“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes 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 of 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 made full. John 15:1-11, NASB[1]
In these verses, Jesus is teaching His disciples about the type of relationship they should have with Him. He uses a familiar concept that they all could understand, that of a vineyard. We don’t think about it in our non-agrarian society, but grapevines have to be trained. To get the best harvest of grapes, the plants must be placed on the vine trellis so that it gets the best sunlight in order to promote growth.[2] Grapes can only grow from shoots growing from one year old canes (also called mature shoots) so every year the grapevine must be pruned to get rid of older shoots in order to produce new fruit.[3] So cleaning or pruning a grapevine meant that you had to get rid of dead branches or older shoots from the vine. This cleaning or pruning was part of the vinedresser’s duties. This is the background knowledge that all of the disciples have so that when Jesus tells them that He is the vine and His Father is the vinedresser;[4] they all understand the analogy.
First Jesus tells His disciples they are already clean because of the words He has already given them. They will maintain their relationship and be a part of the vine if they abide[5] in Him. If they abide in Him, Jesus will abide in them, so this is a reciprocal active relationship. In this relationship, Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches. The branch cannot live independently of the vine unless it will die. The branch or shoot cannot bear fruit unless it is attached to the vine. Verse 6 tells us that if we do not abide in Him, our branch will be thrown away and our branch will dry up because it is no longer connected to the Vine. Like all dead branches in the vineyard it will be picked up, cast into the fire and burned. We cannot be true followers or disciples of Jesus unless we are attached to the Vine.
I believe there has been a slight corruption of verse 7. Verse 7 says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
Unfortunately, we have taken this verse to mean that Jesus will give us earthly treasures or a pain free life. We forget the context in which Jesus was teaching. Jesus was speaking to His disciples. In Jesus’ time, a disciple meant that you followed His life and teachings. “It was a deliberate apprenticeship which made the fully formed disciple a living copy of the master.”[6] We will have life and we will have it more abundantly (John 10:10) because we are His branches. In verse 8, Jesus says that His Father will be glorified by the fruit you bear only because you have abided in Jesus. This is how you prove you are Jesus’ disciple.
“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 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. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” Jesus is the Vine. Are you a branch on the Vine following Him?
[1] New American Standard Bible from Biblegateway.com
[2] Retrieved from https://articles.extension.org/pages/31140/pruning-grape-vines:-an-overview
[3] Ibid.
[4] In John 14:7-15, Jesus tells His disciples that He and the Father are one.
[5] The definition of this word that I like is “to live or stay somewhere.” Taken from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/abide
[6] Taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciple_(Christianity)