John 15:5 “I am the Vine; you are the branches.”
With this metaphor of vine and branches before us, we would do well to ask: Am I really, vitally, savingly united to Christ, as one of the spiritual branches in the living Vine?
It is important to appreciate the force of the first sentence in this chapter. When our Lord said, “I am the true Vine,” the emphasis was on that adjective true, and with good reason. In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel is spoken of again and again as the vine which Jehovah planted and nourished. The Israelites came to look upon themselves as the favoured branches in that vine of Jehovah. But the covenant nation had failed to realise God’s ultimate purpose in the vine.
That vine was blighted by apostasy and degeneracy. It was not enough to be a branch in that vine. There was no saving or regenerating power whatever in simply being a member of the nation of Israel. Christ was the true Israel, the true “Vine”, in whom all the ideals and longings and blessings of the elect nation found their fulfilment and expression.
Even so, today, the church is not the true vine. Catholicism is not the true vine. Protestantism is not the true vine. The various denominations look upon themselves as “branches” in the “true Vine”, yet strictly speaking they are not so.
A man may be an ardent Methodist, a sincere Presbyterian, or a good Baptist, and yet not be in Christ, the “true Vine”. Being a member of a particular church community does not make us living members of Christ Himself. There must be a personal, individual, heart-to-heart union with the living Saviour.
Am I in the “true Vine”? If I am, then am I daily “abiding” in Him? And am I “bearing fruit” for Him, in character, and in acts of service, and in answers to prayer? In this metaphor of vine and branches, our Lord shows us that there are three prerequisites to fruit-bearing.
First, there must be pruning or cleansing. “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. (v.2)
Second, there must be abiding (v4). “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
Third, there must be obedience. (v.10) “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love …”
Yes, there must be this cleansing, abiding, obeying. How, then, are we “cleansed”?
Verse 3 tells us: “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” That word is now to us the Holy Scripture; and that Word, as we read it, and learn it, and respond to it, has a purifying power within us.
How do we “abide”? To abide is to allow nothing into the life which hinders our communion with Christ; to leave no known sin unconfessed, and by prayerful faith to draw upon Him for all strength and wisdom needed to live a Christlike life.
How do I yield the required obedience? Well, to those of us who are already His, our Lord’s one, all-inclusive requirement is: “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you” (verse 12). When we love our brothers and sisters as He did, with a love which seeks only their truest good, even to the point of self-sacrifice, we “fulfil the law of Christ”; we are “cleansed”; we “abide”; and we bear “much fruit.” May it be so, Lord!