Remaining

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

REMAINING

John 15:1-4

15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will 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.

NIV

These are very well known words of Jesus. Many sermons have been preached from these words. Again we see Jesus speaking metaphorically calling himself the vine and Father the gardener and us the branches. The idea here is anyone who does not bear gets cut off. To be cut off would mean the branch is no longer connected to the vine and the branch apart from the vine would wither up and die. The only way to remain alive is to remain attached to the vine and in doing so must bear fruit. Now, of course, because we are fruit-bearing branches, the Gardener, the Father prunes us to we bear much fruit. It is for certain we cannot bear any fruit without the vine. This should give the fact that any so-called fruit, any appearance of love, joy, peace or any of the fruit of the Spirit from someone who is not a believer in Jesus Christ, not connected to the vine are false. It is impossible to bear any true fruit unless a person remains in Christ. On the other hand, because we are in Christ because we are remaining in the vine, we will bear fruit. It is not fruit we bear because we produce it. We bear fruit because we are in the vine, it is the Fruit of the Spirit. All the goodness of the branch is a result of what comes up to it from the vine. This pruning by the Father is altogether another matter. There are areas on the branches that need to be pruned to they will produce even more fruit. What that looks like is God working in our life to remove some the dead areas, the little saplings, or suckers, as tree experts call them, which take energy from the good areas of the branch. They do not produce anything, but just drain the life-giving sap from the rest of the branch. These are areas in our life which drain us, which are bad habits, useless endeavors, being attentive to the ways of the world. God prunes those areas out of our life if we are remaining in the vine and we bear even more fruit. It is all about remaining.