John 15:7
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7)
Yesterday we examined choosing and being chosen for friendship with God. That was the first of the three aspects of our love relationship: choices, communication, companionship. Today let us consider that friends- lovers – communicate and companion.
Lovers communicate. Our best friend communicates with us as his words take up residence in us (John 15: 7, 15) and we communicate with him in prayer ( John 15:7, 16). If we are listening to him, he says, we can ask whatever we wish and it will be given. The Father will hear our prayers because we are abiding, obedient, fruit-bearing friends and because we come on the authority of Jesus’ name, not our own.
Those are important qualifications to the glorious promise of answered prayer. If his words abide in us. That is, “whatever we wish” will become exactly what he wishes as we listen to him carefully and obey wholeheartedly. Of course he will grant such requests- they are exactly what he wishes!
If we ask in the name of the Son. I learned something of this at a time of great crisis. I was approaching the age of 40 and I was a failure. As a missionary in Japan I knew I could live among the people, love them to Jesus, and see a strong church established. I knew I could do it because I had done it before – more than once. But this time it wasn’t happening. The Nakamuras were my last best hope, the only couple in this fledgling group, and their marriage was coming apart. I was failing as a missionary. I was failing as a father. I was failing as a provider for my family.
I sent the family away for a vacation and stayed behind to fast and pray. I was desperate. I cried out to God to deliver me. He seemed to gently ask, “Son, why do you ask?” I blurted out loud: “Who wants to fail?” In that instant my true self stood revealed and I was revulsed by what I saw. All those years I had been praying “in Jesus name” and “for Jesus’ sake” when I should have been saying honestly, “for Robertson’s sake, amen.” Why ask for success? Well, who wants to fail? Why ask for healing? Well, who wants to hurt? Why ask for my children? Well, who wants to be embarrassed? There is no power in coming for my own sake or asking on my own authority. The qualification is clear: if we ask in his name, the Father will surely answer. I sensed the flow of power as I began to pass all requests through the screen of what would be for his benefit. God gave deliverance from all those woes, but if he had not, I could rest in the confidence that what he did grant was for his glory and my good. To abide in him is to listen and talk with our best friend.
Lovers companion. We have considered in great detail what Jesus identified as the specifics of what it means to abide in him, but the underlying concept seems to be the part least understood and most neglected by Jesus’ friends. To abide in him is to abide in his love (vs 9) and John’s commentary on this passage makes it very clear: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him (I Jn 4:16).”
When Paul speaks of being “in Christ” it is more the judicial aspect of the relationship – we are viewed by God as righteous because of Jesus, “in Christ.” But Jesus here is speaking of an intimate identity of life characterized by constant companionship. “The phrase (abide in) is a favorite of John to denote an inward, enduring personal communion”[104] This use of “in” is reinforced by “abide” so that Jesus here focuses on the central theme of this marvelous relationship: loving companionship.
There is a life of uninterrupted awareness of our Lord’s dear presence. We cannot converse uninterruptedly there are other things to do. But we can companion, can joy in the aura of his nearness all through the busiest of days. Just as a small child is well aware of her mother’s presence in the room and enters naturally in and out of conversation, so we are invited to companion always with our best friend. Living in love!
Best friends. To abide in Christ, then, is to live in love. We act out love in our choices, especially sacrificial choices. We grow our love through constant conversation. And best of all, we companion with our lover always. The ultimate goal is God – to love him well and receive his love.
[104] W.F. Arndt and F.W. Gingrich, ed, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1957, 505.