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. 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. 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

(John 15:4-6 NASB)

These are not empty titles. The Lord Himself is the Author of each of them, but they are each conditioned with something else. The first with abiding! The second with fruit bearing! The third with obedience! These three names are suggestive of three different but profound experiences.

As Branches, We Receive

“I am the Vine, you are the branches” (verse 5). This process and privilege of receiving the fullness that is in Christ cannot begin until we as branches have been broken off the old fruitless Adam stock and grafted into Him who is the second Adam, the True Vine. The precious sap of this Vine, the Spirit, will never minister to the pride of the old selfish sinful life. But having been planted into Christ, we now live by faith that is in Him.

The branch cannot live apart from the vine, no more can you. To live apart from Christ is to be dead while we live. “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19 NASB). If you abide in Me, the life of the branch, then, is a life of continual appropriation. The call of the vine to the branch is to take, take, take. “Let those who are thirsty, take.” “If anyone thirsts, let them come unto Me and drink.”

This receiving of the sap by the branch was to manifest itself in fruitfulness. To be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit. As it is possible to grow apples of different quality on the same stock, so by the same Spirit there may be different manifestation, according to the character of the branch. While our union with Christ is the death of our sinful life, it is not the death of our individuality.

In every Christian life the whole fruit of the Spirit should be found. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:22-24 NASB). But as a rule, in the lives of Christians, some one or two aspects of this fruit are often found prominent. This may be partly due to the nature of the recipient. “The wind blows where it wishes.”

As Disciples, We Follow

“So shall you be My disciples.” In continuing the metaphor of the vine and branches here, the idea is that the branch truly follows the vine when it abides in it, and when by the power imparted to it, it faithfully carries out the purpose for which the vine had been given. So by an adherence to the mind and will of our Lord, and by the bringing forth of much of the fruit of the Spirit, we are declaring ourselves to be walking in His footsteps.

“So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine’” (John 8:31 NASB). This discipleship implies a readiness to sit at His feet, like Mary, and to learn of Him who is the Great Teacher come from God. It also implies a willingness to believe every word He says. How can His words abide in us if they are not received by faith in Him? “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7 NASB).

Therefore, if this sermon fails to remind any one of us, may this passage convince each and every one of us: “If anyone does not abide in Me, he or she is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned” (John 15:6 NASB). How can we follow His example if we do not live and walk by faith in the Word of God as He did? Another mark of discipleship is love one to another.

We are to abide in Him, that is active, something we do, and we are to let Him abide in us, that is passive, something we allow Him to do. Both these relationships are absolutely essential, not one as opposed to the other but both together. When our Lord says “Abide in Me,” He is talking about the will, about the choices, the decisions we make each and every day!

We must decide to do things which expose ourselves to Him and keep ourselves in contact with Him. This is what it means to abide in Him. We have been placed into Christ by the Holy Spirit. Now we must choose to maintain that relationship by the decisions we make: decisions to expose ourselves to His Word in order to learn about Him, and to relate to Him in prayer wherein we converse with Him, and to relate to other believers in body life experiences, bearing one another’s burdens and confessing our faults and sharing in fellowship with one another, wherein we learn about and see Christ in one another.

All of this is designed to relate to Him: “Abide in Me.” If we do that we are fulfilling this active, necessary decision of the will to obey His Word, to do what He says, and to stay in touch with Him. This is what Bible study and prayer are all about. They are not mere mechanical practices which every Christian ought to do in order to stay in with the crowd, or to maintain their membership card, or to get brownie points with God! No, they are means by which we know Him.

As Friends, We Abide in Him

“You are My friends. I have called you friends, not patients, for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.” Surely we know that a friend comes closer to the heart than a servant. A servant knows not what their Lord does. It is a very sacred and humbling privilege to walk among those who are a friend of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As a friend who lives in communion with Him becomes a sharer of His secrets. “The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He will make them know His covenant” (Psalms 25:14 NASB). It was of him who was the friend of God that God said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” The deep heart purposes of the Son of God are revealed to those who live in fellowship with Him. In the light of His presence they see light clearly. They walk among the gloomy shadows of a sinful world, with the secrets of life, peace, and eternal glory in their souls.

For those of us who share His sympathies. As a devoted wife becomes a partaker of her husband’s likes and dislikes, so does the friend of Jesus, through close contact with Him, become imbued, deeply influenced, with His thoughts and feelings. They love all that He loves and hate all that He hates. They are in real heart sympathy with Him in His desire to honor the Father, and at the same time to love and seek to save the sinful sons of men.

Therefore do not be alarmed when we share His sufferings. The world hates you because you are not of this world! Therefore the world hates you. Christ suffered because of His unlikeness to the world. His true friends will fare a little better. Christ suffered in His daily life because of His sympathy with God His Father, and His separation from the sins and false conception of His age. The more we become like Him the more shall we feel the power of those forces in the world which were opposed to Him.

“For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for our comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer” (2 Corinthians 1:5-6 NASB). Christ suffered in His daily life because of His sympathy with God His Father, and His separation from the sins and false conception of His age. The more we become like Him, the more shall we feel the power of those forces in the world which were opposed to Him.

The branch that does not abide withers. The disciple who does not follow falls away. The friend who does not commune grows distant. But those who abide in the Vine receive His life. Those who follow as disciples bear His fruit. Those who walk as friends share His secrets, His sympathies, and yes, even His sufferings. This is the threefold relationship Christ offers us: branches receiving, disciples following, friends abiding. Not one without the others, but all three together, forming a life so intertwined with Christ that we cannot tell where the Vine ends and the branch begins. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. But abiding in Him, we bear much fruit.