John 15:4–10

The word 'abide' is used by John very frequently. It is rendered in different ways. Sometimes it is 'remain' and at other times it is 'continue', but all having the same basic meaning.

Fruitfulness is promoted by abiding in Christ. What does it really mean to do this? It may be more easily understood if we say, "Keep close to the Lord! Draw all your resources from Him." In the book of Acts 11:23 one of the Lord's servants, Barnabas by name, urged the believers "to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose." The word "remain faithful" [older versions: "cleave"] is the same word as "abide" in the original.

First, we see what alone is enough for the fruit required. It is what the very nature of a branch implies — to abide in the vine. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. If the branch does not abide in the vine, the vine — the vine-sap — cannot abide in the branch. That is why the Lord's words come in this order: "Abide in Me, and I in you." "Abide in Me" — that is the command, the responsibility; "and I in you" — that will be the assured result.

Here the Lord insists on more. We must depend on Him and be close to Him. This is to abide in Christ… He, and He only, is the dwelling-place for the soul in this world of traps and danger, in this desert where there is no water. Make Him the resource, make Him the object. Then the sap, as it were, flows without hindrance, and the branch bears fruit. Without Him no teaching works, and all religious excitement fails. Bring Him in, trust Him, and He sustains the heart, and fruit-bearing follows — no matter what the difficulty, the pain, the shame, the opposition or the slander.

No — that is not the meaning of these words. What they teach is that the only possible way of fruit-bearing is to abide in Christ, as a branch abides in the vine. And the one evidence of abiding in Christ is fruit-bearing… It is not a question of a branch abiding in Christ today and not tomorrow. It is a question of two sorts of branches: the fruit-bearing branches and the non-fruit-bearing branches. It is a question of what claims to be for the Lord on earth, and in that sense everyone who claims His name is a branch. But if there is no living union with Him there will be no fruit, and such a branch will in the end be cast out, as Judas was.

Heavenly grace forms that one body by the one Spirit, united to the glorified Head. There we do not hear of tearing, wounding, or cutting off… Responsibility on earth under divine government is another thing. The Vine and its branches teach that, not the unfailing heavenly relationship of the Church.

Is it your fruit-bearing or Christ? If it is your fruit-bearing, it is self-occupation, and as a result the fruit will be poor in both quantity and quality. But if you have learnt what He means when He says, "Apart from ME you can do nothing," and so have turned wholly to Him — the Source of your life, strength and energy — fruit will not be lacking. You abide in Him when you realise that you can't do without Him, and when you know that all you need is in Him. Two words cover it. He is INDISPENSABLE to you, and He is ALL-SUFFICIENT.

You will abide in Him HABITUALLY when you know His love as greater than all other loves, Himself better than the brightest and best below… The secret of constant abiding in Him is simply the knowledge of His love.

The disciples were used to thinking of Israel as the vine the Lord had planted. He brought it out of Egypt and planted it in the land He had chosen... Here the Lord sets Israel aside altogether and puts Himself in the place of that fruitless vine. Christ is the True Vine, and His Father is the gardener who tends it. This is not His work in heaven as Advocate (John 13). Nor is it His coming as our Hope, to place us with Himself in the Father's house (John 14). It is His relation to His own people on earth, for bearing fruit. Christ is all.

The relation of head and body serves quite another purpose in Scripture, and we must keep the two completely separate... There it is the church seen as the object of Christ's unfailing love, until He presents it to Himself in glory. Responsibility on earth, under God's rule, is another thing. The Vine and its branches teach that responsibility, not the unfailing heavenly relationship of the Church.

Fruit is the character of Christ reproduced in the lives of His disciples. We read in Galatians 5:22 that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." These are the very qualities that marked Christ in His life here on earth... Fruit, then, is not preaching and teaching, or different forms of service. In this passage it is not even souls won for Christ through preaching. It is the beautiful qualities of Christ seen in the people who are won. Yet a person can be very active in Christian service and still show little of the character of Christ.

If service and work were fruit, then only those with gift and ability could bear it. But if fruit is the character of Christ, then every believer can bear fruit, from the oldest to the youngest — and it is a privilege to do so.

All the resources of the Father are in the Son, and we can only draw on those resources as we abide in Him. The Son's abiding in us is the consequence of our abiding in Him.

To abide in Him supposes not merely distrust of ourselves, but clinging to Him and counting on Him. Every influence around us is against this; every natural feeling no less so... We need Him, and we cannot do without Him for the smallest things any more than the greatest. But there is more — He also draws us by His own excellence.

Take any branch in the whole vine, however impressive or wide-spreading it looks. Cut it off from the main stem by no more than the thickness of a sheet of gold leaf, and it cannot produce the smallest atom of fruit. We must keep a living sense of our union with Christ. That means abiding in Him by faith in a practical way — day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Only then can we bear fruit that God accepts.

Fruit is not produced by making fruit an object, or by thinking about fruit; it is the outcome of having Christ as an object, of thinking of Him. Christ comes before fruit.

The Lord's words here say little about Christianity in its heavenly relations. This is not about relationship with Christ in heaven, as members of His body by the Holy Spirit — a vital relationship that cannot be broken. It is about relationship with Christ on earth, through the profession of discipleship. That profession may be real, or it may be only a claim. So the Lord speaks of two kinds of branches: those that have life and prove it by bearing fruit, and those that have no life, which are thrown out and burned.

It hardly needs saying that the relation of head and body serves quite another purpose in Scripture. It must be kept completely separate. Heavenly grace forms that one body by the one Spirit, united to the glorified Head. There we never hear of tearing, wounding, or cutting off. It is the church seen as the object of Christ's unfailing love, until He presents it to Himself in glory. Responsibility on earth under God's government is another thing. That, not the unfailing heavenly relationship of the church, is what the Vine and its branches teach.

He has been addressing the Eleven as true branches of the vine, and He will address them that way again. But in the word of warning He changes from "you" to "a man"... Should a real believer then fear that this might be his own end? The wording of verse 6 clearly shows that none of the Eleven were in view. Suppose the Lord had said, "If you do not abide in Me." Then there might be some excuse for the serious mistake that a real believer could be lost after all — a child of God today, a lost soul tomorrow. But the Lord's language was guarded.

In the picture the Lord uses, the vinedresser does not deal with the dead branch Himself. Others deal with it. So the Father does not deal with the fruitless and therefore lifeless professing Christian. Under the government of God, those who carry out His judgment deal with him. And here the branch is not "taken away" but "thrown away," "withers," "thrown into the fire," and "burned."

Withering follows, because the sap of the divine Spirit is withdrawn. That sap flows to believers through their vital union with their great Head. Note the contrast. A branch in Him is fruitful and productive. Thrown out as unfruitful, it then withered by itself.

There was an empty place at the table. Judas, the twelfth, had just left. He was already on his way to the high priest's palace, working out how many pieces of silver he would sell Jesus for — and Jesus knows it.

Since Christ is the only source of fruit, to abandon Him is fatal. So it was with Judas... The Calvinist is afraid he will compromise his doctrines of grace. The Arminian is eager to press his advantage on the side of falling away. So the first tends to dodge the solemn warning of personal ruin and final judgment given here. The second argues that the passage means a saved soul may be lost after all.

It was someone who had come out from the world and had followed Christ. But there was no attraction of heart, no power of faith, and therefore no dependence on Christ; and this is the sentence the Lord pronounces on all such people, whether in that day or in any other.

Here the larger subject is how vital it is that Christ's words abide in us: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you." First comes the person, then the expression of His mind. Prayer follows: "ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." Prayer does not come first, for it must not take the place of Christ, or of understanding His mind. Christ Himself is the prime object. Then come His words, forming the heart fully according to His thoughts and will. Last comes the going out of the heart to the Father, resting on both Christ and His revealed mind, with the assurance attached that it would come to pass for them.

Here the Lord insists on more — the necessity and the importance of dependence on Him, of intimacy with Himself. This is to abide in Christ, and His word is, "Abide in me, and I in you." This is not sovereign grace to the sinner. It is His call to the disciple. So His abiding in us, as a matter of daily communion, depends on our abiding in Him. "As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." Outwardly nothing is simpler than this fact. Inwardly nothing is surer in our experience than that it works the same way. He, and He only, is the dwelling-place for the soul in this world of snares and danger, in this desert where there is no water.

What, then, is meant by having His word abiding in us? Here it means nothing less than that His words should have found their home in our hearts, and in such a way that they have formed our thoughts. Or rather, because they fill us with divine thoughts, they have produced the mind of Christ in us. So the very desires we express in prayer are only the expression of His own mind and will. That is why He can say, "ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

There is one more element in John 15:7, "and my words abide in you." My mind and will are directed by Christ's words. The words of Christ abide in me. That being so, I ask whatever I wish and it will be done for me. Divine power is at my disposal if I am directed by Christ's will, if what He says is what I am doing and nothing else. We ask whatever we wish when these words have power in us. This is not asking wrongly, as in James. If He answers such a prayer, it is in discipline. Still, it is an immense thing, if I am doing God's will, to have God's power at my disposal, to be able to wield His power in the path of obedience.

This is often a puzzle to many of us, for we often ask and do not get what we pray for. The difficulty vanishes when we see that the asking here is not for ourselves or our affairs, but for what concerns His interests and His testimony on the earth. The Father and the Son had put their affairs into the disciples' hands. In these chapters the disciples are seen as being in that business, so that their prayers and asking serve the interests of the business, if we may venture to speak that way.

This is sometimes spoken of as a lower kind of prayer, but the slightest examination of the terms our Lord uses will dispel the misunderstanding.

What then does the Lord mean when He speaks of fruit? May we not say that fruit is all that in our lives which is agreeable to God? It follows that only that which is of Christ in us can be for the Father's delight. We may therefore say that fruit is the character of Christ reproduced in the lives of His disciples. We read in Galatians 5:22 that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." These are the very qualities that marked Christ in His path down here. They called forth the Father's expression of pleasure, for the voice from heaven said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." So fruit is not simply preaching and teaching. It is not activity in different forms of service. In this passage it is not even souls won for Christ through the preaching. It is the beautiful qualities of Christ seen in the souls that are won.

Fruit-bearing is more what one is than what one does. It is being something for God, not doing something for Him. Bearing fruit for God has to do with character and Christ-likeness rather than service.

When the Son was in this world, the Father looked down on Him. In His every movement He found what delighted His heart. Fruit is the visible display of the features of eternal life. To us, in picture, it is the life of the vine producing its own fruit in the branches. We who abide in Him have His life so that we may reproduce His features. When we do, the Father is now glorified in the saints as He was ever glorified in the Son.

Not only is the fruit itself for the Father's glory, but He is glorified by His working with us as the gardener to produce this fruit. Notice that we are not told to bear fruit, but to abide in Him. This abiding produces fruit on its own.

So it becomes clear that fruit is not produced by making fruit an object, or by thinking of fruit. It is the outcome of having Christ as an object, of thinking of Him. Christ precedes fruit.

The bud is the early evidence of life in a tree. The blossom brings out the sweet fragrance of that life, and the fruit is its mature expression. So also have we these things in the believer; but there is also fruit, more fruit, and much fruit. It is the much fruit that glorifies the Father and shows discipleship. The Father watches over the disciples of Christ, just as a gardener watches and cares for the branches of the vine. He disciplines them (Hebrews 12:5-11) to remove from us everything that would hinder the life of Jesus from showing. No doubt the Father is glorified in every bit of fruit we bear, for anything that shows Christ glorifies the Father. But nothing less than much fruit is what the Father and the Son desire from every believer.

He would touch our hearts with another thought: His Father will be glorified when we bear much fruit. And we shall become such as He can count true disciples of His own. A precious inducement! In it He appeals to our hearts, and expects them to respond to affection so well proved.

Finally, as we bear fruit, so we shall become witnesses to Christ Himself. Showing His character, it will become clear to all the world that we are His disciples.

He gives us, as the only measure of the love with which He loves us, the Father's love for Himself, His well-beloved Son. We may well say, "it surpasses knowledge." And His love never changes. It is "the same yesterday" — when He first set His heart upon us, dead in our sins — "today, and forever." Our understanding of it may change, but His love never can.

This is not just the eternal love of the Father to the Son. It is divine love to one walking in this world, whose word was, "I always do the things that are pleasing to him." This love took up the disciples as they walked down here. He could put them in the same relation to Himself that He was in to His Father.

This was a love that entered into all the sorrows of His path, all the hostility He had to meet, and the sufferings He had to endure. In the same way, Christ loves us with a love that enters into all our trials. It feels for us in perfect sympathy in all our sorrows. In our case it also bears with us in all our failures, and restores our souls when we have wandered far from Him. Whatever we have to meet, we can count on a love that never changes and will continue to the end.

The love of Christ rests on the way of obedience, and shines along the path of His commandments. Keeping His commandments does not create the love, any more than walking in sunny places creates the sunshine. So the call is not to seek or earn or gain the love. It is to remain in it, by continuing in the state and life to which alone it belongs.

If there is in us a spirit of simple obedience to Him, we abide in His love. If we do a thing because He said it, we abide in His love.

When He had said "abide in Me," life is more prominent — that is, to depend on Him for the life by which to bear fruit. But to abide in His love emphasises that love as the dwelling of the soul. It is the warm, precious comfort of communion with One who delights in the fellowship of His own.

If we walk in disobedience we have a condemning heart, and we grieve the Holy Spirit. Then our own failures fill our minds instead of the love of Christ. But if we walk in obedience, we keep our closeness to Him, and our confidence in Him remains unbroken.

A man may be very dry in his soul, unlovely and unloving, and yet be a separate man... Think of a Christian who becomes fault-finding, critical of others, and harsh in his judgments. He sets up his own opinions — or perhaps his own conscience — as a standard for others. One thing is certain: he has not been breathing the atmosphere of love that keeps the soul fresh and makes us patient and kind.

The love of Christ rests on the way of obedience, and shines along the path of His commandments. Keeping His commandments does not create the love, any more than walking in sunny places creates the sunshine. So we are not told to seek or earn or gain the love. We are told to remain in it by continuing in the state and life to which alone it belongs.

So far as we walk in a way that pleases Him, we abide in Christ's love, and the heart is always going out to Him. It does not say His love abides, for that never changes.

"His commandments" are not the tables of the law, but the various communications by which the Lord has shown the perfection of His divine Person. The words, the precepts, and commandments that came from His mouth were the expression of the life He lived here on earth. They now become the light that directs that life in us. The law says, "Do this, and you will live." On that footing no one has obeyed. But Christ, who was the life, obeyed. Being in Christ through grace we inherit this position. We receive from Him a life freely given, which places us and leads us in the path of obedience. Christ who obeyed is our life.

It is not here simply the eternal love of the Father to the Son. It is divine love to One walking in this world, whose word was, "I always do the things that are pleasing to him." This same love took up the disciples as they walked here on earth. He could put them in the same relation to Himself that He was in to His Father... He gives Himself as our example: "just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." I need not say how He remained in it! ... If there is in us a spirit of simple obedience to Him, we abide in His love. If we do a thing because He said it, we abide in His love.

If we walk in disobedience we have a condemning heart, and this grieves the Holy Spirit. So we are taken up with our own failures and not with the love of Christ. But if we walk in obedience, we stay close to Him, and our confidence in Him remains unbroken. An obedient child lives close to his father in happiness, and enjoys the love that belongs to a son with his father. A disobedient child still knows his father loves him. But he does not enjoy that closeness, which is the privilege of every obedient child.

The result is this. Where there is carelessness in one who belongs to Christ, in a living branch of the vine, the Father as the gardener prunes him in judgment. Where habitual obedience is found, there is habitual enjoyment of Christ's love.