John 15:8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Never thought of yourself as a tree limb or branch, did you?  Well, Jesus in teaching his disciples told them they were to be exactly that. But Jesus also taught that he was the “vine” or the tree trunk, that part of the tree that is firmly rooted and grounded and feeds and sustains the branches so they can be vital and strong. To what purpose? So that they may bear fruit!

Jesus was always using symbols that were meaningful to his audiences and I love that. As a child growing up in the country with six brothers, I occasionally found myself up in a tree. There were huge mature branches that not only provided shade but were strong enough to sit on comfortably and read if I chose to do so. Then they were younger more supple branches that I could swing from when I was ready to come down. On the ground there would be those branches that had long been separated from the tree, withered and dry, which could be picked up as firewood.

So Jesus told his disciples: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5). And the result of remaining attached to the vine and bearing much fruit is that it glorifies the Father and shows that we are Jesus’ followers.

What does Jesus identify as the fruit that we will bear? Love! Just as the Father’s love was demonstrated in the Son, Jesus commands us to love one another: “Love each other as I have loved you.”(John 15:12) How will this love develop and be sustained or nourished? “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remained in his love.” (John 15:10).