John 15:5 - I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
There is an age old philosophical question that goes like this, “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” In order to answer the question we need to think about the order of things by asking another question. “Is it possible to get an egg without a chicken to lay it?” Through a basic understanding of how the world works, we would say, “No”. An egg comes from a chicken, so if there are no chickens, there will be no eggs.
Similarly, in the example Jesus gives in this verse, you cannot get fruit unless you first have a tree. There would be no grapes, if there were no grapevines. This order of things is important to understand, because if we get the order backwards, there will be no growth or life. You first plant the grapevine’s roots, then the trunk begins to grow arms, and those arms bring about shoots that become branches. As long as those branches stay connected to the vine, they will be healthy and bear fruit. If the branch is removed from the vine, it’s ability to grow fruit is gone and it ultimately dries up and dies.
So in the order of things, Jesus comes first. He is the foundation of our lives, and in him we see the fulfillment of our lives. If we think that we can grow without him, we are mistaken. Truth be told, if we are not found in him, we have no life at all. If we see ourselves as the foundation of our bearing fruit in this life, we will never have the life that God intended us to have. Our life begins and ends in Christ. We are born of him, we live in him, and we produce good because of him.
As you think about your life today, who or what are you looking to to sustain you and give you life? Who or what are you trusting in to give you what you need each day to be healthy and productive? Apart from Jesus, you can do nothing, but if he is in you, think about what he might produce through you. As delicious as grapes are, or any kind of fruit for that matter, God is producing in you the kind of fruit that brings hope to the broken, help to weary, salvation to the lost, and light to those in darkness.
Taste and see that he is good, and thank God that today he is at work producing a fruit of eternal value in your life as long as you abide in him. Is there anything better than to be found in him? Given what Jesus has said in this one verse alone, you would be hard pressed to find a better vine. What a tremendous gift of mercy it is that by his love and grace we can be found in him.
