I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. —John 15:1-5 ESV (Emphasis added)
Apart from me, you can do nothing.
Nothing? It feels like I can do something.
There will be days, often when I am on a trip and my routine changes, when I am out of rhythm with my spiritual disciplines. I skip my morning quiet time, forgetting it is not like my breakfast, something I can satiate later at another meal. This daily bread is different.
If I forget to start my day with God, I often forget to bring him along with me for the rest of it. On these days, I can go through the motions. I can be kind to others, not yell at people in traffic. I can even pray for others and think about Bible verses. I can attend church or conferences. I can do a good job at performing as a Christian, and doing good, Christian things without ever remaining in the vine—that is, Christ.
But John tells us that apart from Jesus, we are unable to do anything. We can not produce good fruit when we abide in the vine of ourselves, when we go on knowledge about God and use that to self-actualize in our own ‘fleshy’ ways—to borrow the words from my professor, Dr. John Coe.
Devotionals are a paid-subscriber perk. Upgrade your subscription today to get this unpaywalled devotional content in your inbox weekly!
We do plenty of things in our own power. That may be why reading that we can do nothing apart from God may seem silly. Yes, I can! Our yearning for autonomy and doing things our own way goes all the way back to Eden.
We can do things on our own, but it won’t produce anything good, beautiful, or true.
How easily tempted we can be to be our own vine. Our place as the branches can be infuriating sometimes. We want to be the ones sustaining ourselves. We don’t want to have to rely on an outside source to derive our sustenance. We want to be able to bear fruit on our own terms.
The truth is, you can do something—a lot of things, actually—in your own power. But you won’t be walking with the Spirit.
You can not bring about Christlikeness in yourself by just trying harder.
The answer to how we walk in step with the Spirit and how we abide in the vine is simple, but it is not easy. And there is something for us to do.
Open ourselves up to the Spirit.
Rather than trying to get ourselves all cleaned up and clothing ourselves in gentleness, kindness and humility—BEFORE coming to God—we are invited to simply come as we are to Him.
To sit with Him and open ourselves, as we are in this moment. Even if in this moment we are irritable, angry, impatient, tired—you name it. It is in these very feelings that God wants us to surrender and open ourselves to Him.
