LIFE-STUDY OF JOHN

MESSAGE THIRTY-FIVE

THE ORGANISM OF THE TRIUNE GOD
IN THE DIVINE DISPENSATION

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II. THE BRANCHES LOVING ONE ANOTHER
TO EXPRESS THE DIVINE LIFE IN FRUIT-BEARING

We have covered the first part of John 15, verses 1 through 11, which shows the relationship between us and the Lord. The second part, verses 12 through 17, shows our relationship with one another. In this part of the chapter we see that the branches should love one another to express the divine life in fruit-bearing. These verses reveal that fruit-bearing has very much to do with our loving one another. We must keep a right relationship with one another in life, that is, in love by life. We must keep our relationship in love and love one another by the life that is in us. This life is the Lord Himself. Loving one another is the church life, the Body life. The Body life is a life of love and a life in love. We should not love one another with a human love but in the divine life and with the divine love.

We are not branches of many separate trees; we are all branches of the same tree. So we need to maintain a good fellowship with all the other branches as well as with the tree. This is why in this chapter the Lord also tells us to love one another (vv. 12, 17). If we do not love one another, it will be very difficult to bear fruit. If we do not love one another, it means that our fellowship with the vine tree has been cut off. Therefore, there is no way for us to bear fruit. In order to bear fruit we must love one another.

The life within all of us is one life. The life in you is exactly the same as the life in me. This resembles the circulation of the blood in our physical body. The blood in our body circulates through every member of our body. In like manner, the inner life of all the branches is one. This life should continually circulate through all the branches. Then all the branches will be so living and filled with the riches of life in order to bear fruit.

A. The Branches Being One

Although the branches are many, they are one. They are one with the vine and with one another. All the branches together with the vine are one entity, one organism.

B. The Branches Being in an Intimate
Relationship with the Vine

The branches are in an intimate relationship with the vine (vv. 13-15). The branches are not the Lord’s slaves; they are His friends. Because they are the Lord’s friends, the branches can know the Father’s desire that He be expressed in a corporate Body.

C. The Branches Being Chosen and Appointed
to Bear Remaining Fruit

The branches have been chosen and appointed to bear remaining fruit. In verse 16 the Lord said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I appointed you that you should go forth and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you.” The King James Version uses the word ordained instead of appointed. I like the term ordained. We all have been ordained. To be ordained means to be appointed. Ordained is an old-fashioned word for the modern word appointed. All of the sisters, including the younger sisters, must realize that they have been ordained. Do you know that we all have been ordained? We have been ordained to bear fruit. Do not say that you are too young for this. Regardless of how young you may be, you have been chosen and ordained to bear remaining fruit.

In this chapter there are four ways of referring to the fruit: bearing fruit (v. 2), much fruit (v. 8), more fruit (v. 2), and remaining fruit (v. 16). How long the fruit remains depends on how much life we impart into it. It all depends upon the amount of life we impart into the new converts. This determines how long they will remain. Often in bringing people to the Lord we impart into them only a small amount of life. Therefore, they scarcely remain. It is difficult for them to remain for a longer time.

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