“I came so that they may have life and have it more abundantly” John 10:10.
“I came so that they may have life and have it more abundantly” John 10:10.
The first thing that strikes me about reading this verse, this year, is that I had learned it wrong. I remember it as, “I came so that they may have life in abundance.” Reading this translation makes me think that 1) natural life before an encounter with Christ is already abundant, and 2) after an encounter with Christ, our life should have more abundance. That is actually quite remarkable. The word abundance means “a considerable amount” or “a supply more than sufficient to meet one’s needs,” according to Webster’s Dictionary. So, a life with Christ is actually giving us more than a considerable amount. It is almost like when a millionaire is suddenly catapulted into billionaire status by some new invention or rapid increase in the stock market.
I am often a “worst case scenario” thinker. I like to “problem solve” before a problem actually exists. This fear-based thinking is rooted in the basic human need to survive. Fear is there to help keep us alive. For example, before children learn how to swim, it can be good if they have a natural fear of water to keep them from drowning. However, if someone allows the fear to prevent them from taking swimming lessons and learning to swim, it can actually prevent them from learning an important skill for their own safety as they grow into adulthood. Likewise, when we allow the “monkey-mind”, or survival thinking, to control our daily habits and growth goals, we limit the quality of life that we can create for ourselves.
That is why realizing that Christ came “so that they may have life and have it more abundantly” is so important.
At the beginning of earthly time, “God created humankind in his image… [and] God blessed them” (Genesis 1:27-28). We began life already blessed! We start out in abundance and in a leadership position. From the beginning, we see that God intended us to “have dominion over” a long list of material things that contribute to our survival (Genesis 1:28-30). At Christmas, with the Incarnation of Christ into the world, the Gospel of John tells us that now we can have “life more abundantly”. Essentially, we are now “more” blessed because Christ is in the world.
What does that look like in daily life? It means that through Jesus we can experience our divine nature more fully. Our concerns don’t have to be relegated to only “survival”. In John 10:28, Jesus says, “I give them eternal life”. The word “life” means having vitality, animation, and growth. Jesus is giving us growth and vitality through his spirit. Later in the chapter Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders of his day, and he reminds them of scripture passages where God says that humans are created in the Divine image (Ps. 82:6). Jesus says that Scripture “calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside” (John 10:35).
We can enter into communion with the spirit of Jesus through prayer. The act of praying and meditating on the Word of God elevates us out of our monkey-mind and survival mode. Through prayer, we are able to submit higher thoughts, goals, dreams and ideals to God. Through mediation we are able to silence the daily drudgery, and listen to the voice of Jesus. He says, “my sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). This is prayer and mediation in action. By connecting to our divine nature through our relationship with Jesus in prayer and mediation, we are able to receive the abundant life. The lower mental worries of survival-mode can be quieted through the abundant thinking that we gain in prayer and meditation with Jesus. As Dr. Wayne Dyer famously said, “when we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.”