The use of the term "abide" in the New Testament could also be understood to mean remain, tarry, wait for, to be held, or kept[1]. There is a sense in which all true believers will abide because Christ is faithful to complete the work He has begun in them (Hebrews 12:2, Philippians 1:6). Thus, Christ can say in John 6:56 that those who eat of His flesh and drink of His blood will abide in Him. Those who truly embrace Him and receive Him as their Savior will be received as His children and will never be cast out of God’s family (Hebrews 13:5). Alternatively, those who refuse to receive Him as Savior are said to have the wrath of God abiding on them (John 3:36). So, in one sense, abiding means either belonging to Christ, in which case we will be kept by Him, or remaining under the wrath of God because of unrepentant sin and refusing to receive Christ as Savior.
In John 15:4, Jesus speaks of abiding in a secondary sense when He commands the disciples, "Abide in Me, and I in you." Jesus is not speaking of their salvation but of something else related to their sanctification. In the previous verse, He addressed them as those who were "already clean," meaning that they were already saved. Thus, He is not telling them to abide in Him in the same way as He preached to the unbelieving Jews in John 6:56. Rather, He is speaking of living a life of abundant fruitfulness. We as Christians can either fall to living a life of mediocrity and dead works, or we can be vessels through whom Christ is able to work His power and accomplish His kingdom purposes. Those who abide in Christ in this sense are promised to bear much fruit (John 15:5), have their prayers answered (John 15:7), and experience fullness of joy (John 15:11).
All believers will produce some fruit, though how much will vary on a person’s faith and obedience (Romans 12:3, Matthew 13:23). Christ’s desire, of course, is that we bear much fruit, not just some or a little. If we abide in Him, we will bear much fruit (John 15:5). Fruit-bearing involves becoming like Christ as the Spirit conforms us more and more to the image of Christ (Galatians 5:22-23, Romans 12:1-2). Fruit involves both an internal heart transformation to be loving, joyful, and so on, and it involves external behavior and obedience, such as any kind of good work, service or ministry in the name of Christ and accomplished by His grace and power (Titus 3:14).
Abiding in Christ requires, first, that we obey God by keeping Christ’s commandments (John 15:10,1 John 2:5-6). If we regard sin in our hearts, we cannot be fully filled with the Spirit of God (Ephesians 5:18). We will still have the Spirit, but we will be hindering and suppressing Him such that He cannot accomplish His will within us because of our hardness of hearts (1 Thessalonians 5:19). We will likely grow confused as to His leading, we will struggle in our prayer life, we will lose our joy and peace, and we will find ourselves striving in our own power. Sinning as believers doesn’t separate us from the love of God in terms of our eternity, but it does separate us from being infused with the power and love of God to do effective, God-honoring ministry. There is no guarantee of genuine fruit being born as a result of a person serving Christ with unconfessed sin in his heart. God’s Word can still go forth and change lives, but this is not fruit which can be attributed to the individual’s service. Leaving sin unconfessed and living with secret sins is a quick road to a powerless ministry and life of dead works. Secondly, abiding in Christ requires that we recognize, acknowledge, and by faith live in light of the reality of our dependence upon God. John 15:5 makes it clear that, since Jesus is the vine and we dependent branches, we need Him. Jesus says, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing." He will give us all of the resources and strength that we need to do the works for which He has prepared us (2 Peter 1:3, Ephesians 2:10), but we must yield to Him, surrendering our will and desires to Him (Zechariah 4:6). It is not that we are sufficient of ourselves, but our sufficiency is in Christ (2 Corinthians 3:5). Any notion of self-sufficiency or human empowerment apart from the grace of God and our indwelling Savior is pride, which puts us back into the predicament of having sin in our hearts. This self-sufficient mindset will also lead to dead works rather than genuine, Spirit-led, Spirit-filled, and Spirit-generated fruit.
God’s desire is that we bear fruit that remains (John 15:16), meaning that it will prove to be of God and not of man, of the flesh, or of sin and self. It will be a result of our yielding, submitting, and surrendering to Christ by faith, being willing to obey Him and letting Him have His way in our hearts. This fruit will endure the fiery test of the judgment seat of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:15), and we will be able to have confidence at His coming (1 John 2:28). Dead works give glory to the worker, whereas true fruit gives glory to God. When we truly let Christ work in us, we will be amazed at what He can do. It will be clear that such fruit is a result of God’s grace working through human weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9-10), as the disciples certainly experienced themselves, being uneducated and untrained men (Acts 4:13). They were ordinary, but their God was extraordinary. The same goes for us.
We can live a life of obedience, joy, and fruitfulness as we abide in Christ, or we can live a life of feeble fruitbearing which will lead to joylessness and a potential void of eternal rewards. If we are in Christ, we will bear at least some fruit (Matthew 7:20, Luke 6:44), but let us all remember that God wants us to bear much fruit. He came to give us abundant life (John 10:10), and may we live a life filled with His power and love, bearing abundant fruit as our offering of thanksgiving to Him.
[1]Thayer and Smith. "Greek Lexicon entry for Meno". "The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon". <http://www.biblestudytools.net/Lexicons/Greek/grk.cgi?number=3306&version=nas>. 1999.