Maybe some preacher told you about God’s law, and about the Hell that awaits those who don’t keep it. Maybe as a result, you’ve been pursuing personal holiness just because you’re afraid of being punished. And maybe, as life goes on and temptations keep coming, you’re tired of failing over and over again to meet God’s standards. Maybe you’ve begun to wonder if the Christian life is even possible.
Well, it isn’t, at least not in that self-sufficient, stoic, pick-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps sort of way. In fact, Jesus Himself said that no one can produce any spiritual fruit by their own power, any more than a branch that has been separated from a vine can produce grapes (15:4).
No, the only way any branch can bear fruit is to be connected to a vine, to be nourished by the water and nutrients that flow up from its roots. In the same way, the only way to bear the fruit of Christ, the only way truly to love one another as He commands us to do (15:12, 17), is to become one with Him by faith. It is those who abide, who live in Christ who will bear much fruit (15:5).
In short, the Christian life is not so much about following regulations as it is about pursuing a relationship. But the good news is that if we are seeking Christ, Christ is seeking us all the more: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit” (15:16). Our works of love and our progress in holiness are thus a byproduct of the love that Christ has bestowed on us by His grace.
So yes, let us strive to produce fruit in our lives, the fruit of unconditional, self-sacrificial love for one another. But at the same time, let us rest in the love of Christ (15:10), the One Who laid down His life for His friends (15:13), so that we might be filled with His joy (15:11).
John 15:1-17 (ESV)
“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 does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
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.
6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and 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 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I 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, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
