I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
The word, “abide” means to accept or to act in accordance with. So when Jesus says that when we “abide” in Him, or accept Him or act in accordance with Him, then he is essentially saying that we need to expect more from our life at the point of acceptance or act of accordance. But when you think about the word “abide” and look at it a bit more closely, you find that “accepting” is a lot different than “acting in accordance with.” I want to explore that idea today because in this simple statement Jesus is pushing us toward a decision, and furthermore a commitment. When we “abide” in Jesus, to “accept” Him into our lives, we are making a choice to be in a relationship with Him. When we make that decision to be in a relationship with Him, we find ourselves in the midst of grace that puts our life ready for fruit.
In the case of “fruit” you can interpret that as anything positive in your life. While Jesus may probably have been referring to spiritual fruit, I want to say that fruit in general is spiritual, from God. Being able and ready for fruit in our lives by the way of accepting Jesus into our lives, is just the beginning. Being able to bear fruit is not the same as bearing “much” fruit. We all know that. Therefore, accepting is just a part of abiding.
The second part in abiding is the “acting in accordance with.” This is the part where all of us struggle. It’s a struggle to be enduring in a relationship with Jesus. I mean, he is God, after all. So here, we are being asked to act in accordance with Jesus. But the only way to act in accordance with Him is to be one with Him, or else how can you know what it means to be acting in accordance with Him? Check out a quiet time from last week to learn more (Speaking for God). However, in general, to act in accordance with God is to get to know Him for who He is. We do that by constantly going back to reach out and for Him because He is reaching back out to us.
We need to be praying to Him because He is listening; we need to be reading His Word because He is speaking to us now, and so on and so forth. In Jesus’ analogy he shows us what an ideal relationship with Jesus would be like– branches to a vine. In that scenario, you find that the branches grow out from the vine and without the vine there is no life to flow through to the branches. We need to accept Jesus, like the branch accepts the vine as its source of life and we need to continue to act in accordance with Jesus as the branches only live as part of the vine.
Today, make it an occasion to abide in Jesus and see that your life was never more fruitful apart from Him.
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