I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides
in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can
do nothing. John 15:5
This is an old
favorite of mine, and I suspect it's the same for some of you. Here, Jesus
explains a basic principle of being a Christian, abiding in Him. There have
been some who have made this too complicated by making the idea of 'abiding in
Christ' something mysterious. The word that John wrote here simply means to
stay or remain. And it is translated in that way often. What Jesus is talking
about is for us to remain in Him, to continue to be connected to Him in the way
that a branch is connected to its vine. And just as a branch that does that
will be fruitful, so will the Christian who stays connected to Jesus.
So, what does it
take to stay connected to Jesus? It starts with His decision to abide in, stay
connected to, us. It always starts with His grace. And since that's the case,
what we need to do to stay connected with Him is all about prayer. We stay
connected to Jesus by praying that we will be granted the grace to do exactly
that.
What motivates that
kind of prayer is something else that Jesus says here. 'Apart from me you can
do nothing.' It is when a Christian grasps the truth that trying to live in any
way independent of Jesus, trying to live expecting that one's own resources will
be good enough, is just so much foolishness - that's when he will pray
something like, 'Lord Jesus, keep me close to You. Make it clearer and clearer
to me how dependent on You I actually am. I ask for this so that, connected to
You, I will bear good fruit for Your kingdom.'