Tag Archives: John 15

The Dude Abides

March 11, 2024 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5 (NIV)

Back in December our daughter and her family moved in with Wendy and me. They had been in Scotland for five years where they lived in a flat in the heart of Edinburgh. Now they’re back in the States living with us, and they have been in the process of hunting for a house which will be the first that they have owned as a family. The hunting, comparing, discussing, and making offers have brought back many memories of the different domiciles I’ve called home over the years.

Chapters 14-17 of John’s account of Jesus’ Story are fascinating because it’s basically one long discourse between Jesus and His disciples that ends with a discourse of prayer between Jesus and His Heavenly Father. In other words, John spends almost one-fifth of the entire book recounting what Jesus had to say on the fateful evening of His arrest.

One of the things that I look for as I’m reading and meditating on a chapter is patterns. A repeated word or phrase, for example. In today’s chapter, the word “remain” appears eleven times as Jesus repeatedly tells His followers to “remain” in Him as He “remains” in the Father and the Father “remains” in Jesus. The Greek word that Jesus repeats here is menō. It means to “dwell” or “abide” as in you move in and continue to live.

As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, it brought back memories of when I surrendered my life to Christ as a teenager. There was this subtle yet infinitely profound difference between me being a religious, believing church member and me being a disciple of Jesus.

As a believing church member, I paid Jesus a visit each week in the church building which I had been told since I was a child was “God’s house.” God lived on 49th Street just south of Urbandale Avenue. I lived on the 31st block of Madison. I attended. I took the classes. I agreed that I believed what the church taught me, and I got my membership certificate and a box of offering envelopes. I paid God a visit each week and then went about with my own life.

When I invited Jesus into my life and asked Him to be the Lord of my life, I suddenly experienced something new: His indwelling. No longer a god I visited once a week, Jesus was the Lord who made His dwelling in me 24/7/365. Instead of thinking about God for a couple hours on Sunday and casually throwing up a prayer before meals, I became aware of God all the time because He was abiding in me and I realized that I was abiding in Him even if I couldn’t fully comprehend it.

I continued to meditate on this abiding presence, I couldn’t help but consider what Jesus asked and expected from this mutual indwelling relationship:

“Remain in me…” (vs. 4) Persevere, press on, don’t give up
“Bear much fruit…” (vss. 5, 8, 16) Never stop increasing the yield of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in my life and relationships.
“Keep my commands…” (vs. 10) There are only two commands: Love God and love others. Everything else flows from them.
“Love one another” (vs. 17) The command that is worth repeating.
“Get ready to be hated and persecuted…” (vss. 18-21)
“Live differently than the world…” (vs. 19)

In the quiet this morning as I contemplated our children’s search for a house and my mutual “dwelling” with Christ, I found myself praying that the fruit of God’s indwelling Spirit within me will continue to increase in yield each day of this earthly journey. And, may this lead others to say of me as it is said of one of my all-time favorite movie characters, The Big Lebowski:

“The dude abides.”

I’m back on Facebook for those who liked to read my chapter-a-day posts there! Facebook refuses to give me access to my old, hacked account, but I have started a new account. Please feel free to search for me on Facebook and friend me. If Facebook won’t let you friend me, please go to my Facebook profile and “Message” me on Facebook Messenger, which should then allow me to friend you. Cheers! -Tom

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The (Other) Love Chapter

February 26, 2016 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“…abide in my love.”
John 15:9b (NRSV)

There is a chapter in Paul’s letter to the Jesus followers in the city of Corinth that has been forever known as “The Love Chapter.” It is probably the most recited words of God’s Message read at weddings. It is most certainly on the top ten list of beloved scriptures by most people who have such a list. The passage provides a definition of what love looks like.

As I read Jesus’ words to His followers on the night before His crucifixion, I found myself realizing the number of references Jesus made to love. This morning I find myself pondering all that Jesus had to say about love, and it was a lot:

Jesus’ love was modeled for him by God, the Father.
We are to abide in Jesus’ love.
Obedience to Jesus’ command is the gateway to abiding in Jesus’ love, which Jesus’ modeled in obeying God, the Father and abiding in the Father’s love.
The command is this: love one another, as modeled by Jesus
The greatest love is sacrificial, giving my life away for the benefit of my friends and loved ones
Jesus gave the command to motivate the action. He desires and expects us to love one another.

Wow. That’s a lot to chew on. Paul may have described love in his letter to the believers in Corinth, but Jesus gives clarity to where that love comes from, where to look for a model, and what I am expected to do with that love. This is the “other” love chapter.

I leave this morning’s post pondering this one thing:

May it ever be said of me: The dude abides.

featured image by R. Cogswell via Flickr

Chapter-a-Day

Oak and Vine

March 3, 2015 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

In January of 2012 we had an unusually warm week and the dead vine in our backyard had enough life in it to sprout a single bloom.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, how is the wood of a vine different from that of a branch from any of the trees in the forest?”
Ezekiel 15:1-2 (NIV)

I have written on occasion about the majestic old oak tree that stood sentinel outside our house in Pella. During our decade living there, Old Man Oak would occasionally drop a branch on the driveway. The branches were heavy and the solid wood would have been useful for any number of projects had I been a wood worker inclined to make something useful from the fallen limb.

In the backyard of the same house was a climbing vine that would perennially climb a trellis set between our and our neighbor’s yard. It was gorgeous in the summer when it wove its way up the framework of the arbor and blossomed in fiery orange blooms. In the autumn, however, the vines died and became ugly brown sinews that had to be painstakingly cut and pulled from the trellis. The remnants of the vine were dead, ugly, tangled, and absolutely useless for anything other than nature’s own recycling system.

That is exactly the word picture Ezekiel makes about the people of Jerusalem in today’s chapter. God’s people had once been a fruitful vine but had grown spiritually lifeless, tangled up in idolatry, and useless. As such, the result was to be thrown on the burn pile – a prophetic word picture of the coming Babylonian siege of Jerusalem and its destruction.

I’m reminded this morning of Jesus’ own take on the same metaphor:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” John 15:5-8 (NIV)

Today, I’m find myself a little introspective. Ezekiel’s prophecy and Jesus’ metaphor begs the question: “What good am I? Am I fruitful? Am I useful? Is there Life in the limbs of my existence, my labor, and my relationships?”