Meditation

Hi there,

The metaphor of Jesus as the "true vine" and His father as the 'gardener" or "vine-dresser" as other translations have it, fully evokes the truth that Jesus is the source of our power to serve God and his Kingdom.

We are the branches, and as such, we are subject to his discipline and conditioning. We must be managed, modeled, cleaned, and pruned in order to bear more fruit for the kingdom.

Our dependence on Jesus is even more completely described with this analogy than with other familiar analogies like the sheep and the shepherd or a child depending on its father.

The branch has no spiritual life and no purpose outside of the vine and the father tends to the vine with the express purpose of cultivating and improving it. Unlike these other analogies, the vine isn't merely innocent and needy; it is pregnant with potential.

A potential that Jesus sustains and amplifies...so long as we commit to remaining in him.

Today's text is John 15:5-7 and is shown in black. I've added the full passage for context in grey.

The Vine and the Branches

“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, as I also 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.

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.

6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

17 This is my command: Love each other.

Encouragement

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

Andy

P.S. Apologies for the mistake I made yesterday, stating that the passage was verses 1-6 when in fact it was 1-4!

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