What Does It Mean to Abide?

Hi Ladies,

We will be exploring our theme of Abide throughout the entire year, since there is much more to absorb than one devotional thought can hold. So be patient if these weekly bites leave you with questions. 🙂 That is partly my goal, as critical thinking aids learning. You might have heard this before, but it's more important that you learn how to think biblically than that you simply download what I or anyone else thinks. 

How would you go about answering this question: What does it mean to abide?

A reliable English dictionary can be a great starting point. But we are more interested in how the Bible uses the word. And thankfully, we have access to wonderful resources that make this exploration easy! You've heard me talk about Blue Letter Bible. Another great option is the STEP Bible. Both of these resources allow those of us who don't know the original languages to learn more about the original words and then see how and where these words are used throughout the whole of Scripture. If you're not an online user, you can actually buy a Bible with a Strong's concordance for key words. (One of you recently showed me yours. How cool!)

Let me walk you through how I would approach a word study for "abide." I might start with my online Bible just to see how prolific the word is. According to Bible Gateway (an online Bible with multiple translation options), there are 29 instances in the New Testament ("abide/abides"). Click here to see them. All hyperlinks above and below will show you what I'm explaining. You also see on this page that 27 of them are used by John!

That site won't give you the original Hebrew or Greek word or the definition, so I would then go to BLB or STEP and do a word search with "abide." From here, you can read all the verses that contain this word and start to get a sense for the meaning(s) from the verses. But to get to the original word, click on the "tools" button in BLB, or the actual word ("abide") in STEP, and it will take you to the Greek word menō. Both sites give you a multifaceted definition when you click either on the Strong's number (BLB) or on the word itself (STEP). These definitions seek to show you the various ways the word is used and in which passage(s) that sense is used. If you are a grammar lover, it will even tell you all that fun stuff too! 

This search also reveals that menō is used a lot more than 29 times in Scripture. The Greek word gets translated into multiple English words, like "stay, continue, dwell, remain," etc. The STEP Bible gives this definition: "to stay, remain, live, dwell, abide; to be in a state that begins and continues, yet may or may not end or stop. 'To abide in Christ' is to follow his example of a life obedient to the will of God."

In doing this simple exercise, I've come to understand that there is a richness to the meaning of "abide." It's not limited to one description, but rather is full with meaning. As we begin to look at some of these passages in the weeks to come, I hope that your heart will grow in the richness as well! 

Finally, I want to remind you to approach these studies humbly and prayerfully. We're not here simply to fill our heads with smarts. Rather, we are here to learn to treasure the Living Word more and more and abide in Him! So I would encourage you to conclude these study times with prayer, praising God for His character revealed in your study, thanking Him for helping you understand, confessing any sin that your study has exposed, and asking for His help as you seek to rightly apply what you've learned. 

May this become a habit for more of us more and more! ❤️🙏🏼

Anna