Abide in Meby Jeff Robb

Reflection

Jesus spoke these words on the night before He was crucified. He had shared the last supper with His disciples, washed their feet, and told them He was going away. Then He gave them this picture. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

Vines were everywhere in that land. Everyone knew how they worked. The branch is joined to the vine, and the life of the vine flows into the branch. Cut the branch off, and it doesn't matter how healthy it looked a moment ago. It will wither.

So Jesus says, Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

To abide means to remain. To stay. To make your home. Jesus isn't asking His disciples to visit Him now and then. He is asking them to live in Him, the way a branch lives in a vine.

Then verse five. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Notice that the branch doesn't strain to produce grapes. Fruit is what happens when a branch stays connected. That takes a lot of pressure off. Our job isn't to manufacture spiritual results by sheer effort. Our job is to stay close to Jesus. The fruit comes from Him.

And notice how strong the last phrase is. Without me ye can do nothing. Not a little less. Nothing. That's humbling, but it's also freeing. We were never meant to do this on our own.

How do we abide? Jesus gives a clue a few verses later. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you. Abiding happens as His words live in us. Through reading and hearing scripture, through prayer, through obeying what He says, and through worship with His people.

It's Sunday, a good day to reconnect. Whatever the week has drained out of you, the Vine has not run dry. Come back to Him today and stay. That's where the fruit comes from.

Cross-references

John 15:7-8; Galatians 5:22-23; Colossians 2:6-7