John 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me. ASV

John 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. KJV

John 15:4  Remain in Me, and I in you. As the branch is not able to bear fruit of itself, unless it remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. LITV

John 15:4  Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. MKJV
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                                     COMMENTARY

  Abiding in Christ is here shown to be the Christian’s great concern. The obvious question that we will seek to answer is: what does it mean to abide in Christ and how does a person abide in Christ?  We take a clue from verse 7...

If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you.

  Putting the issue of prayer on hold for the moment we see that to abide in Christ means that His words abide in the Christian. Christ's words are His teachings, or His Doctrine. Therefore to abide in Christ means to abide in His Doctrine. So John says in His 2nd letter;

  Everyone transgressing and not abiding in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son. 2 John 1:9

  This shows that Doctrine is central to Christianity.  Now, are people who are remaining in false doctrine, are such people abiding in Christ? It cannot be because that would constitute a contradiction. They are not abiding in Jesus Christ and John says they do not have God. That means they are not Christians. They are unsaved, unregenerate.

To abide in Jesus Christ means to abide, or remain in His teachings. This is also what it means to believe in Him. Believing in, or on, or into the Lord Jesus Christ is not some mystical experience that is detached from the mind. To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe His Doctrine. John says this in...

John 4:41  And many more believed because of his word;

John 8:30  As he spoke these things, many believed on him.

And Peter reflected this truth when he said...

John 6:68  Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? you have the words of eternal life.
See also John 17:8, 14  and look up 'word' and 'words' in John.

So folks... man shall not live by bread alone but by...

Every Word..

He that is of God hears God's words. John 8:47

John

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