“I Am the True Vine”

Jesus loved metaphors.

On the night before His death, Jesus Christ engaged in one final discourse with His disciples, as He prepared them to continue preaching the gospel message after His departure. As a part of this teaching, Jesus crafted an analogy in which He called Himself “the true vine” (John 15:1-8).

What did this illustrative metaphor mean? Does it really have any impact in our daily Christian lives?

Jesus is the true vine

In the Bible, God uses many metaphors to describe Himself and His relationship with humanity. One that recurs throughout the Old and New Testaments alike is that of a garden.

In this analogy, God the Father is a vinedresser (John 15:1), the One responsible for tending, pruning and cultivating the fruits of a vineyard. In that vineyard, there are many branches—the followers of Christ (verse 5)—who are called upon for a specific responsibility: to bear fruit.

But how does one bear fruit? Continuing in verse 5, Jesus gives the answer: “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

In order to bear fruit as a Christian, one must be connected to Christ, “the true vine.”

Interestingly, the Greek word for “true” in verse 1 is alēthinos, which means “that which has not only the name and semblance, but the real nature corresponding to the name . . . in every respect corresponding to the idea signified by the name, real and true, genuine.”

This is an important point: We must be connected to the true Jesus—not just His likeness, not just His name, but everything that goes into it.

Abiding in the true vine doesn’t mean simply calling upon Jesus’ name and ignoring what He teaches, but following everything that goes into making up the perfect, righteous character that He taught and that is portrayed in His life.

This is the crucial starting point at which one’s Christianity can begin to be built up—or miss the mark entirely.

A branch that has no connection to the vine will produce nothing—it physically can’t produce anything. Likewise, just calling oneself a Christian—but having no connection to the real Christ—will produce nothing of lasting value.

Without a connection to Christ—the real Christ—we cannot bear fruit (verses 4-5) or be connected to God (Matthew 11:27). If our faith is not built on the true Christ, then our religion is no better than a worthless, unfruitful branch that must be thrown away. The rickety structure of our Christianity will fall like a house built on the sand (Matthew 7:26-27).

On the other hand, we have a remarkable opportunity. If we truly build our Christian lives on the perfect, righteous teachings of Christ, then God promises to cultivate, water and tend us!

Even so, a responsibility follows.

Bear fruit—or be uprooted!

Being connected to Christ is only the first step in our walk. Like a branch connected to a fruitful vine, a process must follow. That branch must absorb nutrients and begin growing.

God’s Word gives us all the “nutrients” we need, educating us on the proper way to live our lives to grow in righteousness (Psalm 119:172). When we grow in this way, something incredible happens.

We begin to bear fruit.

What does that phrase mean? Is it just some syrupy saying with no real meaning?

The concept of fruits in this context is “that which originates or comes from something; an effect, result.” When God commands us to bear fruit, He is telling us that there is a natural result that should come about by the way we live our lives.

In this context, it is implied that the fruit we are to be producing from the way that we live is the holy, righteous character of God. If we are connected to Christ, and stay connected through prayer and obedience, then we should begin to see the fruits of His righteous character developing in our lives.

In the Old Testament, God gave a similar commission to His chosen people, Israel. The way they were meant to live was to showcase the holy, righteous character that God wants all people to have (Deuteronomy 4:5-8).

Unfortunately, ancient Israel failed in this commission and was eventually uprooted, just as fruitless vines are removed from a farmer’s field (Ezekiel 15:1-8; Matthew 21:43; Luke 13:6-9).

In John 15, Christ gives this commission to His followers, Christians, so that the fruits of their lives will be evident for everyone to see.

The fruit that Christians are to be developing in this life is holy, righteous character—the kind of character that will follow us out of this life and into the next. Like the ancient Israelites, we, too, can fail in this commission. If we do, then we will be taken away (verse 2)—uprooted in the same way that they were millennia ago. There is no room for unfruitful vines in the garden of God.

However, if we do bear fruit, something amazing happens. God will prune those who are fruitful so that they bear even more.

When a gardener prunes a fruitful bough, he trims back its mess of twigs and branches to improve its overall health in hopes that it will become even more fruitful than it was before. God can do that for you too.

God promises that if we are fruitful, He will do His part to make us even more profitable in the long run. In God’s garden, there is no limit to the righteous fruit we can produce!

What kind of fruit should we be producing (and why)?

What kind of fruit does God want us to be producing?

A person can work tirelessly for many hours every day, and he or she will likely reap the fruits of that physical labor: wealth and all kinds of goods. But is that what God is looking for from His servants?

No. God wants something more. Everything in this physical life is temporary, due to dissolve away someday (2 Peter 3:11). Christians should be seeking to grow in ways that will last for eternity.

So, what lasts forever? What is so important that it will still exist into eternity?

Character.

The fruit that Christians are to be developing in this life is holy, righteous character—the kind of character that will follow us out of this life and into the next.

God is calling people now to join His family at Christ’s return. When that happens, we’ll receive new spirit bodies that won’t decay with age, but will last into eternity. In that day, what kind of people will God want to inhabit eternity with Him?

He will want those who have developed the same character and mind that are in Him and His Son.

These are people who exhibit godly love, who are joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and who exhibit self-control over temptation (Galatians 5:22-23).

If we fail to bear this fruit now, God will put us out of His garden. However, if we bear the fruit of righteous character, God promises to help us grow in these areas more and more.

These are the things that will last into eternity. This is what God’s people are called to develop in their lives now. And the only way we can do it is by being connected to the true vine—Jesus Christ.

Stay connected to the true vine

In one of Jesus’ final lessons to His disciples, He eloquently explained the way to work toward growing in the character of God.

This is not possible without a connection to Jesus. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit without being connected to the vine, neither can a person grow in godly character without being connected to Christ (John 15:4). We become disconnected when we no longer choose to follow the way of Christ.

Christians must work diligently to maintain their connection to the true vine. Followers of Christ have a duty to strive to bear fruits of righteousness in this life as we prepare for the next.