“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).

Ten times in John 15 our Lord used the little word if. These references give spiritual insight in many ways. For example: The if of answered prayer. Our text explains that if we truly abide in Christ, “It shall be done unto you.” The condition is to be abiding in Christ. The if of obedience. “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love” (15:10). “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (15:14). “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (14:15). The if of persecution. “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world . . . therefore the world hateth you” (15:18,19). The believer should not be surprised at persecution. “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; If they have kept my sayings, they will keep yours also” (15:20). The if of full revelation of sin. “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloke for their sin. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did,they had not had sin” (15:22,24) Now that Christ, who is the light, has come, those who plead ignorance are without excuse. Sin is quite evident in the light of Christ’s holiness. All are guilty before God. The if of final judgment. “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned” (15:6). “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). To receive Christ is to be blessed forever, to reject Him is to be cursed forever! NPS