João 15
Ray Stedman · Citado em PreceptAustin
João 15
Stedman says that here Jesus reveals "the fundamental secret of Christian living, out of which everything else flows. These seven words of Jesus, "You in me and I in you," are, in my estimation, the most profound truth ever revealed on this planet. Discovering their meaning is the business of the Christian life. Like Einstein's formula, E = mc2, this simple statement is a description of unbelievable power.....When we begin to put into practice the concept "You in me and I in you," the first person who is changed is ourselves. We grow more Christlike. We display the "fruit of the Spirit." We become more gentle, more gracious, more loving, more easy to live with, more able to cope, more panic-proof. We begin to handle life the way we were intended to do. That is what it means to become Christlike." (Loving amidst Hate) Ray Stedman on abides in Me - This is an extremely helpful passage! Notice that our Lord divides it into two sections. There is an activity which is to be done, and a passivity which is to be acknowledged -- an active voice and a passive voice. We are to abide in him (that is active, something we do), and we are to let him abide in us (that is passive, something we allow him to do). Both these relationships are absolutely essential, not one as opposed to the other but both together. When our Lord says "Abide in me," he is talking about the will, about the choices, the decisions we make. We must decide to do things which expose ourselves to him and keep ourselves in contact with him. This is what it means to abide in him. We have been placed into Christ by the Holy Spirit. Now we must choose to maintain that relationship by the decisions we make, i.e., decisions to expose ourselves to his Word in order to learn about him, and to relate to him in prayer wherein we converse with him, and to relate to other believers in body-life experiences, i.e., bearing one another's burdens and confessing our faults and sharing in fellowship with one another, wherein we learn about and see Christ in one another. All of this is designed to relate to him -- "Abide in me." If we do that we are fulfilling this active, necessary decision of the will to obey his Word, to do what he says, and to stay in touch with him. This is what Bible study and prayer are all about. They are not mere mechanical practices which every Christian ought to do in order to stay "in" with the crowd, or to maintain his "membership card," or to get "brownie points" with God! No, they are means by which we know him. If you open your Bible and begin to read it without the conscious expectation that it is going to tell you something about him, you will read in vain. If you try to pray as though it were some exercise in which you chalk off fifteen minutes' worth, mechanically going through a list like the turning of a prayer wheel, it is a valueless experience. But if you pray because you are talking with One whom you love and want to know more of, sharing with him out of the fullness of your heart, then prayer becomes a beautiful and marvelous experience. One of the delights of life is to spend time in that kind of prayer. Ray Stedman then addresses the crucial significance of Jesus abiding in us - "Let me abide in you." What is that? Well, that has to do with empowerment, enablement. You see, you can make choices but you cannot fulfill them (ED: IN RELIANCE ON YOUR NATURAL STRENGTH). And though you are responsible to make the decisions and make the choices, you are not responsible for the power to carry them out. There you are to depend on Him, to let Him abide in you. You are to rest upon His ability to see you through, to work it out (ED: COMPARE OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO WORK OUT OUR SALVATION IN Php 2:12+ WITH GOD'S POWER ENABLING US TO ACTUALLY FULFILL OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO WORK OUT OUR SALVATION IN Php 2:13NLT+). As you venture out on that basis, you expect Him to support you and to carry you through. Both of these are absolutely essential, and our Lord develops this fact. He says, first, "As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." That is, "If you do not abide in me, you will be fruitless." Making decisions and then trying to do the whole thing yourself, as though the whole responsibility rests upon you, is going to produce a fruitless Christian life -- intense activity, but no results. On the other hand, he says, "He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." That is, it will be fruitlessness again. If you try to make all the choices and carry all the responsibility yourself, you will lead a fruitless life. On the other hand, if you let him take all the responsibility and you make no choices at all, if you depend on him to do everything including making the choices, you will also have a fruitless life. "Without me you can do nothing." Both of these are necessary in the Christian experience. We must make choices, we must determine to expose ourselves to him, we must seek his face in the Word and in prayer and in fellowship with others. And then we must rest on him, count on him to see us through, to supply that enabling power which makes us able to love and forgive and rejoice and give thanks, even when everything is going wrong. When we do, we are abiding in him and letting him abide in us. Without both of those, fruitlessness is the result. You see, you can do many things without depending on Christ. He does not mean that without him you remain just an immobile blob. You can operate your business without Christ. You can make it run well. You can raise your family without Christ. You can even pastor a church without Christ. But if you try, you find that there will be no fruit, no Christlikeness, no manifestation of that beautiful character which arrests the attention of others. Instead there will be a shabby sham, a phony imitation of the real thing, which will drive people away from Christ and will produce nothing but a dull, mechanical religiosity which is piousness without God. For apart (choris) from Me you can (dunamai) do (ou = absolutely) nothing - For (term of explanation) explains that when we are doing Christian work but doing it in our own energy and not relying on the supernatural sap from Christ the Vine, we are not able to accomplish anything of eternal value. Can do nothing is a strong double negative (not ou me but ou + oudeis) meaning absolutely nothing! Period! Paul has an excellent parallel thought in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6+ writing - "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider ANYTHING (CF "NOTHING" IN Jn 15:5) as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God (CF "ABIDE IN ME") Who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills (NO GRAPES HARVESTED) , but the Spirit (THE "SAP" NOURISHING THE BRANCHES) gives life (BUMPER CROP OF GRAPES)." The Reformation Study Bible.- If anyone does not abide in me. Those that do not remain show that they never had a saving relationship with Christ. Their destiny is described with the language of damnation (cf. Mt. 3:12; 25:41; Jude 7; Rev. 20:14). A T
João 15
Stedman adds "Prayers are answered, growing out of that relationship of an obedient and a dependent heart -- leaving the process and timing to God. You cannot tell him when to answer your prayers. You cannot tell him how to answer your prayers. But he will answer your prayers when they grow out of this relationship." Whatever you wish is sadly grossly perverted by some prosperity teachers to the point one asked God that he wanted a "hundred million dollars" to which he said God responded with "Done!" John's letter gives us "caveats" regarding our asking which will assure that what we ask will be done... 1 John 3:22 and whatever we ask (aiteo) we receive from Him, because (WHY?) we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. (WE ARE OBEDIENT AND PLEASE GOD). 1 John 5:14-15+ This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask (aiteo) anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask (aiteo), we know that we have the requests which we have asked (aiteo) from Him. (BECAUSE WE ASK ACCORDING TO HIS WORD WHICH REFLECTS HIS WILL) Bob Utley correctly warns us that "This phrase has been badly proof-texted (i.e., pulled out of its context). Be careful to seek the teaching of all Scripture and do not emphasize isolated texts." Here is the secret of prevailing prayer. God will not hear our words if we disregard His words. - Spurgeon
João 15
Stedman adds that "God is glorified when his people manifest fruit, i.e., Christlikeness. You do not even have to do a thing to manifest that. You can be flat on your back in bed, sick, but manifesting a Christ-like spirit, and you are glorifying God by that experience. It is not activity which glorifies God; it is character, it is what you are, and the way you react to a situation." Bob
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Stedman explains it this way - All of us have learned, one way or another, that love demands a response if it is to grow. If you love somebody, and reach out toward them, you can go only so far unless they respond to that love. If they respond just a little, then your love can reach out further, can deepen and grow. But if they remain unresponsive over the weeks and months and years, love finally is limited to that initial step of reaching out to them. But where love is responded to, it grows deeper and richer and truer, and eventually becomes a glorious experience. If you are not feeling the depth of love you would like to experience, one of the reasons may be that you are not responding to the love which is already reaching out to you. That is why the New Testament says: Open your hearts, widen your hearts, be responsive -- love back (ED: AND IN CONTEXT THIS LOVE IS NOT EMOTIONAL AS MUCH AS VOLITIONAL, MAKING DAILY CHOICES TO OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS, AND EVEN THAT OBEDIENCE IS MOTIVATED BY LOVE, NOT LEGALISM!). When you do that, then love grows into this deepening, quickening experience. H Harris Hall - In verse 10 Jesus goes on to explain what he means by remaining in his love: it is indicated by obedience to his commands. Obedience and love are inseparably linked and are mutually dependent upon one another. A similar idea may be seen in 1 John 4:20 (“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen”), when we realize that loving one’s brother involves obeying the command to “love one another” (John 13:34, 15:12, 17). Thus 1Jn 4:20 is really addressing an attempt to separate obedience to God’s commands and love for God, much as Jesus is talking about keeping his commandments and remaining in his love being interrelated here. Bob
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Stedman - I love the saying, "Joy is the flag which flies over the castle of the heart when the King is in residence." That is what joy is -- this sense of our unity with Jesus, the sense of his power, his adequacy, his ability to handle the problems which are thrust upon us. Let all that be present in the heart, and the face will light up with joy! That is what Jesus is talking about. "Abide in me, and I in you," and you will be fruitful -- without realizing it -- manifesting the characteristics of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, the quality of life which is like Jesus. When that happens, there will come these additional benefits: answered prayer, a glorifying of the Father through the demonstration of discipleship, a deepening of the experience of love, and joy made full. What a wonderful relationship our Lord taught us here by this lesson of the vine! Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken Fading is the world’s best pleasure, All its boasted pomp and show; Solid joys and lasting treasure None but Zion’s children know. --John Newton Merrill Tenney - Obedience marks the cause of their fruitfulness; joy is its result..... Joy logically follows when the disciples realize that the life of Christ in them is bringing fruit—something they could never produce in their own strength.(BORROW Expositor's Bible Commentary PAGE 350)
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Stedman says "Love is a decision to be kind, gracious, considerate, helpful, firm, or whatever will minister to another's benefit no matter how you feel. That is the love Jesus commands..... It is not merely a law -- "Love one another" -- that is laid upon us, but there is also a motive provided, found in these words, "as I have loved you."....As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you;" (John 15:9RSV). There is the key to love. It is not trying to love someone by determining to feel loving and making yourself act that way. Love comes naturally and flows fully out of a heart that is itself conscious of being loved. When Jesus had difficulty loving these men he didn't simply grit his teeth and try to be nice. He began to reflect on how the Father loved him, how wonderful it was to be approved and loved of God. He strengthened and steadied himself with the fact that the Father cherished him. (ED: I WOULD ADD THAT WHILE MOTIVATION FOR US TO LOVE LIKE THIS IS IMPORTANT, WE MUST LEARN TO DEPEND ON THE SUPERNATURAL ENABLEMENT OF THE SPIRIT TO LOVE LIKE GOD LOVES. NATURAL MOTIVATION IS NOT ENOUGH. WE NEED SUPERNATURAL EMPOWERMENT!) Just as I have loved (agapao) you - This should prompt the question "How has Jesus loved them?" For the answer we need to go to the next verse. The other question is how is it possible for a disciple to love like Jesus loved? There is only one way a disciple can possibly love selflessly, sacrificially, continually is by continually relying on the enabling power of the Holy Spirit (cf Eph 5:18+) Who Alone can empower our heart to love with selfless, Savior like love. NET NOTE - The disciples are to love one another, just as Jesus has loved them. This is the ‘new commandment’ of John 13:34, and it is repeated in Jn 15:17. The disciples’ love for one another is compared to Jesus’ love for them. How has Jesus shown his love for the disciples? This was illustrated in Jn 13:1–20 in the washing of the disciples’ feet, introduced by the statement in Jn 13:1 that Jesus loved them “to the end.” In context this constitutes a reference to Jesus’ self-sacrificial death on the cross on their behalf; the love they are to have for one another is so great that it must include a self-sacrificial willingness to die for one another if necessary. This is exactly what Jesus is discussing here, because he introduces the theme of his sacrificial death in the following verse. In John 10:18 and Jn 14:31 Jesus spoke of his death on the cross as a commandment he had received from his Father, which also links the idea of commandment and love as they are linked here. One final note: It is not just the degree or intensity of the disciples’ love for one another that Jesus is referring to when he introduces by comparison his own death on the cross (that they must love one another enough to die for one another) but the very means of expressing that love: It is to express itself in self-sacrifice for one another, sacrifice up to the point of death, which is what Jesus himself did on the cross (cf. 1 John 3:16). Love (25) agapao see related study of noun agape) means to love unconditionally and sacrificially as God Himself loves sinful men (John 3:16), the way He loves the Son (John 3:35, 15:9, 17:23, 24). Note that agapao is a verb and by its verbal nature calls for action. This quality of love is not an emotion but is an action initiated by a volitional choice. (SEE 9 page article on AGAPAO in the NIDNTT, PAGE 538) SEE 9 page article on AGAPAO in the NIDNTT, PAGE 538