Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, 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, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. JOHN 15:4–5

When I was growing up, my dad owned an engineering company that performed land surveying. At just eight years old, I started surveying with him on weekends. He’d give me a machete (not sure I’d give any of my kids or grandkids a machete at that age!) and teach me how to cut vines and branches that were in the way of the property line. I remember early on my dad told me to watch out for the “wait a minute” vine. Obviously, that’s not the official name of the vine; it’s just what we called them because you’d be walking along and then get caught in the vine’s thorns and have to yell, “Wait a minute!”

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). He doesn’t mean He’s a prickly “wait a minute” vine. He also doesn’t mean He’s the kind of vine you’d find Tarzan swinging

on in the jungle. The word vine in this verse is translated as “grapevine.” So Jesus is really saying that He’s a fruit-producing grapevine. And what kind of fruit does He produce? “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”—the fruit of His Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23 NLT).

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