John 15:1-6, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-grower. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He cleans it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”
Scripture should dominate every aspect of the Christian life. It should be obvious that the key to this passage is the necessity of continually remaining connected to Christ. Fruit-bearing will determine whether or not someone is a true disciple. Believers who are connected to Him will produce fruit such as love, obedience, and good works, and He will prune away the areas that do not serve Him to produce even more fruit. Those who claim to be connected to Him but fail to produce fruit, will be cut off, dried and burned. Jesus doesn’t tolerate the appearance of false disciples.
Let me remind you of the night of His arrest, while He was in the Upper Room with the twelve, all were attached to Jesus but one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, for all intents and purposes, looked like everybody else, he did what everybody else did but he was a false disciple and he was terminally and finally cut-off.
This isn’t about believing, the emphasis here is on belonging. Not everyone who believes belongs. James reminds us that even demons believe. No one who truly belongs to Christ will ever be cut-off. Belonging is evidenced by the presence of the Holy Spirit and a life marked by obedience and spiritual fruit.
An unregenerate believer may appear to be attached to Christ but because the do not have the Holy Spirit, the will fail to produce fruit, demonstrating a life of obedience. The distinction between the two is not always obvious to the human observer as we cannot discern the inner spiritual condition of others that why Scripture teaches us in Matthew 7, “You will know them by their fruits.”
The only way you can tell whether or not a person is a Christian, is the fruit of righteousness is manifest in their life. If salvation is real there will be the inward evidence of a transformed life. A person can clean up the outside and still be corrupt inside, that’s why Jesus called the self-righteous religious leaders “white washed tombs.”
Anyone who belongs to Christ will already be clean, but he will occasionally need to be pruned to produce more fruit; that’s the work of the Father Who cuts away the sin in our lives.
Brian Monzón grew up attending church with his grandmother. Through her actions, she impressed upon him the power of the prayers of the righteous, as she herself spent many hours kneeling before God, praying for her family and the needs of others. Besides being a pastor, Brian has been studying and teaching the Word of God for many years. He has devoted his life to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, praying with and for others, especially the unsaved. Brian is also a proud father of four children. He challenges them to be their best and has strived to raise his family up in church and on the Word of God. To discover more about Brian and his ministry please visit Brian Monzón Ministries.
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Yes, we belong to Christ as we recognize our inseparable spiritual identity as God’s image and likeness, finding true fulfillment not in human approval but in our divine relationship with God as love , which Jesus demonstrated and which heals by revealing man’s inherent freedom and goodness as God’s idea. This belonging frees us from fear and limitation, establishing our place in God’s ever-present kingdom and family. The Bible assures us that we belong to a God that is Love (see I John 4:16). The right kind of oneness is so “rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17) that even earthquake-type events can’t shake it.
Your Friend – His servant,
Isaac Otieno