“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-grower. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He cleans 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 from 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. 9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. John 15: 1-11 LSB
John 15: 1-6
I am the true vine - In our day and age, for most people this seems like a difficult parable, or something mysterious, but only because we are so far removed from being a largely agricultural society. So when the Bible talks about fruit we think of the produce section at the super market, but most of these people probably thought of the vineyards and orchards they passed, the olive tree in the front yard, the figs and pomegranates along the roadside, or date palms. Doubtless, there is a lot going on here in Jesus' story, like why does He say, "the true vine?" Go back to Adam, he was the original vine, the planting that we all came from, but it went sour, feral, and so did every branch and fruit and seed thereafter. So now we have this new stock, this true stock, this untainted, unblemished, disease resistant, strong, non GMO, OG vine. This is what we need to be grafted into in order to produce good fruit, in order to grow and be pleasing to the Land Owner, the Vine-grower. True is also important because it lets us know, as Christ often did, that there would be many imposters. Trying to keep the law is not the true vine because Jesus is the only One to perfectly keep the law to God's standard. Following someone who claims to be a prophet, a Messiah, a guru, a Scribe, who points to themselves or a different Christ, another gospel, that is not the true vine. The metaphor that Jesus chose here is beautiful, it once again points to His sole uniqueness, His preeminence to all things.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. 1 Corinthians 15: 44-49
God uses the vineyard in the OT as well to describe Israel, so this is familiar language to them both in the agrarian culture and in their religious readings. Many in Israel thought they could be justified by their works, by following the law as prescribed by the Pharisees, but this only produced sour grapes. They needed to be grafted into Jesus, not lineage, and God's law could only be satisfied by His life and His atoning death on the cross.
Let me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
2 He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a wine vat in it;
Then He hoped for it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only]worthless ones.
3 “So now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Please judge between Me and My vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why, when I hoped for it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
5 So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed;
I will break down its wall, and it will become trampled ground.
6 I will lay it waste;
It will not be pruned or hoed,
But briars and thorns will come up.
I will also command the clouds to rain no rain on it.”
7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
Thus He hoped for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress. Isaiah 5: 1-7
V. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away - One of the clearest illustrations of this is Judas. There are people that come to Christianity, come for the social aspect, people back then came to see Jesus perform miracles, to eat the fish and the bread, but many of these walked away. The call to self denial, the call of repentance was a stumbling block for many because they thought they didn't need a savior from sin because they had perfected a system that allowed for a man to be justified by his own works. So we get an image here like that in my mom's garden, where we would go through and pull the sucker branches off of the tomato vines, because they were not going to produce fruit, but at the same time they were sapping energy from the plant.
i. There is an alternative understanding of this passage that bears some consideration. James Montgomery Boice (among others) believes that the ancient Greek verb airo, translated, takes away is more accurately translated lifts up. The idea is that the Father lifts up unproductive vines off of the ground (as was common in the ancient practices of vineyard care). Those caring for ancient grape vines made sure to lift them up off the ground that they might get more sun and bear fruit better.
ii. “The verb translated ‘cut off’ (aireo) means literally ‘to lift up’ or ‘to take away’; the second, ‘trims clean’ (kathaireo), a compound of the first, means ‘to cleanse’ or ‘to purify.’” (Tenney) - E Word
V. 2b-3 He cleans it so that it may bear more fruit - We have a Loquat tree in our yard that my daughter decided to clean up (prune) 1 time and it exploded with fruit that next season, so much that it became heavy and leaned over, and she has pruned it again since which has caused it to fill out nicely. The Scriptures tell us that whom the Lord loves He chastens, and this is as a father disciplining his children, getting them to be rid of the things that hold them back from being fruitful. Spurgeon speaks very well to this:
“It is the Word that prunes the Christian. It is the truth that purges him. The Scripture made living and powerful by the Holy Spirit eventually and effectively cleanses the Christian.”
He says, “Affliction is the handle of the knife. Affliction is the grindstone that sharpens the knife. But the knife is the Word. Affliction is the dresser.” He says, “Affliction is the dresser that removes our soft garments and lays bare the diseased flesh, so that the knife may get at it.” Affliction makes us ready for the knife, to feel the Word of God.
The true pruner is God. Affliction is the handle and the occasion. But the pruning, the Scripture is the knife that cuts. Why? So that we would bear more fruit. The more you know the Word, the more you love the Word, the better you react to trials, right? The more you allow the knife to do its work. - J Mac quoting Spurgeon
11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. 12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.… Hebrews 4: 11-13
V. 4 Abide in Me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine - As believers, we are people of the Book, and in the Book, the Bible, we are told to test the spirits, and to look for fruit in order to know the type of tree. Now some have told me of those with bad doctrine, of those whose lives do not reflect repentance, that yet they still see fruit because the person is a philanthropist. When I was of the atheist persuasion I still gave to people, still helped people, but in no way did I abide in Christ. There is a fruit that is acceptable to God, and it is not that of works done in the flesh, and there is only One Way to be right with God, and He has provided that in His Son. There have been other vines, but they don't produce the fruit that God is looking for, and without a vine there are no nutrients to give the branches life.
…5You welcome those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. Surely You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins? 6Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind. 7No one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.… Isaiah 64: 5-7
…2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. 3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all members have the same function,… Romans 12: 2-4
1The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases. 2All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart. 3To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice.… Proverbs 21: 1-3
…6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,…
…9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life. 11Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles in the flesh and called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision (that done in the body by human hands)—… Ephesians 2: 6-11
V. 5 Apart from Me you can do nothing - Remember what Jesus has said, all the I Am statements? I am the resurrection and the life, I am the true vine, I am the good Shepherd, I am the way, the truth and the life. Without Him there is no life, and this is true for the unbeliever as well, we are all spiritual still borns when we come into this world, but technically, life should have ended in the garden when our parents sinned. I honestly think Satan expected as much, but there is a but, a reason why it didn't all end there, and that is because of the promise of Messiah. God promised the Seed of the woman in the garden, that His Son would add humanity to His deity and crush the head of the serpent, conquer sin and death. One of the first acts of God after Adam and Eve fell and the whole human race with them, was to take the life of some of the animals that were under man's charge, and to replace the fig leaves, that our parents made to cover themselves, with animal skins, for the wages of sin is death, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. The world did not end because of the promise of a Redeemer. The air you breathe is His, the water you need to live comes from Him, and there is no such thing as the autonomy that you so desperately try to claim, that's a strong delusion.
15The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.… Colossians 1: 15-17
…57Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham?” 58“Truly, truly, I tell you,” Jesus declared, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59At this, they picked up stones to throw at Him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple area.… John 8: 57-59
V. 6 He is thrown away as a branch and dries up - He becomes kindling, and just as the Christian is the glory of God's mercy so the one that does not believe in Christ, that does not accept God's Way, that makes up his own way, his own god, yet he still burns to the glory of God's justice. Is this unfair? When I was delusional I would say, "yes", but I just didn't want to repent. I didn't want God, and so if I would have died in my sin then I would not have received the thing I did not want, which was Christ, God's sacrificial Lamb. I did not want God so how should I expect to end up in His house for eternity. Most thankfully God is able to cause men to want Him, to see their state, to repent and be saved.
…20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,…
…23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen.… Romans 1: 20-25
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