Abiding in Jesus, Living in Him (1)

 

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” John 15:1.

 

As we embark on John Chapter 15, let’s remind ourselves that chapter divisions (and verse numbers) were not in the original manuscripts, they did not appear until a few hundred years after the Bible was first in circulation. Sometimes chapter divisions indicate a break in the action or line of thought, and sometimes they don’t. It is up to the reader – you and me, and us as a People – to determine the connection between chapters; sometimes this is straightforward, sometimes it is challenging.

 

There are sections of the Prophets in which it can be difficult to see where one prophecy ends and another one begins. In the Epistles, chapter breaks often interrupt the flow of thought and it is important to teach ourselves to ignore them so that we can flow down the river with Paul and Peter and John and James.

 

Many Bibles also have section headings. These are headings inserted within chapters by the editors of Bibles. As I write this, my NASB has the following headings in John 14: “Jesus Comforts His Disciples” (verses 1 – 6); “Oneness with the Father” (7 – 15); “Role of the Spirit” (16 – 31). These headings are not part of the Bible and should not be read as if they were part of the Bible.

 

I have often heard well – meaning folks read Scripture aloud to a congregation and include section headings in their reading, we need to teach our people to do better than this since the headings are not the Word of God.

 

Having a visual break on the page makes sense to me, breaking the text up with white space can make it easier to read, but having section headings in the breaks is, I think, distracting and for many people it is misleading. A visual break in the text does not mean a break in thought, and a section heading is distracting at best and misleading at worst.

 

We must do our own reading, together in Christ, to enter into the flow and depth of the Bible, we must open ourselves to the Bible, we must submit ourselves to the Bible, and we must allow Jesus, the Word of God, to enter us and live within us as we eat Heavenly Manna (which is Jesus, Jesus, always Jesus Christ – see John Chapter 6).

 

The way we read and hear God’s Word determines how we see Jesus coming to us in His Word. We read in worship, in thanksgiving, in submission to Jesus, in responsive obedience to Jesus, in adoration of Jesus, in attentiveness to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We read in expectation, in meditation, in prayer, in faith and hope and love. Perhaps the writer of Hebrews gives us a firm foundation for reading when he says:

 

“And without faith it is impossible to please [Him], for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Heb. 11:6).

 

Perhaps we can also say that all Divine reading is anchored in meditation on God’s Word. “But his delight is in the law of Yahweh, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). Psalm 1 gives us not only the foundation for the Psalms, but for reading the entire Bible. There is a sense in which meditation on and in the Word of God is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus – that is, of partaking of Him as our source of life (see John 6:32 – 71).

 

 

Also consider that our Father has given us the Bible so that we “may become partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Pt. 1:4). The Bible is a Eucharistic Table spread for us; we partake of Christ as we eat from this Table…can we see this? Are we experiencing it?

 

The Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ, and it is our Main Street where we experience koinonia with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and with one another in the Triune God.

 

If we are in too much of a hurry to meditate on the Bible, to read it as it is written as opposed to reading it piecemeal and as a self – help book, then we are simply too busy. We are to be God’s People of the Book, not a people who use the Book for our own ends.

 

I’ve taken the time to remind ourselves of these things because we are moving from Chapter 14 to Chapter 15, but we really aren’t moving anywhere because the flow continues, what began in John Chapter 13 continues through John Chapter 17 and we are invited by Jesus to experience this glorious dance of joy throughout the Upper Room. Also, the Vine and the Branches (John 15:1ff) connects what precedes it and what follows it – for the only way to obey the commands of Jesus (John 14:21, 23; 15:10) is to abide in the Vine!

 

As you read John 14:16 – 15:11 can you see how the Vine and the Branches (15:1 – 9) form a door from Chapter 14 into Chapter 15?

 

(A Note on John 14:31, “Get up, let us go from here.” I view John chapters 13 – 17 as the Upper Room. Whether or not all of the words and actions in these chapters occurred in the physical Upper Room, they began there and flowed from there. There is one continuous narrative that begins in Chapter 13 and enters the depths of the Trinity in Chapter 17. We are given what we are given, and John and the Holy Spirit do not interrupt the flow of Jesus’ teaching with descriptions of whether they remained in the Upper Room, were walking toward Gethsemane, or were in Gethsemane. If the Holy Spirit and John did not interrupt Jesus, I have no warrant to interrupt Jesus – let us read and hear Jesus speaking to us in the form that He has given us, let us allow the Holy Spirit to draw us to Jesus and into the Holy of Holies of koinonia with the Trinity and with one another.)