4/5 Through the Bible in Devotions

John 15

“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (v. 5)

The subject of this chapter is “fruit bearing”. The Lord wants us to
be fruitful” and to bear fruit unto Him, thereby glorifying the Father, “in His name”. Jesus pictures Himself as the vine from which we, the branches, spring out. As branches, we are part of the vine, but a weaker part, the strength of the vine is in the thick stem. The branches reach out unto other areas, but the vine nourishes the branch and allows it to grow. Without the vine, the branch can do nothing. If one were to cut off the branch, it would die without the nourishment of the vine; it can no longer grow, or be fed without the vine. Jesus teaches us that we are nothing without Him; we are nothing at all, but especially when it comes to fruit-bearing. The branch that is separated from the vine cannot bear any fruit, and the fruit that it might have had already will die. The Lord wants everlasting fruit from us. In the first five verses we see an important progression:

In v. 2, we see that we are to “bear fruit”;
Also, in the end of v. 2, we see that we are to bear “more fruit”;
And in v. 5 we see that the Lord wants “much fruit”.

Then in v. 16, “that your fruit should remain”.

In order to bear fruit, we must work. When we go to the grocery store to buy fruit, we do not see the work that went into picking it; processing it; canning it, and etc, but we know there was a lot of work involved to get that fruit to us. So it is with the Lord. We will not bear fruit through osmosis. Verse 8 tells us that, when all is working well, the Father is glorified by our bearing of “much fruit”; hence, we can assume that whatever glorifies the Father is also fruit. There are many ways to do that, but probably the best way is to win others to Christ, and disciple them to establish them, and assure the lasting fruit that the Lord desires. As we become fruit-bearers for the Lord, let us remember the progression mentioned above; fruit, more fruit, much fruit, then fruit that remains. Here we see, in a nutshell, the process of soul-winning, and bearing fruit unto the Lord. Just as the lord commanded Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis to “go forth and multiply” we too are admonished to do so, in the spiritual realm. We “multiply” ourselves by pointing others to Christ, and adding to His kingdom. This both multiplies us, and glorifies the Father.