Not Made to Be AloneSample

Remain in Him

Read: John 15:1–5

SOAP John 15:5

“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing.”

Into the Text

Community is not one-sided. When we remain in God—staying close to Him, trusting Him, reading His Word, learning more about Him, and living in a way that reflects His image to the world around us—He remains in us. God is with us, not because He is obligated to do so as our Creator, but because He loves us.

Being in community with God brings some pretty incredible blessings. In fact, we cannot bear fruit without our connection to the vine, who is Jesus. When we remain close to Jesus, good things will grow, things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (See Galatians 5:22–23).

But branches cut from vines or trimmed from trees are no longer useful for anything except firewood. Likewise, our efforts on our own, apart from Jesus, are useless. The fruitfulness of our lives is a direct result of our connection to Jesus, not anything we can do. The love that we show to others, the joy we experience, the peace in our hearts, and the kindness that we share, it is all because of what God is doing in our lives, and He deserves the credit. When we live in community with God, we are changed from the inside out.

There is a sense of free will, but also permanence in our relationship with Christ in this example. As long as we remain in Christ, we will bear much fruit. We must choose, each day, to remain with Him and depend on Him. And when we do, He is there for us. We choose, through obedience and love, to grow close to Him, and out of that relationship flows life. Being in community with God helps us rely less on ourselves and more on Him.