#12. March 23, 2015
2015 Devotional. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.
John 15:5
“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.”
The purpose of the Gospel of John is to show that Jesus is the Son of God and that His ministry is evangelistic. See John 20: 29-31. Further, Jesus spent much of his time with those considered to be the down and out of proper society of the day. It is surprising therefore that many churches and many Christians spend very little time evangelizing or seeking out sinners as Jesus did and what, Biblically speaking, Jesus still expects from believers. We are to be like Jesus as the following metaphor teaches.
“I am the Vine“ is the last of Jesus’ seven “I am” statements in the Gospel of John. I list them here: 1.“the bread of life” Jn. 6:35; 2. “the light of the world” Jn. 8:12; 3.“the gate” Jn.10:9; 4. “the good shepherd” Jn. 10:11; 5. “the resurrection and the life” Jn.11: 25; 6. “the way and the truth and the life” Jn. 14:6.
The theme of this passage, Jn.15: 5 begins in v. 1 and continues through v.8. (Jn.15:1-8) Jesus begins with “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” Jesus is the true vine in distinction from other vine metaphors used in Scripture. God, the gardener does the pruning of unproductive branches on the vine “so that it (they) will be even more fruitful”. That means that the branch is cut back but still has the ability to produce fruit. The bad part of the branch is cut away along with the bad fruit that God rejects like sexual sins, arrogance and pride plus a host of other worldly action Christians sometimes participate in: (see Galatians 5:19-21, but also see I Cor. 3:11-15). What kind of fruit is Jesus talking about? It is not the salvation of the believer because Jesus says: “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you”. But he says: “No branch can bear fruit by itself “. Jesus must be in us and we must be in Him.
In v. 5 Jesus repeats his statement indicating the importance of what he is saying: “If a man (women) remains in me and I in him (her) he (she) will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”. That may be hard to hear for some who depend too much on themselves. What kind of fruit is Jesus talking about? Surely Jesus means the fruit of the Spirit, Gal 5: 22-23. I believe it is more than that because the fruit of the Spirit shows those around us what Jesus is like. That he is not condemning but compassionate, loving, and encouraging, and seeking the lost. Is Jesus not like his Father? “For God so loved the world that He gave”…. You know the verses by heart. (John 3:16-18) I believe that is the fruit Jesus is referring to and that is the fruit, along with the fruit of the Spirit that glorifies God! The words of Jesus in us witnesses Jesus to the world. We “are letters from Christ” (II Cor. 3: 2- 6) “read by everybody” Therefore, we ask God for what we want in order to produce more fruit and He gives us all we need to that end. Praise be to God!
Heavenhigh 