IF YOU CONTINUE IN MY WORD

As He [Jesus] spake these words, many believed on Him.  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:30-32).

A large crowd of people had assembled to see and hear Jesus, and He sat down and began to teach them.  At one point, scripture tells us that there were many Jews who believed in Him as He spoke.  These were the ones that Jesus’ ministry was especially focused on.  These were His target audience.  He, Himself, had said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15:24).  What the Lord said to these new converts was critical for them to hear, but is also relevant and critical for all believers to hear, regardless of nationality or creed.  He said, “If ye CONTINUE in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed…”  The emphasis of Jesus’ teaching in these verses is the idea of CONTINUING.  It is good that people believe on the Lord, but true discipleship is defined by CONTINUING on with the Lord, and not coming to a certain level spiritually and then staying there indefinitely.  Jesus passed by Peter and Andrew as they were mending nets and said “Follow Me.”  What if they dropped what they were doing and followed Jesus only a hundred yards down the beach and then refused to go any further?  These fishermen may have commended themselves because they had followed Jesus, but they soon would have lost sight of the Lord as He continued on His way as they stayed behind, content with what they had done.  But what of all they would have left undone?!  Their discipleship was active only as long as they were determined to CONTINUE following the Lord.   

People get stuck in the status quo.  They become comfortable in their current spiritual state and forget that salvation is a progressive work.  It is not enough just to believe what the Lord spoke to you yesterday through His Word but ignore what He requires of you today.  Jesus said, “I have MANY things to say and to judge of you: but He [the Father] that sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him.” (John 8:26).  Discipleship requires discipline.  We must CONTINUE in the Word that God speaks to us if we want to be His disciples.  Jesus goes on to say that if we do continue in His Word, then we will know the truth, and the truth will make us free.  If at any point we sink our heels in and refuse to yield ourselves to the things that God requires of us, then we lose our freedom and come under bondage once more to sin and self. 

God’s Word is like a bright light that exposes the darkness and sin that is in our hearts and in our lives.  As the Lord reveals His Word to us, we see more areas that need to come under His Lordship.  These are areas in which we are under bondage to our carnal nature, or areas to which we are blinded by Satan, the god of this world.  When I was first saved, the Lord delivered me from many things.  As I continued searching the scriptures and seeking His will the Lord revealed other things which were not like Him that He asked me to set aside.  Covetousness, pride, selfishness, and patience were all things that took a little time to relinquish to His will.  After 50+ years of following the Lord, I still have battles that I fight against the flesh.  It’s good for us to remember that Joshua and the armies of Israel could only conquer the Promised Land one step at a time.  Each step had to be a walk of faith because God had told them that every place the sole of their feet would tread upon would be theirs.  This is our promise as well!  We just need to keep moving forward and not allow our enemy to drive us back.  Paul told the believers in Colossae, “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight: if ye CONTINUE in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard...” (Colossians 1:21-23).

The Jews’ response to Jesus was naïve to say the least.   “They answered Him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?  To this, Jesus replied, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:33-36).  Notice the difference in approach between how Jesus handled new believers in His day and how many ministers handle them today.  When a soul professes some degree of faith today, many coddle them and don’t “burden” them with any deeper truths that might upset them and cause them to turn away.  My wife and I experienced this early in our walk. 

During the midst of the Jesus Movement in the early 70’s, God was drawing scores of young people into the faith by a mighty move of His Holy Spirit.  We were part of a rather large youth group that had formed in just a matter of weeks.  One evening, as we gathered together, I felt led to share how God had delivered us miraculously from a tobacco addiction.  Our intent in sharing was not to condemn anyone else, but merely to give thanks for what He had done.  We were excited to learn that God was powerful enough to change our lives for the better, and we wanted everyone to know that they could experience that power too.  After the meeting, an older leader approached us and said that we shouldn’t share such things with these young Christians.  He feared that we would bring condemnation upon them and discourage them from continuing in the grace of God.  Much like we had been, these kids were in bondage to drugs, alcohol, and sex outside of marriage, just to name a few things.  They needed to be made free, and the only way in which that could happen was to be introduced to a Savior who could release them from the bondage of sin.  Their faith would mean nothing if it didn’t produce works, the type of fruit that accompanies real repentance.  They needed to know that they could trust in God’s Word, and that what He said He was more than willing to do!

Many people don’t understand that sin, left unaddressed in our lives, will bring us into bondage.  This is where the Jews were at.  They thought that merely being sons of Abraham secured them favor with God.  Although they felt that they had never been in bondage to any man, they were missing the more important issue of being in bondage to sin.  There are many today who profess Jesus and who are in the same boat.  They are in bondage to sin because they have failed to CONTINUE in the Word, walk in the Spirit, and abide in the Vine.  Rather than learning to overcome their sins, they have made peace with them.  There is a sobering chapter in Isaiah that begins, “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:1, 2).  Separation from God is always on our side.  It’s like the wife that complained to her husband that they never sit close to one another in the car anymore as when they were dating, to which the husband responded, “I never moved.”  It is because we have allowed sin to once more have dominion over us, and have refused to deal with it, that we become estranged from God.  In such a case, we tie God’s hands and close His ears to our petitions.  He will not hear us until we repent (agree with God), acknowledge our sin (name it and claim it), and return to the Lord.  The Lord often speaks “hard sayings” to us that leave us with the choice to turn back “and walk no more with Him,” or say, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  Thou hast the words of eternal life.” (John 6:60-70). 

Paul wrote a letter to Timothy, the first bishop of the Church of Ephesus, in which he said, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; CONTINUE in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” (1 Timothy 4:16).  No matter how hopeless or how helpless we may feel at times, if we continue to seek the Lord, He will always bring us hope and lend us help.  We all face difficulties, temptations, and failure at times; but God has promised us the power to become the sons of God.  His promise is true that we can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us!    

Discipleship is a life-long endeavor, and it comes at a cost.  We must be willing to lay down our lives for Jesus’ sake and the sake of the Gospel.  Just how that plays out in our individual lives is a matter between us and the Holy Spirit.  Read Jesus’ Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 to see some of the major ways in which Satan steals the precious Word away from us or hinders its growth.  We must be vigilant and circumspect, not just praying, but watching and praying.  John tells us, “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning.  If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall CONTINUE in the Son, and in the Father.” (1 John 2:24).  Our salvation is just like building a brick house.  We must maintain all of the bricks that we have already laid, but also continue to lay new bricks in place until our house is complete.  In time, we will have a secure habitation in which we can dwell for eternity!