LIFE IN THE VINE

I’m out on a limb…and I’m not Shirley MacLaine.

“I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing” (John 15:5 Amplified Bible).

When John wrote the fourth Gospel he was not writing for the saints at the headquarters church in Jerusalem, he was writing to help new believers get grounded in their faith. John lived in Ephesus in what then was considered Asia Minor (Turkey) and was helping to pastor the growing church there. The focus of his writing was to assist these newly saved grow in faith while living in a community that was overtly hostile to Christianity.

I am convinced that it is extremely important for a believer to prioritize his devotional life. Everything else in the believer’s spiritual life is secondary; it may be important but not as much as being tightly connected to the Author and Finisher of our faith. The devotional life makes or breaks the successful walk with God.

John begins this verse with a clear declaration of identity: “I am the Vine; you are the branches.” The question and struggle over identity goes right back to the Garden (Genesis 3:5) and the age-old struggle of man wanting to be like God. John highlights Jesus’ statement because he understands that until the identity issue is settled, there can be no forward progress. There can only be one Vine but lots of branches. So this has to be settled: “He is the Vine and I am the branch! He is God and I am not!”

One reason I stress so strongly in my writing and teaching the importance of the devotional life is clearly spelled out in this verse. Fruitfulness comes from the relationship of the individual with Jesus. The branch draws life from the Vine and from that life comes fruit. Before a branch can be fruitful, it must be in continual contact with the Vine. We draw life from Him and then we give out to others and it cannot be otherwise. The vine feeds and nourishes the branch. “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit” (NIV).

I am concerned for the sloppy Charismatics who think that going to a meeting once a week, singing, dancing, praying out loud in tongues and occasionally falling on the floor is all that is needed to fill up their spiritual batteries. There is nothing wrong with a lively prayer and worship service but that does not, I repeat, does not, replace the importance of your regular personal time with Him. And then there are the laid-back, ultra-cool evangelicals who come to church most Sundays in jeans and T-shirts, carrying a big cup of coffee and smiling as they listen to the rock-and-roll worship band and the 25-minute teaching. For many of them, that is the totality of their spiritual life. To them, Jesus is worth sixty minutes on Sunday morning as long as the pastor is cool, the worship band really rocks, and they can have a cup of coffee at the same time. Pretty sad commentary on the state of spiritual vitality flowing into these lives.

Try this experiment! Get a knife or a pair of scissors and go into your yard. Pick out a small hedge or a plant and cut off one of the smaller branches. Put that little cutting on a piece of paper in a safe place and see what happens over the next couple of days. Some of you are shaking your heads, saying, “This is silly. I know exactly what will happen. Once the branch is disconnected from the plant, it will begin to die,” and you are exactly right. The point is very clear—Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches and disconnected from Him we are helpless. We cannot survive, we will wither and die, because “apart from me you can do nothing” (NIV).

The little cutting that we set aside to view is now dead. Within hours dryness began to set in and within a few days the cutting dried up and withered. The possibility of it ever being fruitful is over and gone. So it is with the man (or woman) who habitually neglects his personal communication with the Savior. Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” The Greek for nothing is nothing. Apart from the Vine there is no fruitfulness that counts. Dryness in us does not begin as quickly as it does in that little plant, but don’t fool yourself, it will start and continue unless we get back to being connected to Him.

“No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (15:4b)