John 15: Perfect Connection, God's Longing

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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)

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. (John 15:9)

If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. (John 15:10)

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. (John 15:12)

1. The Blueprint of Existence: The Vine and the Branches

John 15 presents the most fundamental blueprint for the relationship between God, Jesus, and ourselves. "I am the vine; you are the branches." This declaration defines the very nature of our existence. Just as a branch cannot exist apart from the tree it's attached to, we cannot sustain spiritual life without our connection to Christ. When He says, "Apart from me you can do nothing," it's the most gracious diagnosis of life's essential principle. This connection, this abiding, is both the purpose of Jesus' ministry and the life-giving network that our Creator God originally intended. We are called to be "relational beings," part of the grand tree of life.

2. The Sap of Life: Love Flowing Unobstructed

What then is the life-giving sap that flows between this vine and its branches? Jesus reveals that it is love itself. This love has a specific direction and source: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you." The flow of love begins with God the Father, the vinedresser, moves through Jesus the Son, the true vine, and flows unobstructed into us, the branches. And this love doesn't stop with us. "Love each other as I have loved you." This commandment of love is a sacred invitation to share the life-giving sap we've received with other branches, to participate in the circulation of life itself. Our obedience becomes a willing conduit that allows this flow of love to pass through us without obstruction.

3. Does God Need Glory?: Reading God's Longing Through 'Tov'

At the end of this relationship, we bear much fruit, and through this "the Father is glorified." Here we might ask a fundamental question: Why would a perfect, self-sufficient God need "glory" through our fruitfulness? The key to answering this lies in understanding God's glory through the lens of Genesis 1's "it was good" (tov). God's glory isn't praise needed to fill some divine deficiency, but rather the very state in which His goodness and beauty (tov) are fully realized within creation.

God doesn't "need" us. But God does "long for" us in love. God yearns for His creation to become a "tov" state—where everything is in its proper place, connected by life-giving love, bearing fruit in harmony. The pinnacle of this "tov" is God's glory itself. Therefore, when God the vinedresser desires fruit, it springs from the Creator's longing to see His good purposes finally come to beautiful fruition.

4. Eden Restored: Join in the Joy of Creation

Ultimately, the vine metaphor is a plea for the restoration and completion of that original relationship—the recovery of Eden. If the temptation in Genesis 3 was a desire for separation, to "cut away" from relationship with God and become like God independently, then the invitation of John 15 is a call to union—to participate in God's life by "remaining" in Christ. This doesn't make us the fourth person of the Trinity, but through union with Jesus Christ, we recover the "truly human" image by participating in the holy fellowship of love (perichoresis) between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Just as a branch experiences its most "branch-like" joy when filled with sap and bearing fruit, we too become most "human" and experience the fullness of existential joy when God's love and life overflow through us, bearing the fruit of love. To participate in this joy—this is what it means to live for the glory of God.