John 15:1-5 (ESV) “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 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.”
This is part of the Upper Room Discourse, where Jesus is giving His final encouragement and instructions to His disciples. Jesus knows He will be captured this evening and crucified the following day. What do you think He would have to say?
In these five verses, Jesus is telling His disciples that their strength to bear fruit comes only from Him. He is the source of our spiritual nourishment, and Him alone. It also speaks of the Father as the vinedresser, the one who tends the vineyard, pulls the weeds, cleanses the branches and leaves, harvests the fruit, and prunes the vines to produce more fruit and better fruit.
I don’t believe this is speaking of the power of the Holy Spirit within us. I think it is speaking of the strength Jesus gives us to accomplish the ministry (produce the fruit) He has for us to do.
The fruit we produce can manifest itself in at least two ways: it can be found in our lives as the fruit of the Spirit we see in Galatians 5:22: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I personally see this as a sort of dashboard with gauges, one for each of the fruits, and needles pointing to a level I am at. They show whether I am progressing or losing ground. I check these gauges frequently to see how I’m doing and if I’m allowing God to produce fruit in me.
Turning back to the vinedresser, He prunes the branches. He cuts away the “sucker” growth, the growth that draws away the nourishment from the branches and causes the fruit to be of poorer quality. We Christians are often drawn from the work God has for us. We’re pulled away by competing interests. Some are good, some are bad.
My wife and I were anxious to serve God in the church we attended years ago, and as a result, we said “yes” to just about everything that was asked of us. Before long, we were burned out. Yes, God had areas where He wanted us to serve, but not in all the areas where we were serving. Unsure what to do, we left that church. Though we had joined another church, we missed the people and returned more than a year later. We had made an agreement between the two of us, though, to only work in ministries where we were sure God had called us. This gave us renewed strength, renewed nourishment from the vine, to accomplish the things we were called to do.
I think God gives us just the nourishment to do these things. Doing much more saps the strength we’ve been given, and our callings suffer. These other things may even be God’s work, but for someone else’s service, not ours. In taking on that ministry, we may be robbing a brother or sister of the joy of serving where God wants them.
Why is this important?
Drawing our nourishment from the Vine, Jesus, gives us the strength to do His will in our lives. When we venture into someone else’s area of service, we can lose some of that strength, and our own ministry suffers. It can even cause others to lose the reward of God’s grace and power in performing the service where God has called them.
Of course, we Christians are anxious to serve our Lord. Because we love him, we want to please Him. What we don’t want is to do several things poorly – some of which are not ours to do – when we should do only the few things God has asked of us and do them well.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 