“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 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.
“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. 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. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 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. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. 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. 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. This is my command: Love each other. - John 15:1-17
The key word for this section is remain: We remain in Jesus. He remains in us. There is a unity, facilitated by the Holy Spirit (see John 14:16,20) but it seems to be something that vary. His remaining in us does not change, but our remaining in Jesus seems to be able to wax and wain. What are the symptoms of this variability? Our obedience (15:10) and our fruitfulness (vs. 8). If we take the fruit to be similar to that listed in Galatians 5:22-23, then this makes sense because John ties his commands back to: Love each other as I have loved you.
At this point, we are in Sunday School-land: God loves us so we should each other. I think that is because we don't think fruit has a cost. How much of the God-infused life is required to be fruitful in other people's lives? We miss verse 13, where Jesus tells his disciples that "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." If it was easy to being loving, joyful, patient, peaceful, forgiving, etc. then Jesus' words would have just provoked a "Duh" moment. To provide our fruit to those who are unlovable, depressing, impulsive, quarrelsome, and unforgiving, is even more difficult, but it is exactly that which shows that we are changed and that we are connected to Jesus.
Sometimes, I try to imagine what it would be like for the connectedness to Jesus and the fruit of the Spirit to simply flow from me naturally, like I was speaking my native language. It isn't my native language. My normal expression is some weird pidgin conglomeration of who I was and who I am becoming. But this thought exercise produces in me a longing for the better, giving self that Jesus is trying to produce in me. Sometimes when I am struggling, I will pray for that natural part of remaining in Christ, and strive towards it, however imperfectly.
We remain in his love. In the previous chapter, Jesus has told his disciples that he is going away and they freak out. Then he tells them that he will leave them the Holy Spirit and by the Spirit's means we will realize that "I am in my Father, and you are in me and I am in you." Almost a duplicate of what he tells them in this passage in John 15.
Remember you did not choose me, no I have chosen you
Remember you did not choose me, no I have chosen you
The world will show you hatred, the Spirit show you truthThat where I am, there you may also be - That Where I Am, There You, Rick Mullins
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