5, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 4:3-5, “who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” (ESV)