Psalm 80:8-19
You transplanted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. Its branches reached as far as the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.
Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? Boars from the forest ravage it, and insects from the fields feed on it. Return to us, God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself.
Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish. Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. Restore us, Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.
There is an interesting Old Testament verse about the fire associated with God.
“See now, the name of the Eternal is echoing from far away. God is coming with a fury inescapable to set things right again. God is coming like fire and smoke; His lips, indignation—His tongue, consuming fire.”(Isaiah 30:27)
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Isaiah 5: The Song of the Vineyard
I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.
“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”
The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
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Isaiah 27:3-6
“Sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!
I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire. Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.” In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.
God would not allow his people to continue to shed blood and bring distress instead of brining righteousness and justice (Isaiah 5). Even though it’s his own vineyard, if the fruit in his vineyard is rotten, that’s not okay. That needs to be dealt with. There is an entire vineyard whose health is at risk. I had a friend who used to say, “If you play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.” Well, when we bear rotten and harmful fruit, we will collect appropriate prizes.
But…. God also would not give up on this troublesome vineyard because it’s his vineyard; it’s his people. He is still their Father. Not only will he bring about a future in which their good fruit will fill the earth, he wants to make peace with the very briars and thorns that threatened his people.
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This brings us to today’s passage.
The Vine and the Branches (John 15:1-8)
[Jesus said,] “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He takes away branches that do not bear my fruit.[1] He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. You are pruned/purified already because of the word that I have spoken to you.Abide in me – remain deeply, faithfully connected; I will abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains attached to the vine, so neither can you unless you remain deeply, faithfully connected to me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains deeply connected to me while I am deeply connected to him bears much fruit, because disconnected from me, you can accomplish nothing.
“If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire,[2] and are burned up.[3] If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.
As we have already seen, Jesus is not using new imagery. This is all good Old Testament territory, and his disciples certainly knew it. They can bear good fruit when they are connected to the vine; the consuming fire and pruning of God will make for Himself a people – a vineyard - whose fruit is good for the world.
But, Jesus changes something important. It is no longer Israel that is the Vine. It is Jesus. They don’t need to be plugged into a geographical land “flowing with milk and honey” to flourish; they needed a person - Jesus. They didn’t need to be citizens in good standing in the nation of Israel to bear good fruit; they needed Jesus. They didn’t need to “remain” in relationship with the Old Testament law and covenant; then need to remain in Jesus.
Now, about that prayer verse (“ask what you will”). I’ve often heard just this verse quoted, but it has a context. Notice where it is placed. There is a verse about bearing fruit, a verse about asking things of God, then another verse about how God will be honored when we bear fruit. There is something about this particular discussion of prayer that is connected with bearing the fruit God intends for us to bear. So that leads us to an obvious question: what is the fruit?
· Fruit of the Holy Spirit?
· Obedience?
· Good deeds?
· Signs and wonders?
Since we display this fruit only when we are deeply and faithfully connected with Jesus, it’s going to have something to do with the person and ministry of Jesus. Our fruit is going to match the life-giving source of Jesus. Let’s keep reading and see if can get an idea about what that might be.
“Remain in My Love & Love One Another” (Jn 15:9-17)
“Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
I have told you these things so that my joy[4] may be in you, and your joy may be complete. My commandment is this—to love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends[5].You are my friends[6], my companions, if you follow my instructions.
The focus is on how following God’s commands is a means of loving those around us. HELPS Word Studies has a really interesting definition of what was implied by Jesus charging his disciples to follow his instructions.
“To command, emphasizing the end objective, i.e. reaching the purpose (consummation, end result) of an order… envisioning how or where it ends up.”
If I am reading this correctly, “love one another as I have loved you” is the ultimate fruit, the consummation of a life connected deeply and faithfully to Jesus. And when this happens…
I no longer call you servants, because the servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends [companions on mission together!] because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father, [and you understand what I am doing].
You did not choose me, but I chose you[7] and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. This I command you—to love one another.”
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Fruit is a Christ-like life produced by the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22, 23) that results in a lifestyle of consistent, faithful, Christ-like love. We are called to obedience to God – walking in the path of life that God established – as a response of love to a God of love and a means of loving others. This is the end objective of discipleship. This was always God’s plan: to transform God’s image bearers so that we demonstrate the love of Jesus.
In Galatians 5, Paul has some things to say to an audience that was still requiring converts to follow OT ritual laws like circumcision.
Brothers and sisters, God has called you to freedom! Hear the call, and do not spoil this gift by using your liberty to engage in what your flesh desires; instead, use it to serve each other as Jesus taught through love. For the whole law comes down to this one instruction: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” so why all this vicious gnawing on each other? If you are not careful, you will find you’ve eaten each other alive!
Here’s my instruction: walk in the Spirit, and let the Spirit bring order to your life. If you do, you will never give in to your selfish and sinful cravings. For everything the flesh desires goes against the Spirit, and everything the Spirit desires goes against the flesh. There is a constant battle raging between them that prevents you from doing the good you want to do. But when you are led by the Spirit, you are no longer merely corralled by the [outward constraint of the] law.[8]
It’s clear that our flesh entices us into practicing some of its most heinous acts: participating in corrupt sexual relationships, impurity, unbridled lust, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, arguing, jealousy, anger, selfishness, contentiousness, division, envy of others’ good fortune, drunkenness, drunken revelry, and other shameful vices that plague humankind.
I told you this clearly before, and I only tell you again so there is no room for confusion: those who give in to these ways will not inherit the kingdom (live in the realm) of God.[9] The Holy Spirit produces a different kind of fruit: unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There in no law that stops you from bearing fruit like this….
Now since we have chosen to walk with the Spirit [in love], let’s keep each step in perfect sync with God’s Spirit. This will happen when we set aside our self-interests and work together to create true community instead of a culture consumed by provocation, pride, and envy… 6:2 Shoulder each other’s burdens, and then you will live as the law of the Anointed teaches us…
6:9-10 May we never tire of doing what is good and right before our Lord because in His season we shall bring in a great harvest if we can just persist. So seize any opportunity the Lord gives you to do good things and be a blessing to everyone, especially those within our faithful family. (Galatians 5:11-17; 6:2; 6:9-10)
Paul gives the summary of the Law of the Spirit – love one another. Then he contrasts that that looks like and doesn’t look like in a very practical way.
There are things you can do that are NOT loving of others, and when you do that, you will harm others, and you will not enter into and experience the life Jesus offers. It’s almost like you have disconnected from the vine so you can bear a fruit of your own choosing. It reminds me of what God said to Adam after Adams’ sin: “Where are you?” This reads more accurately as, “Where did you go? Why aren’t you where you are supposed to be?” As in, “We were connected. Your place was with me. Why did you remove yourself from that?”
Then there are things we can do that ARE loving to others: displaying the fruit of the Spirit; bearing each other’s burdens; doing good things that bless everyone!
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Let’s make it really practical for the disciples. Who, among their group, was a branch clearly disconnected from the vine of Jesus? That would be Judas Iscariot. Who was going to soon seem like a branch disconnected from the vine of Jesus? Peter.
The disciples themselves are going to have opportunity to do the hard work of bearing the fruit of love. To stay connected to Jesus, they are going to have to love Peter like Jesus loves Peter. They are going to have to love Judas like Jesus loves Judas. If you are wondering about that last claim, here’s what John recorded of Jesus before the betrayal by Jesus:
“It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (John 13:1)
Jesus didn’t stop loving Judas. Of course he didn’t. He had already told them during the Sermon on the Mount that they were to love their enemies and sacrifice themselves for the sake of their enemies – which Jesus is about to do. Jesus is about to give his life for even the Judas’s of the world.
I wonder if Jesus was trying to point them toward the immediate necessity of learning to love well RIGHT NOW. He will soon warn them (John 16) of their upcoming failure (“A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone.”) They are going to wrestle with a group failure. There will be a lot of opportunity to judge, to nurse anger, to traffic in shame and shaming.
Well, it turns out that God still has a plan for pruning and restoration. Paul, of all people, loved to talk about this. He wrote in Romans 11 about how God dealt with Israel in the Old Covenant, then applied it to the church in the New Covenant.
Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring... For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
You [Gentiles] will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith… And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. (11-23, excerpted)
Ah, the good news of the Gospel. Our history is not our destiny when Jesus is involved. That is always good news.
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Do you want to bear the fruit of love?
Abide in Jesus.
Spend time in prayer, in studying Jesus in Scripture.
Be conscious of the presence of Jesus throughout your day.
Align your actions, thoughts, and attitudes with what you believe Jesus would be doing, thinking, or feeling in those same moments.
Look around to see where Jesus is at work, and join in.
And most of all, be responsive to the Holy Spirit leading us to love more and more like Jesus.
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[1] “Exactly what the Lord does to the unfruitful branch depends on how the Greek verb airo is translated. It can mean “takes away”; then it would refer to the discipline of physical death (1 Cor. 11:30). However, the same word may mean “lifts up” (as in John 8:59). Then it would be the positive ministry of encouraging the fruitless branch by making it easier to get light and air, and hopefully, to bear fruit.” (Believer’s Bible Commentary)
[2] The cast-out branch may be grafted in again (Romans 11:23) and the dead branch may be raised to life again (John 5:21; John 5:25).
[3] Another perspective. “The subject is about abiding and fruitbearing. But through carelessness and prayerlessness this believer gets out of touch with the Lord. As a result, he commits some sin, and his testimony is ruined. Through failure to abide in Christ, he is thrown out as a branch—not by Christ, but by other people.” (Believer’s Bible Commentary) This makes me think of Paul. ”But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
[4] “xará (another feminine noun from the root xar-, "extend favor, lean towards, be favorably disposed") – properly, the awareness (of God's) grace, favor; joy("grace recognized").” (HELPS Word Studies)
[5] “Agape… denotes unconditional love, philos emphasizes a bond of friendship and companionship.” (Strong’s Lexicon)
[6] In the OT, only Abraham and Moses are called friends of God (Exodus 33:11; Isaiah 41:8). Jesus extends this privilege to all obedient believers.
[7] Literally. Jesus went to each disciple and asked them to follow him. I don’t think this should be applied to a question of everyone’s salvation. If that’s what this teaching was about, then everybody in Jesus’ life that he did not choose to be a disciple would be lost. And that’s just not what happened.
[8] “Law finds no just occasion against men who are led by the spirit, for they themselves check every wrong desire within them, and so fulfil the whole Law.” (Expositor’s Greek New Testament)
[9] “[The kingdom (932 /basileía) is constantly used in connection with the rule of Christ in the hearts of believers – which also extends in various stages.]” (HELPS Word Studies)