Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Sometimes the Christian life feels discouraging. We know Paul’s struggle as our own: not doing what we want to do, doing what we do not want to do (Rom. 7:19). Sin is always close at hand. In those moments, it is easy to sink into spiritual pessimism, throwing up our hands in near defeat.
As true as that experience can be in the Christian life, this discouragement is met with the promise of Jesus: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit” (John 15:5). There is real encouragement for every child of God.
Jesus calls Himself the True Vine and His people the branches. This metaphor needs to influence (and maybe reshape) the way that we think about our relationship to Him. The vine and branches are organically, vitally connected. Just as branches draw life and nourishment from the vine, so believers draw spiritual life, strength, and vitality from Christ. He is not an accessory to our lives; He is the source of life. Apart from Him, Jesus says plainly, we “can do nothing” (v. 5).
This claim is exclusive. Many seek to draw life from other vines—career, relationships, achievement, pleasure, possessions—but none of these can truly sustain. All other vines are bound to cause us to wither and die. Jesus alone is the True Vine, and only in union with Him is there lasting vitality.
This union inevitably produces fruit. A branch connected to the vine cannot help but bear fruit, while a branch that is cut off cannot. Yet Jesus promises not only fruitfulness but abundant fruitfulness. The Father, as the Vinedresser, prunes every fruitful branch “that it may bear more fruit” (v. 2). Pruning is a fundamental agricultural activity to improve health and productivity. While the pruning blade can feel sharp, it serves a purpose: “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (v. 8). Jesus’ promise is not minimal growth but an abundance of fruit.
What is this fruit? Jesus defines it as obedience: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” (v. 10). Fruitfulness is a life of joyful obedience, in which keeping Christ’s commands is not a burdensome chore or to-do list but a sweet and nourishing reality.
This transforms our view of obedience. Remembering the Lord’s Day, honoring parents, pursuing purity, loving spouses, serving others—all these are not mere duties but the delightful fruit of union with Christ. Such fruit brings joy: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (v. 11).
Yes, the Christian life can feel discouraging. But instead of sliding into pessimism, we need our experience to be shaped by Jesus’ promise of fruitfulness. Do we desire to be fruitful? Do we expect God, by His grace, to make us fruitful? Are we abiding in Christ through His Word so that fruit comes in every season of life? When we look, do we find fruit?