Did You Forget a Step?

If Jesus’ disciples (throughout the centuries) are branches that produce fruit (as the past couple of articles have been exploring from John 15), the next few verses tell us how to produce fruit.

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.
John 15:4‭-‬7 NIV

https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.15.4-7.NIV

Before learning how to “bear much fruit”, though, let’s step back for a moment: Why would we want to produce fruit in the first place?  Let’s defer the question about what the fruit is for the next article, but I think that it’s important to recognize that there is an expectation here that the branches should produce fruit.  For anyone who thinks that the Christian life is about them, or that Jesus came merely to make life cushy and easy for them, they have clearly not read – or not understood – all of the teachings of Jesus.  Walking with Jesus isn’t about claiming salvation and then getting what we want.  It is about serving Him after receiving His salvation.  After all, if we trust Him enough to be our Savior, but don’t believe that His way is the best direction for our lives, what sort of faith is that?

Trying to have Jesus as our Savior but not our Lord makes us ineffective and unproductive for the Kingdom of God.  It’s also selfish: wanting to get something from Jesus, but not being willing to obey Him in return, nor to show the love – the same love as we were shown – to others who need Him.

Jesus is pretty clear how we are going to produce fruit.  This is not by reading the latest book, following our favorite speaker, or working really hard to “do good stuff”.  Specific habits (or “disciplines”) may be helpful, but only as they help us achieve the actual goal that Jesus describes: remaining in Him.

Said another way, our success in life is not a function of us, but rather in how well we connect with Jesus, and stay close to Him.  That results in producing fruit for the kingdom of God, but the power and wisdom to achieve that doesn’t come from us “pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps”, so to speak.

To illustrate this, imagine this world like a blazing fire, like a brush fire or a shed that is burning up.  This world is entrenched in sin (and cursed as a result), and the only thing that can put out this fire is Jesus Christ: His salvation, His relationship with us, His forgiveness, and all of who He is.

If we show up to this conflagration as a firefighter with our fire hose, point it at the fire, and open the valve, that fire is going to continue to burn if we didn’t previously get the hose connected to a working hydrant or pump.

Like a firefighter, followers of Jesus are messengers, stewards, and deliverers of good news and God’s love to a lost and hurting world.  However, we would have no message of good news if Jesus hadn’t first delivered – and been – that good news.  We would have no love to share without having had the love of God extended to us, ourselves.  So, we must connect to the ultimate source of energy – the vine or the hydrant…i.e., the source – before we can expect to do any good in the lives of people around us.

And, when firefighters have their fire hoses connected to a hydrant, it’s no longer dry.  A working hydrant (or fire truck) blasts a huge volume of water, in stark contrast to hoses that aren’t connected to anything.

In (sort of) the same way, Jesus doesn’t just say (see verse 5) that we’re “not quite as effective” when we don’t remain in Him.  He doesn’t indicate that we produce some results when we are on our own.  It sounds like this is an all-or-nothing situation: either we produce “much fruit”, or we “can do nothing”.  That is, if we’re not producing fruit, we’re not merely contributing a little bit less; we are apparently useless enough to be cut off and discarded.

So, let’s make sure that we’re not trying to fix a broken world on our own power, or by teaming up with others who don’t have the solution.  Instead, may we remain in Jesus Christ, and draw all of the power and healing that this world needs from Him!

From Sunday School lesson prepared for January 28, 2024

References:

• The Lookout, January 28, 2024, © 2024 Christian Standard Media.
• Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
• The College Press NIV Commentary – John, by Beauford H. Bryant and Mark S. Krause.  © 1998 College Press Publishing Co.