John 15:1-8
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
7 If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”
Introduction
In this parable Jesus uses the image of a vine to teach us a number of things. In the parable the vine represents Jesus, the vinedresser represents the Father and the branches represent people or human beings. And the main aim of the parable is to teach us about the Father’s purpose for us to bear fruit and how that is achieved.
Sadly, this parable is sometimes misunderstood. This is partly because of poor translations and partly because of a lack of a true understanding of the gospel. But I think that this is one of the most important parables in the gospels and it’s important that we understand it. To achieve this, I want to take you through the parable step by step to explain the key elements in it and then I will explain what it means for us.
But before I do that, we must first look at the context. These 8 verses are part of a long discourse by Jesus at the Last Supper. It is followed by Jesus praying and then his arrest and trial. He was speaking to his disciples. And if you are a disciple, a believer, then this is for you too.
Exegesis of the text
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
One of the popular translations used today is the NIV but it does not translate this verse very well because it uses the words, ‘He cuts off’. This can give the wrong impression of what the Father does to these branches. For this teaching, I have used the NASB translation which provides a better translation of the Greek verb 'airo' by using the words ‘takes away’. Alternatively, 'airo' can be translated as ‘raise up’ or ‘lift away’. I am assuming that you are aware that the New Testament was originally written in Koine Greek.
What Jesus actually said was, “He raises up every branch in Me that bears no fruit.” To appreciate this, you need to picture in your mind a vine with a vinedresser tending to it in an effort to get the branches to produce fruit. So, Jesus is saying that, if you aren’t producing fruit in your life, the Father lifts you up (encourages you), cleanses you (of sin) and exposes you to the light (the Word) so that you will produce fruit. In other words, if you’re not producing fruit in your life, the Father will help you so that you can produce fruit.
Then in the same verse Jesus tells us that the Father ‘prunes’ those who are producing fruit. Now, when most of us think of pruning, we think about cutting away. And when applied to ourselves it sounds painful. However, there is nothing to fear about the Father’s pruning. The original Greek verb actually means ‘to purge’ or ‘to cleanse’. It is in fact the process of sanctification or being made like Jesus. The Father prunes us to be more like Jesus by cleansing us from sin. Sin gets in the way of our fellowship with Jesus and needs to be cleansed from our lives. So, remember that the purpose of the pruning is to draw us closer to Jesus so that we produce more fruit.
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
Without knowing what pruning is, this verse can seem out of place. But once we understand that pruning is about cleansing, this verse fits in perfectly. However, if Jesus is talking about being cleansed in verse 2, why does he say, “You are already clean” in verse 3. The answer lies in something that Jesus said earlier at the Last Supper. It was a conversation he had with Simon Peter. Let’s take a look at it:
6 So He (Jesus) came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realise now, but you will understand hereafter.”
8 Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”
10 Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed only needs to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”
11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
John 13:6-11
Jesus washes the disciples’ feet to teach them symbolically something very important. And that lesson is revealed in the conversation He has with Simon Peter. The key to this is found in verse 10 when Jesus declares that they are clean. He is saying this about all of the disciples, except Judas Iscariot. In what sense are they clean? Jesus is talking about sin. He is saying that they have been cleansed of sin. In other words, they have been justified or born again. And even though they are completely clean they still need to have their feet washed because their feet will still get dirty. Remember this all about sin. So, the dirty feet is referring to the occasional sins they will commit after they have been justified. They remain justified, clothed in righteousness, but they will still need to have sins forgiven as they follow Jesus. This is known as sanctification.
So, when Jesus tells them in John 15:3 that they are already clean He is reminding them of what He said earlier.
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
The word ‘abide’ occurs 3 times in this verse and it’s important that we understand just what it means. To abide means to live in or dwell and includes the sense of being dependent upon. It comes from the Greek word, 'Meno' and it means to ‘make your home in’.
So what Jesus is saying is that we need to have a close, dependant relationship with Jesus if we are going to produce fruit in our lives.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
The meaning of the latter part of this verse becomes clearer if we substitute the words, ‘apart from’ with the word ‘without’.
In other words, Jesus is saying that we cannot do anything good without him.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
If we’re not careful we can misunderstand what Jesus is saying in this verse. When some Christians read this verse, they think that Jesus is saying that if they stop abiding in Jesus, they will lose their salvation and go to Hell. But that’s not what Jesus is saying. Once again, if we are going to understand this verse. we need a proper understanding of the gospel and we need to take into account other things that Jesus said.
Remember:
- We have ‘eternal life’
- We are safe in His hands
- There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
- A Christian is someone who is ‘in Christ’ or abides in Christ
And remember what Jesus said about ‘sheep in wolves clothing’, tares and wheat, sheep and goats, etc. Note also that Jesus does not say, ‘If anyone stops abiding in me.’ A Christian can be defined as someone who abides in Jesus; a non-Christian does not abide in Jesus.
No, verse 6 is not about Christians. It cannot be. It is about unbelievers who appear to be Christians but who are not Christians. Remember that Judas Iscariot was a disciple who followed Jesus but Jesus said that he was not a true believer. This verse is about the judgement of unbelievers who will be cast into the lake of fire. It is about those unbelievers who claim to be Christians but to whom Jesus will say “I never knew you”.
8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”
The first thing that Jesus tells us in this verse is that the Father doesn’t just want us to produce fruit in our lives. He wants us to produce much fruit. As to what this fruit is: we’ll come back to that later.
The second thing that Jesus tells us is that this fruit proves that we are his disciples. This is useful because it is a source of assurance for us and it helps us to identify other Christians. “You will know them by their fruits.” (Matt 7:16)
How do we produce fruit?
This parable is all about producing fruit. Jesus tells us that the Father wants us to be fruitful. One of the most important functions of our Christian lives is to be fruitful and the Father is the prime mover in achieving this.
So how does he do it? Firstly, He teaches us that we can do nothing good without Jesus. This is one of the most important lessons that we all need to learn. All Christians produce fruit; they can’t help it. But the amount of fruit we produce depends upon us recognising and acting upon the truth that we can do nothing good without Jesus.
Secondly, the Father prunes or cleanses us. The Father cleanses us from sin. He makes us more and more like Jesus.
Thirdly, the Father lifts us up. He builds us up and equips us. He encourages us and gives us assurance. He is gracious towards us.
So what is the fruit?
In general terms fruit means the product, outworking or the results of. Fruit can be the product or result of specific situations. For instance, the fruit of a musician is the music they produce, the fruit of an evangelist is saved souls and the fruit of a cook is the meal they create.
However, the principal fruit that the Father wants all of us to produce is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is the out working of the presence of Jesus in us through the Holy Spirit. It is the character of Jesus manifest in our life. This fruit is described in Galatians 5:22-23:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
So are you bearing fruit in your life?
If you are a Christian, you will bear fruit; it’s just a matter of time.
The Father will make sure that you do. He will either lift you up into the light or prune you.
If you have been going to a church for a long time and there is no evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in your life, you need to make sure that you become a true Christian.
On the other hand, if you are bearing fruit, remember that the Father wants you to produce even more:
- You need to understand and put into practice the truth that you can do nothing good without Jesus.
- You need to co-operate with and encourage the Father’s pruning in your life.
- Whenever you sin, you need to confess your sins.
- And you need to seek a close, dependant relationship with Jesus.
And finally, I would urge you to receive the message that Jesus has for you through this parable and then you will bear much fruit.