I enjoy trains so much my desire was riding in a real locomotive.  A friend of mine was a superintendent for a short line in South Carolina and invited me to visit his railroad anytime I was in the state.  A few years ago on the way to Florida, we stopped and he took us out to the yard where a 250,000 pound engine sat.  I boarded and sat in the brakeman's seat when Rich offered me the other seat--the engineer's!  I sat down and he instructed me how to operate the engine and slowly I moved it forward and backward in the yard.  I was overjoyed and was able to cross one more thing off of my bucket list.  We all have seen various train cars sitting on the siding waiting for the locomotive pick them up and bring them where they are to go.  Going back and forth to college years ago I took the train from Newport News, VA to Providence, RI and whether it was diesel or electric powered, without the engine I would never have arrived at my destination. 

“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

Various writers have suggested the fruit is converts or the ethics of the Christian life.  In the IVP Commentary of the New Testament for John, one writer said the fruit is the knowledge of God.  In the picture of the vine and the branches the branch produces fruit, but without the support of the vine there would be nothing.  The vine provides nutrients and water for sustaining the life of the branch. With this support from the vine the branches can then do what branches do: make fruit.  A believer can share in the thoughts, emotions, intentions and power of Christ if they chose to remain in him.  As Christ has full knowledge of God the Father, a believer chooses to remain in Christ and this knowledge thus produces the fruit of converts and ethical behavior. 

To remain in Christ requires submission.  In my book, Broken Vows Shattered Lives (Xulon Press, 2009), I speak of submission within marriage following the submission we see in the Trinity.  Christ is in submission to the Father and unable to do anything except the Father showed him.  Also, he said the Holy Spirit would not speak on his own but what Jesus told him to say.  While the word, submission means obedience and yielding, the opposite is resistance and defiance.  God provided the initiative and the means so man can have the full knowledge of him.  It is our response to this intiative and the desire to remain in Christ which determines fruit. Without him, we could do nothing.