John 15:1-12
1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
2 He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
3 You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
4 Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.
6 Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
8 By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
9 As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.
10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.
11 "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
12 This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
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Since I got in the ballpark yesterday, here is the parable of the vine and the branches. It doesn’t get much more beautiful than this. These words should be familiar to all. The concept is very simple – remain in me, and you will bear fruit. MUCH fruit. All we need to do is remain in the vine. I think of the vine as a power grid. We just need to stay plugged into it.
Verse 10 is very specific - to remain in Christ's love, we are to obey his commandments.
If we move to far from the outlet (ie, disobey his commandments), we pull our plugs out. When that happens, we need to come back and reconnect to Christ.
Check out verse 2 though – we are pruned so that we bear more fruit. I can personally verify that I have been pruned a couple of times, and it isn’t necessarily pleasant while it’s happening. Yet later on I’ve been able to see what had happened.
