Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He bears up, and every branch bearing fruit, He cleans in order that it should bear more fruit (John 15:2)
The new relationship we have in Christ enables us to live a life of righteousness. To illustrate this relationship, Christ uses the metaphor of a vine and a vinedresser. Just as a branch must remain in the vine to bear fruit, so also we must abide in Christ. Apart from Him, no one can produce good fruit—though a person may attempt to make their works appear good, they are, in truth, rotten within. For those of us who are in Christ, when we feel at ease with who we are in Him, fruit begins to appear. The Father, as the vinedresser, orchestrates circumstances in our lives to bring about fruitfulness; and once fruit is present, He continues His work to ensure that we bear even more fruit.
The fruit referred to here is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, objectivity of mind, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). We find rest in Christ by aligning our frame of mind with what God declares concerning us (Colossians 3:1–2), and we therefore conduct our lives accordingly. The Holy Spirit fills in where we are deficient in our ability to produce good fruit, enabling us to be useful—both in discerning and fulfilling the desirous will of God for us as members of the body of Christ.