The Way of Man

“I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.”

Perhaps the prophet Jeremiah had been reading the book of Proverbs when he made this statement. There, Solomon wrote these words: “A man’s steps are from the Lord; how then can man understand his way?” Solomon wondered about it. Jeremiah simply asserted it.

Either way, left to our own devices, we are blind men groping in the dark. In this life, the word of God is our only unerring guide.

This explains so much about the world around us, and it also explains why the New Testament scriptures so frequently encourage daily dependence on the Lord, seeking his direction rather than our own natural, human wisdom.

John and Abiding

The teaching about abiding in Christ is unique to the apostle John. Nobody else in the NT uses the Greek word menō the way John does: to describe a spiritual state of being in which the risen Christ calls the shots for us rather than we ourselves. John used the word 40 times in his gospel, seven times in the context of abiding in Christ or his word, as well as an additional 27 in his epistles, of which six refer to variations on the same experience.

The word menō is quite common. It’s not some special religious term. It simply means to stay in place, to continue, or not to leave one’s situation.

The first occurrence of menō in John’s gospel is at the baptism of the Lord Jesus, where the word appears twice. The test by which Messiah might be identified was this: the Spirit would descend and “abide” [menō] on him. Sure enough, John testified that he saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and rest upon the Lord Jesus. He never mentions seeing him leave, probably for the very good reason that he never did. The Lord Jesus was the perfect resting place for the Spirit of God. There was nothing in him to disturb the Spirit’s rest.

That is what the word signifies: to stay put like that dove.

My Abiding Place

To abide in Christ is to make him your place of habitation, your place of rest, the place where you stop moving and stay put. It’s to make his will the answer to every question in life about where, when and what, so far as we are able to discern his will from his word.

To abide in his word is to keep obeying it regardless of the real-world outcome, which may on occasion be less than desirable, at least from a short-sighted human perspective. After all, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” To live in Christ Jesus is to abide in him, just as he instructed. There will be a cost to that occasionally. Scripture teaches it’s well worth it.

Flesh and Blood

Abiding in Christ means feeding on his flesh and drinking his blood. That’s not the horrible, gory thing our Lord’s detractors imagined it to be, or the detestable literalism of the high churches. It simply means that our Lord becomes our source of spiritual sustenance, our daily fountain of life, strength and good health for our hearts and selves. It involves occupying ourselves with him at every possible moment, and continually returning to his word to remind ourselves of who he is, what he says he desires of us, and what he would do in any given situation.

In the most practical sense, it involves eating his figurative flesh and blood, the bread and wine spread before us weekly when we gather. If we do not remember him as he requested, then we are not abiding in him. It’s just that simple. Of course, it’s possible for those excluded from a physical table for one reason or another to abide in Christ in their hearts, just as it’s possible to sit around the table physically and do no “abiding” at all. But this abiding in spirit is an act of the will, a conscious choice to remember and contemplate him. It does not happen by accident.

Abiding and Fruit

Abiding in Christ is the source of all spiritual productivity. “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is who bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” The one who will not abide in Christ is a useless servant. He produces nothing of value, though he may thrash around performing all manner of apparently spiritual activity. Detached from the vine, the branch withers and can bear nothing.

Abiding in His Word and Love

Abiding in the word of Christ is the source of all truth and freedom. It is the mark of true discipleship. The free man no longer practices sin. It may temporarily entice him, but it cannot enslave him. Abiding in his love is another way of putting much the same thing. It is accomplished by “keeping my commandments”, in other words, by abiding in his word, consuming it and performing it whenever opportunity allows.

Walking and Abiding

The paradoxes of the Christian faith are many. Here’s another: a successful Christian walk involves staying put. You can’t move forward effectively without abiding. Years ago, U2 wrote a song called Running to Stand Still. This is the opposite: standing still in order to move forward. A walk that pleases God is the walk of a man who abides in Christ, and “whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked”.

If you can get your head around that one, you are getting somewhere.

Moving Forward by Staying Put

But this takes us back to Jeremiah, and our original verse. Why abide in Christ? Because it is not in man to direct his steps. We don’t know where we’re going. We can’t predict the consequences of our choices. That’s the way the universe is constituted, and it’s not about to change because we have some bright new idea of our own. We need to be in constant consultation with one who knows the end from the beginning. That will never be you or me.

Once we realize how entirely incapable we are of directing our own lives, living in daily dependence on Christ to do it for us becomes the only reasonable option.

If you want to move forward in the Christian life, start staying put.