If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall come to pass to you.
The Lord has been speaking of the vine and the branches. Now He gives a promise so wide it can unsettle a reader. Everything depends on the two conditions He sets first, and on what they do to the person who asks.
The Order Christ Sets
The verse has a sequence, and the sequence is the teaching. Prayer comes third, not first.
Here the larger subject is how vital it is that Christ's words abide in us: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you." First comes the person, then the expression of His mind. Prayer follows: "ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." Prayer does not come first, for it must not take the place of Christ, or of understanding His mind. Christ Himself is the prime object. Then come His words, forming the heart fully according to His thoughts and will. Last comes the going out of the heart to the Father, resting on both Christ and His revealed mind, with the assurance attached that it would come to pass for them.
Abiding Means Depending
The first condition is dependence. To abide in Christ is to keep leaning on Him, and the branch shows how complete that leaning is.
Here the Lord insists on more — the necessity and the importance of dependence on Him, of intimacy with Himself. This is to abide in Christ, and His word is, "Abide in me, and I in you." This is not sovereign grace to the sinner. It is His call to the disciple. So His abiding in us, as a matter of daily communion, depends on our abiding in Him. "As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." Outwardly nothing is simpler than this fact. Inwardly nothing is surer in our experience than that it works the same way. He, and He only, is the dwelling-place for the soul in this world of snares and danger, in this desert where there is no water.
Words That Find a Home
The second condition goes deeper. His words settle inside a person and reshape what that person wants.
What, then, is meant by having His word abiding in us? Here it means nothing less than that His words should have found their home in our hearts, and in such a way that they have formed our thoughts. Or rather, because they fill us with divine thoughts, they have produced the mind of Christ in us. So the very desires we express in prayer are only the expression of His own mind and will. That is why He can say, "ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."
Why the Promise Is Not a Blank Cheque
When Christ's words direct the will, the promise puts God's power behind a life of obedience.
There is one more element in John 15:7, "and my words abide in you." My mind and will are directed by Christ's words. The words of Christ abide in me. That being so, I ask whatever I wish and it will be done for me. Divine power is at my disposal if I am directed by Christ's will, if what He says is what I am doing and nothing else. We ask whatever we wish when these words have power in us. This is not asking wrongly, as in James. If He answers such a prayer, it is in discipline. Still, it is an immense thing, if I am doing God's will, to have God's power at my disposal, to be able to wield His power in the path of obedience.
What This Prayer Asks For
Many ask and do not get what they prayed for. One writer finds the answer in what the asking here covers.
This is often a puzzle to many of us, for we often ask and do not get what we pray for. The difficulty vanishes when we see that the asking here is not for ourselves or our affairs, but for what concerns His interests and His testimony on the earth. The Father and the Son had put their affairs into the disciples' hands. In these chapters the disciples are seen as being in that business, so that their prayers and asking serve the interests of the business, if we may venture to speak that way.
Commentators differ on how far to narrow this. Others treat the promise as covering the full range of a believer's requests, insisting the double condition already guarantees the prayer is right.
This is sometimes spoken of as a lower kind of prayer, but the slightest examination of the terms our Lord uses will dispel the misunderstanding.
Summary
- Person first. Christ comes first, then His words, then prayer. Asking never takes the place of either.
- Abide means depend. Abiding is daily dependence on Christ and closeness to Him. It is His call to every disciple, as the branch stays in the vine.
- Words reshape wanting. When His words make their home in us, they form the mind of Christ in us. Then the desires we voice in prayer already express His will.
- Then power is at hand. If His will directs us, God's power is at our disposal on the path of obedience. Asking wrongly is the opposite, and He may answer that only as discipline.
- Aimed at His interests. The asking here concerns His interests and His testimony on the earth, not our own affairs. That explains much unanswered prayer.