Week 35 John 8
Jesus was talking to some attentive Jewish people and he told them: if you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine.
I had a sense that John used the word “abide” quite a bit in his writing so I checked my word book. In the NT:
• Abide is used ~20 times (~16 by John (in his gospel & letters))
• Abides ~28 times (~23 by John)
• Abiding ~6 times (~4 by John)
John uses the word about 43 out of 54 times – roughly 80%.
“Abide” is the term that’s used in the bible I’m reading but it’s a bit of a tricky word. It has a couple of meanings (for example it can mean put-up-with). And even if I use what I think is John’s meaning here – stay or hold-on or stick-around – the word “abide” isn’t too commonly used (at least not around here).
I checked a bunch of different versions to see what they did with John 8:31:
• Abide is used ~12 times
• Continue ~28 times
• Remain / remain faithful ~10 times
• Obey ~9 times.
Overall I like the idea of continuing. Persisting. Carrying-through.
if you continue in my word…
…if you remain faithful to my teaching
if you keep on obeying what I have said…
In any case I think John’s main idea is that even though it would be possible to adopt Jesus in a temporary or faddish way (like taking up watercolour painting or Chinese cooking) it’s not recommended.
Note: quotes from John 8:31 (NASB CSB CEB CEV)