Live to Love Scripture Encouragement

John 15:2-3. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”
I want to encourage you today with the words of Jesus that prune us, the words that sanctify or clean us so that we can bear more fruit. If we didn’t stop and look back at those words, we would miss how powerful and encouraging verse 3 is to us. The same Greek word, katharos, is used in vss. 2-3. In vs. 2, Jesus used the verb form and in vs. 3, the adjectival form. Jesus also told them they were “clean” in 13:10. The idea Jesus communicated was the idea of being washed, cleansed, or purified from those things that hinder the flow of His love. There’s so much here! Who does the pruning? The vinedresser, of course, not the vine. However, Jesus said here that His words had cleansed or pruned them. However, He had told them only minutes earlier, that the words that He spoke to them were the words of the Father working. He said, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” So now we can connect the dots. The vinedresser, the Father, gave the words to Jesus, in order to cleanse or prune His disciples. It was and still is the Father working in His Son because they are one. The Father’s words are the life of the vine and the powerful pruning work in our lives. When praying to His Father, Jesus described this incredible reality. John 17:6-8. “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” Then later in His prayer, He asked the Father to prune His disciples through the word that He had given Him to give to them. John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” What truth or words did Jesus give to His disciples that prepared them for effective fruit-bearing for the glory of God? Do you know what they are? Have you received them as the pruning, cleansing, sanctifying words of God that make His branches fruitful? We will be encouraged by His cleansing words tomorrow.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 15:2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”
The vine dresser, the Father, knows what is necessary for His vine to bear fruit for His glory. Branches (people) who do not bear fruit for His glory must be removed. The branches who bear fruit must be pruned so that the life received from the vine may explode in fruit-bearing. Everything that hinders the branch from bearing fruit will be removed. Such is the love and determination of the vinedresser. The vine exists for one purpose: to bear fruit for the vinedresser. The branches are only of value to the degree that they channel the life within the vine into fruit production. What is the fruit of His life? It is the love of Jesus for the Father and for other fruit-bearing branches. Let’s not forget what Jesus has told them. He and the Father are one. They work together. The illustration of the vinedresser and the vine working toward the same end, namely, fruit-bearing, aptly illustrates what Jesus wanted His disciples and us to grasp. They and we are the branches who produce fruit for the glory of God as the Father and Son work in and through us. This is one of the many reasons I hope you’ll grasp the vision of living to love with Jesus, namely, bearing the fruit of the Spirit of God, which is the love of Jesus. Jesus said that if we are to be fruit-bearing branches, we must be pruned so we can bear more fruit. We will continue with that wonderful thought in tomorrow’s live to love scripture encouragement.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.”
After telling His disciples the new commandment, to love as He loved them, Jesus explained how they were going to be able to obey. He was going to the Father to prepare a place for them so that He could live and love in them through the Holy Spirit. In chapter 15, Jesus chose the metaphors of a vinedresser and a grape vine to further explain how they were going to bear fruit for the glory of God. God, the Father of Jesus, planted only one true vine in this world, Jesus, His Son. He alone is the source of life to this world. In fact, He is the channel through which everything was created and exists. John introduced Jesus this way in John 1:1-4. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” This is indeed the biblical worldview of all things.
The world is the vineyard that belongs to the Father. He planted one true vine in this world, His Son, Jesus Christ. Paul put it this way to the Corinthians in chapter 8, verse 6. “Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” The vineyard is there for the Father to enjoy the fruit from His choice Vine. However, not every branch (person produced by the Vine) bears fruit. As we meditate on John Chapter 15 the next few weeks and consider our lives each day, let us remember this foundational statement made by Jesus. “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” Why do we exist? What are we here to do? Will you recognize that Jesus is the only vine and that you came into being through Him?

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 14:31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.
Consider the life and love of the one who lives in those who believe in Jesus. Jesus loves the Father and reveals that love by His obedience. The Father commanded Jesus to lay down His life for those whom the Father gave to Him before the foundation of the earth. So He came to do the Father’s will. As is written in Heb. 10:7. “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’” Jesus knew they had to leave the upper room and go to the place where the ruler of this world would meet Him and attempt to take Him down. The world is to know that what occurred that night were not in the hands of mortal men nor of the ruler of this world. They occurred so that the Son could demonstrate His love for His Father and His obedience to His will. Jesus was completely, 100% submitted to and surrendered to this one great passion stated by Jesus only minutes before. “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.” (John 13:31-32). As we saw and heard Jesus authorize His own betrayal in sending Judas to do the deed, we now see in this verse, Jesus relocated Himself so that He would be in the path of the betrayer, the soldiers, and Satan Himself. He loves the Father by obeying Him! He did exactly as the Father commanded Him. That is the life and love that lives within all who believe. All who are His love the Father and do the Father’s will. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter” (Matt. 7:21). We do His will—live to love with Jesus—because the love of the Father and the Son dwell within us. There is no greater joy than to glorify the Father through His Son who lives and loves in us.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

John 14:30 I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me;
Jesus told them one more thing before it happened so that they might believe. He told them that Satan was coming to try to get Him, but that Jesus would defeat Satan because there was nothing in Jesus that belonged to him. This is a stunning statement of the divinity of Jesus Christ. Everything in Him was God, and there was nothing in Him that belonged to Satan. There were no thoughts, no lies, no emotions, no doubts, no unbelief, no lusts, no fears, no indecision, no idolatry, no nothing for Satan to appeal to in Jesus that could distract Jesus from doing the will of His Father. He basically told them that Satan will be defeated. We now know that Jesus’ prophetic statement is true. Satan came. He tried to tempt Jesus away from the Father’s will. He failed. There was nothing that belonged to Satan in Jesus, so Jesus stood firm, surrendered Himself to all that was in Him of the Father, and crushed the ruler of this world, the prince of the power of the air, and all of Satan’s works in all of those who belong to Jesus. John wrote in His first epistle in 3:8. “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” And He has! There is nothing in Jesus (in His body—that’s us) that Satan can use to condemn and destroy us. We are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ, who has loved us and given Himself for us. Today, let us be encouraged that Satan has nothing in us to separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ. Let us rejoice and be glad, and give all the glory unto Him.

Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com