John chapter 14 was all about the presentation of Jesus’ grace to us. Chapter 15 is about our responsibility to that grace. It presents us with the image of the vine and its branches. The vine is a picture type of Israel, and the main job of the vine is to produce fruit.

As the church, Christians are grafted into the vine, so we become part of it and are therefore also expected to produce fruit (Romans 11:17).

The picture changes slightly here and Jesus tells us that He is the vine, and we are the branches. The branches can do nothing by themselves, they must be in the vine to live. We must dwell in Christ if we want to live in Him and bear fruit (v. 4).

Jesus tells us that the branches on the vine will be pruned; the fruit bearing ones so that they bear more fruit, and the non-fruit bearing ones which will be pruned so that they do not affect the health of the fruit bearing branches.

 The branches do not produce the fruit, they bear the fruit. We cannot produce fruit in our lives, Jesus does that, we just bear the fruit; as He says, “without Me you can do nothing” (v.5).

In Galatians 5:22 - 23 Paul tells us of the fruit of the Spirit. We cannot bear this fruit if we do not abide in Christ, but if we do abide in Christ, then we will bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Christ Jesus has given this privilege to all believers, let us make Him smile today as we allow Him to produce fruit in us, and bear it for the Father’s joy.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to dwell closely with You today, so that You can produce fruit in my life. Amen