作者： 傅格森 （ Sinclair B. Ferguson） 翻译：小草
对“住在基督里”的劝诫经常被误解，好像这是一种特殊的，神秘的，无法确定的经历。但耶稣明确指出，它实际上涉及许多具体的现实。
首先，与我们的主联合取决于祂的恩典。当然，我们借着信心主动地、亲自地与基督联合（约14:12）。但信心本身是基于神的作为。天父就好像是神圣的园丁，把我们嫁接到基督里。基督借着祂的圣言洁净了我们，使我们能与祂联合（15：3）。所有的这一切都是神主权的恩典。
第二，与基督的联合意味着遵从祂。住在基督里涉及到我们对耶稣教导的回应：“你们若常在我里面、我的话也常在你们里面。”（约15：7）保罗在歌罗西书3:16中回应了这个观点，在那里他写道：“把基督的道理、丰丰富富的存在心里”，这节经文与保罗在以弗所书5:18中的平行劝勉密切相关：“乃要被圣灵充满。”
简而言之，住在基督里意味着祂的话充满我们的心，指导我们的意志，改变我们的情感。换句话说，我们与基督的关系与我们对圣经的关系密切相关！然后，当然，当基督的话语住在我们里面，并且圣灵充满我们时，我们将开始以合上帝旨意的方式祷告，也将发现我们的主常被误用的这个应许的真正意思：“凡你们所愿意的、祈求就给你们成就。”（约15：7）
第三，基督强调了进一步的原则，“你们要常在我的爱里”（约15：9），并且非常清楚地说明了这意味着什么：信徒将自己的生命安息在基督的爱上（基督的爱乃是为祂的朋友舍命 第13节）。
基督的十字架上已经证明了这种爱。我们绝不能让自己从日常对十字架的注视中偏离出去，基督的十架是无可辩驳的爱的证明，我们也不可以偏离对圣灵的依靠，圣灵乃是“将神的爱浇灌在我们心里”（罗5：5）。此外，留在基督的爱中有非常具体的表现：对基督单纯的顺服是爱祂的果子和证据（ 约15：10-14）。
最后，作为住在基督里这一过程的一部分，我们得顺服神护理中的修剪刀，祂要除去所有的不忠诚，有时甚至是一切不重要的，以便我们可以更加全心全意地住在基督里。
英文原文：
What Does it Mean to Abide in Christ?
The exhortation to “abide” has been frequently misunderstood, as though it were a special, mystical, and indefinable experience. But Jesus makes clear that it actually involves a number of concrete realities.
First, union with our Lord depends on His grace. Of course we are actively and personally united to Christ by faith (John 14:12). But faith itself is rooted in the activity of God. It is the Father who, as the divine Gardener, has grafted us into Christ. It is Christ, by His Word, who has cleansed us to fit us for union with Himself (15:3). All is sovereign, all is of grace.
Second, union with Christ means being obedient to Him. Abiding involves our response to the teaching of Jesus: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you …” (John 15:7a). Paul echoes this idea in Colossians 3:16, where he writes, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,” a statement closely related to his parallel exhortation in Ephesians 5:18: “be filled with the Spirit.”
In a nutshell, abiding in Christ means allowing His Word to fill our minds, direct our wills, and transform our affections. In other words, our relationship to Christ is intimately connected to what we do with our Bibles! Then, of course, as Christ’s Word dwells in us and the Spirit fills us, we will begin to pray in a way consistent with the will of God and discover the truth of our Lord’s often misapplied promise: “You will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7b).
Third, Christ underlines a further principle, “Abide in My love” (15:9), and states very clearly what this implies: the believer rests his or her life on the love of Christ (the love of the One who lays down His life for His friends, v. 13).
This love has been proved to us in the cross of Christ. We must never allow ourselves to drift from daily contemplation of the cross as the irrefutable demonstration of that love, or from dependence on the Spirit who sheds it abroad in our hearts (Rom. 5:5). Furthermore, remaining in Christ’s love comes to very concrete expression: simple obedience rendered to Him is the fruit and evidence of love for Him (John 15:10–14).
Finally, we are called, as part of the abiding process, to submit to the pruning knife of God in the providences by which He cuts away all disloyalty and sometimes all that is unimportant, in order that we might remain in Christ all the more wholeheartedly.
网址：https://www.ligonier.org/blog/what-does-it-mean-abide-christ