. “Remain dwelling in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it remains fruitfully connected to the vine, so neither can you unless you remain fruitfully connected to me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who remains dwelling in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
Here He puts the matter clearly. He is the Vine, and the disciples (and His people) are the branches. Unless life is flowing from Him to them as a result of His indwelling in them (see John 6:56; John 8:31), and as a result of their full commitment to Him in trusting faith, then in spiritual terms they can do nothing. They are useless. But if they are fully connected to Him in faith, obedience and prayer (even though faltering, for the Vinedresser can cope with that), if they are ‘in Christ', then they will finally produce abundant fruit in lives rich in godliness and powerful in effectiveness in whatever God wants them to do. All their success depends on the Vine.
The idea of ‘abiding' is that of a response of faith followed by obedience. The one who partakes of the benefits of His death, that is, who comes to Him though faith in Him and His cross, abides in Him (John 6:56). Those who respond to Him with a continuing faith rather than a shallow, sign-induced faith, come to abide in His word and are thus truly His disciples and come to know the truth which makes them free (John 8:31). Those who are His do not abide in darkness but have the light of life (John 12:46). We know that we abide in Him and He abides in us because He has given us of His Spirit (1 John 4:13). Abiding begins on being born from above and is to continue on through life. Like faith it is the gift of God, and it results in everlasting life.
John sees the world as split into two groupings, ‘the world' and ‘true abiding believers'. One side abide in the world and in darkness and in the arms of the Evil One (1 John 5:19), the others abide in Christ. There are weak believers and strong believers, but all who continue with Him abide in Him, while those who permanently go from Him evidence the fact that they are not His (1 John 2:19). In 1 Corinthians 9:27 Paul spoke of those who would be rejected after testing and was determined not to be among them. Jesus taught the same. We are built either on rock, and hear His words and do them, or sand, and do not hear His words and do them (Matthew 7:24-27). Note the contrast, the former hear His words and do them, the latter do not. So we are either in the narrow way or in the broad way (John 7:13-14), and only the former leads to life. Only those who do the will of the Father will enter into the Kingly Rule of God (Matthew 7:21-23). We show no favours if we water down God's word in order to suggest that bare belief in a theological fact is sufficient. Our response must be one of trust and obedience in a person. Although having said that He is the final judge of fruitfulness not us.
The same lesson came from Jesus' own interpretation of the parable of the sower. On the one side are those who are caught up in the world, those who are deceived by Satan, and those who have a shallow, false faith which is not lasting (Matthew 13:19-22), and on the other are those who truly believe and produce a great harvest (Matthew 13:23). Some of the latter produce more fruit than others (thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold), but all are fruit bearing.
‘Can do nothing.' They can do nothing, that is, of spiritual value. Nothing which furthers the purposes of God. They can invent great inventions, they can fathom the physical universe (to some extent), they can produce great masterpieces, but all these will pass away. Anything that is enduring must result from dwelling continually in Christ.