I am the vine you are the branches meaning

Thoughts on Today’s Verse…

The Lord compared us to the branches and compared Himself to the vine. Our relationship with the Lord is like the relationship between the vine branches and the vine. Away from the vine, the branches will lose the supply of life and then wither and die. From this we can see that the Lord is the source of our life and that it is very important to maintain a proper relationship with God. Only by constantly living before God to have a normal relationship with God can we gain the supply of God’s life and bear the fruit of life. Conversely, if we often stray far from God, cling to the world, and live in the enjoyment of the flesh and material benefits, but seldom read God’s words or pray to Him, then we will have no proper relationship with Him, nor will we have the work of the Holy Spirit. Our life will wither. This is equivalent to the branches withering after being away from the vine.

So, how can we establish a proper relationship with God? I read two passages from a spiritual book, “People believe in God, love God, and satisfy God by touching the Spirit of God with their heart, thereby obtaining His satisfaction; when engaging with God’s words with their heart, they are therefore moved by the Spirit of God. If you wish to achieve a proper spiritual life and establish a proper relationship with God, you must first give your heart to Him, and quiet your heart before Him. Only after you have poured your whole heart into God can you gradually develop a proper spiritual life.” “If you want to have a proper relationship with God, your heart must turn to God…. When one does not give his heart to God, his spirit becomes obtuse, it becomes numb and unconscious. This kind of person will never understand God’s words and will never have a proper relationship with God; this kind of person will never change their disposition. … When you are able to give your heart to God, you will be able to perceive every subtle moving within your spirit, and you will know every enlightenment and illumination received from God. Hold onto this, and you will gradually enter into the path of being perfected by the Holy Spirit. The quieter your heart can be before God, the more sensitive and delicate your spirit will be, and the more your spirit will be able to perceive the moving of the Holy Spirit, and then your relationship with God will become more and more proper.” From these words we can see: If we want to establish a proper relationship with God, we must give our hearts to Him and often quiet our hearts before Him. Of our whole beings, it is our heart that God places great stock in. Just as the Bible says, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). God is a Spirit. Only with our hearts can we connect with His Spirit and establish a proper relationship with Him. If we want to give our hearts to God, first we should often come before God and have real prayer with God: speaking our hearts’ words to Him, truly entrusting our difficulties to God, and asking for His guidance and arrangements, instead of making prayers that are not sincere or prayers of a religious ritual. This is what it means to have a normal relationship with God.

You may be interested in reading more:

The Relationship Between Vine Branches and the Vine

Knowledge of God's Will Behind the Parable of the Vineyard

» » » You are welcome to use our Bible Verse of the Day to enrich your spiritual life

Today’s Verse Illustrated

Three Men on a Mission of Integrity, Love, and Community

Ryan Dixon, Dan Griffith and Stephen Lee started True Vine, a micro brewery in Tyler, Texas. "We're very tied with our family; so we didn't want something that was going to take us away from that," Ryan said. Instead, the trio decided to open as a production brewery, selling their beer to local establishments. Read more about how they seek to live out their faith in their family and work lives here.

The metaphor of vine and branches begins with the blessing of relationship with Jesus and through him with the Father (John 15:1). “As the father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love” (John 15:9). Yet the outcome of this love is not passive bliss but productive labor, metaphorically expressed as bearing fruit. “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit” (John 15:5). The God who produced the universe wants his people to be productive too. “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit” (John 15:8). Our ability to do work that makes a lasting difference in the world is a great gift from God. “I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name” (John 15:16). The promise of effectiveness echoes Jesus’ promise earlier, that “the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these” (John 14:12).

The fruit borne by Jesus’ followers is sometimes taken to refer to converts to Christianity. “Greater works than these” would then mean “more converts than I myself made.” For those called to evangelism, this is certainly true. If Jesus is speaking in this passage only to the apostles—appointed as they were to preach the good news—in this passage, then perhaps fruit refers only to converts. But if he is speaking to believers in general, then fruit must refer to the whole range of work to which believers are called. Since the entire world was created through him, “the works that I do” include every imaginable kind of good work. For us to do “greater works” than heretofore seen could mean designing better software, feeding more people, educating wiser students, improving the effectiveness of organizations, increasing customer satisfaction, employing capital more productively, and governing nations more justly. The value of bearing fruit does not lie in whether we work in business, government, health care, education, religion, or any other field. The value lies in whether our work serves people’s needs. “I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another” (John 15:17). Service is the active form of love.

What did Jesus mean when he said I am the vine?

What does the vine represent in the Bible?

What is the meaning of I am the true vine?

Who are the branches John 15?