Abide in Me, and I in you.

John 15 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. ⁵ I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. ⁹ Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. ¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

¹² “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. ¹⁷ This I command you, that you love one another.

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ He who hates Me hates My Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. ²⁵ But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

²⁶ “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, ²⁷ and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

For the disciple of Christ, it is not enough that we live a life of worship and devotion. Certainly that is important and foundational, because in Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment.”   In today’s text Jesus says:  “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”   So if we are disciples, we must also bear fruit for the kingdom. Jesus says:  “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”   We tend to think that bearing fruit for the kingdom means that we are in ministry; that we are evangelizing and making disciples of Christ, and that is something we are called and commisioned by Jesus to do. In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus says:  “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  In Mark 16:15 He says:  “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation,” and in Acts 1:8 He says:  “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”  Still, before we bear fruit for the kingdom, evidenced in the lives of others, we must bear fruit in our own lives, to be seen by others. Galatians 5:22-23 says:  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  These are the fruits which must be evident; that we must bear in our lives if we hope to bear fruit by changing the lives of others.

Look again at what Jesus says:  “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”   We often think that these branches that are taken away are the unfaithful or unbelievers, but Jesus says that these branches are in Him. It is the removal of all that is unfruitful in our lives that He is talking about. It is the taking away of everything that in not like Christ from our lives. Then, even what is fruitful, He prunes to make better. Even as we are in Christ, the continuing process of sanctification works in us, to make us more like Christ. A fruit tree or vine is not trimmed and pruned only once, but rather it is pruned after every season of growth, so that it will produce more in the next season. Sometimes it is the newer growth that needs to be pruned and other times it is older parts that are no longer productive and are cut away. In the same way, we also need constantly to be pruned so that only what is the most productive remains. Sometimes it may seem difficult if the Lord needs to remove something that has been established in us for a long time, something that perhaps was once good. We need to trust the vinedresser.

Jesus says:  “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”  Here is where we differ from a natural tree or vine. Unlike the branch which is attached, we have a choice of whether or not we will abide in Christ. Jesus says:  “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”  Now we see the consequence of those who are not only unfruitful, but choose to live apart from Christ. These may know Jesus, but they do not abide in Him. Just as sap from the branch sustains the vine, so too, when we are in Christ do we have His blood and His Spirit sustaining us.

One of the greatest misconceptions in the church today is the idea that for us to bear fruit for the kingdom, we must not only love the world but we must also make sure that the world loves us. Living a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, does not mean that the world will love us. Those are all characteristics of Jesus life when He was here, and He says:  “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’”   Jesus doesn’t ask us to try to make the world love either ourselves or Him. He asks that we bear fruit in our own lives, to demonstrate the love of God to the world. Romans 5:8 says:  God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The fruit in our own lives is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The purpose of that fruit is to demonstrate the love of God to the world that they might know that: God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit; thank You that as I abide with You and in You, it is Your blood that flows through my veins. It is Your Spirit which sustains and guides me. It is You that continually, lovingly removes what is unfruitful from me, so that the world may see the fruit of the Spirit in my life, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, so that they will know Your love demonstrated in the cross. Amen