The Branches of God!

“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. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” – John 15:5-8 NIV

Most of us tend to be nice loving person, who is filled with compassion. Therefore, we try to show our kindness to others as possible as we could by having gentle hearts. If this method does not work, we stop being kind to one another and consider them as our enemies. We wonder why we are being angry to the specific people that we usually meet. Because of this, we may try to even forget those people and also consider them as strangers, like the ones we never knew that they have been existed in this world. Thus, for this reason, we try to find the ones who have same characteristics as us, since we love to be long-term relationship with one another. However, the truth is that we eventually are going to fail that long-term relationship between one another unless we abide and connect with Jesus Christ. The main reason for this is because of the fruit of the Spirit of God. This means that the characteristics that we long for are in Jesus Christ, due to the fact that the fruit of the Spirit includes “… love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…” (Galatians 5:22-23) In addition to this, there would be no law at all that is against of having the fruit of Jesus Christ within us (Galatians 5:23) Because of this reason, Jesus pronounces, “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 15:8) For example, one young man that I know of, stole my money a few times when I was not present with my bag. He used to open my backpack and my wallet to get some money out. His mother found this out and she told me to always keep my bag with me. When he stole my money, anger burned within me but I forgave Him by sharing the love of God. The fruit of the Spirit just overflowed and empowered me to forgive, because I think I was abiding in Jesus Christ so much that I did not even know that there was forgiveness attribute within me (John 15:1-17).

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:12-15)

This is the probably reason why we need to obey the two greatest commandments of God, which are loving God with all of our hearts, souls, minds and strength; and loving others as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). This is because when we love each other deeply through the love of God, all of the other attributes of the fruit of the Spirit automatically comes along. Furthermore, the love of God covers all sins and arguments that we had between each other (1 Peter 4:8).

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:8-10)