John 15

In my Bible the word abide is replaced with the words "stay joined". I like these words "stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you" verse 4.
I'm in another Bible study and something that was brought to my attention is the idea of "promise" and "premise". For every promise in the Bible there is a premise-ex: God promises "this" and if I obey I will receive "that". I really see that here. Verse 5-If you stay joined to me, I will stay joined to you (promise), then you will produce lots of fruit (premise). Verse 7- stay joined to me and let me teachings become part of you (promise). Then you can pray for whatever you want, and you prayer will be answered (premise). Verse 10-If you obey me (promise), I will keep loving you, just as my father keeps loving me, because I have obeyed him (premise). I like Christine's parenting example because this passage does not mean that God will stop loving us if we mess up. We can do nothing to earn or lose God's love but we can please him (and ourselves) by obeying him. Our obiedence enhances our relationship and our lives. I love my children unconditionally just like God loves me but.... I can love "on" them when they obey me and God. When they make good decisions I want to hug them and show them how proud I am of them. It enhances my relationship with them. That doesn't mean when they stray that I don't still know how important it is to support and love them. As parents we know our children are vunerable and will not always do what they know is best but neither do we. God is the best example of what parenting should be.
I also looked up the word "productive" or "fruitful" to try to better understand what God means by this. I found words like: "yielding positive results" (my favorite), profitable, rich, successful. Interesting.
Bottom line is we can do nothing by ourselves. We must trust, abide, stay joined, and remain in him.