I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman [vinedresser]. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth [prunes] it that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bare fruit of itself except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.
Jesus speaks these words to his closest disciples the night he was going to be betrayed to his enemies, the night before the crucifixion. He tells them the way to go: the path of obedience to God’s sacrificial teaching.
His words are recorded in chapter 15 of John’s Gospel account.
To abide in Christ requires obedience to Christ’s teaching. It is to follow the Master in his example. To die to this life in order to live the eternal life.
To go on living in sin and selfishness is the path to eternal destruction. But to obey Christ is to remain connected to the source of true life; as explained in chapter 14, Christ is the way, the truth and the life.
To obey this world’s ways, and the ways of our own selfish instincts is to go the way of destruction. To go that way is to continue to draw strength from our fallen nature; the nature of this world.
But to obey Christ is to find Christ and to draw from him all that we need to live as he requires.
It is a straight Either the one way, Or the other. No in-between.
Either, live in self and sin, disobeying God:
Destiny eternal destruction.
OR live in Christ, obeying Christ.
True life.
Christianity 