Day 216: John 15:9–17

If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love (v. 10).

The Father is so adamant that we bear much fruit, He has extended practically inconceivable offers to us. As I share them with you, pardon my excitement as I dangle a few happy participles. He offers to us:

1. A love we can live in. When will we get through our heads how loved we are? Take a look at perhaps the most astounding verse in this entire segment of Scripture: “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you” (John 15:9 hcsb). Try to grasp this truth as tightly as you can: Christ Jesus loves you like the Father loves Him. He loves you like His only begotten—as if you were the only one! Christ then follows His statement with a command: “Remain in My love.” I love the King James word for “remain”—abide. The term means exactly what it implies: to dwell in His love, remain in it, tarry in it, soak in it. For heaven’s sake, live in it!

Even the most steadfast among God’s servants make mistakes and foolish decisions of some kind along the way. We will always give Satan plenty of ammunition to discourage us. But if we don’t literally camp in the love of Christ, we will talk ourselves out of untold fruit by dwelling on our own unworthiness. Accept the fact that we are unworthy and yet lavishly loved by a God of redemptive grace.

2. A source we can draw from. If we were to list the kinds of things that hold us back from immensely fruit-bearing lives, we might include “a lack of talent or ability.” But conspicuously missing in this dissertation on lives bearing much fruit is any reference whatsoever to ability. The one requirement for a profusely fruit-bearing life is that we abide in Christ the same way a branch remains physically attached to the vine. All we have to do is embed ourselves in Him, let the power source flow, and He’ll do the work through us. That’s the secret! The branch must remain open to the flow of the vine’s life. If the branch were simply wound around the vine tightly, it would still die without producing any fruit.

We so often have our own agendas about how we want to serve God. We spend untold energy but never produce lavish and God-glorifying fruit. We have to be open to the power flow and the purposed work the Vine wants to accomplish.

3. A Gardener we can depend on. You’ve heard of personal trainers. Our Gardener is so determined for fruitful lives to bear even more fruit, He commits Himself as their personal pruner! Notice verse 2: “Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit” (hcsb). I believe this verse suggests that God works all the harder on the child who is producing fruit so she or he will produce even more.

If you are a true follower of Jesus Christ, I bet you sometimes feel like God is picking on you. Have you ever exclaimed in exasperation, “God never lets me get away with anything”? Have you ever noticed, though, that God seems particularly jealous with you? That He extracts from your life those mindless and meaningless activities that He seems to “put up with” in other believers’ lives? That, dear one, is because you have proved to be a cooperative fruit-bearing child and He knows He has a prime branch through whom He can be all the more glorified.

Do you see the progression suggested in verses 2 and 5? God desires for those who bear fruit to bear more fruit—and for those who bear more fruit to bear much fruit! As nervous as the thought may make us, God can be trusted with a pair of shears in His hand.

4. Joy we can revel in. The fact of the matter is that we have been called to lives of obedience. Yes, the grace of God covers our sins as we trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross. But we will not bear much fruit without obedience to our Father’s will. In fact, according to John 15:10, if we don’t walk closely to Him in obedience, we will never draw near enough to abide in His love. He loves us no matter what we do, but we will not be able to pitch our spiritual tents in His presence when we’re disobedient. Does all this sound like a life of just serving and sacrificing?

Then you’d better read John 15:11 again. Jesus said, “I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (hcsb). What an amazing thought! God is sovereign and could have rigged the plan to serve Him only. He could have demanded our obedience and service—or else. He didn’t. Our heavenly Father is the giver of all good gifts (James 1:17). God longs to bless us with abundant life and joy. And not just any joy—Christ’s joy! Perfect, full, magnetic, and contagious!

The joy of Jesus comes to the believer only one way: transfusion. Like an intravenous drip from Vine to branch! God doesn’t just have more for you. He has much. Much love. Much fruit. Much joy. And in the process, the God of the universe derives much glory from one measly mortal. Who can beat a deal like that?