The Life Is in the Vine

In John 15:1, 2b Jesus says, “I am the vine and My Father is the vinedresser. . .and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”

Although Jesus could have used any plant He so chose as an example, He chose a grapevine to illustrate His point. An interesting thing about a grapevine, the life of the plant is in the vine.

You can take a cutting from a branch of a grapevine, and it will not grow. Once you detach the branch from the vine, there’s no life in it.

No life can exist for a grapevine except in the vine itself. Also, the vine doesn’t bear fruit. Only the branches grow grapes. The vine gives life so the branches can bear, but the vine has no fruit on it.

One other thing about a grapevine is that fruit is only born on new branches. New growth yields the fruit. That is why grapevines are pruned so drastically. When the branches are cut back, new growth appears. From the new growth, you get fruit.

God’s plan from the beginning of creation was to have Jesus supply the life, and He planned for the branches, you and me, to provide the fruit for the Kingdom. Sometimes the pruning feels a great deal like tribulation.

The Revelation Church Type of Ephesus

The church at Ephesus in the first few chapters of Revelation is one of seven church types that John discuses in his book. Characteristics of this church type can be seen in our churches today.

Ephesus as a church type had several things that were good. The members of this church type work hard, they persevere under great strain and they do not tolerate evil men. However, they have one major weakness, they, “. . .have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4b).

Leaving your first love is like Jesus’ teachings on the “true vine” in John 15.        In John 15:1, 2 b, Jesus says, “I am the true vine and My father is the vinedresser. . .and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”

There are a couple great points here. One being that the life is in the vine. Although the branches have life, they have no life of their own. Their life comes from the vine.

You can take a grape branch and try to make a cutting from it, and it can’t live. It can only live when attached to the vine.

However, the vine can’t bear fruit. Only the branch bears grapes. The vine gives life to the branch so it can bear fruit.

In order to bear fruit, the grape branch must be trimmed or pruned way back. The reason is because fruit only grows on new wood. If the branch isn’t new, it won’t bear fruit.

Therefore, sometimes what you think of as persecution in your life could simply be God pruning you so that you can bear more fruit. Don’t confuse God’s pruning with Satan’s persecution.

Isaiah 5:2, “He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;

            he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it;

            and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” (ESV).

All God received for His efforts were stinking or sour grapes. These are possible translations for “wild grapes” from this verse.

You learn that “what more” from Isaiah 5:4 that there are no more excuses for them to bear stinking or sour grapes. If the Jews had no excuse for bearing bad fruit, how much less excuse do we have for bearing no fruit or bad fruit?

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