I am the vine, ye [are] the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, *he* bears much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.
Jesus uses a picture from a vineyard to show His disciples where fruit for God comes from. Everything depends on staying joined to Him. It raises two questions the commentators keep returning to. What is this "fruit," and what does it mean to abide?
The Vine That Takes Israel's Place
The disciples already knew a vine — their own nation. Commentators read this verse as Christ taking its place.
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.
Branches on Earth, Not the Body in Heaven
Writers warn against mixing this picture up with another one — the church as a body joined to Christ its Head. The two teach different things.
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.
What the Fruit Is
If "much fruit" meant sermons, converts or visible activity, the verse would belong to a talented few. Commentators point somewhere else.
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.
That definition changes who can bear fruit.
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.
Abiding: Dependence That Comes First
The verse joins two things — our abiding in Him, and His abiding in us. Writers note that one follows the other.
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.
Another writer spells out what abiding leans on, and what pulls against it.
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.
"Apart from Me You Can Do Nothing"
The last words of the verse leave no exceptions. Commentators show how little separation it takes to prove them true.
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.
There is also a warning against turning fruit itself into the goal.
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.
Summary
- Vine. Israel was God's vine on earth and bore nothing. Christ now stands in that place, with the Father as the gardener.
- Branch. This picture is about responsibility and fruit on earth. That is not the same as the church's unfailing union with Christ in glory.
- Fruit. Not gift, service or results, but the character of Christ formed in us. That puts fruit within reach of every believer, young or old.
- Abiding. Clinging to Him and counting on Him; His abiding in us follows ours in Him, never the reverse.
- Nothing. Separation as thin as gold leaf ends all fruit — so the aim is never fruit itself, but Christ, from whom the fruit comes.