Apart from the Son we can do nothing (v. 5). A branch of a vine cannot live by itself, for it will wither and die apart from the vine. The relationship between the branches and the vine pictures the relationship between us and the Lord. We are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing apart from Him. What we are, what we have, and what we do must be only in the Lord and by the Lord in us. It is very important for us to abide in the Lord and for the Lord to abide in us. Otherwise, we shall be finished and be nothing. Apart from Him we are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing. Since we are the branches to the Lord and the Lord is the vine to us, we must abide in Him and let Him abide in us.
As we abide in the Lord, we must allow His words to abide in us (v. 7). The Greek word for words in this verse is rhema,meaning the instant and present spoken word. To let the Lord’s instant words abide in us is quite demanding. The Son desires to spread His abiding in us. As He abides in us, He is always speaking. This speaking is the rhema, the instant word. He speaks mainly one word to us—no. However, at times His speaking is a requirement or a demand. How we need to love Him and keep His instant words! When He speaks the instant rhema, we must listen to it and keep it. If we do not keep this instant word, we shall immediately be cut off from the fellowship. But if we do keep it, we shall absorb all of the riches of His fullness, of His life, and have an overflow of life for fruit-bearing.
In verses 4 and 5 the Lord tells us that He abides in us, but in verse 7 He changes the wording a little to say that His words abide in us. Instead of Christ Himself abiding in us, now it is His words abiding in us. Why did the Lord change “Abide in Me and I in you” to “Abide in Me and My words abide in you”? It is because the Lord’s abiding by itself is too mysterious and too objective. Just to say that the Lord abides in us is something that is too far beyond us. For example, when the Lord told the Jewish people that He is the food and the bread of life and that people can eat and feed on Him as the living food and the living bread, the Jews were astonished and surprised, being unable to understand. They asked themselves what it meant to eat and feed on Him. Then the Lord Jesus told them that His flesh is the real meat and His blood is the real drink (6:55). The Lord simply meant that He had to die, for His blood had to be separated from His flesh. He had to die so that He could impart Himself to us through death and resurrection. The Lord said all of this in view of the background of the Jewish Passover. During the Passover the Jews always slew the lamb, sprinkled its blood on the doorpost, and fed upon its flesh. Knowing that the Jews had such a background, the Lord intended that they should understand what He said. Hence, the Lord said that His flesh is eatable and His blood drinkable. Nevertheless, they could not understand and asked one another how this man could give them His flesh to eat. Then the Lord pointed out to them that the flesh profits nothing, that it is the Spirit who gives life (6:63). The Lord even said that the words that He speaks are spirit and life.
By this we can see where the Lord is and what He is. You may say that the Lord is in the heavens and that He is the Spirit and life. You are right, but even this is too spiritual, mysterious, and objective. The problem is how to make this real to us, how to make it subjective and available to us. It needs to be substantial instead of spiritual, available instead of mysterious, and profitable instead of doctrinal. Yes, we know that the Lord is the vine, that we are the branches, and that if we abide in Him He will certainly abide in us. But the problem is where and what the Lord is today. In other words, how can He practically be available to us?
In order for the Lord to abide in us, it is necessary to let His words abide in us. The only possible way for the Lord to be practical to us is by His words. By what means did we hear the gospel and receive the Lord as our Savior? It was by His words. When we received His word, we actually received the Lord Himself because the Lord is in His word and He Himself is the Word. According to the same principle, if we want to allow the Lord to abide in us, we must let His words abide in us. Now, since we have in our hands the Scriptures which are full of the Lord’s words, we should not say that the Lord is far from us, that He is still mysterious, or that He is still so spiritual instead of being substantial. Praise the Lord that we have something very substantial, available, and practical in our hands. We have the Word. We can read the Word and receive it with our heart and our spirit. We can contact the word of the Lord in our spirit day by day and even moment by moment. As long as we are contacting the Lord’s word, we are contacting the Lord Himself.
As we have already pointed out, in verse 7 the term words in the Greek language is rhema, not logos. Logos is the written word, but rhema is the present word, the word that is spoken to you by the Lord for a particular purpose at that very moment. According to our experience, if we keep ourselves in the fellowship of the Lord, we have rhema within from the Lord all of the time. Logos is the outward word as a message spoken or written; rhema is the present, inward word. We have logos in our hands, but we have rhema in our spirit. Logos is the written word as the expression of the living Christ; rhema is the word spoken within us by the Spirit of Christ just at the time we need it. For example, perhaps while you are fellowshipping with another brother, something within tells you to stop talking. This is rhema. Perhaps you are thinking about a certain matter that you want to do today, but again something within you tells you not to do it. This also is rhema.
We should not vaguely say that we abide in Christ and that Christ abides in us. We must be more precise and realize that we must deal with two kinds of words—the outward word and the inward word, the word in the Scriptures that is outside of us and the word in the spirit that is within us. If we say that we are going to abide in Christ and let Christ abide in us, certainly we must deal with both kinds of words. If we fail to understand these two different words, it will be impossible to keep ourselves in contact with the Lord, and it will be absolutely impossible for us to abide in the Lord and for the Lord to abide in us. Therefore, we must deal with the written word without and the living word within, because by the written word without we have the explanation, definition, and expression of the mysterious Lord and by the living word within we have the experience of the abiding Christ and the presence of the practical Lord.
The Lord is very mysterious. For this reason, we can never understand Him by our imagination. Rather, we must read the sixty-six books of the Bible. We must read these sixty-six books word by word because all of the words express, explain, and define our mysterious Lord. If we want to know Him, we must know the Word and how to deal with the Word. But, on the other hand, the Spirit is within us, giving us some living words at the right time to meet our needs. At the very hour of our need, the Spirit within us gives us a timely word for our particular case. The inner rhema always corresponds with the outer logos. The Spirit speaking the rhema within never speaks differently from the written logos. The outer logos and the inner rhema always correspond with each other, and many times the inner rhema interprets the outer logos. Perhaps you read the written logos in the morning but fail to understand it or to apply it to yourself in a living way. While you are working, the Spirit anoints you from within with the word, giving you the right meaning and even the right emphasis. You sense the living rhema with its living emphasis by the Spirit. As a result, you not only understand it in your mind but also apprehend it in your spirit. Now the outward, written word becomes the living word within your spirit. You can experience it and apply it in your life. In this way the logos becomes the rhema; the outer word becomes the inner word. We need to attend to the living rhema within, allowing it to have its full way within us. In order to allow the living word to have its free way within us, we must go along with it. In other words, we must be very submissive and obedient to the living rhema that is speaking now within us. Concentrating on the inner rhema will make the living Lord so real to us in our spirit. It will make Christ so available and practical. We shall sense the moving and the working of the Lord who energizes us inwardly.