Today’s Scripture: John 15:1–17
“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.” — John 15:5 (ESV)
Reflection
Today’s passage is about Jesus being the vine. The branches that bear much fruit are pruned to produce more fruit, and the branches cannot bear fruit by themselves unless they abide in the vine and the vine abides in them. The Father is glorified by the fruit of the branches. Jesus tells them to abide in his love, which produces joy. Jesus restates his new commandment: to love others as Jesus has loved us. Jesus calls us our friends when we obey his commandments, and he chose us to bear fruit; we did not choose Jesus.
My analysis is going to be on the word pruned. If we just use context and don’t use the actual meaning of the word, it is easy to miss what the passage really means. If we just skip this word, we think this word means to just make the branch produce more fruit. Although this is correct, this definition doesn’t explain how God makes the branches bear more fruit. Pruning means intentionally cutting away some stems and branches to enrich the plant’s safety and growth. When we apply this to the context of our lives, pruning a branch (us) really just means that God is getting rid of evil and sin and letting righteousness grow in its place to bear more fruit. I thought this was an interesting way to think about this passage.
Next, Jesus repeats his new commandment to the disciples: “love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (v. 12-13). On the second night (out of three) of retreat, I was deep in conversation with one of the adults who I immensely respect and look up to, and I asked him how I can grow my faith. He literally told me that truly loving others is what he found to grow his faith and his heart. At campfire the next night, I had this realization that I haven’t been loving some of the people as I ought to have been doing, and that really struck me deep. Now that I’ve received another sign from God to truly love one another as Jesus has loved me, I want to really heed this call. Not only to love with a brotherly love, but to also love with a sacrificial, selfless, agape love. Please pray for me as I have the desire to do this, but I don’t know if I can because I don’t think I’ve ever felt myself do it intentionally.