April 6, 2025
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in our Lenten readings from “The Life of Jesus”? Here’s today’s reading:
Lent 2025 – Day 17 in the Book: “The Life of Jesus“
The Week Jesus Dies
Read Sections 5.34 through 5.35 (pages 163-165)
This book is an account of Jesus’ life and teachings told in chronological order from the four Gospels to create one continuous story.
*If you do not have a copy of the book please contact the church at (401)667-0775 and we can get you a copy.
One of my favorite of Jesus’ teachings is this one of abiding in God taught through the vine. “They will know you by your fruits” but we know that good fruit doesn’t just happen. A garden requires daily tending in order to have a good harvest. It is not just feeding it with good soil, water, and food; it is cutting away what is not producing and even knowing the good parts that need to be cut in order to strengthen the whole plant. As we abide in Him, our vine and source of life, we need to receive both teaching and instruction from His word and hear His voice as we spend time with Him in worship and prayer. We also need to be prepared for the trials and the tough times that prune us to be stronger and it may be uncomfortable but necessary. We are His branches and in order to produce the best fruit that will bring Him glory we need daily tending!
Lent Day 17
You must stay joined with Jesus (the vine) for us to produce good fruit.we cannot do it without him! We are the branches.it brings honor to God. If you do this you can ask for anything you want.
Jesus said the world hated him before it hated us. We do not belong in the world. I have said this to myself many times. I do not belong in this world anymore! I do not fit in.
Not only connected to the vine, but God is glorified as we bear much fruit. Loving each other as Jesus loved us. Probably won’t have to die for someone. But Listening, giving. encouraging, spending time. Need to love each other as the world hates us. Why we do much coming together as often as we can at church. Of like mind. We’ve seen the anti-semitism getting so much worse. Take a guess who and what the next target is? Our constitution and Christians
Lent Day 17
As long as we are connected to the vine for nourishment, we will grow in Him. He is the vine, and we are the branches. If we fail to spend time with Him, we will dry up and will be useless. We would still be saved but as a believer, we would be carnal. Jesus warns us that because the world hates Him, they will hate us. The world loves darkness and hates the light because it reveals sin, and people would rather stay in their sins. John 3:19,20 {And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.} Jesus is the Light and we as believers carry the light in us to bring forth the gospel. The light in us is the Holy Spirit once we came to Christ. As believers lets not quench the Spirit but boldly proclaim Christ. Jesus tells us not to hide our light. God bless you all.
A line from this passage caught my attention and I think I need Pastor Peter’s input on this. It was the part where Jesus said, “if you obey my commands, I will continue to love you.” I have never read the ERV Bible version (which is where this was taken from) and this is my first time to read it in this way. Other versions like the NIV, NLT and even the Message (which is one of the liberal Bible translations) use the words, “remain in my love” or “at home in my love” instead.
“If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” (John 15:10, NIV)
“When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” (John 15:10, NLT)
“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.” (John 15:10, The Message)
I believe “I will continue to love you” has a different meaning from “you will remain in my love.” The former has an implication that if we stop obeying Jesus, he will stop loving us which contradicts Romans 8:38-39. The latter to me means that if we keep obeying Jesus, we will have a consistent awareness of his love.
Hey Jill, so sorry that it has taken me so long to get to this, and I will only give an answer based on my understanding of Scripture and will check out the Greek tomorrow, just in case it provides insight either in the word continue/remain or in the word love that Jesus uses. But really independent of that, I think what Jesus is saying is there is a kind of love that God has for those who obey that is different and more personal than the unconditional love He has for everyone. Particularly as the reference point is the love the Father has for Him because of His obedience. Also notice that Jesus says this in the positive sense but He doesn’t say it in the negative (ie He doesn’t say I won’t love you if you disobey). He does say that if we are not connected to Him that we will not bear fruit, which is different from loving us, but I believe that being connected to the vine does continue into this statement about love. Be connected to me and I will be connected to you. Obey me and you will be connected to my love/I will continue to love you. Hope that helps….
Ok, so I did not do a deep dive in the Greek to see why the ERV translates the verse in that way, but from what I see the better way to translate this is that we will remain in Christ’s love as we obey. It would be fair to translate that word remain as continue, but the Greek doesn’t seem to allow for Jesus to be the subject of the verb. The sentence describes a state we are in by obeying not an action that Jesus is taking by loving us. Make sense?
”You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 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.“
John 15:3-4 NKJV
This reminded me of when Jesus was washing the disciples feet and Peter wanted Him to wash his head and all of him! Jesus said, they were already clean because of His words. Only their feet needed cleaning. Here, they/we are already “clean” but must stay connected to the vine to produce fruit. I think of my plants that wither if I don’t water them or if a branch on my vegetables gets broken, they wither or are actually dead. Thankful for the salvation we have through faith, but our walk doesn’t end there. A good way to stay connected is, obviously be in the word, but also pray for fruit. Have had some fruit bearing opportunities lately.
Jesus is really a genius in the word pictures He provides to describe spiritual principles. What a great picture for an agrarian society is vines and branches. Of course a branch needs to be connected to the vine to produce fruit and of course the work of the gardener is to cut back the dead branches so the nutrients can go to the branches that are alive and growing. So Jesus is willing to do that work in us and through us, we only need to decide to remain in Him and not separate ourselves from Him. What power and life giving influence will come to us and what love and closeness we will have with and from God if we obey. Because God desires for us to bear fruit, found both in the way we live and the lives we touch and the spreading of the gospel. And if all that wasn’t enough, Jesus also sends the Helper to aid and empower all that God seeks to produce in us and through us. And the world just doesn’t get this. Set in their own ways and following satan and the flesh, they will hate that which opposes and convicts them that they are doing something wrong. And often that will be us that will be caught in the cross hairs of their rejection of God.
No branch can produce fruit alone; it must stay connected to the vine. Separate from God, we can do nothing. Jesus calls us friends and he displayed the greatest love of all by dying for us. Isn’t that amazing?! Don’t let the world stop us from doing what the Lord wants us to do and keep the focus on him, not on what the world thinks. It seems unreasonable that people dislike us when we aren’t doing anything wrong. So it makes sense when Jesus says “they hated me for no reason”. So don’t lose faith when this happens, he is with us and he has given us the Holy Spirit to help us.
Lent 2025 – Day 17