The Life Of Branches - Life Application Study Bible Devotional
The Life of Branches
John 15:1-8, NKJV
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Setting the Scene
By the time the Last Supper was over, Jesus had given the disciples some powerful and unforgettable verbal pictures to help them understand the radical change that was about to affect their ongoing relationship with him. The picture of a life-giving connection between a vine and its branches would sustain them in the time to come. Very soon, their world would turn upside down with Jesus’ arrest, trial, and death. Then while they were still in shock from those developments, their world would be turned right side up again with Jesus’ resurrection. Eventually they would treasure each of Jesus’ lessons, indelibly confirmed by everything that happened.
Jesus began his teaching on the vine and the branches by identifying the vine. He had just introduced the disciples to the Counselor (John 14:15-18, 25-27), saying, “You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:17, NIV). When Jesus spoke of himself as the vine and his Father as the gardener, although the Counselor/Holy Spirit isn’t specifically mentioned, his presence permeates the scene. The incarnate Son was speaking of his sustaining role in the disciples’ lives that would continue in the Holy Spirit as surely as it had been while he was with them in the flesh. Jesus was speaking to his disciples as well as to all those “who will believe in me through their message” (John 17:20, NIV).
Three types of branches are addressed by Jesus: abiding branches, potential branches, and dead branches. Those who are potential branches (our initial state) find out they will soon be dead branches if no “abiding” connection is made to the vine. The claim of connection is proven true by fruitfulness. Ironically, both fruitful branches and dead ones might appear to get the same treatment from the Gardener. Getting pruned back may look and feel at times like getting pruned off. Generations of believers give us evidence that times of fruitfulness often follow the times of hardship and difficulty that might be described as pruning. The picture of remaining or abiding in the vine sets up the process of seasons of pruning, which Jesus alludes to in 15:3, “You are already clean,” where the term “clean” translates the same word used in the previous verse for “pruning.” This is not a onetime event, but an ongoing process tended to by the Gardener.
While fruitfulness is usually described as a picture of effective spiritual reproduction, it’s worth noting the branches bear fruit, not other branches. Each fruit contains the seeds that might lead to more branches, but fruits are more than seeds. Items such as endurance, answered prayer, love, joy, peace, and more are described as fruit of our Spirit-empowered relationship with Jesus, the vine (see John 15:7, 11-12; Galatians 5:22-24; 2 Peter 1:5-8).
Getting Personal
What are current evidences of fruitfulness in your life?
When did your last round of pruning occur? What result have you seen from that work by the Gardener in your relationship with him?
Remaining or abiding in Christ is not a matter of remembering some time in the past when you were seeking to obey the Lord. The evidence of abiding lies in fruitfulness now, in the present. If you’ve been thinking some old commitment to Christ suffices, give yourself to abiding in Christ today.
Talking to God
Submit yourself to God, the Gardener, for whatever pruning he sees fit. But ask him to help you be aware of the work he is doing in your life, so that you may benefit fully from the “trimming,” for your good and for his glory.
