Dear Faith Family,
"By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." (John 15:8)
"Prove yourself by producing something that brings glory to God; the more, the better the proof and greater the glory." If read this way, Jesus' words sound like a sad summation of American Evangelicalism: prove and produce. However, if we read Jesus' exhortation in this manner, we'd also miss both the heart and the truth of Jesus' finale metaphor.
What Jesus says before and after verse 8 matters what verse 8 means for you and me.
"I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedressor...you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing...
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you."
(John 15:1, 5, 16)
Indeed, the expectation and demarcation of our faith are that more life, more life full and forever, would be the product of our daily living. However, the end and the means are the same: abiding.
Notice that abiding goes two ways. We abide in Jesus, "abide in me....Abide in my love" (15:7,9), but only because we are doing what Jesus does, "my words abide in you...I...abide in [my Father's] love" (15:7,10). And, isn't doing what we see our Master doing the very definition of being a "disciple" or apprentice?
So, it seems that abiding is an unavoidable activity of who we, Jesus' followers, are. And, it seems, abiding is also the assured means of producing that coveted fruit,
"As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." (John 15:4)
Verse 8, it seems, is not the exhortation by which we set our life of faith, but rather Jesus' revelation of the inevitability of living as ones whose faith knows Jesus to be the source of life and the light of life, empowering us to know the Way of life. "By this" abiding, then, we bring glory to the Father because it is in this mutual abiding--us in Jesus, Jesus in us--that produces a life that lasts, life like Jesus'.
So, verse 8 should not leave us asking how we prove our faith through production. That question is already answered: abide. But the question we should be asking is how we abide.
Abide means to "remain," to "endure," to "continue," to "stay," or to "settle," making a home, a life in Jesus as he makes life in and through us. And, as we unpacked on Sunday, we abide by praying and loving like Jesus.
Before you dismiss that last line as just another church truism with no practical benefit, think briefly about what it means to make a life in Jesus through prayer. More specifically, to Jesus' words in John's gospel, letting the Father's glory (his distinct splendor and beauty) lead us into and through our daily prayers. After all, that is how Jesus taught us to pray:
"Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, you will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:9-10)
It's not where our prayers end (i.e., "In Jesus' name we pray") but where they begin and to what end they seek that helps us abide.
Likewise, while loving like Jesus can often become so generalized or spiritualized that it fails to lead to much of anything other than sentiment, Jesus was sure not to be so ambiguous with his apprenticed companions,
"This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you." (John 15:12-14)
Friendship. We love like Jesus by opening our lives with the Father to others (v. 15) and giving ourselves to others in friendship, even those who would not choose us as friends (v. 16). While we can generalize a love for all, we all know what it takes to be a true friend and truly befriended.
How do we abide, and so experience life that lasts? We seek the glory of the Father into prayer as we build loving friendships. Can you imagine what would be produced if we truly lived this way?!
Love you, faith family! God bless.