Jesus told His disciples that He was the true vine and that His Father was the vine dresser. He said that every branch in Him that did not bear fruit, the Father would cast off. However, every branch in Him that brought forth fruit the Father would prune it so that it would bring forth even more fruit. The disciples were clean because they listened to the word that Jesus had spoken to them. The Word had changed their lives.
We can think of the vine as the trunk of a tree. Coming out of the trunk are branches. Jesus told the disciples to abide in Him and He would abide in them. He explained to them that a branch could not bear fruit unless it continued to abide in the vine or trunk. They too would not be able to bear fruit unless they continued to abide in Him.
What was Jesus saying here? He was telling His disciples that they would not be able to do godly works unless they were truly in Him. They must be nourished by Jesus, the true vine, to be able to do works that please God.
Jesus is the vine; His followers are the branches. Those who abide in Jesus and He in them will bear much fruit for the kingdom of God. However, without Jesus they can do nothing! Those who do not abide in Christ are like branches that wither away because they have no spiritual nourishment and will be cast off and burned in the lake of fire. They bear no fruit because they never connected to Jesus. They never had saving faith in the Lord in order to produce godly works. If we abide in Jesus and His words abide in us, He will do for us what we ask of Him. Isn’t that a wonderful promise? If we truly abide in Him we will not ask for things outside of His will. When we do many godly works because we abide in Jesus, the Father is glorified. This fruit will prove that we are true disciples of Christ.