Bible Reading:  John 15

Abide In Him

In John 15 Jesus uses the analogy of a vine with branches to illustrate an aspect of our relationship with him.  He said he is the vine and we are the branches.  Perhaps he was traveling with his disciples (their mode of travel was walking) and they passed a vineyard.  Jesus often used something common and ordinary to teach spiritual truths so he used the vine to teach his disciples as they were walking along.

Vines and trees have to be pruned regularly if they are to continue to bear an abundant crop and Jesus said “every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”  Sometimes branches have shoots that start growing off them that do not produce fruit and if they are allowed to stay on the branch they suck the sap out of the branch that feeds the productive part of the branch.  These branches are called suckers and are of no value.  Those are the parts that are cut off as well as parts that have died and are no longer producing.  

The analogy is obvious.  We can have things in our lives that are not beneficial and do not produce fruit, the fruit of the Spirit.  They are like suckers in our lives and need to be lopped off just as the suckers on a vine or tree need to be lopped off.  All these things do is suck the spiritual life out of us and take away from our productiveness. Those can be different for each person.  If you ask the Lord to show you what things are hindering you, he will be faithful to point them out to you.  Then you can submit them to him and allow the Holy Spirit to prune you.

In verse 5 Jesus says “If a man (woman) remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”  Continuing with the analogy of the vine and branches, you can’t cut a branch off a tree or vine and set it some place by itself and expect that it will produce fruit.  All it will do is die.  The only way we will bear the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23 – love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) is to stay connected to Christ and the Holy Spirit will begin to produce that fruit in us.

Fruit is produced by abiding in Jesus, not by struggling or striving.  A fruit tree doesn’t go through agony, groan or struggle to bring forth fruit on its branches.  It produces fruit by having it roots firmly planted in the soil and getting adequate water and nutrients.  One year my son and daughter-in-law gave me a prune tree.  About the third year it was loaded with blossoms and began to form the new fruit. I was excited about the fruit we were going to get that year.  Then something began to happen.  The leaves started to wilt and the fruit started to wither.  I couldn’t understand what was happening.  My husband checked on it and gave the tree a little push.  It toppled right over. We weren’t sure exactly what happened, but evidently a disease, some bug or varmint got into the root system and destroyed it so when my husband pushed on the tree it just fell over.  It was in the process of dying.  We need to stay attached to Christ – abide in him – so we will produce fruit without struggle.  It will be something that comes forth out of our relationship with him.  That’s the only way you can really bear fruit.

Ask the Lord to show you if you have areas he wants to prune,, and then stay abiding in him and watch the fruit grow.

God is good all the time,

Naomi Brinkman