I am the vine; 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. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
In John 15 the word abide is used eleven times. The word is used in the New Testament 120 times. It is translated as abide 61, remain 16, dwell 15, continue 11, tarry 9, endure 3, and 5 miscellaneous ways. The point of Jesus words in the above text is that our abiding is directly related to our producing fruit and in particular the fruit of love. In fact, it is this thought of abiding that produces much fruit in our lives. In the above passage Jesus gives us a major point about abiding, by telling us that our abiding is the only way to produce fruit. He tells us that if we do not abide in Him we will not only fail to produce fruit, we will also be thrown in the fire, and burned. That is an exceptional motivational instruction. Jesus is telling us that the sign of our abiding is the sign of our relationship with Him. We ought not take this abiding lightly. The sign that we are abiding is the production of fruit. We certainly can see the correlation between this passage on the fruit of the Spirit. As we walk in the Spirit we produce fruit. So abiding in Jesus is the same thing as walking in the Spirit. As we walk in obedience to His Word, we walk in the Spirit and abide in Jesus and produce much fruit. Failure to do live in this way demonstrates our lack of relationship with Jesus. Those in a relationship with Him will produce much fruit. It is not an option to produce fruit, it is a natural result.
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