“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 NIV
Jesus used metaphors and parables a lot during His ministry because He knew that people would understand the hard spiritual truths that He was telling them if it resembled something familiar to them. Here, Jesus is speaking to the disciples and reminding them that there is a connection between them, a relationship that is important to them as well as to Him. He tells them, as a different way of the thinking of this relationship, about the relationship between the vine or root of a plant and the branches of that plant. He is talking about how the branches are unable to become healthy and strong let alone produce any fruit if they are not connected to the vine.
He has told them directly that He is the vine, the root of the plant. The life giving source for the branches and that they are the branches, which are extensions of Him. They represent Him as His followers. He goes on to tell them that it is not only important for them to remain in Him, to be actively seeking Him, to follow His guidance, but it is as equally important for them to allow Him to remain in them.
As Jesus says at the end of the verse, if the branches believing that they can make it on their own once they have grown and become strong, disconnect from the vine, they will surely die. Their branches will not produce fruit any longer and they will become weak. The same is true with us, we can do nothing without Jesus. We will grow strong as long as we stay connected to Him and choose to actively follow Him. If we are connected to Him but then don’t take in any of the spiritual food we need to grow, then we do not mature as His followers.
So are you receiving the spiritual food needed to grow from the Vine or are you disconnected?