Friday 2021.11.05 14:13 hrs GMT+8
In my New Testament reading this afternoon, I read chapters 15 to 17 of the Gospel of John.
John chapter 15 reminds me of a sad encounter eleven years ago, back in April 2010, seeing two little girls visiting their mother's grave at the Hokkien Cemetery in Sungei Jelok Kajang, Selangor. Later that evening, while attending an anniversary dinner of my university Christian Fellowship, I was awakened to some new observations from the words of our Lord Iesus to his disciples in John 15:1 - 17. This led me to write a long devotional article in my blog a few days later.
Part of my devotional post, written on Mon 05Apr2010, is reproduced below. The link to the complete post can be found at the bottom of the page.
John 15:1 - 17 CEV Contemporary English Version
"Jesus said to his disciples:
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts away every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit. But he trims clean every branch that does produce fruit, so that it will produce even more fruit. You are already clean because of what I have said to you.
Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me. I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me. If you don't stay joined to me, you will be thrown away. You will be like dry branches that are gathered up and burned in a fire.
Stay joined to me and let my teachings become part of you. Then you can pray for whatever you want, and your prayer will be answered. When you become fruitful disciples of mine, my Father will be honored. I have loved you, just as my Father has loved me. So remain faithful to my love for you. If you obey me, I will keep loving you, just as my Father keeps loving me, because I have obeyed him.
I have told you this to make you as completely happy as I am. Now I tell you to love each other, as I have loved you. The greatest way to show love for friends is to die for them. And you are my friends, if you obey me. Servants don't know what their master is doing, and so I don't speak to you as my servants. I speak to you as my friends, and I have told you everything that my Father has told me.
You did not choose me. I chose you and sent you out to produce fruit, the kind of fruit that will last. Then my Father will give you whatever you ask for in my name. So I command you to love each other. "
I have read this passage many times before but that evening I noticed, for the first time, that in the midst of our Lord Jesus' commands to his disciples to abide in him and to obey him, there were at least three references to the Father. Once at the beginning, several times in the middle and once more at the end of the passage.
At the beginning of the passage, I read that our heavenly Father is our Gardener. God is our Father who cuts away fruitless branches from the vine and trims the fruitful ones so that the fruitful disciples will bear even more fruit. Every Christian who abides in the commands of our Lord Jesus remains as part of this vine in this garden.
And those of us who bear fruits in Christ will be pruned, trimmed and tended to by our Father in heaven, so that we will bear even more fruits. However, we must beware of the pitfall of living fruitless lives should we depart from obeying Christ in our lives - our Father will cut such people away from his kingdom!
Then about halfway through the passage, I realised that our heavenly Father is our Guide. The Lord Jesus told his disciples that their fruitfulness in life was to glorify his Father (rather than to glorify Jesus himself). He went on to tell them twice that he his love for the disciples was guided by his Father's love: first by saying that he loved them just as his Father has loved him, and again by saying that he would keep loving them if they obeyed him just as his Father keeps loving him because he had obeyed his Father.
Indeed, it is clear that our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the only begotten Son of God looked to his Father in heaven as his guide in his love for his disciples and in his obedience to his Father. This is the same God who is our heavenly Father today, who is our guide as we obey the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And finally, at the end of the passage, I saw that our Father in heaven is our Giver. The Lord Jesus told his disciples that he had chosen them and had sent them out to produce fruit in life that will endure. And then his Father will give them whatever they ask for in Jesus' name. This is the joy that all who follow and obey the Lord Jesus Christ can have everyday of their lives: the joy of being chosen, of being sent out to live fruitful lives and the joy of receiving from our heavenly Father whatever we ask in the name of Christ.
The full text of my original blog-post is linked below:
