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Religion is meant to be in everyday life a thing of unspeakable joy.
And why do so many complain that it is not so? Because they do not
believe that there is no joy like the joy of abiding in Christ and in His love,
and being branches through whom He can pour out His love on a dying world.
-Andrew Murray, The True Vine
I am the vine, ye are the branches. – John 15:5
In the previous verse Christ said: “Abide in me.” He then announced the great unalterable law of all branch life, on earth or in heaven: The branch cannot bear fruit “of itself”; “except it abide.” In the opening words of the parable, He has already said, “I am the vine.” He now repeats the words. He would have us understand – note well the lesson (as simple as it appears, it is the key of the abiding life) – that the only way to obey the command “Abide in me” is to have eye and heart fixed upon Himself. “Abide in me . . . I am the vine.” Yes, study this holy mystery until you see Christ as the true Vine – bearing, strengthening, supplying, inspiring all His branches, being and doing in each branch all it needs – and the abiding will come of itself. Yes, gaze upon Him as the true Vine until you feel what a heavenly mystery it is and are compelled to ask the Father to reveal it to you by His Holy Spirit.
He to whom God reveals the glory of the true Vine, he who sees what Jesus is and waits to do His will every moment, he cannot but abide. The vision of Christ is an irresistible attraction; it draws and holds us like a magnet. Listen ever to the living Christ still speaking to you and waiting to show you the meaning and power of His word: “I am the vine.”
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