Day 14 – John15:5-8

Read John ch 15 v5-8.

V5: Again, Jesus is the vine – the source of spiritual life – to the branches, His disciples. Only with this living relationship with Him can Christians truly bear fruit. ‘Apart from Me you can do nothing’ – how we need to learn this at heart level. How often we do rely on our own strength, and so often fail.

V6: This has caused some Christians agonies of doubt – who are these fruitless branches who are cast out and burned? They are not true believers who find themselves weak and fallible – that is true of all of us in some way – but those who, while making some profession of faith, perhaps seeming to be part of the fellowship of a church, have no true saving faith, no living relationship with Christ.( See Matthew 7:21-23.)

V7: Again, in the intimate relationship of true faith, Christ speaks of His Words ‘abiding’ in His disciples – living in them. For us too it is the living Word of God, as by faith we receive it and seek to obey it, which works in our hearts and lives. Then, what we ask, He will answer – but just as in ch14:13, our asking must be in accordance with God’s will, and in a concern for His glory.

V8 : What a wonder of grace, that the God of eternal glory should be glorified if our lives as believers bear fruit – and this is the evidence of a true relationship with Christ as Saviour and Lord! But what is this fruit we are to bear, and how can we bear it? It is the work of the Holy Spirit in us, and it makes us more and more like Christ in character ( Galatians 5:22-23) as we walk by faith in love and obedience. It is seen in lives that honour and obey our Lord, in our witness to the world,
and in our abiding relationship with Him.