City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Exegesis

I hear Christians say, “We can do nothing apart from Christ”. I recognize it comes from Jesus’ words in John 15, but I wonder how it sounds to a non-Christian? I suspect it sounds like the person is exaggerating his or her inadequacies to promote Christianity. It just doesn’t ring true. Of course Christians can do a lot of things apart from Jesus. People live their whole lives apart from Jesus and do things, good things, sometimes even great things. The confusion with Jesus’ statement in John 15 comes from reading it in isolation from the context in which it was spoken.

I once had a client tell me he didn’t pay income taxes, and had never paid income taxes, because legally he didn’t have to. He said our tax laws refer to our tax system as a “voluntary pay” system and therefore paying taxes was not mandatory. There was no convincing him of his error, which is often the case with people whose opinions conspire with their desires. His error was lifting one statement out of context. Our federal income tax system is voluntary in that people are required to voluntarily report their taxes but payment of their taxes is mandatory. To suggest the payment of income taxes is voluntary and not mandatory is silly.

Jesus’ statement about Christians not being able to do anything apart from Him is made in the context of a metaphor of a vine. If a branch is separated from nutrients provided by the vine, it will wither and die. Those dead branches will then be picked up and thrown in the fire and burned. Jesus said this is what happens to those who follow Him for a while but fail to remain in Him (John 15:6).

The point here, is the branch draws nutrients from the vine enabling the branch to produce fruit, not just any fruit, but grapes, the fruit of the vine. Jesus is saying if we want to produce the fruit inspired by Him, if we want to be part of the process that produces the good works that flow from God and advance His kingdom, we must remain connected to Him. We cannot do that apart from Him.

By being a conduit through which the works of Jesus are done on the earth—not by pretending we can’t do anything apart from Him—God is glorified and people will recognize us as being followers of Jesus.

Application

The takeaway here is that if we want to produce the fruit that flows from God and brings Him glory, we must remain connected to Jesus, and being connected to Jesus means spending time in prayer, reading the Bible, and seeking his guidance daily.