though that depended on their maintaining a proper relationship (“abiding”) with Him. He implied by this that others were believing in Him who were not yet ready to bear fruit, but who needed to maintain a proper relationship with Him, to abide in Him (i.e., to stay in fellowship with Him) in order to bear fruit eventually. This understanding of verses 3–5 conforms to the cultural practices from which the analogy arose. The nonabiding branches of verse 6 are not the same as