#true vine

Jesus the True Vine (Isaiah 27:1–13)

Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.

Vuuâd mii-nu, ja-nu vuuâd mii-nu. Ğuužžâ, ğuužžâ-šattä le-muužâ, já li-vuud-â šâbâ ja li-vuuâd-â šuânnâ, le-šum-a-buad muud-šâbâ. Aam-â šuânnâ. Mii-nu šuânnâ le-buut-muužâ šâbâ — John 15:4-5 | Majority Standard Bible (MSB) and the Saami Bible (SAM) The Holy Bible, Majority Standard Bible is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee. This text of God’s Word has been dedicated to the public domain and The Saami Bible is Produced by British & Foreign Bible Society. Cross References: Matthew 12:33; Matthew 13:21; John 6:56; John 15:16; 1 John 2:6

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Note: Akkala Sami is an endangered language spoken in Russia, and there are limited online resources for it. The provided text is the most complete translation currently available.

٤ اثبتوا فيَّ وانا فيكم. كما ان الغصن لا يقدر ان يأْتي بثمرٍ من ذاتهِ ان لم يثبت في الكرمة كذلك انتم ايضًا ان لم تثبتوا فيَّ. ٥ انا الكرمة وانتم الاغصان. الذي يثبت فيَّ وانا فيهِ هذا يأْتي بثمرٍ كثير. لانكم بدوني لا تقدرون ان تفعلوا شيئًا.

Abide in me, and I will abide in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. — John 15:4-5 | Arabic Bible (Smith & Van Dyke) and The Text-Critical English New Testament (TCENT) The Arabic Bible, Translated by Smith & Van Dyke (1865) is in the public domain and the Text-Critical English New Testament an edition of the Byzantine (Majority) Greek text edited by Robinson and Pierpont Copyright © 2022 Robert Adam Boyd. Cross References: Matthew 12:33; Matthew 13:21; John 6:56; John 15:16; 1 John 2:6

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Jesus the True Vine

I Am the True Vine

1 ‘I am the true vine’, said Jesus, ‘and my father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t bear fruit; and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it can bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean. That’s because of the word that I’ve spoken to you.

4 ‘Remain in me, and I will remain in you! The branch can’t bear fruit by itself, but only if it remains in the vine. In the same way, you can’t bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. People who remain in me, and I in them, are the ones who bear plenty of fruit. Without me, you see, you can’t do anything.

6 ‘If people don’t remain in me, they are thrown out, like a branch, and they wither. People collect the branches and put them on the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want, and it will happen for you. 8 My father is glorified in this: that you bear plenty of fruit, and so become my disciples.’

Obeying and Loving

9 ‘As the father loved me,’ Jesus continued, ‘so I loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my father’s commands, and remain in his love. 11 I’ve said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and so that your joy may be full.

12 ‘This is my command: love one another, in the same way that I loved you. 13 No one has a love greater than this, to lay down your life for your friends. 14 You are my friends, if you do what I tell you. 15 I’m not calling you “servants” any longer; servants don’t know what their master is doing. But I’ve called you “friends”, because I’ve let you know everything I heard from my father.

Jesus the True Vine

True Vine by Andrew Murray

“Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That a Man Lay Down His Life for His Friends .” - John 15:13

In the three following verses our Lord speaks of His relation to His disciples under a new aspect—that of friendship. He point us to the love in which it on His side has its origin (John 15:13): to the obedience on our part by which it is maintained (John 15:14); and then to the holy intimacy to which it leads (John 15:15).

Our relation to Christ is one of love. In speaking of this previously, He showed us what His love was in its heavenly glory; the same love with which the Father had loved Him. Here we have it in its earthly manifestation—lay down His life for us. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Christ does indeed long to have us know that the secret root and strength of all He is and does for us as the Vine is love. As we learn to believe this, we shall feel that here is something which we not only need to think and know about, but a living power, a divine life which we need to receive within us. Christ and His love are inseparable; they are identical. God is love, and Christ is love. God and Christ and the divine love can only be known by having them, by their life and power working within us. “This is eternal life, that they know thee”; there is no knowing God but by having the life; the life working in us alone gives the knowledge. And even so the love; if we would know it, we must drink of its living stream, we must have it shed forth by the Holy Spirit in us.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man give his life for his friends.” The life is the most precious thing a man has; the life is all he is; the life is himself. This is the highest measure of love: when a man gives his life, he hold nothing back, he gives all he has and is. It is this our Lord Jesus wants to make clear to us concerning His mystery of the Vine; with all He has He has placed Himself at our disposal. He wants us to count Him our very own; He wants to be wholly our possession, that we may be wholly His possession. He gave His life for us in death not merely as a passing act, that when accomplished was done with; no, but as a making Himself ours for eternity. Life for life; He gave His life for us to possess that we might give our life for Him to possess. This is what is taught by the parable of the Vine and the branch, in their wonderful identification, in their perfect union.

It is as we know something of this, not by reason or imagination, but deep down in the heart and life, that we shall begin to see what ought to be our life as branches of the heavenly Vine. He gave Himself to death; He lost Himself, that we might find life in Him. This is the true Vine, who only lives to live in us. This is the beginning and the root of that holy friendship to which Christ invites us.

Great is the mystery of godliness! Let us confess our ignorance and unbelief. Let us cease from our own understanding and our own efforts to master it. Let us wait for the Holy Spirit who dwells within us to reveal it. Let us trust His infinite love, which gave its life for us, to take possession and rejoice in making us wholly its own.

by Andrew Murray

Apart From Me Ye Can Do Nothing - John 15:5

In everything the life of the branch is to be the exact counterpart of that of the Vine. Of Himself Jesus had said: “The Son can do nothing of himself.” As the outcome of that entire dependence, He could add: “All that the Father doeth, doeth the Son also likewise.” As Son He did not receive His life from the Father once for all, but moment by moment. His life was a continual waiting on the Father for all He was to do. And so Christ says of His disciples: “Ye can do nothing apart from me.” He means it literally. To everyone who wants to live the true disciple life, to bring forth fruit and glorify God, the message comes: You can do nothing. What had been said: “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit,” is here enforced by the simplest and strongest of arguments: “Abiding in Me is indispensable, for, you know it, of yourselves you can do nothing to maintain or act out the heavenly life.”

A deep conviction of the truth of this word lies at the very root of a strong spiritual life. As little as I created myself, as little as I could raise a man from the dead, can I give myself the divine life. As little as I can give it myself, can I maintain or increase it: every motion is the work of God through Christ and His Spirit. It is as a man believes this, that he will take up that position of entire and continual dependence which is the very essence of the life of faith. With the spiritual eye he sees Christ every moment supplying grace for every breathing and every deepening of the spiritual life. His whole heart says Amen to the word: You can do nothing. And just because he does so, he can also say: “I can do all things in Christ who strengtheneth me.” The sense of helplessness, and the abiding to which it compels, leads to true fruitfulness and diligence in good works.

Apart from me ye can do nothing.—What a plea and what a call every moment to abide in Christ! We have only to go back to the vine to see how true it is. Look again at that little branch, utterly helpless and fruitless except as it receives sap from the vine, and learn that the full conviction of not being able to do anything apart from Christ is just what you need to teach you to abide in your heavenly Vine. It is this that is the great meaning of the pruning Christ spoke of—all that is self must be brought low, that our confidence may be in Christ alone. “Abide in me”—much fruit! “Apart from me”—nothing! Ought there to be any doubt as to what we shall choose?

The one lesson of the parable is—as surely, as naturally as the branch abides in the vine, You can abide in Christ. For this He is the true Vine; for this God is the Husbandman; for this you are a branch. Shall we not cry to God to deliver us forever from the “apart from me,” and to make the “abide in me” an unceasing reality? Let your heart go out to what Christ is, and can do, to His divine power and His tender love to each of His branches, and you will say evermore confidently: “Lord! I am abiding; I will bear much fruit. My impotence is my strength. So be it. Apart from Thee, nothing. In Thee, much fruit.”