The Disciples’ Life in Jesus

By Jeff Curtis

As Jesus prepared His apostles for His departure, He told them how spiritual life could be sustained in His absence. He gave them this critical truth by using an analogy of a vine and its branches. He depicted His Father as the vinedresser or a farmer, Himself as the vine, and each of disciple as a branch attached to the vine. Central to this analogy is the idea of a life-giving relationship that supersedes all other relationships. It is a triangular relationship involving the Father, the Son and the disciple.

Jesus’ words are more vital for us to understand, even as they were vital for the apostles to understand. Jesus was describing how His followers could have spiritual life in this world after He had taken His seat at the Father’s right hand. The apostles would no longer have the personal presence of Jesus, but they were to be connected to Him in a life-sustaining way. As we live for Christ today, we must live in Him and through Him as a branch, lives in and through the vine.

An Essential Relationship. Truly, this relationship that the disciple has with Jesus is an absolutely essential relationship. Jesus identified Himself as the vine and declared that we can’t have any spiritual life at all unless we are attached to Him in order to draw life from Him as a branch does from the vine. He said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser” (Jn. 15:1). Later, He said, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned up” (Jn. 15:6).

In keeping with this analogy, the Christian life begins when one becomes a branch attached to “the true vine” – that is, when he becomes a Christian. Obtaining salvation involves faith, repentance, confession, and baptism in such a way that we become part of the vine. Paul, using a different figure, said, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). At baptism, he said, we enter Christ and are wrapped, or clothed, with Him.

A Continual Relationship. Our relationship with Jesus is a continual one. Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn.15:5). The word He used, “abide,” expresses continuity. This relationship that we have with Him is permanent, daily, and growing.

One who doesn’t eat will die unless doctors sustain him with intravenous feeding. No person can live without food, and no Christian can live without Christ’s divine energy. Our relationship with Jesus is maintained by our walking with Jesus, praying through Jesus, feeding on His word, and growing into His likeness.

A Productive Relationship. Having the life of Christ in us means that our relationship with Him will be productive. Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me” (Jn. 15:4). As this divine energy flows into us, we must do something with it. Either we respond to it and allow it to produce in us what Christ’s life always produces – spiritual life, growth into His likeness, a love like His, and a diligence to serve as He served – or we die spiritually.

When we accept Christ’s divine energy and allow it to work in us, making us more and more into His image, we receive the Father’s encouragement so that we can grow more quickly. He sometimes prunes us so that the Son’s life can be fuller and more permeating in us. The apostles had recently been pruned by Jesus’ words. He told them, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you” (Jn.15:3). Even so, our Father often prunes us through the Word as it enters our hearts anew with power and operates upon us with a more effective cutting edge.

Jesus, then, is not only our hope, our example, our Captain, our Savior, and our Lord, but He is also our life. We have nothing without Him, we can do nothing without Him. Our life with Him is the supreme relationship that we have in this world – it is essential and continual, a relationship that makes us productive and brings glory to God.

When Cooperation Means Compromise

By Jeff Curtis

According to Ezra 4:1-4, the people of the land offered to help the Jews rebuild the temple; “Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria.” The leaders of the Jews replied, “You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God.” In other words, they said, “No thanks!”

Why would the Jewish leaders so summarily dismiss what appeared to be a neighborly gesture from fellow believers? Several answers are possible, but the main reason undoubtedly was that they believed cooperation with their “enemies” (4:1) would result in compromising their faith.

Associating with these polytheists could lead them into idolatry, into worshiping their gods. Therefore, “no” was the only proper answer.

Sometimes today, as well, Christians must make choices that seem to be unfriendly. If people who share some of their beliefs, but who also teach false doctrines, seek to cooperate with them, sometimes they must say, “No.” The problem is that cooperation can lead to compromise. For God’s people, it is more important to stand for the truth and stand against error than to accept others and their beliefs uncritically.

The Lord is Near to the Brokenhearted

by Jesse A. Flowers

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Ps. 34:18, ESV).

Have you ever been brokenhearted and crushed in your spirit? Perhaps you are presently. It is likely that most who are reading this have experienced such at least once if not multiple times in their life. If you have lost your spouse, a child, another close family member, a dear friend, then you know what it is like to have a broken heart and a crushed spirit. If you have experienced betrayal in someone that you placed your total trust and confidence in, then you felt the deep pain of a broken heart and a crushed spirit. Perhaps it happened to you when you, a loved one, or friend received the dreaded news of a terminal illness. Or maybe it occurred when you went through quarrels, strife, and division in a local church. For too many spouses it happens when their marriages fail and end in divorce. For too many parents it happens when their children rebel against the Lord and His will.

And there are certainly many other hardships and tribulations in this life that will lead one to be brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. But regardless of the cause, we must always remember that the Lord is near to us in such emotional and trying times. He loves us so much. He cares for us deeply. He is the God of all comfort. He implores us in His Word to come boldly to His throne of grace “that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). He promises to never leave us nor forsake us. If we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. So, when you find yourself in circumstances that leave you brokenhearted and crushed in spirit, remember the Lord is there, He is close by, and He will never leave your side or abandon you. He is our rock, our refuge, our fortress, our deliver, our strength, and our salvation. May we say with David, “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; and in the shadow of Your wings, I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by” (Ps. 57:1).