John 15

The Vine and the Branches

 ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

   ⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 

They were clean because of His Word.  In Ch. 13 we saw that He washed their feet—how when our feet are washed by the Word we are able to walk in Christ.  We recognized this as a once and then repeated process.  First, we must be washed by the blood of Jesus, and then we must be continuously washed by His Word.  In this way we are able to walk in Christ.  Now we see that another step has to be followed.  We must “remain” in Christ, and He in us, so that we can be fruitful. 

In this we see a responsibility to do something so that we can have a part in this thing called faith.  Salvation is free, and we only need accept it.  Sanctification is free, a side benefit of abiding.  But abiding in Christ is something only we can do ourselves.  I can only abide for me, as you can only abide for you.  Much as we’d like to, we can only abide in Him for ourselves.  I know there are many people in my life that I would love to be able to bring in, but it’s not possible.  You can graft in other varieties of grapes into the vine, but you can’t graft in a banana tree branch, for example.  The fruit would not grow.  The withered branch is useless.  When a person becomes unfruitful, it’s a sad thing.

I said that we must do the abiding, but that is only partly true.  We can only abide if we let the Spirit in to do this.  He wants to abide in Christ, so it’s easy, as long as it’s your will too. 

I think we can forget that we must “abide” in order to bear fruit.  There are times in my life that I become dependent upon myself for my own ability to “do” ministry.  We become competent, so that we can generate a product (as far as the world sees.)  Our confidence is in ourselves and our own abilities.  But our joy is missing, or we have little satisfaction, and we don’t sense God’s pleasure in what we’re doing.  That’s when you can tell you’ve been outside of the Vine.  We’ve become dried up, withered branches, of little use to the Gardener.  Ask for refreshing, and He’ll have you grafted in again before you know it. 

⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

The contrast is startling!  Worth vs. worthlessness, life and death!  We’re His, so He can do with us as He wills…but if we will not remain in Christ, we are useless to the Lord.  Our whole purpose is to bear fruit, so that God can give Jesus an inheritance: all those we bring to God on the last day.  Everything you are, think of it!  All your gifts and talents and abilities, how you relate to others, your personality, all of this has been deliberately shaped by God so that you can be a fruit-bearing Tree of Life to others. 

My dear beloved friends, how can we neglect this?  What does the world have by comparison?  We must remain in the Vine and bear Him fruit for eternal life. 

I challenge you to examine your own fruit.  How do you feel about your ministry unto the Lord right now?  Is it thriving?  Are you thriving?  Are there things you know you should do but haven’t felt like it?  Remain in Him, and watch it all take off!  Success for the sake of success is empty.  But if your desire is that you succeed in doing the very thing God wants done, and you rely on Him to do it, you will have a very satisfying experience!

I pray that you will experience Jesus, the true Vine, as you abide in Him, and that you will be to the praise of God as we stand before Him in a short while.