The True Vine

"Jesus said, ' I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He prunes every branch that does not bear fruit. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. 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. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. This is my command: Love each other." [John 15].

If you are a gardener or a farmer, you know that, ironically, you must prune a plant in order for it to grow vigorously. Consider the rose bush in a garden. Each year, a morass of dead, woody branches appears at its base. But the top of the bush may be fully leafed out and covered with extraordinary blossoms. At the same time, a large and impressive branch may arc over the whole rose bush. This large branch may be vibrant and strong, but it has no buds on it to produce flowers.

A wise gardener does not prune the blossoms while they bloom, nor the rose hips that are the source of next year's blooms. He prunes only the dead roses, not the living ones. He also trims out some of the dead wood at the end of the growing season; but he needs to be careful because if he trims too much,  the rose bush will die. That impressive, over-arching branch that bears no blossoms or fruit? That is a branch that is capable of sucking the life out of the plant, to the detriment of the whole rose bush.

Branches that are cut off from the "vine" cannot survive. They die. In this way, we are called to remain in Jesus, the True Vine. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. We die.

To remain in Him, we must love others, as Jesus has loved us.

Jesus explains so simply to us that, to remain in Him, we are to follow His command to love each other.

I am a mother of a young son. As my son grows older and is in school all day, I realize that I cannot possibly explain every circumstance to him. He is going to encounter situations that I cannot imagine, and I will not always be there to guide him. In the last few years, I have found myself instructing him, "If you ever have to decide what to do, and I am not there with you, always choose the loving thing!"

If my son does choose the loving thing, over other choices, then I have passed my love on to him and he has chosen to remain in that love and to live in love. Then he will have true joy.

God, as our Father is teaching us these wisdoms, through His Son Jesus. He is passing on to us, as His children, this guidance: Love each other.

Sometimes, I make mistakes and I do not always live in love. I am only human!

Sometimes I get angry. Anger and Hatred are not Love.  Just as an earthly parent teaches me to control my anger, I would hope that my Heavenly Father, the vine grower, would prune me of my anger and show me the loving way. In 1 John 3:12, it is said, " Do not be like Cain, who murdered his brother. . .Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. Anyone who does not love remains in death."

Similarly, Greed is not Love. Greed says, 'All these things that I have gathered unto myself are mine, and more. I do not care if you suffer, I will not share.' In 1 John 3: 17, it is said, "Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?" I would hope that my Greed would be pruned and I would learn to be generous.

Yet. . . How it hurts when God prunes us! I may have to admit my faults. I may need to grow in different directions. Sometimes that is painful. I may have to humble myself and apologize-- to God and to those whom I have hurt. I feel guilty, I feel ashamed, when I do not behave in a loving way.

However, behaving in a loving way is. . . Truth! In 1 John 3: 18, it is said, "Dear children, let us not love one another with words or tongue, but with actions and in Truth. This is then how we know that we belong to the Truth. This is how we know that He lives in us; we obey his commandment to love one another."

And don't we all long for Life, for Love and for the Truth that Love brings? Don't we all long for the Joy that these bring!

Jesus, I long to remain in You, and in Your love. I desire only to belong to You and to Your Truth!

[Related posting, "Love is . . . Truth", February 8, 2012.]

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