John Chapter 15

I heard a great analogy about reading your Bible from one of my pastors. He said that often we just quickly read a passage and move on with our day and then wonder why we didn’t get anything out of it. He said the Bible is like a bon fire. If we just walk on by a bon fire, we are going to get past it and still be cold. We need to take time to sit down by the fire and let its warmth penetrate our body. Jesus taught us that we need to abide in Him just like a branch needs to be attached to the vine. There is a complete dependence on the vine in order for the branch to survive. To abide in Him we will need to spend time with Him – praying and reading His Word, depending on Him.

In the Old Testament the vine was often used as a picture of Israel and God the Father was the vinedresser who cultivated and managed the vine. Psalm 80:8-9 You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it. You prepared [room] for it, And caused it to take deep root, And it filled the land.

In the New Testament under the new covenant, Jesus is pictured as the vine. We have a relationship with both the Father and the Son and we are represented as branches attached to or grafted into the vine (Jesus) and the vinedresser is the Father.

When Jesus said that the Father takes away or cuts away branches that do not bear fruit, it may mean that these are branches that were never connected to the vine in the first place. But there is another Bible scholar who believes a better translation of the word (aireo) means to lift up instead of cut off. It was a common practice with grape vines to tie up or lift up the branches that were bending down into the dirt of the ground. The vinedresser lifts up the branches out of the dirt so they can get more sun and produce fruit.