Vine-life Is The Only Life
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
John 15:4
The only part of a vine that bears fruit is the branch. But an unattached branch can never bear fruit.
Advertisement
In capsule form, that is the lesson of John 15. There Christ described the process by which the true vine produces fruit through Christians. J. Hudson Taylor produced much spiritual fruit during his missionary career in China. He shares this personal insight regarding his struggles to understand the life of remaining, or abiding, in Christ—and the delightful discovery he made.
WALK WITH J. HUDSON TAYLOR
“For years I longed to abide, but I thought of it as a very high attainment to which I was unequal, involving spiritual heights to scale for which I did not have the needed strength.
“Abiding is not impossible; the Scriptures command it. And yet it seemed impossible to me until I saw that what I thought of as abiding was feeding, which is a conscious and voluntary act.
“We partake of our food at fixed intervals only, but we live and work in the strength of that food continuously.
“Abiding is not a thing of consciousness, but of fact. Do we cease to abide in our homes when we are asleep at night?
“So abiding in Christ is a state which commitment to Christ in faith achieves, and the reality of that faith is proved by the result—fruit.”
WALK CLOSER TO GOD
Vitality and fruitfulness are the results of an abiding relationship with the vine.
But severed from the vine, the branch shrivels and dies. It cannot bear fruit.
Fruitfulness is more than a good idea. It’s the Father’s expectation for you as one of his children.
And after all, who should know more about turning barren lives into fruitful branches than the Gardener?
