The True Vine
No matter how ambitious a branch may be, it can never bear fruit outside of the Vine. Jesus knows this and that’s why He said in John 15 verse 4 that if we remain in Him, He will remain in us.
Memory Verse: John 15:1-2
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He cuts off; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Jesus was speaking to his disciples in John 15 and He started by saying - I am the True Vine. He also went ahead to introduce His Father as the Vinedresser also known as Gardener and in verse 5, He introduced us as the branches.
Jesus used this agricultural-based illustration to explain to us what His relationship with us is and what our relationship with Him and His Father is too.
As branches, we are connected to Him. He is the very core of our existence. The nutrients that a branch needs are gotten straight from the Vine.
When a branch is bearing fruits, the vinedresser comes and prunes it. Pruning is a way to keep the branch as healthy as possible so that it bears even more fruits than it used to.
As Christians, bearing good fruits means doing what the Lord impresses in our hearts: to serve, to love, to share, to pray for others, to forgive, and to preach Christ not only by our words but also by our lives.
We love fruits, especially when they are fresh and sweet. Won’t it be absolutely beautiful to bear such good fruits in our lives as well?
But when a branch is not bearing fruit, the Vinedresser cuts it out, gathers all other dead branches and burns them up.
As brutal as this may seem, that’s the reality of anyone who chooses to stay disconnected from Jesus, the Vine.
No matter how ambitious a branch may be, it can never bear fruit outside of the Vine. Jesus knows this and that’s why He said in verse 4 that if we remain in Him, He will remain in us. We cannot do without Him.
Your next question may be - How do I ensure that I remain in Him and He remains in me?
Jesus already knew you’d ask this question and that’s why He answered it by Himself in verse 7 - and here He said -
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you then you will ask for anything you wish and you shall have it.”
Jesus is saying clearly that how He remains in us is through His words and how we remain in Him is through faith. This implies that if we do not know the Word of God, then we do not have Jesus in us.
Simply put, a Scripture-bankrupt you is a ‘Jesus-less’ you.
Mind you, merely knowing or hearing God’s Word without doing what it says to do is equally futile. The essence of studying His Word daily is so we become transformed and not just so we can check it off our to-do list as a task that we’ve carried out.
James 1:22 buttresses this point perfectly and it says -
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
To fulfil our purpose in life, we need to be connected to Jesus, the True Vine. There’s no value that life has outside of Him. In Him we stay refreshed and fruitful, outside of Him, we face emptiness and eventual destruction.
In Deuteronomy 30:19, God said -
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.
We are being called today to choose life and I hope you make the right choice.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, I desire to stay connected to You, the True Vine. Let Your Word dwell in me richly and let it produce in me good fruits that will last. Amen.
Yesterday we looked at the topic - The Lord is my Light.
If you didn’t get a chance to read it, you can still do so today.
God bless you!